Across the miles: What I wore

Miles across, what we wore today.

Week 3 in this project. Notice the Pink that connects the two pictures? Love it!

If you’d like to see the earlier posts from this project, go here.

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Letters to my daughter: Dear Baby

Long before my daughter was even thought of, a good friend of mine mentioned how she writes letters to her little son every night. She hoped it would be a little collection of all the things she wants him to know, of all that she has learned along the way. That little tradition of hers stayed with me. And when I was pregnant I started writing letters to my daughter. During my pregnancy these letters were just snippets of our lives. I talked about what was going on, how excited we were to meet her etc etc. But after she entered our world, the letters became a thing of their own. Suddenly I had so much to learn, so much to teach, and so much to do with this brand new little person.

The past year has been a huge time of growth for myself. Experiencing a huge gift and then a huge loss all in the same year, I am now a different person. Maybe in a good way. Because motherhood does something to you. And so does losing a parent. And though it has always been a part of my being, I’m becoming more and more passionate about making the most of this gift of life we have been given, about these little humans we have been entrusted with, about enjoying the everyday, about making memories for our children, about contentment. And as I have changed, so have the letters to my baby, along the way. These days I use these letters to tell my daughter what I have learned, what I believe life is about and all the things I want her to know.

I’m hoping she will read these ones day and know what I felt in my heart as I watched her grow, as I raised her from the tiny little thing that she is and was. My wish is that these letters will connect us together in more ways then one, when she moves on into her own little world inshAllah. 



I have shared bits and pieces from my Dear Baby journal before and I thought it would be a good idea to make it a regular series. I will be sharing a letter from this journal every week.

Will be sharing the first one, check back soon:]

(To see all the posts for this series, go here)

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Across the miles: Late night feet

 

Miles across, late night feet pictures in Islamabad (top) and in Duvall, WA(bottom).

Love how I didn’t realize until I put the two together how the color green ties the pictures together. Pure coincidence and exactly what I’m hoping the project brings every week. All the little things that connect our two distant worlds!

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DIY décor: yellow ‘branch things’

Hey lovelies, sharing another DIY I did a while back. Ignore the silly name as I cant come up with another one. These little guys are made using felt circles stuck to fabric covered branches.
A little DIY that’s pretty to look at if you don’t look from too close:p. They’re sitting on in our hallway right now!




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A weekend tradition

One of the best parts about being a little family is all the little traditions that become a part of your routine and that hopefully will be fondly remembered by the kids. When they're all grown up, and living in their own homes, with their own children (iA), I hope they will think about and talk about all the little things that made our houses 'home' to them.

A recent tradition in our house is my husband cooking a meal on the weekends. He is much more creative with food, the type that can look at what ingredients you have in the house and quickly whip up something healthy and creative. I, on the other hand, cook only because I have to (most days) and even though I want to be more creative with cooking, lets just say, 'its not my thing'. lol.

So back to my husband's cooking. Its a fun little tradition. I help him gather all the ingredients and do any prep if needed and he gives us some yummy food. Sounds awesome, right? Tastes awesome too!

Here are some recent successful cooking experiments he's done.


Vegetable fried Brown Rice, with Chicken and Peanut Sauce


Mini Breakfast Pizzas


Chicken Corn Soup/Baked Lamb Leg with steamed baby potatoes and Mint chutney


Roasted lamb leg with steamed baby potatoes and mint chutney


Baked Garlic Butter Tilapia


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Across the miles: Evenings

 

Miles across, a laidback summer evening in Islamabad and in Duvall, WA

Across the miles: A collaborative summer photo project

 

If you don’t know already, my sister Waliya, is an awesomely talented and very creative photographer. Her pictures have a beautiful, lyrical feel to them. And though she doesn’t have a blog or website as yet, if you're on facebook you can follow her work here.

So she and I have been planning to do this for what seems like ages, and this summer seemed like a good time to start. A collaborative photo project where each week we think of a theme, and then take a photo and share it in a diptych.

As you might know, I live at least an ocean across from my family and being very attached to them, I still haven’t completely adjusted to the distance. This project is a way to connect us together, through our photography. That even though a lot separates us from each other’s lives, there are many things that connect us back together!

We’ll be taking a picture every Monday and then posting it every Tuesday. Check back later today for today’s photo!

Toddler Activity : Sensory Tub

Its funny to see how a blog evolves as one’s life changes and new responsibilities are added. As my little is becoming a very active toddler, I find myself looking at Pinterest for new ideas to keep her busy and learning new things at the same time. I’m going to be starting a series about our adventures trying out new ways to keep her busy.

She is almost 16 months old now and is such an adorable little person mashAllah. She loves her little room and reading her books there and is pretty good at playing on her own. But then there are times when she gets bored and I have to be creative to occupy her with something.

I saw this on pinterest this week and thought it would be a fun thing to try right before I had to vacuum since I knew this would be messy. I had a feeling Anya would enjoy this.



Just filled a Tupperware container with mixed lentils, gave her a couple of plastic spoons and let her have some fun. She loved it and was completely engrossed in feeling the textures, and scooping the grains.





I made sure I was right there all the time, since I knew she’d try to put them in her mouth. and yes she did, but because of their small size, I knew the choking hazard would be minimal. She did make a face every time she tasted them so hopefully she’ll learn the lesson. lol.



An activity that keeps a young toddler busy for half an hour straight, is definitely a ‘must-do again’ one. If you try this, make sure you do it on carpet, so its easier to vacuum as they wont bounce all over the place.



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