imagining a way more glamourous life than i actually lead

imagining a way more glamorous life - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

but the next time i'm invited to an opera premiere i'll have all my shopping done ahead of time...

starting out

here are a couple of resources i've come across that have helped me so far:

1) Arabic: i'm still plowing through the alphabet a little at a time, but i'm starting to get used to the letters. i've been using the arabic alphabet and a little notebook to practice in and tend to practice in front of the tv in the evenings.

2) Salat: so i started out with how do i pray, which has a little animated guy and says the prayers out loud. my only issue is that you can't rewind and have to keep starting over if you're trying to learn the prayers phonetically. the good parts are that you know what you're supposed to do and what it's supposed to sound like.

3) Qibla: i like islamic earth, where you can enter your address and it can put a little arrow on the map to show you which way to face.

4) prayer times: i use a gadget on my desktop that has a little clock with the name of the next prayer and a little countdown timer.

5) clothes: shukr takes up most of my closet, although i also like islamic design house. my favorite scarves are from shukr, veiled by design, and the hijab shop and my favorite hijab pins are from muslim base.

6) food: i've had good luck with zabihah.com in my area.

7) and some podcasts: for faith matters, i've found several of the talks on zaytuna institute very helpful and i love the ibn 'Arabi society talks-- beware, they're pretty deep. for lighter fare, i like islamophonic, altmuslim review, and mecca one and because i'm suddenly curious about this part of the world mosaic has a review of news in the Arab world which is interesting and fun to watch.

starter kit, also

starter kit - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

and here's a casual mix and match set.

starter kit

starter kit - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

here's a mix and match set in neutrals for work

embroidery

blue and red - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

so i'm kind of a sucker for embellishments-- fancy prints, embroidery, little sparkly things...

the mosque closest to my house

was open today!

parking was a bit of a challenge, but there was a man unlocking the front door as i pulled up, so the suspense was over by the time i hit the door. rookie flubs this time included not figuring out where the women's entrance was before depositing my shoes, which meant i sort of stood around on one foot and another after prayers waiting for the men to thin out before collecting my (very feminine-looking) shoes from their jumble. luckily, a nice man noticed my confused wandering and guided me to the sisters' entrance before i had the chance to blunder into the wrong side.

there was nice calligraphy on the wall, including the 99 names of God (SWT). i skimmed it looking for one to roll around in my head for a few days and picked The Subtle (SWT), which is a fun one to contemplate. the room was comfortable, tastefully decorated, and plain. the men's side slowly filled while our side held a smattering of women. there was a good mix of ages and cultures, with a two year old who tottered around adorably and a gentle old woman who shooed us closer together for prayer.

the kutb was in English and the speaker translated the Arabic he used line by line. the talk was simple and centered on being faithful and observant (can't really go wrong with a topic like that, i suppose.)

distraction during prayer is a big problem for me. my mind wanders off and i pull it back (and it wanders off again, and i pull it back...) and i hope that the struggle itself is pleasing to Allah(SWT). today, gazing obediently on the ground where i would prostrate, i saw a little movement-- a tiny bug of some kind wandering through the carpet. i smiled inside at Allah the Subtle (SWT) as i carefully placed my hands and face on the floor, studiously avoiding my new friend, and saw up close how intricate, how delicate, how beautiful he/she was.

and with a little red

black and white - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

loving the abayas at aab

black and white - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

fairy tale princess

fairy tale princess - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

transitions

so my job schedules vacations for us and mine just started today. it feels strange to have time to myself, but at least i'll have a chance to get to jumma. but here's the question: which mosque?



the one nearest my house i've never, ever seen open, but they've got to open it up tomorrow, right? on the other hand, it's been a very long time since i went to the one near work, which isn't all that much further. the one in my town i'm sure i'm going back to anytime soon, as i felt so awkward by myself in the back with just one other woman and half the kutb in Arabic (which i plan to learn, insh-Allah but, hey, it's a language-- i'm going to need some time, right?:: i'm still on "baa" "taa" "thaa"...)



prayer is starting to feel more natural and i'm starting to be able to focus better, spending less time concentrating on trying to remember what i'm supposed to be doing and saying and more time pushing distracting thoughts out of my head and tasting the meaning of the words i'm saying (or, well, the phrases-- i'm still feeling my way through phonetically.) i'm better at being on time and better at setting aside whatever it was that i was doing. my Quran reading is, on average, on pace, although i tend to have good days and bad days. i'm getting better at wrapping my scarves (and have amassed an embarassingly large collection of them) and more comfortable wearing them; it's starting to look like me in the mirror when i'm wearing one. people at work are starting to get used to the sight of me in them and i'm starting to get used to explaining that i'm muslim, that i am native to this country as are my parents, that i'm a convert, and my stand on the scarf thing (that it's a matter of your own personal understanding of what you are supposed to be doing, that my own personal interpretation is that i'm supposed to put a scarf on my head, and that-- so far as i can figure-- the doing or not doing of things that you think you are supposed to do has a big impact on your spiritual life.)

then i usually start babbling on about how i kind of like scarves, because they are pretty, and how, if given the choice, "scarf" would not be in the top ten things that are hard for me to get used to, way behind "no more bacon ever", "no more beer ever", "time to learn Arabic", and the general anxiety that comes from just being new. and when they ask me why i put up with these things, i explain to them how surprised i was to discover that Islam was the name for the things i already believed, how relieved i was not to have to try to believe things i didn't, how grateful i was to read the Quran and enjoy it, and how the more i knew about the Prophet (PBUH) the more i came to admire and love him.

a few fabulous greens

some fabulous greens - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

wouldn't change a thing about these looks from three fabulous sites...

so my friend's family used to own an art gallery

i sort of like the red one - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

and her house is full of their collection. (probably not their favorite bits, but it really is striking)--abstracts full of color and texture and mystery... so i was thinking that maybe we are all artists at heart, really. but really i thought there just has to be some way to work that dress into an outfit.

splurging a bit here

just add esarp - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

loving the turkish scarves--trying them against a quiet abaya while adding a dash of personality in the shoes and a bit of shine in the accessories so that the scarf doesn't look like it got stuck on my head while on its way to a more stylish woman...

so i'm watching little mosque on the prairie

orange and brown - by so hijab on Polyvore.com

and riyyan's style simply must be copied, worn, and loved! the thing is, i can't find her scarves (or anything even close) no matter how hard i try. this set is inspired by her first outfit in episode 1 but, it must be said, looks nothing like it. for a much better riyyan blog, try hijabchique/blogspot.com...

blues and browns

blues and browns by so hijab

so one of the ways to look current and keep covered is to use cute minidresses as tunics. this one has buttons on the collar which hopefully close it up a bit and i figure just about anything can be bought a size or two bigger so that it can float a little more off the curves...

red and black by so hijab

you may have noticed i'm going though a central Asian embroidery phase. hard to resist the colors, the intricacy, and the novelty. looks a bit beachy with the wide-leg white jeans, huh?

yeah, i get around

yeah, i get around by so hijab

maybe a little matchy-matchy but i sort of wanted to see the qi pao and the chapan together. the pants are from a salwar kameez set.

a couple of really smashing things

afghan style by so hijab

well, they're not exactly wardrobe basics around where i'm at, but apparently they are in Afghanistan and, i don't know about you, but i think i could maybe work one of these. don't worry, the website says they come with matching scarves and pants to wear under the dresses, but i put up some silk ones just in case.

no really, where are you from?

a night out by so hijab

so a whole lot of years ago i remember this magazine spread on jean paul gaultier and all i really remember about it was that there were women wearing pants with dresses, that there was a lot of color and embroidery, and that in the article part of it there was something about how he was borrowing a bit of this and a bit of that from lots of different traditional clothing sources. so it kind of stuck in my head. not sure i *or anyone, for that matter) could pull this particular look off, but with a little tweaking...

mexican hijabi

mexican hijabi by so hijab

so the shawls in this photo are silk and supposed to be fairly soft, but i have not personally road-tested them, so proceed with caution...

Call night

call night by so hijab

okay, so i'm actually usually a bit louder with the colors on a call night because, hey, something's got to cheer me up while the pager keeps going off, but let's keep it just a little tasteful for now, shall we? the patent leather finish on the shoes is a practical consideration, by the way-- they wipe clean very easily and nothing seems to soak through. ever.

who's the new kid?

so i've been trying to figure out which of the smattering of islamic centers near my house will be "my" islamic center-- the islamic center of the little town i'm in, the other islamic center of the little town i'm in, the islamic center of the little part of the city i'm in, or the islamic center of the city i'm in...

the little town one is very near my house, but there's no building just yet-- people are praying in a conference room in a little motel down the street on little plastic liners, which is fine, but when i got there i was the only woman there for the longest time and kept self-consciously scooting further and further to the back of the room until i was jostling the little plastic potted plant in the corner. (i would've hid behind it if i could.) a nice man brought me a rug to pray on and put another one next to it and pretty soon another woman came in to pray-- i could have hugged her and cried in relief-- but we remained the only two there. being new, i already feel so self-conscious-- i'm sure i'm doing something (if not everything) wrong and spend most of my time trying not to do anything at all and hoping that no one will notice i'm there at all.

the little part of the city one is about five miles away. it's where i took Shahada and will always be special to me. it's where a nice lady fixed my scarf for me and taught me how to say the Shahada in Arabic and gave me a copy of the Quran and her cell phone number. um, i've never been back.

the other islamic center of the little town i'm in has its own building; it's painted like it has arches and has its name in big letters on the walls. i've driven over there a couple of times at my best guess as to prayer time and have never seen the doors open or anyone nearby.

but the islamic center for my city has a sunday course, so i drove over there. still haven't figured out where you're supposed to park, but there's a big building and the doors are open when i get there, and the talks are interesting and practical and geared for english-speaking newcomers. last week, one of the men (kind of out of nowhere) asked how to perform salat when you're still kind of learning salat (very, very relevant for me, as i've still got parts that i haven't memorized phonetically) and the speaker sort of dropped everything and told us to just do what we could, substitute "subhan'Allah" for the parts we forgot, and just keep going. the next speaker tried to hit the highlights of the Prophet's (peace be upon him) life in the hour she'd been given and did great job. (not having been brought up on these stories, i have to learn them.) when we prayed, a nice lady shooed me up next to her and i sort of forgot about whether i was embarassing anyone and it was just like being at home, just me and God and only the usual distractions pestering me while i prayed.

purples, bronzes, and a little bit of orange

purples, bronzes, and orange by so hijab

So i don't know about you but i've got a closet full of the classic neutrals-- black, brown, beige, grey, navy...-- but somehow or other, a few purple pieces have started to creep in. it may be time to give up and buy them a bag and a nice pair of shoes (or am i the only one who buys presents for her clothes?)

gardening sort of gets inside you

earthy by so hijab

it is entirely likely that i will be wearing this (with the substitution of a pair of rather more sensible shoes) to work sometime soon. that way, i can bring a little bit of my garden with me while i'm there.

props to veiled by design and their beautifully coordinated sets, by the way, although i tend to wear them without quite so many layers, as the headbands pinch my ears against my glasses...

okay, a little flashy for me

a night on the town by so hijab

in my heart of hearts, i know that there will be no "nights on the town" for me in the near future, but a girl's gotta dream...

studying at starbucks again

orange by so hijab

i'm going through an orange phase, presently. that top, by the way, is great for summer-- lightweight but still opaque enough to wear without another shirt underneath-- and the fit is flattering without being revealing. how they pull that off i'll never know. oh, and i cheated, the hijab pin is sold out...

shades of brown

browns by so hijab

so as you may have guessed, i think i look best in autumn colors. i sort of put this together to see if it would look alright for work. sometimes it seems like all i ever do is work (well, and shop when things are slow...)

spring green

spring green by so hijab
so i fell in love with this scarf at veiled by design and have been trying to work it into an outfit. not sure if i came close on this one, but i kind of like the garden-y tones: light blue, pale green, and brown.

coffee, toffee, and a dash of paprika

coffee, tofffe, and a dash of paprika by so hijab

tunic, big pants, bangle, and a beauty of a scarf topped off with a big, sparkly, dangly pin...