Quote of the Day

Orang-orang yang beriman dan beramal saleh, bagi mereka kebahagiaan dan tempat kembali yang baik (13:29).

Beautiful Faith is on Haute Hijab!

Alhamdulillah. This definitely is lifting my spirit high up to the sky! Thank you, sisters of Haute Hijab, and also to everyone else for your support all this while. I wouldn't have been able to do it without your visits, comments and suggestions. This has proven to me that this is a jihad that's not empty handed.

God hath given me a gift and now I am sharing it with you. May all of our journeys towards jannah be on the right paths. Let us all hold hands and support each other through this noble movement.

The Red Lazy Dots

Decided to take today off to do some errands. So I'm taking it easy with my red polka dotted lazy pants :) I have a reborn love for the purple shawl and of course, with my boyfriend in my heart and in my mind, I always have on his rollerblade label t-shirt <3

Productive...

When feeling hostile :)

This has been the look I've been wearing on my face as of late. I am tired. I am almost hopeless but I'm still standing. I am very very hostile, unfriendly but better yet, I am productive!!! First of all, the website that I have been working on is now live! Alhamdulillah! I think it's been almost three months now of working, planning, restructuring and compiling ideas from my bosses. I even had to re-align my priority and went through a bit of a friction with somebody who tried to push me down and make me cry (i am only metaphorically speaking so don't be asking me no questions now). Allah has given me the strength to push through and now the light at the end of the tunnel has finally come blaring at my pupils until I have to wear glasses (HA HA). I feel like I have accomplished something and I am glaaaad that I didn't give up and leave. Hopefully the rest of this week will bring smiles to my face coz really...........

So people who are in BSP, who has access to the homepage. Do click on the OPAL & Operations Academy banner and go visit my baby :D Sadly, it can't be made more attractive than that because of the uniformity. That aside, I am very proud of myself :) I know it still needs a bit of work but tweaks here and there and it's done! Two plus months left of my contract, what do you think I can do in that time span hmm?

I ALMOST FORGOT! Went to the store room this morning to take out my wool sweater out from my box. LOL yes, I still have things that came from Melbourne inside of boxes. This sweater is very special to me. I got it from a vintage store and cost like 35 bucks or something. So glad I got it, it has kept me warm so many times the entire period I was away from home and in the gruesome sucky cold :( Due to my mood and the gloomy weather, I guess this sweater was the only thing that kept me going. LOVE IT!

And on another note, I have been productive at home too! It was quite unfortunate that I had to send my sewing machine for repair after two weeks (?) of getting it but I have just gotten it back over the weekend and tonight I finally finished TWO products for my friends :D This, below, is just one of them and the outcome is quite satisfactory. It's a mobile purse requested by a dear friend of mine. She wanted it to be for her two mobile phones so I've paid attention to the inside details i.e. I gave an organising compartment for her two mobiles PLUS also some more room for things like their chargers, for example.

I really do hope she still likes purple though. I've a picture of the interior of this purse but doesn't look like much of something that makes sense so maybe I wont put it in here. What I like most is that this purse is padded for safety AND I've lined the inside with satin :)

Up next will be my cousin's laptop sleeve. My head is exploooding with ideas but I'll just keep calm and sleep it off before I start on it.

Hope tomorrow's as productive as today. I'm off to bed now so see you in the next post!

Assalammualaikum <3

XX

Ya Allah

Barang siapa membaca Asma Allah ini 1000 kali setiap hari, maka semua keraguan dan ketidakpastian akan hilang dari hatinya, dan sebaliknya, keteguhan dan keyakinan akan tertanam dalam hatinya. Insya Allah.

Taken from the book Rahasia Manfaat Asmaul-Husna (Solusi masalah dunia dan akhirat).

Colours and Patterns

Assalammualaikum my lovely sisters,

A quick post of me wearing my favourite wardrobe item from Shop Naisha in my weekend of colours and patterns. And of course my lazy pants are now my wardrobe staples. So very tempted to wear them to work but no, I must not.

Get the stillcarvings trademarked zany look with Shop Naisha's green grass batwing blouse with floral lazy pants and oxford shoes LOL!

Go for a little bit of culture with batik lazy pants, tribal scarf and pastel blue batwing blouse also from Shop Naisha :)

It was a fun weekend dressing up and going around in the heat of Brunei. Nothing I like better than wearing my outfits to their best whilst also spending quality time with family and friends. Then today it was back to reality but to be frank the reality wasn't as harsh today as it has been for the past Mondays. My website finally went live today, yeay! Gonna make a bulletin announcement soon-ish and hopefully everything goes well. InsyAllah.

Just a brief one for Monday. And here is a picture of Boy George which I think bears a bit of resemblance to my first picture =p

Enjoy the rest of your week my lovelies!

XX

Goin' out to eat!

Alhamdulillah, going to the third makan2 today. Seems like these invites come at the most perfect of times! I love my food!

Trying on a turban look out of spontaneity. I am pretty sure the next time I try I wont be able to pull this look off any more. Wouldn't it be great when I was trying it on I had the camera on recording me too? Haha creepy much?

Also, I have on an inner snood bought from El Jumana. Tres convenient as it covers the neck area and fits perfectly without choking :)

Great Message For Muslim Girls

"Rugi suami mu orang lain pulang dulu tengok badan mu." What my mom used to say before I wore the hijab. That is as much meaningful as this video. You can interpret it anyway you like but the message is quite clear.

Sidenote: If you're familiar with kisah Nabi Adam, you'll remember how a snake was possessed by Shaitan when he wanted to enter paradise. It was in the form of the snake that he succeeded in convincing Adam and Hawa to eat the forbidden fruit. There's a brief shot of a snake in the video. What do you think that's trying to say? Wallahuaklam.

Have a blessed Friday sisters. May we be saved from the agony of hell fire.

He who makes a beast out of himself

May Allah guide us and may we be saved from the agony of Hell fire.

More than just skin deep, by Nida

Article taken from HERE.

This article hits a very soft spot in me. I used to be the girl who cares too much about appearance, how my hair looks, how stylishly I cut it and how nice my make-up is. I was all about what's in-trend and I used to strive for being up to date with the changes in season and what not.

I can't say that it has changed completely now but I can confirm that I don't look at myself that way anymore. Since the hijab, I am now more confident to dress however baggily or un-"stylishly" because covering up has given me the confidence that I used to chase. Being covered up has assured me that the most impressed being by my looks is my God. I am actually quite ashamed now whenever I dress up a little bit more than normal and people stare. Sure, I do dress up differently than other people and of course that invites stares but rest assured, in my heart I know that Allah is pleased with my effort to follow his orders. People can say whatever they want about me because only Allah and I know my niat and what's in my tawakal everytime I step out from home.

Read Nida's article below:

We all want to be remembered. We all want to make an impact on the people around us. It feels nice to get a compliment, and I would be lying if I insisted that I am any different. I enjoy being complimented as much as the next girl.

It is only human to crave attention and we are all only human after all. Yet, one thing we should really think about is, ‘how exactly do I want to be remembered?’ What kind of attention is it that I want? What facet of my ‘self’ do I want to be identified by? Ask anyone that question and they will probably give an answer which is a variation of: ‘I want to be remembered by my personality’, or ‘my work’ or other such epithets.

I’m not denying of course that we do want to be remembered for our great personalities or the work that we do. What I’m saying is that in three out of four cases, we often tend to settle for being remembered or complimented for something a lot more prosaic: our appearance. We may want to be known for our personalities, but inside all of us is that little voice that keeps telling us that physical appearance is way more important.

We live in a media-saturated culture that seems to reinforce this idea that to be ‘noticed’ or to ‘matter’ we must look first and foremost to our appearance. So much so that to not put an effort into your appearance is considered abnormal. I’m not saying of course that putting effort into your appearance or being well-groomed is a bad thing. Yet a problem with this is the idea that putting effort into your appearance is not enough; it has to be efforts towards conforming to a specific sort of appearance, to a specific ideal and standard of beauty that is hardly realistic, let alone appropriate. We are bombarded with messages such as:

‘Who cares what you consider beauty. Looking like Katrina Kaif or Beyonce is what you should aspire for!’

‘What do you mean you’re not comfortable with sleeveless? Don’t be so mummy-daddy.’

‘You’re not comfortable wearing skinny jeans? Don’t worry so much, there’s nothing wrong in it, it’s just harmless fun! After all, you’re only young once.’

The main idea of course is that personality and character are all well and good, but physical beauty is what gets you noticed. The point isn’t that if you are pretty or attractive there is something inherently wrong with that, yet is it absolutely necessary to flaunt this gift to the world at large?

When I personally started covering my head, one of the first things people said to me was, ‘But you have such lovely hair! Why would you want to hide it?’ –more often than not saying it in a tone as if consoling someone who’s had a tragic accident. They could not seem to understand why I would choose to do such an ‘abnormal’ thing. Be ‘normal’ they said, ‘why do you want to stand out?’ I cannot blame them though, as the modern society that we live in is incapable of understanding why a ‘normal’, educated girl, would choose to do something so ‘abnormal’. They try to deter you from the path they see you on out of a misguided attempt to ‘save’ you or help
you in some way.

But my answer to all these comments and ‘concerned advice’ is: at the end of the day, when all is said and done and you are in your grave, do you really want that the only thing you have to show for your life is how stylishly you did your hair? Is that all that matters? Is there nothing else that is more important? I for one do not wish for that to be my defining feature.

Life is full of decisions and choices: to achieve one thing, you have by necessity to give up another. So you have to ask yourself this: when it gets right down to it and you have to make a choice, would you choose to concentrate only on looking good or would you rather prefer to strive to be good?

The Importance of Eating Halal

Quoted from HAQ ISLAM (link on the side).

We are what we eat. Today we complain our children are disobedient towards us, but why the surprise? If we feed our children haram (even while in the womb) then the thoughts that will be bred in their minds (later in life) will be haram.Understand well, halal foods breed halal thoughts and halal actions whilstharam food breeds haram thoughts and haram actions.

Shaykh Ashraf Ali Thanwi narrates, ‘If before birth of the child, parents were to reform themselves and adopt piety, then there is no reason why the child born too should not be pious. The actions of parents during pregnancy have a profound effect on the unborn child. Accordingly, the son of a saint was quite mischievous. Somebody queried the saint; ‘It is indeed strange; you are so pious yet your son so naughty?’ The saint replied, ‘ One evening I was invited to meals by a rich person (whose income was doubtful). After eating, my nafs became excited and I made love to my wife who became pregnant. This child is the effect of the doubtful food.’

Therefore, during pregnancy (especially) it is of the utmost importance to eat a varied halal diet brought from halal income. If in doubt regarding ingredients, leave it out.

Source: Ashrafs Blessings of Marriage published by Ashrafs Amanat

Turban 101

Assalammualaikum beloved sisters,

Thousand apologies for the delay but here it is now, the long awaited turban tutorial. It's the very very basic of tying the turban and seriously you can't go wrong with it. If you've mastered this basic technique then insyAllah it'll be much easier for you to try out different styles. You can always add brooches, or flowers or chains or extra pieces of cloth like lace or different coloured ribbons to create a contrast on the turban texture. That's how awesome the turban is!

And the good thing is when you want to wear the turban, you can always wear your ameera hijabs or inner necks first in order to cover your neck area.

One very important tip for the turban: TIE IT TIGHT! Tres important! Otherwise you'll end up with a loose cloth on your head LOL! Like a roti telur or something. Yikes!

Here you go and thanks so so very much for your patience ladies!
XX

Turban Basics from Nisa Halim on Vimeo.

Hello from OJ Mawar!!!

Called Telbru and apparently our phone line is broken so the internet's affected. How lame! So now here I am at OJ Mawar, using their connection to facetime with my boyfriend. OK lah, asal ada :P back to how it was when I was in UK and he was at ITB hehehe...

Where's the turban tute, you ask?

^_^

Something for the weekend

Assalammualaikum friends and family,

Let me show you a video that has been shared to me by a dear friend on Facebook. Let us all be shown the straight path to jannah, may we become stronger as we go day by day on this Earth by fighting against the whispers of shaitan. InsyAllah.

Have a productive Sunday!

XX

Of budgeting correctly

Taken from Haq Islam:

To budget correctly is half of success in one’s livelihood” We are taught to strike the correct balance between our income and expenditure, ensuring we do not spend unnecessarily or extravagantly. Not adjusting our lifestyle downwards when our income drops or prices rise, can have serious effects on our contentment, marriages and even our mental condition. Living simply makes it easy to adjust to all conditions.

-Mufti Ismail Menk

Pourqoui....

Why is the connection acting up? It's usually at times when I have something very important planned for the blog - especially with videos - the connection suddenly realises this and shuts itself. So annoying!! I think come Monday I wont be as busy at work so I shall then bring my laptop along and try to upload my videos then. Sorry for the delay sisters! I really appreciate your patience and I'm pretty sure a lot of you are anticipating. I promise that the turban tutorials will be up by next week, insyAllah.

So just a filler I shall post one of my work outfits. I've been trying to make a habit out of wearing loose and baggy blouses wherever I go. So far it's been a progressive transition, alhamdulillah. Other times it's still too hard to match my clothes which means I'd be resorting to my skinny jeans (the only jeans I have at the moment! Argh!) but it's always great knowing I have my lazy pants to help me overcome the overwhelming stress of wanting to dress up right. So all is well ;)

Super duper love heels! Nobody knows I'm 5"1 when I'm in them hehehe....

And also, I'd like to share with you a really great ARTICLEabout the manners of visiting peoples' houses. Especially now that it is Raya season, it's always never too late to remind each other how to properly behave when visiting your friends' or relatives' places.

Let me just share an excerpt taken from the article:

It is an inappropriate Muslim manner to whisper to someone sitting next to you if you are in a group of three people. The third person will feel deserted and isolated and will think the worst of thoughts. The Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) hated this. Imam Malik and Abu Dawood reported that he said: ‘No two shall exchange whispers in the presence of a third person.’ That the Prophet used ‘No two…’ in an assertive negative form, indicates that such a mistake is not only inappropriate but an unimaginable and instinctively despicable. ‘Abdullah Bin Omar was asked, ‘What if they were four?’ ‘Then it does not matter,’ he answered, meaning it is not irritating then to whisper or to mutter. If a friend entrusted you with a secret, do not betray him or her. Do not tell it even to your best friend or closest relative.

This is a good example to follow. Even if there are many people around, it is still inappropriate to make somebody feel little by looking at them and laughing at their direction, especially when you make it so obvious. You are in their house, they have shared with you their food and given you shelter but you disrespect them like that. Not cool. But this is just my two unworthy cents. Allah knows better.

Weekend is approaching us quite fast, I hope your week's been as busy as mine. Just today I was running around like a headless chicken so I am hoping to have a slow and calm weekend. My head needs peace.

Plan plan plan

There are sooo many turban styles that I can make a tutorial for but so far I think this one here's the hardest to keep up with. How big it becomes depends on how big your scarf is and the outcome changes all the time.

Here I am with one of the best outcomes so far. So glad I took a picture of it!

I'll be sharing the most basic with everyone when the internet connection recovers. That one is sure easy to improvise and make different styles out of so stay tuned! Also, I must remind you that it'll be a longer tutorial so hope you'll sit this one with me til the end :p

Saturday

Sporting the turban with a HUGE sarong wrap that belongs to my sister. She wanted to give it away but now I know we can put it to REALLY good use ;)

A Sneak Peek of what's to come

Assalammualaikum sisters,

I loooovveee crafting. But for years now I have been making stuff and sewing them by hand. Last year while waiting for my results to be out I made a bag for my Polaroid out of felt fabric, snap buttons, fabric glue and really clumsy blanket stitching with thread and needle that I got from a budget shop.

It has been an ambition of mine to create something from my own hands that I could share with others. I have taken a lot of idea samples from shops and seeking inspiration from stationery shops in Melbourne and the UK. Things that I can't afford, I usually create or improvise so no matter how tacky the end product is I always treat them with a lot of sentimental value. Sometimes when I'm that broke I will just draw my ideas on paper with hopes that one day this ambition will come true.

Now that I'm working I could finally save up and can afford a sewing machine! Alhamdulillah, Allah is great. He has given me hardship and through my persistence He has rewarded me greatly.

InsyAllah come November I will reveal this plan of mine and the things that are on offer. Suffice to say I will be making things on my own and will be selling them here in this blog. To familiarise with my new machine, I made a pouch for my sister's Piano and I am quite satisfied with the result! I am also making prototypes now to see how far I can go and how much I can do. So excited that I have one customer already! She has requested for me to make her a bag for her two mobile phones so I am toying with ideas now and sketching them. Hopefully when I've reached an end product my very first customer will love it hehe.

So now, sisters, as a thank you to you for your support so far, I will gladly be making you something for a favorite personal belonging for example your mobile phones, your iPad, your laptop, your magazines, whatever it is just tell me and I will try to meet your needs and I'd like you to be the judge. I want as many feedbacks as I can so I can improve and think of many more ideas. You will be my source of inspiration.

I'd like to hear from you. Email me at nisa202@gmail.com or inbox me on Facebook. I would reaaaallllyyy love it if somebody approaches me and asks me to make them something. You will be doing me a HUGE favour so please do not hesitate to contact me!

But really all I need is your doa and support. InsyAllah one day a much much bigger project might even come true and you'll be pleased to know you were part of it ;)

Quote of the day

You can't be bitter and expect your life to be sweet.

Assalammualaikum sisters,

Such a meaningful quote. It makes perfect sense, no? A lot of people are envious of those who enjoy more then they do and they become bitter but this negative feeling will only drag them down and hold them back from getting what they want in life. Everyone wants to live happily ever after but they're always concerned too much about other peoples' lives that they forget about their own. Then the bitterness comes. The bitterness stays. Of course since 1+1 = 2 that, too, will not equal to a happy living.

If you know that every single feeling in your heart is a prayer, then you'll understand why you are where you are right now. Keeping happy thoughts will result in positive outcomes and of course the opposite to that is quite apparent. You mustn't complain about how boring your life is and how uneventful your days are because it all start with your niat just as you wake up. Every single thought coming from you about a person will also affect your relationship with that person. Remember that there is no harm in being nice and none in being forgiving and humble. Don't expect people to love you and give you their attention when all you do is treat them like dirt.

Allah is Great. He shows us mercy in many ways so when you fall out with a friend or anybody, it is only to tell you what kind of a person you are and what kind of a person the other one is. It is entirely up to us to react from judgement. This universe helps us to carry on with our lives in so many ways but sometimes we choose to be ignorant.

One Wednesday in September

Oh, what a stressful Wednesday! Stayed at the office for nine hours straight coz I've got so much to do. When it's this busy, the thought of even going out for lunch is usually out of the question. This is the busiest I've been because there wasn't much that I could do during the fasting month. Now that the hours are back to normal, there are loads that I could get down and boogie with. But of course the price that comes with that is a very tardy me. Je suis fatigue! Four websites until the end of my contract. Executable ou non? Tawakkal.

(Sidenote: Today at the office I was chased by a biawak while having lunch outside of Coffeebean *_*)

But I ain't that beat up though because I have got a tutorial for this post! Yes, yes! It's the tutorial for the hijabs that I wear in the pictures below and if you see they don't look exactly the same. You will find that the tutorial is a lot more different (if you can spot it) but the key to this look is you have to create as much volume as you can with your hijab. In the first photo, I wore a thicker fabric yet the material is very fluffy so it was pretty easy to work with. The other one is a lot harder and I had to re-adjust it everytime because it was lighter and thinner but both are still manageable with the help of pins! Yes, pins, what are we without them.

So have a watch and I hope it's brief enough to follow :) BTW, chickas, what do you think about turbans? I, myself, LOVE wearing them because I don't need anything else BUT the shawls - no pins! (Unless you intend to accessorize). But turbans are a lot longer to put on so the tutes are going to be long. I'll have a think about this coz the point is to show you just simple videos. I'll keep you updated. For now, hope you enjoy this video and do tell me if you have requests! Thanks, my pretties!

Turquoise Hijab from Nisa Halim on Vimeo.

Is it over yet?

Assalammualaikum sisters :)

Collage of my outfits from the first to the fifth raya (not in order). Didn't make any new raya garments this year so a lot of these outfits are either recycled from other events or bought. Seriously a raya n00b so everytime I go for visits or when friends come to visit I'll just be sitting there with them and awkwardly waiting for the moment to pass. But I try, I try. The hermit in me seems to be alive during this festive time but I don't think I care coz all it matters now is that I have a good time with my family and with my friends everytime we're together (in the quiet or during conversations).

And in about 8 hours I'll be back to the office. NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo!!!!!

New tutorial scheduled to be up soon! (At least this is a bit uplifting).

Detailed Details

Chanel Fall-Winter Haute Couture

D&G Fall Ready-To-Wear

My lust for patterns, details, bold colour and simplicity has just been amplified! I am in wonderfully colourful rage! I love how much detail Chanel has despite choosing a more mature aesthetics while D&G goes vibrant and so so young with its choice of colours and fun fabrics. Aaahh I'm probably in Cloud 9 already.

Crying for the loss of innocent souls

Never cried so much. This film breaks my heart and I pray that all the souls that have been sacrificed and taken due to ignorance will be blessed and be placed amongst those who are kind.

Takdir Ilahi.

We can never run away from it. Things in this world happens for a reason and we have to endure it with grace and by being thankful. Guys, when you think that things have not happened according to what you've planned, you have to keep praying with the thought that better things are being planned for you by the will of Allah and that you have to patient when these things happen to you. MasyAllah, God is great and nobody can ever go against what he has written for us. Everything is set in stone and we are tested in so many ways. Things aren't always apparent so we have to endure with much patience and the will to carry on. Our takdirs may be written for us but our usaha determines whether we can easily accept what we have been given or otherwise. The former is what will give us the strength to carry on with our heads high and our smiles wide. Whatever Allah gives us, He gives it to us for a reason and He will not test us on something that are outside of our strength and capability. Please believe in this for you will succeed and trust that God's will is stronger than anything else in this world. InsyAllah, by being kind and by persevering through the labyrinth of life, we will be blessed with abundance of rezeqi not just in the form of material possessions, but also in the form of good health and a happy family.

When you watch this film you will realise how somebody who is very intelligent and very patient is tested in every kind of way which takes his life in the end. We can apply this in many forms throughout our lives and though it might not be as brutal as Hadji's we have to still be as patient as he is, be kind as he is but not without substance. Ignorance, sometimes, is as much as a curse as it can be bliss. Let us all pray for each other and may we be rewarded with lots of happy returns by Allah. Amin.

Taqabalallahu Minna Wa Minkum