A Baby Shower at The Rose Lounge

I recently attended a baby shower for a friend of mine, at The Rose Lounge in Sofitel St JamesHotel, which is a lovely venue (I forgot to take photos of the lounge but it's very pretty!)

Most of the baby showers I have been to in the past have usually been at the mum-to-be's house, so it was nice to have an opportunity to dress up and enjoy some tea. The baby shower was a surprise for the mum-to-be, and she was very surprised when her husband dropped her off and we were all waiting!

Here's and idea of the food we had - this was a halal afernoon tea, and was very filling - sandwiches, schones, and buns were on the first course, along with a range of teas and lemonades.

After the mains came the desserts (of course!) which were a variety of macarons, cakes and sweet tarts. We all had fun trying the different flavours and comparing the tastes, which were lovely.

One of the things which was really cute was the baby shower favours which were given - hand-made biscuits in the shape of baby-grows, in pink and blue! After we ate we played some games, including guessing celebrity baby names, and guessing people's identity from baby photos - lots of fun as well as a lot of cheating!

I don't have a picture of what the mum-to-be wore, but here's what I wore - I decided to go for a flowy skirt as it was a pretty warm day, with a pretty white top that had pearls all over. I love emerald green, so of course this is one of my favourite skirts!

I love going to afternoon teas, although I will admit, some have tasted nicer than others, and sometimes a nice venue will make the experience so much nicer! I'm looking forward to going to a few more afternoon teas this year (not to mention the pretty ones which come out during Christmas time!) - let me know if you recommend any places!

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

A Meet and Greet Session with Mehreen Syed

I was lucky enough to be able to meet the beautiful Pakistani supermodel Mehreen Syed a few weeks ago, with a small group of select girls at the Dorchester Hotel in London. I've been a fan of Mehreen for a few years after seeing her modelling campaigns from as far back as about a decade ago, and I've also been interested in her charity work and business endeavours since.

We managed to speak with Mehreen for an hour, and she was full of stories, of modelling, fashion designers, beauty care and her travels. I wasn't sure what to expect as I haven't met a lot of Pakistani celebrities, but I found Mehreen very friendly and bubbly - she told us she got about 5000 messages a day while she was in London requesting meetings, and how she wished she could meet everyone!

It was also nice to see that she looks exactly as she does in her pictures (she's also super tall!) and has a very natural beauty which you can see photographs well, and is one of the reasons she's a sucessful model today.

Mehreen herself has previously blogged before, and is the founder of the Desi Beauty Blog (now managed by co-founder and makeup artist Nilo Haq whose work I also follow). I really like the idea of someone who is experienced in the fashion industry giving back knowledge from what she has learned and her experiences, rather than looking to make money from her knowledge.

Another project Mehreen told us about was setting up a beauty school in Pakistan for poor girls - daughters of workers and servants who couldn't always afford an education so that these women could not only learn makeup skills, but use these to create a career as makeup artists themselves. She is also chairperson for the International Fashion Academy Pakistan (IFAP), which is a private educational institute based in Lahore, Pakistan, and is a fashion industry school. The school was developed to an platform for the next generation of fashion industry professionals; specifically stylists, models, makeup artists and photographers, and for them https://www.facebook.com/IFAPofficial/to study their field in a professional environment

We spoke to Mehreen for a while, and also managed to get some beauty tips from her - I've forgotten some of these but I'll post what I remember:

• I'm sure you can tell from the pictures that Mehreen has amazing hair! She told us that the latest shampoo she was using was L'oreal Elvive Extraordinary Oil Hair Care series - the shampoo, conditioner and hair oils. She said that she sometimes has pretty dry hair due to a previous illness earlier on in the air, which meant she needs intense hydration, and these shampoo and conditioners were really helpful. I've bought these but haven't tried them yet, so I have high hopes for them.
• If you're looking to dye your hair - make sure you pick the right colour and don't over-bleach!
• Without sounding too obvious - a balanced diet is very important if you want to be healthy. As a model Mehreen said that this was important to maintain a good figure and remain slim, and to not over-indulge in sugary foods!
• Similarly, she said exercise is important, regardless of whether are thin or not in order to maintain your health.
• Mehreen encouraged us to try different makeup styles and tips - find out what you like, don't be afraid to try new things and practise doing makeup to find out what suits you.

It was really lovely to meet a down-to-earth, humble person such as Mehreen, and I'm really glad I got the chance to meet her during her stay in London. She has encouraged us to keep in contact and also email or message her for any queries, which I also though was very generous considering how busy she is! It was also nice to hear her stories - of fashion designers, of Pakistan and of her travels, and it was really great to meet a celebrity who made the time to sit with us and have tea : )

Things I've been doing: May Edition

May is always a busy month, and this year it was busier than usual! My weekends have been pretty packed this month, and I've been pre-ocuppied with either preps for events or attending them! Having said that, May is one of my favourite months (not just because it's my birthday month!) and I love that summer is arriving and giving us a chance to shed the coats and wear our floral dresses.

Holiday to Norway
Hubster and I went to beautiful Norway a couple of weeks ago, and it was unlike any other holiday we've been to before - plenty of beautiful natural scenery, pretty towns and breathtaking views of mountains, seas, forests and snow. I'm still blogging about my adventures here, so keep an eye out for more posts!

Attended a bridal shower for a close friend
Most of my close friends are married now (and got married before me!) but there's a couple who aren't, so when one of them got married this month we made the most of it to make it special for her. I'll post about this soon, but here's a peek at the gorgeous decor!

Went to a mehndi & wedding event
This was for the same friend as the bridal shower, and it was amazing to see how beautiful the bride and all the guests looked, as well, as the decor details. I'll be posting about these too, soon!

Muslim Lifestyle Show
My sister and I attended the Muslim Lifestyle Show at the beginning of May, which was really fun because of the variety of goods for sale, and since it gave us a chance to find a lot of new brands and meet vendors - more about this soon!

A day out to the farm with family
My sister invited everyone to her end for a day out to the farm, with all of the nieces and nephews along with family, which ended up being a really fun day. There were plenty of animals to see and an entertainment section at the end for the kids (we played crazy golf!) as well as a restaurant for the kids to eat and the adults to relax. It was a really nice way to spend the bank holiday weekend, and the family ended the day with a barbequeue and cake at my sister's house!

My birthday
Like I said, May babies are the best! One of the reasons we went to Norway was partly for my birthday, but on the day I was lucky enough to get wined (the non-alcoholic variety!) and dined by the hubster!

Afternoon tea with friends
I've posted about this here, a really fun afternoon tea with some friends this week (for a long lunch!) which involved yummy sandwiches, scones, cakes and brownies. I loved the atmosphere of this tea room, and the beautiful fresh flowers and vintage floral print crockery which made a lovely, girly afternoon for us.

I'm looking forward to June, as it will be the start of a quieter month and also a time to reflect during Ramadan, which always goes by too quickly. I'll be sure to keep posting through the month, and perhaps some food ideas, so watch this space!

Things I've been doing: August Edition

July was been a little quiet for me (apart from Eid!) but I managed to keep myself busy in August! It also helped that my nieces and nephews were on summer holidays which meant we wanted to plan more stuff to do.

Had a tea party
I spent a good few weeks cutting out random things, decorating my living room and looking up random recipes for this, which meant being a lot quieter on the blogging front, but it all came together pretty well, and thankfully everyone loved it. You can see my post about this here, but the theme was the Mad Hatter's Tea Party (with added florals, pastels and book themes!) and there was a range of cakes and cold food, followed by lots of hot food (because we're Asians and it's just not a party without a few samosas!)

Been to a few weddings 
I've had a few weddings this Bank Holiday and a couple of weeks ago, which meant pulling out my pretties from my wardrobe - here's a look at some of things I wore. I'll be doing post on some of these soon, but it's nice to see lots of colours and styles together!

Went shopping!
If you've been reading this blog a while, you'll know I love my shopping and I can't resist a good bargain. I'm always on the look out for new styles and outfits, and I learned a lot from my last shopping experience looking for Eid outfits. I'm keeping an eye out for new outfits for upcoming weddings and Eids (don't worry, I've also been throwing out and selling my old outfits too!), and it's interesting to see how fast fashion is adapting.

Here's a few of the outfits I've seen in the last week or so, that I've been liking, there's a lot of pretty florals out there that I'm loving, so I'm hoping my next outfit will be a floral one!

Got a few gifts
Including a lovely keyring from Morrocco from a friend of my husband and mine - I picked the yellow drum because I thought it looked cute!

Mr Curly Fries and I have still got more things planned for the rest of this year - we have our first wedding anniversary in September (yaayy!), birthdays and we're also considering taking a holiday if possible - otherwise lots of days out!

What have you been up to?

Things I've Been Doing...A Mad Hatter Tea Party!

Sorry for being absent for a while folks, I've been caught up with organising a tea party at my house this weekend just gone, and now that it's over I can post a few pics and get back to fashion!

Here's a few snaps of the day, I tried to keep the theme as consistent as possible, and I loved how many ideas there were out there (thank you Pinterest!), as well as the random things I found around my house (the top hat was already in my wardrobe from a fancy dress party from years ago!)

I was really happy with how everything came together, and the fact that it really let my creative bug out, not to mention all the goodies and desserts I managed to make (and eat!)

You can see more pictures here about my afternoon and also some on my Instagram page as well, but it was definitely a fun day and worth all the hard work!

My 1920s-Inspired Bridal Shower

 A week before all of the wedding festivities began, my sister-in-law threw me a 1920s’-themed bridal shower, which was mainly an excuse to have one last shins-up with all the girls in my family before the real party began. It was a really fun day, with my mum, sisters (minus my eldest sister who was absent due to the birth of my newest, squishiest niece!), cousins and a couple of aunts all enjoying the dress up, good food and silly games which made us all explode in girly giggles. I thought I'd post about this first because it was the first in about a fortnight of lots of wedding events, girly fun and dressing up - I wish I had more photographs and you can also see my post here, and my sister's post here, but I didn't get a lot of chance to take my own so credits to my sister for most of the amazing photographs!

You may remember reading about my vintage, floral, polka-dot and pearls themed bridal shower which was a few weeks before, so you can say I was already feeling a little spoiled!

My sister-in-law hosted the bridal shower in her beautiful home, and it was an amazing setting for a old-style, 1920s-slash-Great-Gatsby themed bridal shower which she decorated for and made some amazing food for.  Below is just a glimpse of the table setting – we didn’t get to put the banners up which we wanted, because all of us forgot to bring blu-tack or tape, and we didn’t want to ruin the wallpaper by using anything else! We told everyone to either wear 1920s themed costumes or just red, white and/or black to keep it simpler, and it was great to see everyone stick to the theme – I loved some of the make-up styles that some of the girls did too, dark red lips, heavy rouge and smokey eyes!

The costumes everyone wore were lovely, although as usual, the babies in the family stole the show! I had a really pretty black and white striped-and-circles maxi dress which I had intended to wear, but which I couldn't squeeze my oversized which I changed my mind about, and I ended up wearing a black lacy dress with pearl beads and bracelets was pretty perfect for me! You can see what I chose below, it looks quite simple but it was very comfortable, and I made up for it with matte, dark red lips and smokey eyes, as well as a feathered mini top hat which completed the look for me!

I wish I could post some of the other girl's costumes, but my pictures aren't great and I'd like to protect their privacy, but everyone made an effort with feather headbands, feathered-print dresses and red,black and white dresses!

The food was probably the real highlight of the evening - my sister-in-law and her mother are both brilliant cooks so it was going to always end in some very full bellies! I also was lucky enough to have two cakes - my sister-in-law made a beautiful red velvet cake, and my sister made a beautiful red, white and black cake with a yummy chocolate filling.  There were also some beautiful, miniature tarts, various dishes like chicken kebabs, finger sandwiches and to add to the desi mix, good old spring rolls and samosas!

 

 
I loved the decor, and I'll admit, I didn't really help out with it at all because everyone else did such a great job, and my sister-in-law's house was pretty much a perfect backdrop anyway. My eldest sister made Art Deco style banners, another sister added small touches like beads and coloured balloons, and of course my sister-in-law did the beautiful table settings, complete with matching napkins!

 

We ended the day with lots of gossip and a raucous game of 'pin the moustache on the groom' which was a little embarrassing because of all the teasing I got, but also very fun because we blind-folded all the older women and made them join in! The bridal shower was fun, intimate and very relaxed, and also perfect to set the mood for all the wedding festivities which started a week later (especially as we all had to run around after the bridal shower to get the preps done!) I've not been to a 1920s/Great Gatsby themed party before, and it was really lovely to have one for myself, especially as it gave all of us the chance to be creative and let our inner-drama queens come out!

 The babies of the family showing off their inner (and outer) divas!

What did you think of our party - have you ever dressed up for a 1920s theme? And what did you wear if you did?

My Vintage, Floral, Polka-Dot and Pearls Bridal Shower

I've been absent for a few days, I know, I've had a crazy last few weeks with last-minute wedding preps and house hunting, which I'm hoping will calm down now that mostly everything is done! I can't make any promises so watch out for my sporadic blogging, I'll post whenever I can.

My eldest sister Happy Muslimah kindly threw me a bridal shower yesterday which was really fun, especially as it was full of lots of my friends, family and sisters which turned out to be really enjoyable. We decided to have a garden tea party, with the theme and dress code being anything vintage, floral, polka dot and pearly, and I loved how much effort everyone put in.

The decor was provided by my talented sister, who made banners and table decor, as well as made some yummy food for the table. My other sister put together the pretty draping in the garden to make a canopy, and also put together a lot of the decor and food, not to mention taking some amazing photographs of the day (I'm usually the one with the camera but didn't get a chance to take many this time!) - so most of these photos are credited to her. It's hard to tell from the photographs because I didn't include a lot due to people being in them, but I loved all the details - the banners, the pegs, the butterflies and the colour themes.

The food was absolutely beautiful, most of my guests brought a dessert or dish, and they were all gobbled down. My sister made chocolate-covered strawberries which I didn't even get to try because they disappeared so quickly, my best friend made some amazing double-chocolate chewy cookies, and yet another friend made pasties and pakoray. There was also an amazing chocolate trifle made by my sister in law which was very popular, and which felt very light and moussy.

Everyone tried to make an effort with the costumes, and I love that they all had a different take on it. I'll admit, I didn't get a lot of time to sort my own out, but I loved the floral dress I wore and my eldest sister lent me a string of pearls which matched wonderfull. Below you can see some of the floral prints and polka dots people wore, my sisters also wore floral prints and one of them even went for an excellent 50s' style outfit.

I think the babies stole the show though, they toddled around in their dresses (my newest niece was being a relaxed kitten) and enjoyed the limelight, I'm pretty sure most of my friends were in love with them by the end of the day.

All in all we had a really nice afternoon - we played silly games (one involved asked me questions about the fiancé which they had asked him the answers for previously, if I got the questions wrong I had to chew some gum. I got all but 2 questions wrong!) and we had a good catch up with old friends, took photos and ate some yummy food. It was a really nice start to the wedding celebrations, I still have some weeks to go but it was nice to see everyone make an effort and also weird to be the cause of it. We'll be having a few more parties before it's all over, I'm sure, but this one was pretty amazing to start with :)