Gingerbread art

Last couple of days everyone in my family, except me, have been ill. So I have found myself working early in the morning ( hairdressing clients ), and then come home, tidy up and pamper everyone. So, I desided to pamper them with home made gingerbread, which I molded on the shape of the mosque. You see, in scandinavia gingerbread houses are a tradition, the best of them are really stunning. Now, my peace of art is not as skillfull as the real masters on this craft, however, I am quite sure that this would be the first gingerbread mosque ever produced. And with a little practise and developping this may become our new Eid tradition!!!!

I have made everything by myself from the scratch: Obviously gingerbread dough, icing ( mixed icing sugar, food coloring and water ), glued parts together with melted sugar ( that is a fire hazard, so if you try be careful ), and again the arch on the roof has been made from melted sugar. I suppose I could have decorated the base by making flowers from icing, but this time I desided to keep this simple. Although, I must say I had an idea of getting some rocks and "tieing" the camels on it with a sugary tie. But this will do this time, next time I will put a little bit more thought into this and see what could i do. I am now searching some pastry cutters on a palm tree shape.....

Early bird tomorrow!

My two little girls are ill. Ihave been up from bed for the last two nights to give a medicine and sympathy. I am absolutely flushed. Tomorrow morning I have two jobs early in the morning. So right now I should really be in bed, but I am enjoying this quiet time too much to let it go wasted. I must admit that during the time the girls have been ill, I have had some time to continue my cross stich project which is pictured on the right. It is not ready yet, but I am quite excited about it. It is shahada mosque.

My auntie from France came to visit us today and I was really happy to see that she was so relaxed in our house, mashallah. She is staying with her daughter, who is working a year here in London, and they both came for a dinner to us. It was lovely to see them.

I still need to put all my things together so that I don't have to spend too much time in the morning for thinking what should I take with me. So I make this short tonight and say good night to all of you and I will talk to you later insh-Allah.

Linas birthday, 7 years now, mashallah!

Today we have been eating a cake, presented in a picture, made by me and I am not a professional so please excuse any mistakes with the decoration you may find. I bought her a knitting kit, with huge needles so it is easy to learn and thick thread. She loved it. I do attempt to get her something that keeps her busy, but not technology. I think that there are too many kids out there who have been pampered with so much technie things, that if you tell them let's go outside, they look at you as if you just came out of space. Well if you tell to my kids to go outside, you can not keep up with the speed they put their boots on and go to the garden to find slugs or other greepy grawlies. She now has started to make her own scarf with the huge needles and she loves it.
Preparations included me buying this massive cake tin for her cake, which I will utilise insh-Allah on other parties and thought even that I might make some cakes without a deco to sale. I am proud to say that what ever you see on the cake is made by me from the scratch! Well everything apart those rainbow springly things you put on the cake. They came from Asda, but everything else came from the ingredients in my cupboard. I did love it, but I love to make anything you can make with your own hands. And if there are any cake lovers out there who are reading my blog, well the place to go to shopping is http://www.sugarshack.co.uk/ . They have everything, it is a virtual candy shop for cake makers and others too. You can nearly smell the sugar when you look at those pictures. And oh so inspiring!!!!! I am sure that I was a baker in my previous life, well we don't really believe in that, but if we did, that is what I would think.

It is now nice and quiet in the hair department. People are finally got to the christmas spirit and relax at home. I did receive a phone call today for a haircut. She asked me if I would do a hair cut for someone who has got nits in their hair???? It would be as bad as ask me if I am suicidal! why not to ask if I wanted to start a massive infestation on my clients and loose my business! I know what has happened, she went to the salon and they found nits in her hair. She then was desperate and decided to call anyone to do her hair for the christmas. Good luck for her, but I would like to call her back and ask if anyone did it, cause I would not want to go to that hairdresser. The marks of the gingerbread house are still on my fingertips, they are bruised now. I did receive my camel pastry cutter today, so gingerbread mosque is on the drawing board. I will make the dough tomorrow insh-Allah and then bake the actual mosque the day after. I love this time of the year, I finally have the time to do all the things I love!!!!! Now all I need is a holiday, and I am working for it!

I wish we could all be perfect!

Before anyone thinks anything, this picture has been drawn to me bu my lovely daughter and I took a picture of it to make sure that I don't loose it. I just thought that this time this could be the perfect pic for this blog.

I belong to Finnish muslim womans forum too, and replied to a post with regards of muslim women travelling on their own. As I believe the hadith says, we should not travel a tip lenght of one night and one day without a mahram. I posted that I work as a mobile hairdresser and sometimes, exspecially before Eid, we are working to the early hours of next morning with cuts and colors. I had one reply from someone saying, would you take your hijab off if your husband would ask you to? As she sees it I do wrong by working and driving the car on my own to the clients house..... errrrrmmm, those of you who know me, well you know what is about to come out from my mouth, how ever I put it here nicely..... I am an independent woman with a family, with a motgage and a trade skill that is needed even in London as there not too many of us who are working only with ladies. Surely muslim ladies are more comfotable to get their hair done by another muslim as this person would understand their world. So what am I missing here? Why are some of use so judgemental and would like to knock down every effort of a "normal life" which can include being a muslim. I make sure that myu husband knows all the addresses that I have been called to, and I guard my dignity. I go to the houses and if the men are there, they usually go to another room, these ladies know the rules too, they will not leave me alone with their husbands or grown sons. I would not work on anyones house on those hours, but before Eid it is different. And then it is only muslim women.
I must say I did reply to this basicly saying, well we all need to make our living somehow, there are no free gifts in this world and that we really should not judge each others, but support and understand. The first thing that popped into my mind though was: " How lovely it is to live in a such a supporting islamic community!" After this I really appreciate to live in UK, this just goes tho show how little Finland is and how small are the circles in there. I love my country, but it is the cases like this that make me think that I am really lucky to have moved away.
I am just dissappointed to them now..... :(
Insh-Allah, one day...

Noras corner

I have now some new products on sale in my shop. These are for hair and there for a trial to see how they go..... inshAllah people will be interested. Anyone who wants to have a peak, this is the address:- http://stores.ebay.co.uk/noras-corner

I am still hunting the hijabs and jilbabs and even though I am turning some serious rocks around, it seems that the reasonable price ones are really hard to find. For some reason all the wholesalers seem to think that just because you live in the European country, your pockets are bursting of money... How can they sell the same hijabs to Arab countries with a friction of the price they sell them in here? This really goes out of my understanding. But I will not give up, I suppose I need to pay a visit to Whitechappel one of these days.....


I went to Stratford to do a cut last night. On the way back I had enough time to pop in to smyths toy shop and I found a nice knitting kit for Lina for her birthday. She has been watching me doing things and is keen to learn how to do them by her self. That is nice, at least some of the traditions will be passed down in the family.

It is that time of the year again!

Salam,

I am sooo busy, have not had any time to log into the internet and this makes me feel a bit guilty, like I would be rejecting some of my friends.
I know, it does sound a bit sad to have virtual friends, but on the other hand we are living in the very small and virtual world now. Last night I came home 12 o'clock, did a long hair color and there was lots of it too. It does take time, my darling husband was on the sofa waiting for me, which is kind of sweet, but he was not sweet enough to help my stuff inside :( . I had to do it all by myself.

I need to build my brand during this christmas. Now when the clientele is growing alhamdulillah, I feel that I should offer a proper brand for my clients. My little boy has been ill now 4 days and at the moment he is a very grumpy young man. The last three days I have been spending building the gingerbread houses to my kids school and desided with the kids that we are going to build a gingerbread mosque during the holidays. I will post the pics once this is all done. Unfortunately all of those gingerbread art things come with the price: my fingertips are burned with the hot sugar..... that is painful, if you don't need that kind of pain into your life, don't try it at home. On typing this my index finger feels really weard cause it has a massive blister on it and I am typing like throught the cushions.

I am thinking of changing my ebay shop a bit more muslim friendly, I am considering taking on more hair products but also looking into selling hijabs and jilbabs on line. Inshallah this will lead into a having a proper internet shop, at the moment it is a bit boring, and I think that I do need a bit more challenge. The problem is where to find a good wholesaler who is selling with a good price. It is almost like they charge too much, never mind of selling the products on. I might have to look into arab countries to get my starting stock. I just am amazed with the prices online. Apart from that, the life is normal, there is way too much house work to do, but then again, we know that house work is an endless task, which never is finished. The laundry basket is challenging the limits of all physic laws and kids are running a riot for the new tighten up laws in the house. It is just so not fair!!!! ;)

Eid Mubarek!

Another one gone. We had just a little family due, nothing fancy or amazing. I suppose the kids will remember the party bit and I hope that as we do celebrate it as a family, it will over rule this christmas merchantise, which is everywhere at the moment. I have been working, did a wicked color couple of days ago and start to be fully booked (alhamdulillah) before christmas. This hair in the picture is done with Majirel 900s, bleach and Indola 6.66x. Apart from red Indola, color looks very natural and the color is in the good balance with natural tones. I am suprised that I did not have the normal running all over the place this year before Eid, normally people call me 2 days before and tell me that they want me to do their hair. This results me to come home 2 in the morning and still need to wake up to do some more work in the morning. This year was very good. No extra running, nice and relaxed time before Eid.

After new year I start to plan my own shop. This has been my dream for a long time and people who know me also know that I am planning to open ladies only shop into Barking. There is none and the growing muslim community should be good basis of the clientele in that area. Plus it is only about 10 minutes drive away from my home and I should be able to do the whole children and home thing and working at the same time. I will not rent the permisses quite yet and I am only looking for a small place. I will ask deara darling husband to help me with the decoration, because I will not pay lots of money to get all the stuff, this salon is made with savings on mind. I just frimly believe that there is no reason why I would not be able to achieve an elegant and stylish end result without spending lots of money. I am looking the shops like Ikea, lots of visiting on the freecycle and there are lots of companies that sell second hand salon furniture. I know that there are lots of setties on offer in freecycle, so I suppose that my waiting area will be furnished purely with free stuff.

I have been thinking of putting a moroccan style panel on the windows, I think curtains are so uninviting. I also think that there are cases, on which men need to maybe access to the permisses, like post man, so I am thinking of separating the reception area and the salon area. I am not sure about the name yet, so any suggestions are welcome. I am thinking of looking for a business partner, someone who could do beauty more as I am planning to put a treatment area into the shop. Still the dream, but I think that husband finally starts to get around the idea of me having my own shop. Can't wait to get my hands on this project....

Happy Eid everyone!