Events June 16, 2018

How I Prepared for Eid with Decor, Presents, and Food

When I was growing up I don’t know if it was because I never noticed Ramadan and Eid decorations or if they actually didn’t exist online or in stores. But one thing is for sure, this year blew me away with the number of commercial stores carrying Ramadan/Eid goods. Wal-Mart, Indigo, Crate & Barrel; just to name a few. I’m sure there were so much more (comment below if I missed any). They carried items like onesies with messages like “My First Eid”, “Ramadan Mubarak” (which I missed out on purchasing this year, but inshaAllah next year), Indigo carried local businesses cake toppers, wrapping paper, gift bags and Crate & Barrel had the coolest Ramadan Calendar for kids! (Also missed purchasing this one!) I am seriously so excited for Ramadan and Eid for next year because:

I can actually fast now that I’m not pregnant or breastfeeding. (I did 28 days this year Alhumdullilah!)
I have a huge list of what I need to buy for next year – Never have felt so prepared for something in my life.
We’re starting so many cute traditions for our little ones, so a lot to look forward too.

How I Prepared for Eid with Decor, Presents, and Food

BALLOONS – @sweet.accents

For my awesome local readers, I found the very best place to get your balloons. Not only does her service beat everyone else, but the product even stands out from the competition. You can find her on Instagram and she has a website with more details.

She also does more than just balloons. She has a wide selection of desserts, especially cupcakes! This is awesome especially when you’re rushing to get everything together for a special day. Instead of driving to various places, just get it all in one place. You can also choose from standard and premium balloons, which means there’s something to fit all budgets. I wish I knew about her before my kids birthdays! Her latex balloons last over two weeks vs. the average 24-48 hours. I’ve had massive balloons before so believe me, I’ll be able to compare. She can also do custom logos/names on the balloons. So cute! Check in with her for delivery, pick-up, and set-up within the GTA. Get 10% off if you’re following her and me on Instagram! 😉

RAMADAN/EID BANNER – PAPER LANTERNS – SPARKLE STARS – @moderneid

This was my first year decorating our home for Ramadan and Eid. I didn’t want to worry about doing the entire first floor of our home or looking for items to buy. I wanted to spend as much time as I could praying, reading Quran and dhikr of course. InshaAllah as every year goes by I won’t have to worry about decorations, as I’ll collect over the years anyway.

I used the sparkle star banner around my cupcake stand as a garland for it. And as a banner to dress up a corner in our family room. Baby D noticed right away when I put it up and said it was so pretty! (Proud mom moment hehe).

Sparkle star banner, paper lantern, Happy Eid Banner and Ramadan/Eid Banner are from ModernEid.

sweet accents mississauga balloons — Obsessed with these massive round balloons from @sweet.accents

The pink and blue star/moon banner is a pdf doc purchase via @sidraandco. Check out her Etsy store here. She also does cute custom tote bags. In Arabic or English.

TABLE SETTING

I love these charger, dinner plates, and napkins from Eid Creations. The pink paper plate is from Wal-Mart. Re-used from Baby Z’s birthday. I just love the pop of colour.

PRESENTS

Okay, so ideally I’d love to wrap their presents and have them open them on Eid Day, but I could not wait for them to play with everything, so I gave it to them as I received it. (As seen on Instagram stories.)

INTERACTIVE PRAYER MAT

Super impressed with the technology in this mat. It goes through the entire process of preparing for prayer, the steps, and recitation along with the person praying. Alhumdullilah, now I can ensure that not only I am praying with correct pronunciation but my children too. I highly recommend this mat for those either curious to learn, for children and even adults learning to update/correct.

BUBU & LULU TOYS

I actually bought these while I was in Japan, online. I had seen it on Instagram and had to purchase them right away for my little ones. Mostly, because I learned it was a gift that gave back. They are handmade wooden toys by disabled carpenters in a Gaza Refugee Camp in Jordan.

FOOD

The Eid we opted for catering food and I did not bake. Surprising right? I usually bake up a storm. Eventually, I’d love to add to this segment with traditional Eid and Ramadan recipes or suggestions but all I got for you this year is cupcakes were from Loblaws and we got Mandi from MONASABAH restaurant, which honestly has the best Mandi you’ll ever have!

Hope everyone had a blessed Ramadan and an awesome Eid! Please keep our family in your duas.

DIY October 31, 2017

Last Minute Baby Kitten Costume for Halloween [Do It Yourself]

I’m a cat lady at heart. Yes, that is my opening statement to this DIY baby kitty costume post. For our mommy club also known as ‘Mommy Kitty Krew’ we had all the baby girls dressed in cat costumes and the baby boys were lions. It was so cute seeing it all come together. If you’re looking for a last minute Halloween costume idea then you can skip some of these steps and do an all white or all black onesie and the cat ears.

Baby Kitty Halloween Costume [DIY]

What you’ll need

1 pack of pipe cleaners
Pom pom garland or cotton balls as an alternative
Foam sheets – >>click here<<
Felt – Pink
A tutu – any size or make your own like this >> click here <<
Black elastic – Got mine from Wal-Mart >>click here<<
A white full sleeve or half sleeve onesie
Glue gun

Baby Kitty Ears

Fold the white foam in half and cut out the shape of the cat ears. Cut them out so both sides are attached at the ends. Now cut out the pink inside of the ears from pink felt. Measure your babies head with the black elastic to see how much you’ll need. Tie together and put the foam cat ears in place. Now glue both sides of the foam cat ears together. Lastly, place the pink felt (inside of the ear) on top of the white foam ears. Glue gun in place. See images below for more details.

Finally, they should look like this…

Baby Kitty Tail

For the tail my girlfriend got this garland with poofy balls on it. We pulled out the black ones and kept the white ones. Then used the white pipe cleaners to wrap around the string part. It’s not that full kitty tail look but I call it the chic fu fu kitty tail. You know, those cats that get buzz cuts. 😉

Baby Kitty TuTu

This one is easy. We took an adult size tutu and cut it into three. The tutu was to cover most of the front of the costume and the back was attached to about a couple of inches of black elastic. The opening was perfect to put the tail through. And because we used pipe cleaners for the tail it was super easy to intertwine the tail around the black elastic in the back.

A big thank you to my girls who helped to put together these outfits! Check out their blogs here: Frequent Flyer Foodie and Beautycubed. All images above were taken by Beautycubed.

Happy Halloween 🙂

Desserts March 2, 2017

Party Animal Theme Birthday Party

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to come up with unique birthday theme ideas. During baby D’s birthday planning, I would say what helped the most to come up with a theme was asking the golden question, “What is he absolutely in love with right now?” and the answer was easy, animals. He loves nature, animals and everything beautiful about our planet Earth. Our back and forth chatter is a lot of “Oh look! Trees!” and his reply is a mumble-y, “Where’s the nest? Eggs!”. Looking forward to the warmer weather so we can build a few bird feeders together and put them up in the backyard. So what better theme to choose for his 2nd birthday but party animal!

For his party animal themed birthday there were a few things that I made sure had that animal touch, I say a few things because I don’t like to go nuts with themes and make everything animal etc. Learnt my lesson with my bridal shower when everything was Alice In Wonderland theme and it was just way too much work. (Details here.) This time, I’m a massive preggo and don’t have as much energy as I normally do, so keeping it sweet and simple was going to be it.

We had Pawsitively Pets join us for the birthday to present about 12 different animals to the children who were at the party. It was an extremely interactive event and he really could not retain his excitement. I had to actually sit with him and hold him back a few times because he was so excited about the animals. We learnt facts about the animals being presented and everyone got a chance to hold them as well. I highly recommend them for parties! Also, we had a super fun bouncy castle and an automatic train that moved on tracks. The kids were crazy about it! You can book them both here.

For the dessert table we had spread out little animal figurines, my favourite ones are by Schleich. They make toys that look extremely realistic and the quality is just excellent. Indigo online sells them or you can find them on Amazon.ca like I did. Colour theme was blue, white and yellow, hence the yellow flowers and the balloon colours.

Baking a buttercream cake isn’t as easy as it looks. Lots of steps, tools and patience needed! Maybe I’ll share some tips in a future post! Let me know 😉

For the little party hats I got the inspo from this blog post. So here’s how I made the little hats and banner:

Supplies needed
Glue gun
2 sticks (to hold the banner)
Scissors
Template
Fun paper – not too thin so it stays straight for the banner and holds well as a cone for the hat.
Thin yarn like string

STEP ONE

Cut out the shape of the birthday hats. Use the above template link! Super helpful.

STEP TWO

Use your glue gun to glue the hat once the length and size of the hat is achieved. I played around with mine for a bit. Kept turning out too long so cut the bottom little bits at a time, until I got to the length I liked. That only happened because I didn’t use the template at first, so there shouldn’t be a problem if you do use the template. 😉

STEP THREE

Take the thin yarn in a small amount, roll it into a tiny ball and glue it on top of the hat. You can also use little pom poms that you can find at an arts and crafts store, but I used this thin yarn so that I could use it also for the banner. Double use saves you a few bucks I guess.

LAST

Put some glue around the bottom trim of the little hat and place it on to the head of the animal.
When the event is over you can easily pop them off and the glue comes off effortlessly.

BANNER

Wrap the string on both sticks and cut out small triangles with your child’s name spelled out, each triangle being a letter. When you’re done just glue each triangle onto the hanging string. This party animal birthday theme was perfect! Even the adults had a lot of fun!

Party favours, we got some animal plush toys and teddy bears and attached cotton candy packs to them for a sweet touch. Check out C’est La Puf that does numerous amount of flavours of organic cotton candy. You can also follow them on Instagram or Facebook.

Whatever theme you decide on for your little one’s special day, just remember to keep in mind the fine details. I’m a crafty person so I truly enjoyed putting this together. How about you? Do you have a great idea for children’s birthdays?

easy lemon bundt cake recipe

Desserts July 2, 2015

DIY Candy Popsicles

candy popsicles how to flat lay with simply lemonade juice — lemonade candy popsicles

Craving something SOUR? Try this DIY sour candy popsicle recipe:

You’ll need:

Simply Lemonade (Pink)
Popsicle moulds
Sour candy

Pour in Simply Lemonade into popsicle moulds and add your favourite sour candy. Freeze and enjoy!

This is a great easy recipe to do with children or when you’re in a rush looking for a yummy frozen dessert. I love sour popsicles, but if you’re looking for a healthy alternative try switching up the juice with Simply Berry (no preservatives or added colours) and add some berries.

easy lemon cake with cake mix

berry quick summer dessert

DIY June 11, 2015

DIY – Tie Dye Pillowcase

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

When it starts getting gloomy outside and I’m stuck indoors, I get an itch to start a new project. A simple DIY does the trick. Have you ever tried to tie dye anything?

I was going through the spring issue of Style Advisor and noticed this page of tie dye cushions that inspired me to do my own!

What you need:

1 pillowcase
1 Rit® Dye colour
1 cup of salt if your pillowcase is made with cotton
Rubber bands
Hot Water
Bucket
Scissors

Directions: Gather the center of the pillowcase in your hand and wrap a rubber band around it.

Continue wrapping rubber bands all around the pillow case by twisting different sections and tying tight with rubber bands.

Fill your bucket with 2-3 gallons of hot water and put in the cup of salt. Stir. Now put in 1/2 the bottle of dye. Make sure you wear plastic gloves. Soak the tied up pillow case into the dye water. The longer you leave it in and the hotter the water, the darker it’ll turn out. Also.it may look dark because it’s wet. Confession: I didn’t follow instructions on how much water to use, to wash the pillowcase prior to dyeing and didn’t use any particular method in tying the rubber bands as some people would.

Take out the tied up pillow case and carefully cut the rubber bands off with scissors. Rinse the pillowcase until it rinses clear water. Wash the pillow case by hand and then put it in the dryer.

5 ways to wear a womens necktie

DIY February 5, 2015

Alice in Wonderland Bridal Shower Details

It’s Thursday and you know what that means (on Twitter and Instagram at least)… Throwback Thursday! I like being different and thinking outside of the box, especially for party themes. I was really excited when I found a few ladies online, who shared their Alice in Wonderland themed bridal showers. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so silly for choosing it as my theme. You still get a few people looking at you puzzled, like “whaaa? Alice in Wonderland? So, do you like, dress up as a rabbit?” Haha. That was the best response I got.

I compiled an album of images from my google search for ideas and inspiration. Here are some of them:

alice in wonderland — Tea cups, flowers & decor

alice in wonderland bridal shower theme — **Dress inspiration**

Teen Vogue Mia Wasikowska — **Dress inspiration**

As soon as I knew my theme, I was on a look out for everything that could work for decor. It isn’t hard to pull off this theme, especially around spring time when you have faux flowers, rabbits and green everywhere! I was fortunate enough when one day I got off the street car, at the wrong stop and accidentally found a tea shop that had dedicated their entire window display to Alice in Wonderland. They had tea pots, topsy turvy decor, clocks and more.

The store wasn’t open at the time, so I went back later. If you’re in Toronto you MUST check out this store for any of your high tea events; Pippins Tea Company on Queen Street West.

One of the items that I was SO in love with at this store was their tea cup clock. Kind of looked like this (Note: It’s not the size of an average wall clock, approx. 25 inches length and width):

The price tag was a bit much to be used only for the bridal shower and at the time not knowing where I would put it didn’t justify the purchase. One day though, I may hunt this piece down for a room dedicated to where my ladies and I can have our afternoon tea or even look into making this my DIY project.

The ladies who own and/or work at Pippins Tea Company are incredible! As soon as I told them the theme of my bridal shower they were giving me lots of ideas, tips and helped me out with letting me rent a large hot water dispenser for the event and gave me Alice In Wonderland boxes for free! (The boxes were used to put the prizes inside for the games we played.)

I bought all of my tea supplies and decor from Pippins. Best find ever!

alice in wonderland centerpeice — Pippins Tea Company: Key hole centerpiece

TIP: To give height to my centrepieces I added some books wrapped in colourful tissue paper. We did a poor job in wrapping them because we were last minute with this idea but it did the trick.

I got a styrofoam ball from Michaels and put these faux green grass pieces all around the top half and placed it on top of the pot.

TIP: If you can find a half ball, that would be so much better. The white part of the ball kept peeking through whenever a guest would brush their arm or hand against the top. A half would stay put and not move as much.

We left some of the loose tea we bought from Pippins Tea Company open and some already packed into tea bags for guests. Leaving it open allowed our guests to smell how amazing the tea was. It was hard picking only two flavours since they have SO many at their shop.

TIP: Label your teas. We forgot!

I used many different sets of tea cups for the event, just like the actual movie and story when all the characters in Alice in Wonderland are sitting around the tea table, notice how each one has a different cup/saucer?

I added a few other little Alice in Wonderland touches to the table decor. Clock, playing cards, rabbits and colourful food plates for the lunch that was served. If you choose to do this theme you could always just do high tea foods like sandwiches, croissants etc, however, I always like to do lunch as well. The lunch wasn’t part of the theme at all. I picked what the majority of my guests would love to eat, a fusion of Italian and Indian food.

I was bursting with excitement when my bridesmaids surprised me with an Alice in Wonderland themed cake, cookies, cupcakes and cake pops! What darlings to organize the very best themed sweets table I’ve ever set my eyes on. (Thank you loves!)

For the takeaways, I made these Alice in Wonderland themed gift bags THAT had AN
EYE SHADOW, EYELINER SET WITH LIP GLOSS. THESE BAGS ARE REALLY EASY TO MAKE.

You need:

white gift bags
black and Red construction paper
hole puncher
black ribbon
red tissue paper

Directions:

Cut out hearts and clubs out of the black and red construction paper. Put aside. Punch holes into the hearts and clubs as seen in above picture and do the same for the white gift bags. Weave the black ribbon through the hearts/clubs (make sure the ribbon only shows behind the shapes) and then through the gift bag. Tie in back. Fill the bags with the tissue paper and gifts. Voila!

To bring this entire event to full circle I had to play the part by ~~wearing a rabbit outfit~~ wearing a blue dress like Alice does in her story. At first I looked everywhere for a blue dress and I found one but it wouldn’t come in time from Dubai for my bridal shower. So I got permission from the designer to have something like it made here in Toronto.

alice in wonderland dress

I found a seamstress on Queen Street who I read in an article had done many dresses for different stars who would come to Toronto for shows. Kingi from Peach Berserk took my design and created it beautifully. I was on a time constraint otherwise there were a few things I would’ve asked to have fixed but otherwise it was perfect!

The Benefits of Shiseido WASO Skincare

Desserts December 9, 2014

Holiday Gift Ideas 2014

Happy Plugs – I just got my first set last month and I love them! They really are jewellery and headphones combined! I have the rose gold and they look so good with my rose gold accessories. If you have a favourite colour or have a friend who loves a particular print, I’m certain you can find matching Happy Plugs for him or her. Makes for a great Secret Santa gift.

Vitabath Holiday Scents – Lathering yumminess. I love these holiday scents and they make for great presents because they come in a duo set.

Jelly Doughnuts – Instead of the usual box of chocolates, why not get that someone gourmet doughnuts? They have an amazing selection for the holiday season too! Check their website for locations in Toronto.

Marsala – You heard the big news right? Pantones colour for 2015 is Marsala. So why not give your fashionista friends a head start and get them something in Marsala to rock right into the new year? I know there has been some backlash of why this colour was chosen. But you can’t impress everyone. I personally love the colour and it can be worn through your outfits to your everyday make-up looks.

Cuppies – Here are my fave sites to get a special someone that unique cup they’ll be using all winter season long for their hot coco’s and lattes: Creature cups, Davids Tea & Royal Albert for the dainty.

Happy Holiday Gift Shopping!

DIY October 31, 2014

DIY Pumpkin Decor – No carve solution

DIY Pumpkin Decor

Every year before or on the day of Halloween, we look to our creative juices to come up with the next awesome idea to carve into a pumpkin. But what if you don’t want to carve a pumpkin and have an itch to do something more artsy?

Then here are some great ideas of what you can do with your pumpkin:

Set up your work area with magazine tear outs, newspaper and all the tools you’ll need to create your masterpiece.

Sequin flowers all around!

What you’ll need:

White acrylic paint
Sequins
Glue gun

Directions:

Paint your pumpkin white and then let dry. Once it’s dry, go over the pumpkin with one more coat of white paint. You’ll need six/seven sequins for each flower, glue on with your glue gun. Be careful: Sequins are small, glue from a glue gun is hot and it can get tricky placing sequins on areas where you’ve set glue. Press the sequin down gently first and pressing with your gun is your safest bet.

Tiffany blue glitter

What you’ll need:

Tiffany blue acrylic paint
Glitter glue

Directions:

This is really easy. Paint your pumpkin,dry and do a second coat. Once the paint is dry, paint the pumpkin with the glitter glue.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Pumpkin

I got mixed reviews with this one. Some people said it looks like this pumpkin just burst into “pretty” coloured warts and some love the fuzzy texture and 3D effect. Halloween decor is meant to be weird, funky and even ugly at some times.

What you’ll need:

Pink acrylic paint
Mini pompoms (Make your own: here)
Glue gun

Directions:

After you’ve painted your pumpkin with a double coat. Place glue gun glue in place where you’d like to place the pom pom. Press firmly and then let dry.

DIY

How I Prepared for Eid with Decor, Presents, and Food

BALLOONS – @sweet.accents

RAMADAN/EID BANNER – PAPER LANTERNS – SPARKLE STARS – @moderneid

TABLE SETTING

PRESENTS

FOOD

Baby Kitty Halloween Costume [DIY]<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-6410" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.humarakausar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/d-i-y-683x1024.png?resize=683%2C1024" alt="mommy baby halloween costume" width="683" height="1024" data-recalc-dims="1" />

What you’ll need

Baby Kitty Ears

Baby Kitty Tail

Baby Kitty TuTu

Happy Halloween 🙂

STEP ONE

STEP TWO

STEP THREE

LAST

BANNER

Craving something SOUR? Try this DIY sour candy popsicle recipe:

When it starts getting gloomy outside and I’m stuck indoors, I get an itch to start a new project. A simple DIY does the trick. Have you ever tried to tie dye anything?

For the takeaways, I made these Alice in Wonderland themed gift bags THAT had AN EYE SHADOW, EYELINER SET WITH LIP GLOSS. THESE BAGS ARE REALLY EASY TO MAKE.

alice in wonderland dress

Happy Holiday Gift Shopping!

DIY Pumpkin Decor

Set up your work area with magazine tear outs, newspaper and all the tools you’ll need to create your masterpiece.

Sequin flowers all around!

Tiffany blue glitter

Fuzzy Wuzzy Pumpkin

Baby Kitty Halloween Costume [DIY]

For the takeaways, I made these Alice in Wonderland themed gift bags THAT had AN
EYE SHADOW, EYELINER SET WITH LIP GLOSS. THESE BAGS ARE REALLY EASY TO MAKE.