Henna

With Ramadan coming to an end, I visited my cousins to prepare for Eid celebrations. I love this time of year when it is Eid as I get to henna everyone in my family. Usually I make the henna pasta using a simple recipe consisting of henna powder, lemon juice, sugar and essential oils but this time I decided to order a tube from a henna artist online. I opted for the mini henna kit which included a cone of henna, henna seal spray and a glitter cone for decoration.

I created these patterns on my sister, cousins, aunty and myself... ( Some pics don't want to send to my laptop for some reason will try and post the rest soon!)

Henna after 6 hours

Henna after 24 hours

I am absolutely amazed with the results. Amazingly dark henna which looks beautiful!

How did your henna turn out? Do you create your patterns or go and get it professionally done?

Handmade Cards

A while ago, I decided that I was going to spend the afternoon making some cards my friends as some occassions were taking place.

I purchase the blank cards and then unleash my creativity to make some beautiful pieces of art.

An engagement card for my sister's friend Hazel.

Hand dyed paper in purple, angel hair paper in cornflower blue, various sized hearts

cut out from white/cream paisley paper.

A wedding card for my friend Raj

Maroon card, gold, red, copper foil flakes heated and pressed ethnic design on cream 

card.

A birthday card for my friend Ayesha

Angel hair paper in silver, indian paisley patterned paper layered on top

I hope you have enjoyed looking at them as much as I have making them!

I have recently finished my first handmade card collection which I shall post on my new business blog soon.

Check them out soon girlies :)

Moving things...

I think I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I moved place about 3 months ago now and then recently had to move into another block. Yes, moving place no longer excites me with the amount of times I have had to pack up my mass of things, unpack and then to arrange them all in my place.

Well I have finally gotten around to snapping some photo's of how I have tried to make my place feel more homely and cosy. I re-arranged it more recently as I am due to start my PGCE in Primary teaching soon and I needed to free up space for my books, literature, files and things...

I wanted my room to feel light, airy and spacious, so I purchased bed linen in cream which has really made a difference to the whole space. I was looking for an ethnic cushion cover but they were all so extortionately priced so I made do with a simple, pleated teal cushion from Wilko's. I am so happy as the colours match well with my room.

I decided to use the noticeboard on the wall for hanging up my necklaces. I like this method as I can view them easily and unhang/hang them up easily too. I turned the corkboard I used for my earrings around so it was landscape and then pinned up all my earrings. Originally I wanted to lean it on the small ledge but it kept falling so I have had to just sit it on my table with the ledge as support.

I moved my bangle/bracelet boxes into a drawer as it looks much neater. I have tried to arrange them into colours so that I can see what I want to wear more easily.

I bought this moroccan style tea light holder from poundland just as an ethnic accessory and have placed it on the windowsill.

My sister came up with the idea of using my coat/clothes rail to hang up my scarves. I prefer having my scarves hung up as I can see each colour/design and it is so much easily to slide it off the rail than to tie/untie it to my previous Ikea rack.

Have you 'themed' your room? Do you store any of your things in a particular way?

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Home Sweet Home

So I spent last week at home which is Birmingham. I had a nice relaxing time with my family - spending time with my cousins and friends and opening iftar together. It was really nice (apart from the fact that I may have eaten a bit too much!)

I also went home as one of my good friend's was getting married. I had been so excited about attending the ceremony as it was my first Sikh wedding and even sorted out my outfit weeks in advance, only to change it on the day! I ended up wearing a mustard coloured heavily embroidered suit, my grandmother had made for me whilst she was in Pakistan. I also ended up curling my hair and I really like how my Corioliss Curling Wand styles them.

I also spent the few days before her wedding making up henna to apply on my hands. Only for disaster to strike! I decided to make up a different recipe and as a result the colour was not as dark as I had intended it to be but still the pattern prior looked beautiful.

Here is a picture of the beautiful couple. She absolutely amazing in her bridal suit and her makeup was flawless. They make such a lovely couple!

So my time at home was lovely and although it seemed short it was a nice break. It is currently coming to the end of Ramadan now. I can't believe how fast it has come and gone, whilst I will miss it as it's my favourite month of the year (apart from my birthday in June of course :P) I am looking forward to losing the few pounds that I have put on. I intend on joining a Zumba class and also returning back to Bellydance class too :) Also it is not long until I return to university although I still have a few pre university tasks to complete. The list is neverending and I have done so much reading already, goodness knows how I will cope for the next year. I just know that inshallah it will be worth it when I qualify as a teacher :)

I hope to post a blog on my handmade card collection and also the re-arranging of my jewellery in my room...so look out :)

A Week's Break...

This morning I am currently packing my things as I am heading up north to spend some time with my family. With it being Ramadan, I can't wait for some good ole' home cooked food :)
I am still deciding whether to take my laptop or not as I have packed some books to read for my uni course and also some sewing for my handmade card collection and I think I should get stuck in to that rather than procrastinate a 'little' on the net :P

So just to say that I shall be back in a week or so...

Take care and enjoy :)

Daytrippin' in Central

So on Saturday my sister and I decided to venture into central to check out three exhibitions.

Firstly we visited The British Museum where they were exhibiting two exhibitions, ' Modern Syrian Art' and 'Adornment and Identity in Oman'. I particularly enjoyed the Adornment and Identity exhibition as it was more colourful and vibrant. It also featured some of the most beautiful tribal jewellery which just looked amazing. Unfortunately, due to me misplacing my charger yet again there are not photos. I only had my BB camera which I was reluctant to use because the quality isn't that great but I snapped a few.

We had a mooch about the shops at Brunswick - we popped into a store called Joy. I came across these fabric letters that caught my eye. I was trying to spell my name bur unfortunately they didn't have all the letters so I just snapped a random photo of a few I put together :)

Afterwards we headed for lunch at Giraffe in the Brunswick Shopping Centre which was nice. I was craving a veggie burrito ( I always grab a bite of my sister's whenever she has it :P ) and then we headed to South Kensington to view the 'Jameel Art Prize'. It is a collection of shortlisted artists from Asian and Middle Eastern countries. I have to say I am quite fond of art from these countries as they really are quite niche. I remember when I was studying for my degree in art how my tutors could only recommend me White-British artists to relate my work to and I always researched the more unknown but intriguing ones :)

I will leave you with a selection of photo's I took ( quality is so so as I took them on my BB)

Hope you enjoyed looking at them :)

Smokey Nude, PGCE Reading Rant...

Okay so it was raining when I woke up and thought if the weather doesn't perk up then I am not going to venture out to the library....That was an hour ago, thankfully although it is still dull the rain has stopped (knowing my luck it will start to rain when I decide to leave my place!) and I will pop out to collect some books I have put on hold...

I feel that I have read so much already for my PGCE but still it is not barely enough. I have created tables which I have divided into themes and genres so I can see books that are relevant to whichever topic quite clearly, rather than racking my brains trying to think of the name or rummaging through papers...

Yesterday whilst I was at the library I was speaking to one of the assistant's and couldn't help but notice her beautiful eye makeup. She was wearing a silvery/pewter colour similar to what I am wearing today and I thought it complimented her skin tone so well. So...I thought I would experiment with eyeshadow today. Eyeshadow is not something I experiment with so much but I wish I did...as I really like how my makeup turned out today. I tend to use my vast range of eyeshadows to make my eyeliner last longer or appear much bolder.

Look Of The Day: Smoky Nude

Face:

MAC Select Cover Up in NC42

MAC Moisturecover in NW20

A Smidge of LM Tinted Moisturiser in Sand

UD De Slick Powder

Cheeks:

TBS Powder Blush in Apricot Shimmer

Eyes:

MAC Paintpot in Bare Study

TBS Baked Eyeshadow in Moonstone

Avon Luxe SuperShock Eyeliner in Black

Manhattan Mascara

Lips:

Rimmel Moisture Lipstick in Nude Delight

Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Take A Chance

P.S I also couldn't resist the urge to straighten my hair - I don't usually straighten my hair at all but I preferred a change :)

Summery Look Of The Day

Today I ventured out in the sweltering heat to do a couple of jobs in town and boy did I wish   I hadn't....in fact I can't believe how bad the stench of BO was and it was BAD! So I am SO glad to be at home right now!

Anyways onto something more fun...I have altered my makeup a little to suit the change in weather and also, as it's Ramadan I thought I would tone it down a little too.

Face:

MAC Select Cover Up in NC42

MAC Moisturecover in NW20

A smidge of LM Tinted Moisturiser in Sand

Eyes:

UD Lash Primer

- Mascara

BS Shimmer Cube Bronze (brushed under eye)

Cheeks:

TBS Powder Blush in Apricot Shimmer

Lips:

A slick of TBS Lipstick in 46

Topshop Gloss in Hollywood

Et voila my summery look of the day - what do you think?