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!

Our Eid...Day #2

We spent the second day of our Eid at my mum's house - no family celebration is complete without all of us converging at my mum's house and eating her food! Some of the family members weren't able to come on the Friday because they couldn't get time off work, so it was nice to see them all on the weekend.

For the second day of Eid I was going to go for a simple printed kurta but ended up buying something very different last minute! I wore this beautiful cream brocade maxi jacket from a Malaysian brand called Aatiya London, which I saw a few months ago but only bought recently because it went on sale. The jacket came with a matching cream skirt, but I thought the skirt was too much for Eid (it felt a little bridal!) so went for a plain silk cream camisole and trousers to match instead.

As always, the food at my mum's was delicious and there was lots of it, finished off with some kheer that my mum made along with some chocolate cake!

My nieces all got plenty of party dresses this Eid, and of course showed us up as usual in their pretty dresses and party shows - perfect for the warm weather!

I do have to apologise to you guys - I don't have any good pictures of the family outfits at all! We were all too busy wandering around eating, playing games and hanging out in the kitchen, and just didn't take proper photos! (Don't worry, I'll make an effort to next time!)

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to see more pictures of our Eid on my sister's blogs here and here (when they write up their posts!) - we all had fun with the family and enjoyed a long weekend of food and a much-needed rest from work!

How was your Eid? What did you wear?

Our Eid...Day #1

Our Eid this weekend was a nice long weekend (just the way we like it!) so my family and I took full advantage by celebrating on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, getting dresses up and having dinners with family.

This is what I wore this Eid - a frilly sleeved short kameez with white culottes and a simple, summery hijab with bangles - simple, comfortable and very fun to wear! My sisters and I did our usual trek around the local shops and didn't see a lot of affordable outfits, so I decided to look online and see what was available. I've noticed that a lot of the local shops have increased their prices, or otherwise started stocking designer labels in order to compete with the online businesses which can afford to lower their prices, but unfortunately while I would like to support the high street, I can't always afford to!

I bought this outfit below from a local vendor in east London call Aisha's Boutique, who does online orders, and gets outfits made in Pakistan without raising the price too extravagantly. I placed my order with the vendor about 10 days before Eid, gave my measurements, colour samples and rough design of what I wanted based on a photo of an outfit I liked, and it arrived pretty quickly! The price was also extremely reasonable, at £50.00 for the kameez and trousers, including stitching and shipping - bargain!

I do have to admit that I didn't end up wearing the original pants on the day and picked culottes instead - the pants I did get were a chikan-style flared pants, which I didn't love so didn't wear.

We did our first day of Eid at my eldest sisters house, with a delicious lunch being cooked by her. One of the things my sister always does every year is have a decor theme to set the mood, and this year it was blues and greens, with beautiful Islamic tile backgrounds that we all loved.

As usual, we were all too busy eating to take many photos of the food, but here's a peep! I also loved my sister's home-made mojito which was a perfect refresher!

I didn't also get many chance to take pictures of my family's outfits, but here's some my sister took off my sister and sister-in-law - I loved the vibrant colours and how pretty the work was on both of these.

As usual my nieces looked like princesses in their dresses, and here they are standing with a tiny cousin of mine that they all love to play with!

Another thing my sister never forgets is treats - for the adults and the kids! We all have a terrible sweet-tooth, and it just isn't Eid without some sweets! My sister also received some seriously cool sweets/mithai from British fusion-food company Barfia, which had a very cool mix of Indian-and-British flavours, like red-velvet Ladoo and candy-floss mithai!

We had a really fun lunch with the family, and as always it's lovely to have a laugh with them, as well as get all dressed up and enjoy the day. It was a really nice start to the weekend, and the only thing I wish I could show you but didn't get a photo of, was that my husband finally listened to me and matched his t-shirt to me!

Afternoon Tea at Laduree

I recently went for afternoon tea with some friends, who are also food bloggers (cue a thousand food and outfit pictures!) at Laduree in Harrods. Laduree's always been on my list to go for afternoon tea, and the desserts did not disapppoint - doesn't everything look pretty?

We all opted for the standard afternoon tea which was very reasonably priced (£30 for two people), and sat back to enjoy the tea. One of the things I really liked was how pretty the cutlery and plates looked - it always makes a tea feel more luxurious when the plates are pretty!

I'll be honest, the mains for this afternoon tea didn't blow me away, but the desserts did - how beautiful does the raspberry fancy look below? I opted for a hazelnut and chocolate slice (being the self-confessed chocoholic that I am) and it was pretty amazing.

And of course we all stopped by at the counter to take home some goodies too - I'd like to say I took some home for my husband, but really, they were for me!

All picture were taken by the lovely The London Haloodie (who, may I say, is amazing at taking food pictures. NONE of my food pictures came out this nice!)

And of course, I can't post a blogger meet without our outfit pictures! It was a mish-mash  of pastels and dark colours, but I loved all of our looks (although I did feel like I was wearing the English equivalent of a lengha!)

Left to right: The London Haloodie, Hijabi in London, myself and Yasmins Intro

PRODUCT REVIEW: Halal & Vegetarian Sweets by The Sweet Path

I was recently sent a beautiful sweet hamper by halal sweets company The Sweet Path, who are a UK-based sweet company, who specialise in retro, halal sweets which are also vegetarian. The sweets were sent to me in a beautiful box (which I am keeping for my pretty things) and were beautifully packaged. Naturally I couldn't resist laying all of them out for a pretty photo, so please appreciate the time and arranging-fiddly-things which went into the below picture!

These are the sweets - and yes, they tasted as good as they look!

This is the box the sweets came in - it's a surprisingly sturdy, very well made box which was lined with tissue and had a pretty ribbon and bow on it. The sweets came in wrapped packets were well protected - and can I just say, there was a lots of sweets in each packet!

My sisters and I love our halal sweets and always stop to buy some whenever we find a shop that sells them - so this is pretty perfect. These are the sweets that were sent to me (everyone in my family are obssessed with marshmallows so that one was perfect for them!) My favourite was the tangy cola bottles, and my husband ate all the jelly meerkats which he said were amazing (he only let me have a few but they were nice!)

I'm really impressed with how this hamper was put together and arranged - it would make a really lovely present and the size is pretty good. I also love the fact that the company also does wedding favours, sweet jars, sweet cones and even sweet lanterns - there's lot of different sizes and they're handy for anyone looking for a mix of sweets for various occasions.

I really liked this sweet hamper, and the fact that it also comes in different sizes - they really are a nice idea for a gift for someone who has a sweet tooth, and it's lovely to see the effort which is put into these products. I'm pretty sure that the next time I have a tea party or event, this will be a great option for favours too!

You can buy the halal and vegetarian sweets at The Sweet Path's onlinze shop here
Facebook group here
Instagram account here

The company will also be at the Muslim Lifestyle Show this Bank Holiday weekend so check them out if you're attending!

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!