My Eid - Eid with the family!

We had a lovely Eid celebration this week, wand it felt like a busy one with lots of family and guest all congregating my my mum's! We had a fantastic meal (as always) cooked by my mum, with lots of giggling children, dressing up, photo-taking and gifts, made complete with some sunshine!

For Eid this year I wore this gorgeous peach suit from Pakistani label Sapphire Pakistan, which my husband picked up from Pakistan a couple of months ago. I absolutely loved the colours when I first saw it, and thought the work on it was really decent quality. I'm a fan of Sapphire Pakistan, and it was one of the places I asked my husband to stop at while in Pakistan - I only wish I had bought more of their pieces! I also loved that it came with a lovely silky dupatta, which had a pretty print on it, and both the dupatta and the suit were embellished with pearls. What I particularly liked was how well stitched the outfit was, and the fact that the pearls were sewn on properly - no half-hanging-by-the-thread pearls or damaged seams!

I also thought I'd make an effort this year wear some decent jewellery too (in past Eids I've worn minimal jewellery pieces!). So on one hand I wore some pretty glass bangles with pearls all over from Pakistan, which came from my mum, while on the other hand I wore a 'haath panja (a hand harness) piece which was sent to me by my mother in law. I loved how these looked, and they went wonderfully against my outfit.

As usual, the kids in the family bought the outfit game and rocked it - I loved all of what they wore. There was a lovely mix too, two wore pretty ghararas, one of my nieces wore an Afghan-style dress from Pakistan, and two wore party dresses! And of course, they all wore the cutest shoes!

Here's a peek at some of the food we had - this is only one table (we had another one full of more food!) and which we fully enjoyed. Even though it was straight after a month of fasting in Ramadan and we were stuffed, we ate well and enjoyed it!

My sisters and I have created a tradition of gifts over the years, if not always for each other, then we try to get them for the kids of the family. It's well worth it when we see how excited they get, and gives them something to look forward to as well! This year I received an abundance of chocolate and makeup. One quirky present we all liked was pretty mugs for each of us with our initial on it, which was a nice idea.

Eid was a fun day for us, full of silly jokes, games and of course sweet treats. We usually try to spend the next day doing Eid too but some of us had work the next day, and a lot of us wanted to catch up on sleep, getting energy back and get into routine again after all the madness!

Our Eid...Day #2

I'm sure you know by now that when my family does Eid, we tend to make the most of it! On the second day of Eid we had lunch at my sister's and my family went to my aunt's for dinner, which was a relaxed evening of fun.

My outfit for the second day was a metallic green and gold outfit by a Pakistani label called Sequence, which my best friend bought as a gift for me on her last visit to Pakistan. I love the cut of this outfit - the top is a A-line angrakha-style top, which came with shimmery gold salwar-style bottoms that went perfectly. I paired this with metallic gold heels and a gold and cream clutch, which went perfectly!

I loved the decor my sister had set up - colourful pastels, which was finished off by a beautiful throw on the table to bring the colours together. She always puts together a different, pretty theme for Eid as well as Ramadan and I loved the colours for this year.

Food was a fun affair, with plenty of dishes of course - if you're from an Asian family like mine you'll know that it's not a dinner unless theres lots of different dishes and desserts!

The babies went colourful for the second day of Eid, with flouncy party dresses that they looked seriously cute in!

I wish I had more photos to show you of our Eid weekend, but honestly we always manage to not take enough because we're too busy yakking away and enjoying the good food!

Hope you all had a good weekend!

xx

Our Eid...Day #1

We had a lovely long weekend celebrating Eid this weekend, with plenty of opportunity to overstuff ourselves with food! It was nice to spend the day dressed up, especially with the weather being nice and sunny, and everyone being free for the weekend.

This is what I wore on Eid, which was a pretty mint-coloured kurta with silky pants. My sisters and I didn't get time to order anything online so had a look around the shops, and I ended up going with this outfit that my husband actually pointed out on a second visit to the shops! You can't tell properly but this is a shimmery gold tone to the fabric for a two-tone effect. I loved the colour palette of this kurta, lilacs, gold, silver and mint which for perfect for the warm weather.

I bought this outfit from a small shop in Ilford Lane, East London called Laaj London, which is a fairly new shop (Facebook page here and Instagram page here), where they had a range of different colours. The kurta was quite reasonably priced and fit perfectly, and I thought it was a pretty decent find among the madness of Eid shopping!

We started off Eid with lunch at my mum's house, which is always a tradition for us, as it's the one place myself and all of my siblings descend to get together, enjoy our mum's food and get all of the kids together. Unfortunately I have absolutely no pictures of the food, as we were pretty hungry and I forgot to take any! But just assume the food looked as amazing as it tasted!

We then decided to do something a little different for the evening, with a barbecue hosted by my brother and sister-in-law at their house. My sister-in-law had hired a bouncy castle for the children (which was fully enjoyed by all of us!), and we spent the evening chilling out with family and enjoying the warm evening.

If you know my family, you'll know that the toddlers in my family always steal the show - with credits for their dresses to my mum! The toddlers all wore matching floral dresses (the one in the middle had the dress too, but she wore a lilac dress to match all of her other cousins!)

This year I joined in with an online Secret Eid, which was really fun - there were over 40 participants, and it was fun to see the gifts everyone got! I opened my Secret Eid on Eid day and loved what i received - candles, an engraved personalised bookmark, travel mug, book light, chocolates and a gorgeous box that it all came in.

I also received some beautiful presents from my sisters, including these gorgeous purple heels, and a whole treasure trove of makeup, chocolate and jewellery from my eldest sister.

We finished off the day with a seriously chocolatey cake made by one of my sisters, which was as chocolatey and rich as it looks!

It was a lovely way to spend our Eid, and one which was special because all of the family which got together, which can be rare for all of us! The only thing I wish we had photos of was the outfits for the ladies in the family - we were too busy chasing after the kids and stuffing our faces!

Eid Mubarak...!

Eid Mubarak all, and hope it's been a fab weekend! I've been loving all the outfits I've seen people wear on Facebook and Instagram, and can't wait to post my photos!

Hope you all had a lovely celebration, and wishing you all a wonderful weekend of food, family and fun this Eid!

Love, Curly Fries xx

Our Eid-ul-Adha...!

Our Eid was a lovely one spent with family, although it did feel like we didn't get to spend time celebrating it long enough as most people had to go to work the next day!

For hubster and I, it was a double celebration - Eid was on the same day as our wedding anniversary. So naturally it was great to spend time with the family to celebrate (and demanding a cake from everyone who walked through the door!)

The night before, the locate roads were busy with people applying henna, buying last minute outfits and random sales on makeup and jewellery. It was a fairly quiet affair for us this time as my sisters and mum were busy (one is getting her house refurbished, the others were busy with Eid preps and getting the houses ready!) so I quickly went to get  my own mehndi done and went home before the roads got too busy.

I don't always have time to put mehndi on, and my husband insisted I wear it this year for our anniversary so I got it done on both hands this time - you can see below the results.

On Eid day we all went to our mums - it's become our central headquarters for the whole family, where everyone comes to meet, eat and enjoy ourselves, especially as most of us live in different places now. It's always lovely to get ready and make our way over in the morning (not to mention sending selfies of ourselves before we get there!) and it was lovely to celebrate Eid and our wedding anniversary too.

This is the outfit I wore, by a Pakistani label Cross Stitch, whose brand I've followed for the last year or two and have loved. I've only recently been able to see shops selling this brand in the country and took the chance to buy a printed, colourful summery kurta from a local store, which I paired with silk straight pants and sparkly heels.

The weather was pretty warm on Eid, so my uncle took the chance to do a barbeque for us in the back garden - I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the grilled chicken and kebabs but here's something we did enjoy - grilled corn!

We also had the usual Eid food affair as well, but instead of my mum making everything, the women all brought a dish to make it easier for my mum and also bring a range of dishes. There was plenty of food (below is just half of it!) which we all enjoyed thoroughly.

We also had an abundance of desserts - we had three cakes from guests (forgot to take pictures of them again!) but my favourite was the chocolately Eid cake made by my sister below. My husband's favourite dessert was the kheer, which I've also posted below!

My sisters, as usual rocked their outfits. I haven't got picture sof them all, but here are a few - my sister in law got a Cross Stitch outfit from the same shop as me, and my sister got a custome made suit. My niece also had a lovely dress with a matching skirt in black, which she looked very elegant in.

As usualy, the babies took the show - they all managed to wear matching blue dresses, and spent most of their time playing in the garden with their new Moshi Monsters toys and some very cool emoji balloons which were a gift from my sister!

Instead of the usual presents this year, my eldest sister had the very cool idea of an Eid 'Lucky Dip', where she walked around with a bag of presents and you just had to pick one. Most of us got some pretty, delicate jewellery which was a nice treat for the girls. My aunt also gave us lovely gifts, I got a pretty beaded scarf from her and my sister got these lovely pom-pom bangles below which were fab.

All in all, we had a lovely Eid which was filled with family, and a lot of guests. My parents have seen how our family is getting bigger now and have extended their living room and kitchen, and this was the first time we all had Eid in the new space and all managed to fit in! My husband and I spent a lovely day with family as well, and enjoyed our wedding anniversary with good food and good company (although we did also go out for dinner the following weekend as well!)

I hope you all had a lovely Eid, Eid Mubarak everyone!

Our Fruity Fresh Eid Party!

I'm a bit late with this, but thought I'd post about my sister's annual Eid party which took place last month. As usual, we held it a couple of weeks after Eid to give all the girls in the family, as well as friends, to dress up, great some yummy food and play a few party games.

The theme this year was bright and summery - bright green, yellow and warm oranges and pinks for a fresh, fruity look - all of us said it reminded us of pineapples and watermelons! My sister decorated her house in pretty banners and matching balloons, as well as some 'Eid Mubarak' prints which were framed and put on display - doesn't look look lovely together?

One of my sisters lives further away so wasn't able to make the party, but did manage to come by the night before the party of to drop of these cupcakes which  matched the theme perfectly. On the day we had these on display (and didn't let anyone touch any until we took pictures, obviously!) - they were yummy of course, and were demolished in minutes!

You can see more pictures of the decor here, as well the the recipe for the cupcakes.

We also had more decor around the house, including a table for the kids outside with colourful banners and paper-flowers. I loved the overall colourful effect of this, and the Wonderland-feel of this.

We decided not to go with a sweet bar this time, as the previous parties we have had has usually had too many sweets for the younger children which isn't probably the best idea. This time around my sister decided to have a fruit bar, which mixed up sweet fruit with savoury desserts (with the exception of cupcakes, which were the only 'sweets' on display!) The fruit bar was a hit and was devoured by the guests - the most popular being the chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Having said that, it's not a party without some hot food as well, of course! My sister made the bulk of the food, but the guests all brought a dish each so there was plenty to eat, and a mix of cuisines. I always love seeing the different dishes people bring, especially from different cultures and it was nice to see such a great mix. My favourite dish was one a guest brought - scooped out baked potatoes with a filling of veg and cheese, which tasted amazing!

My sister decided not to go with party bags this time, but went with sweet-cups for the guests when they left, which was a lovely idea and very easy to put together. My mum also packed and brought the basket of mangoes below, which was perfect for the hot weather!

I wanted to show what I wore as well, which was a suit my mum had bought back from Pakistan a couple of months ago. I originally meant to wear this on Eid, but it felt a little too heavy so I thought I'd save it for the party when everyone would be as blinged out as me.

This is the outfit below, which is in a pretty nude and teal colour with gold and silver work. I paired this with rose-gold brocade pants and sandals, which I loved because it gave a girly, on-trend look.

The other girls in the family also wore fab outfits - I didn't get pictures of all of them but here's a few of my sister and my nieces below. My favourite was my brother's daughter (second picture) in a Junaid Jamshed kurta with cars and lorry prints on it!

The party was a lovely one, although it was a little crazy at one point with a lot of guests, food and the heat! 

You can see more pictures on my sisters' blogs here and here, let me know what you thought of the theme!