Beauty...

What is beauty? What do we perceive as being beautiful? What should we perceive as beautiful?

I love that Dove made a series of commercials a few years ago to focus on womens self esteem and how our perception of beauty is distorted. Look at this video if you don't know what I am talking about (it gives me chills!!):

Well, I would have loved to see this video already about 10 years ago, when I first started thinking about who I was becoming as a woman and making myself look "more beautiful" when I had to go outside. But being 15 at that time, it would probably already have been too late to influence me, 'cause society would already have completed my view on beauty and my demands for myself and my looks... :-/
The habit of putting on make up every day stuck to me until recently (after meeting my husband and reverting to Islam), where I would never walk outside without make up on (i.e. mascara, eyeliner, (eye-shadow), concealer)! I thought I looked ugly without - and I'm still getting used to not wearing (much) make up outside and getting to know the stranger in the mirror better.
My husband has helped me a great deal, by really letting me know that he appreciates me just the same with and without make up. He says I just look different, but always beautiful (in his eyes). That (among other things) has made me feel more secure and also the fact that I have been working on my self esteem, which has never been sky high. I'm still working on not letting beautiful women and commercials make me feel inadequate and insha'Allah I will learn soon that Allah (swt) loves me and that He loves the unique way that I look and that the purpose of being in this world is not to compete about outer beauty (- or compete at all...).

Sometimes I wish I lived in another country, where the majority were Muslims and people were dressing modestly, 'cause it gets too much for me in the West, where people reveal so much of their bodies no matter where you go and there is this on-going competition about who's hottest, smallest, thinnest, tallest......

Insha'Allah my self esteem will always get better (- and yours too, if you also feel you haven't arrived just yet -) and I/we will learn, even more, to put my/our values in the right places.

What are your thoughts on this topic, dear sisters?


Talking about beauty: Before I go, I want to share some real useful beauty tips with you!:

Athaan & A Sister who Needs Duaa

This is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt recitations of the Athaan I have ever heard, masha'Allah. I hope you enjoy it too, and what better way is there to start the day, than with such a beautiful recitation?!

I've been up since 6 AM to prepare the breakfast for my husband and his daughter, before they had to leave for school and job. The sun is shining beautifully and I feel much gratitude and love today :) Alhamdulillah. I have to study at home today and insha'Allah I will take the time to read some Qur'an too. The healing power of the recitation of the Qur'an or reading it by yourself is absolutely amazing, Alhamdulillah!!

Before I'm off to make the most of my day, I would like to ask you to visit this blog, since it looks like a sister needs some love and lots of duaa!

Take care all of you!

Raindrops are Falling

At 7 AM the sun was shining brightly and my husband and I had homemade bread and afterwards cheesecake for breakfast. Yummi. And now it seems like somebody seriously turned on the big shower outside with a mix of water and snow!! Whew! And I have an appointment in the city around 1... :-/ Now there is thunder and lightening too... If I had a lot of money I'd definetely go by taxi. Hehe. But I'll wait just a little longer, perhaps have another piece of cake, and some green tea with roses :)

I wish you all a beautiful day :) no matter how the weather has turned out. And before you leave, listen to how wonderful Allah's (swt) creations sound: Alhamdulillah if you were blessed with normal hearing and can listen to these birds and the raindrops touching the leaves and ground...

Almond Oil

I love natural oils! Recently I discovered the benefits of almond oil and would love to share them here! Almond oil is really great to keep your skin beautiful, clean and smoothe. Use it as your daily lotion or as a massage oil.

Every evening, after cleaning and washing my face, I gently massage some almond oil onto my face and leave it there all night. Sometimes I give my feet such a treatment too. By now I have only been using it for a few days and I already got rid of dry spots on my face. So this is especially good in the winter time, if you live in a cold area and your skin dries out easily.

I also give myself a hot oil treatment once every 7 days.

Hot oil treatments are very popular since they are easy to use and give good results if you have very dry hair or hair that has been damaged by over processing. Hot oil treatments help to restore shine and condition to your hair.

Procedure

Gently heat the oil in a pot. Remember that oil heats very quickly and can burn quite easily: NEVER leave unattended. You are only heating it to the point of warming the oil. Once it is warm, remove from heat. Be sure you test the heat of the oil before putting it on your hair.

If it seems too warm, wait several minutes before applying. It is not recommended to use a microwave to heat the oil since temperatures are hard to control and you might wind up with part of it being much hotter than the other. Apply the warm oil to dry hair.

If your hair is long, thick or very damaged (as can happen to bleached, permed or dyed hair), it is best to use a comb to work it in and make sure that you have covered every strand, paying particular attention to the ends of the hair. Then you can wrap your hair in plastic wrap to help keep the heat in and leave it on for about 30 minutes. If your hair is shorter or not as damaged, you can just work it in and leave it for 5 minutes. When the time is up, you will need to shampoo the oil out. You will probably need to shampoo twice. The first time you use it, you might skip using additional conditioner. You don't want to weigh down the hair too much, but if you notice that it seems dry after shampooing it out, then you can use conditioner after shampooing. I add the shampoo before making my hair wet!

For very damaged hair, use the treatment once a week at least, twice if it is very long or damaged. Otherwise, every two weeks is all that is required. If you have problems with your scalp, try adding some tea-tree oil to your hair treatments. Tea tree oil isn't cheap, but you will only use a small amount. It is a natural anti-fungal and can help greatly with dandruff-like problems and seborrhea. You can buy tea tree oil at health food stores.
You can also just do the ends of your hair (use less oil).

Source: Homemade Hot Oil Treatments

I hope you'll have just as great results with this as I did.

Duaa, a Fisherman & Birds Singing

أَصْبَـحْـنا وَأَصْبَـحْ المُـلكُ للهِ رَبِّ العـالَمـين ، اللّهُـمَّ إِنِّـي أسْـأَلُـكَ خَـيْرَ هـذا الـيَوْم ، فَـتْحَهُ ، وَنَصْـرَهُ ، وَنـورَهُ وَبَـرَكَتَـهُ ، وَهُـداهُ ، وَأَعـوذُ بِـكَ مِـنْ شَـرِّ ما فـيهِ وَشَـرِّ ما بَعْـدَه

The morning has come to me and the whole universe belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, O Allah, I ask of you the good of the day, it's success and aid and it's nur (celestial light) and barakaat (blessings) and seek hidayah (guidance) and seek refuge from the evil in it (this day) and from the evil of that which is to come later.

Hisn from Abu Dawood

Good morning dear sisters!

I hope you're all doing well. I've been up since 5am because I had to bring my stepdaughter to school, who then stayed home anyway, 'cause she wasn't feeling too good. So then I got lots of time to prepare a good breakfast for my family and at 9am I'm going to do the laundry and clean the house. But before all that I wanted to share the duaa above and also the picture of the man (leaning forward) in the little boat. The photo was taken by me in 2005 on the Greek island Symi, where I was on vacation with my parents and little sister. I think that vacation was one of the best ones ever. We have always gone on vacation to places, which were not too crowded by tourists. And Symi was just such a unique, beautiful tiny island. This man in the boat was there every morning around 6am catching fish :) What a life. I'd love to live on an island far away from big cities, cars etc. Everything was so peaceful! Insha'Allah, some day :)

Have a beautiful day all of you and perhaps you too enjoy the beautiful song of the birds below. Allah's (swt) creations are truly magnificent.

A White Surprise

Subhan'Allah! Allah (swt) does indeed not only answer our duaas said out loud, but also the duaas in our hearts and minds. This morning I didn't ask Allah (swt) directly about that, but I sure did need something to cheer me up a little.

I woke up to offer my Fajr prayer and when I was done, I wanted to look out of the window, but could only see a tiny piece of the world outside through the curtain. But what I saw, was enough to build the adrenalin up in my body. Big white snowflakes where falling down from the sky! Immediately I got up and opened the curtains and saw to my surprise that everything was already white! Masha'Allah! I had to thank Allah (swt) for all the beauty He is creating right in front of our eyes!!

Here you see two pictures I took of the scenery. I'm sorry I can't give you top-quality photos, since I used my mobile phone... The blue-ish light is because it's still early in the morning.

The view from our living room

The view from our bedroom

Immediately after this beautiful surprise, I put a message on my little sister's answering-machine and told her Merry Christmas (she's definitely a "Christmastime-oholic!" Hehe) and told her she has to look out of her window! Then I went to the living room and let my rabbit out on the balchony. She loves snow so much! Last year she even built a little tunnel through all the masses of snow on the balchony!

I felt exactly as when I was a kid - 'cause I behaved exactly the same way, only now without my joyful screams throughout the whole house: "it's snowing, it's snowing, it's snowing"! Hehe. Had I been home alone I'd probably have done that too ;)

If the snow lasts, insha'Allah, it will be so beautiful to go to Jum'a later!

Ya Allah (swt)... I hope all of you are having a beautiful day!

I love you all so much for following my blog and for being so sweet sisters, mahsa'Allah! And welcome Rene's Bare Essentials to my blog! It made me happy too, to have another follower :) You guys have to check out her blogs aswell, if you didn't do it already!

Take care all of you!!

Cherry Blossom-Mood

What best describes my mood today: Cherry blossoms! Alhamdulillah!

I love these amazing flowers that Allah (swt) created, masha'Allah!!

It's not a sunny morning, but what does it matter, when Allah (swt) made you feel the sun inside?! I have many tasks to be done today, but insha'Allah everything will fall into place smoothly. I wish my dear sisters out there a beautiful and blessed day, and if you're not feeling too happy, offer Allah (swt) some prayers and take a look at the beautiful flowers below and allow yourself to dream away for a minute or two:

And if these weren't enough, perhaps you'd enjoy watching the German movie Hanami, Kirschblüten (Cherry Blossoms). I love it and it touched me to tears!! - And there are quite a few cherry blossom-shots in it :) Click the picture below to go to the official website of the movie - where you can listen to one of the beautiful soundtracks to the movie).

And if that wasn't enough, there are actually some cherry blossoms in this movie too. And it's such a beautiful movie again with splendid music (click on the picture to go to the official website):

Take care sisters!!!