Author Archives: minaraelrahman

Uncategorized

New Hijab Obsession: Turkish Hijabs

, , , 2 Comments
hijabi with style: Turkish Hijabs

I know a lot of hijabis in the Bay area adore the pashmina hijab look, but I felt like changing up my hijab style to be a little different this fall. My dear friend from Kashmir gave me some very beautiful patterned silk hijabs that I have never had the nerve to wear. 

That all changed once I noticed the Turkish hijab style on my friends’ Pinterest boards!

First, wearing the Turkish hijab style is a lot more polished. No more messy folds! 

Second, it is super easy to pull off if you are a busy Muslim mom on the go. Trust me, I had to wake up 3:30 this morning to catch a 6:00 am flight! Putting this hijab style on took no more than 5 minutes. 

If you are still skeptical, check out this Turkish hijab tutorial by one of my faves, Yaz the Spaz:

And finally, if you have a fuller face, this hijab style helps slim you overall. What woman does not LOVE that?

What is your take on the Turkish hijab style? 

Life

Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Days

, , Leave a comment

20121023-125108.jpg

You know it’s bad when the barista at Starbucks runs out of Tall cups and needs to put your Tall order in another size cup and literally almost reads your mind and puts a sad face on the cup.

We have all had them: bad days. Or as Holly Golightly calls them: the reds.

I am currently having one at the moment and it seems like everything that can go wrong, is going wrong. Today feels like one of those days where I should have stayed in bed. I am having a crazy bad hijab day, work is crazed, items I shipped eons ago still have not gone through, got a ton of rejections for personal projects, etc.

But, I remember that things went a lot worse for most people in the world. Look, the fact I can buy Starbucks or even have food for the day is incredibly lucky. In fact, I need to stop being so sorry for myself and feel blessed that I have so much.

While having a bad day happens to all of us, it’s how you react to that bad day that matters most. And I will make sure to be more grateful on my better days.

And turning to Allah (swt) always helps me too: Allah (God) says: “Take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you. Walk towards me, I will run towards you.” Hadith Qudsi.

Perhaps today is the push I needed to take one more step. Until then, I will just weather out the day and be grateful for the little blessings in my life.

Beauty

Perfect Red Lipstick For All Skintones

, , Leave a comment

20121022-165625.jpg

One of the main fall colors when it comes to fashion has been ox blood and other deep jewel tones. But what about your makeup?

One of the best ways for tired moms to look refreshed without putting a lot of effort to their beauty routine is to brighten their lipstick with a bold red color. Just look at how stunning all of the ladies above look!

Now before some of you Islamic minded folks judge me for blogging about beauty, you can always choose to wear lipstick at home for your family instead of outside. In fact, looking nice for your husband seems to be a forgotten art form for busy moms like me, so it’s nice when I do actually make some effort once in a while.

Okay, now that we have that part out of the way, here are my tips and tricks for the perfect red pout:

Choose the Right Shade: Now if you are scared to wear red, just know that there are plenty of flattering shades for any skin tone.

For fair skin, reds with a hint of coral look lovely. Try Revlon’s Super Lustrous lipstick in Fire and Ice.

For medium skin, you are lucky enough to pull off a range of reds. I like the drama of MAC lipstick in Russian Red.

For dark skin, stick with deeper richer tones like a blackberry red. Try MAC lipstick in Ruby Woo.

Prep and Prime Lips: No one likes red lipstick on flaky looking lips. Make sure your lips are smooth and soft by putting on some Vaseline and gently rubbing a clean damp washcloth over your lips. It’s a cost effective way to prep your lips.

Line Your Lips: Lining your lips with a nude lip pencil helps prevent feathering and bleeding. It helps keep your red lip looking clean and neat.

Paint the Red On: For precise application, apply your red lip color with a lip brush.

Keep Your Face Neutral: Even if you are rocking this look at home, let’s keep it tasteful by understating the the rest of your face. Groomed brows, liquid eyeliner and no blush or an understated blush is all you need!

What are your tips for a perfect red lip?

Life

Sisterhood

, 1 Comment

20121021-192150.jpg

The jumbo shrimp skewers at my girl Fay’s birthday BBQ.

I know I wrote about the power of friends in an earlier blog post, but given the fact that women need a support system more now than ever, I wanted to discuss it more in depth.

When you go through a loss in this world, a woman may get some solace and support from her husband, father or brother, but more often than not, the support that keeps her going is her mother, sister, and friends. This is why a lot of Hadith that discusses brotherhood should apply to sisters as well.

When you need a sympathetic ear, who do you turn to besides Allah (swt)? For me, it’s my mother, sister, mother in law, and friends. In fact, I feel like Allah (swt) answers some of my most desperate prayers by compelling my girlfriends to call me when I need it most.

For example, when I was pregnant, I was so far away from my mom but I feel like Allah (swt) brought an angel in the form of my girl Sarah. My friend Sarah was there to hold my hand in labor and called a nurse when I wanted that epidural.

When I first moved to SF, my girl Fay introduced me to all my good friends here mA. She threw my baby shower and listened to me whenever I got home sick.

My girl Sandra always listens to my crazy ideas and encourages me to listen to my heart especially when it comes to Islam.

My girl Farah has been my bestie since I was 13. She introduced me to Sunday school and kept me straight in the deen in my formative years. I feel like our souls must have met before we even met in this world because she knows me so well Alh.

Each one of these remarkable ladies reminds me how lucky the Prophet (saws) was to have his own group of close friends. I mean who else is going to hide in a cave with you when there are assassins chasing you? If you look at the life of the Prophet (saws), you will always find examples that are relevant in your own life.

For me, I am just grateful I got to share good food and good company today. Make sure you thank your own support system today.

Yummy Treats

Eid Baklava Recipe

, , , Leave a comment

20121020-171811.jpg

Eid ul Adha is a holiday where Muslims celebrate the Prophet Abraham’s (as) complete obedience to God by his readiness to sacrifice his most beloved: his own son Ishmael (as). Once God saw his intent, God replaced Ishmael with a ram, so Muslims celebrate this event by sacrificing an animal and distributing the meat to those who are needy and close of kin.

Muslims celebrate two Eids. The first is to celebrate the end of Ramadan (the month where Muslims fast) and this Eid as I have described above.

Both Eids are filled with lots of sweets. One of my favorite sweets is baklava which always looked intimidating as a dessert but is quite easy to make.

Here is my easy recipe:

Ingredients:

1 16 oz package of phyllo dough

4 cups chopped nuts

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup honey

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss chopped nuts (I chop mine using a food processor. I used walnuts.) with cinnamon and set aside.

2) Melt butter.

3) Unfold phyllo dough carefully. Looking at the pan you use, cut dough to size and set aside with a damp towel on top so dough doesn’t dry out. If the sheets are not perfect, or get a little torn, don’t worry. It will still come out nicely.

4) Start with one sheet of the dough and lay it on bottom of the pan. Stroke melted butter on top with pastry brush.

5) Repeat until you have done 6-8 layers.

6) Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of this last layer.

7) Add sheet then add nuts until you finish using all of the nuts. Make sure you brush butter on lightly each layer otherwise the baklava can get soggy.

8) Finish with 6-8 plain sheets with no nuts with just brushed on butter as a top layer.

9) Cut halfway through in diamond shapes and bake 30 minutes or until golden.

10) While that is baking, combine water and sugar in a saucepan with lemon juice. Boil mixture and let it simmer 20 minutes. I recommend cooling sauce in fridge.

11) Take baklava out of oven and then spoon sauce immediately over it and serve.

Life

Time Management

, , , , Leave a comment

My mom asked me to write a blog post about time management. I thought it was so ironic because as a young child, I would procrastinate all the time.

When I was in the 6th grade, students had all week to write out a sheet of the multiplication tables for each day of the week that were due every Monday. (7 sheets of it for 7 days in a week).

What was 12 year old me doing every Sunday night? 7 sheets of the multiplication tables by hand all in one shot!

As a working mom, I don’t have the luxury of procrastination. Moms NEED to get up early, take care of babies, go to work, take care of their homes and hubbies and some like me, also attend to the needs of in laws too.

While it may sound tiring, I have some tips that I learned along the way:

1) Make time for bed time: if you can stick your child to a regular bed time, try to sleep then too. That way, you can wake up early for fajr prayers (or if you are really lucky tahajjud).

Waking up with enough time to eat breakfast and get ready for work or the rest of your day sets the pace and tone for you. No one can function if they are sleep deprived or hungry.

2) Finish the boring stuff first: One of the worst things is having fun after a long work week during the weekend and then realizing on Sunday that you have to do 2 weeks of laundry! Try to do your errands on Friday or earlier in the weekend so that you have time for some fun stuff too. Let’s face it, would you want to do errands when you have the Sunday blues?

3)Always make time for your kids: Yes, a clean house is lovely. However, sometimes I do ignore messes if it means spending time with my daughter after a long day at work. I have her sing the clean up song with me so the house is not terrible and then we laugh and giggle while reading books.

4) Make small changes: As a procrastinator, I used to pledge BIG promises to myself and then set myself up to fail because it’s too hard to change. Small changes add up in impact over time. One small change I did was do automatic online payments of my bills so I never have to worry about being late on my payments.

Small consistent actions are recommended in Islam. Aisha (ra) narrated that the Prophet (saws) said: “The most beloved actions to Allah are the most consistent ones even if they are few.” (Bukhari)

5) Don’t be too hard on yourself: I used to beat myself up over procrastinating, but I realized that it wasn’t helping me change, but it was holding me back. Embrace that you have this flaw by trying to preemptively do things. If you can’t, it’s okay. Things eventually do get done and life does go on. No one is perfect! I can promise you that I don’t procrastinate like I used to, but I still have a ways to go.

Life

Weight Loss Tip That Really Works

, , , , Leave a comment

20121016-163959.jpg

I have written before about how I have a bully who loves to pick on my weight. What I didn’t get to tell all of you about is my own weight loss journey.

I want to tell you how since I was a teen, I struggled with my weight. I feel like if I just LOOK at cookies, I gain a few pounds. This means that I have always been vigilant about what I ate and I always exercised, but I never seemed to lose any weight!

Finally, I read an article about how people who lost weight and were successful at it actually kept a food diary. Even after learning this secret, I was still disheartened because who can actually keep track of EVERYTHING you eat in a day? And that is when I realized that perhaps I WAS eating items that seemed healthy, but were high in calories.

Do those jellybeans your coworker offered you really count? What about oil supplements?

After some research, I found My Fitness Pal (some of my other friends use Fit Bit). My Fitness Pal actually tracks your food intake because you never have to guess how many calories something is. Their food database is immense. They even have entries for caloric counts of Indian sweets like jalebi!

You can track your calories easily. There is even a barcode scanner capability on their smartphone app. It also helps you track your exercise too. It makes it simple for you to track what you intake in terms of calories, what you burn, and even estimates your weight in 5 weeks based on your daily entries.

I lost 17 lbs using this free app. That being said, I still have a long way to go, but at least I have a powerful tool to help me along the way.

What are your weight loss tips?

Style

Quilted Bags For Any Budget

, , , Leave a comment

20121016-082316.jpg
Clockwise from upper left: bag by Chanel, Michael Kors, Aldo, Forever 21

As a hijabi, I feel like it is important to look your best. In Islam, dressing well is considered part of the Prophet (saws) example. This is called the Sunnah of the Prophet.

It drives me crazy when people claim that looking nice is being “full of yourself” or “arrogant.”

According to a post on Suhaib Webb’s page: “In an enlightening hadith (prophetic narration), the Prophet tells us that no one with an ounce of arrogance in his heart will enter Paradise. In seeking to understand what arrogance means, the companions asked ‘O Prophet of Allah, what if a person likes to dress well?’ The Prophet responded, ‘Allah is beautiful and loves beauty. Arrogance is rejecting truth and looking down on people’ [Muslim] (taken from http://www.suhaibwebb.com/relationships/withthedivine/divine-beauty/)

So don’t feel bad about wanting to look well dressed. Obviously, we still want to follow the dress parameters outlined in the Quran too.

With that in mind, accessories are a very easy way to update and polish your look without having to overhaul your entire wardrobe.

This fall, it seems a lot of brands are taking a cue from Chanel’s iconic quilted bag. There is one for any budget, so check out your local shops for your own quilted bag this season!

Style

Fall Accessories

, , , , , Leave a comment

20121015-140244.jpg
I was so excited about my new Ralph Lauren business card holder pictured above, I had to share it with you.

But then I realized that perhaps there was a theme with accessories that make me happy. Sure enough, I pull out my glasses from Tory Burch and I noticed that the cover is gold too!

So there you go. I love gold accessories. The beauty of accessories is that it is small enough to take risks with color. It is neutral enough to add a bit of sparkle to any outfit without coming off as being too tacky.

You don’t have to pick gold. Pick a color or even a print that suits your own style and personality. For example, one of my aunts loves animal prints. When she wears neutrals, she just pairs animal print pumps and a belt or scarf and she looks instantly pulled together.

Also, remember that accessories are not equal. Shoes are more memorable than say a business card holder so take the time to invest in a good quality accessory with rich detailing. It doesn’t have to be expensive. For example, Aldo and other brands have been making some very cute accessories.

Expect a fall accessories round up from me soon! It will be for all budgets so be on the look out.