Movers and Shakers

Hey y'all, it's been a while I know! But, in my defense, I have good excuses. We finally sold our house and made it through the closing. We have moved into an apartment until our new house is ready...whenever that may be. Moving was chaotic, to say the least, and I never, ever want to move like that again! Because our byuers were very fickle and iffy all the way to the end, we never knew if the closing would get through, so I was totally disorganized in packing.

Are you moving? I found this blog, Steps to Organization, which has some helpful moving checklists. The blog's author, Wendy Cross, is a professional organizer, and aside from moving, she has some pretty cool organizing tips! Check out her moving checklist 1 and moving checklist 2 if you are preparing to take this journey. I must warn you though, realistically, you WON'T get totally organized, but at least you can smooth out a lot of the wrinkles!

So now we are back to apartment living, and I must confess, it's not that bad. Of course, it's smaller, and we have a LOT of stuff in storage, but I like it! I like having the option to just call maintenance to come fix something rather than figure out how to fix it myself so that we don't have to pay someone $200 for some little thing. Of course, when we move into our new house, I am going to brush up on some home maintenance skills.

A lot has happened in the past few months! Both Fazal and Zahra had their birthdays, so I am now a proud Mama of a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Stay tuned for a lot of updates in the next few weeks and some oh-so-adorable pics :) Here is one that I love!

My Etsy shop, Treasure Box Jewelry, is still up but with all the wackiness going on, I have taken a little break from things. I have a lot of items that need listing, so I will be doing that also in the coming days. Of course, being on a temporary hiatus still doesn't stop me from buying endless amounts of glorious beads and findings! Since we are in the midst of fall, I love the the La Terre Necklace from my shop reflects the burst of color that comes with the season!

La Terre Necklace by Treasure Box Jewelry

And now a parting treat for you! One of my best cyber-friends, Lisa of Jeweled Ambrosia, has branched out into fabulous hair accessories! They are all so amazing, but this one is my favorite!

Vintage Rhinestone, Rosette and Sequin Headband by Jeweled Ambrosia

So adieu for now and have a blessed day!

Life's a Beach!

I love the summertime in Jersey. This year, it seems like it took its pretty time getting here, but at last it has arrived! I love being able to step out of the house without lugging coats and jackets and mittens...all the trappings of winter that seem welcome and charming the first week of cold, but then get tiresome. Just a t-shirt, capris, flip flops and of course, my favorite summer accessories, anklets and sunglasses and you're out the door!

Sandcastle Anklet by Treasure Box Jewelry

We've already been down to the beach this season, numerous times. We went for the Fourth and watched the fireworks at Pier Village in Long Branch, NJ. Then we went kayaking with some friends a couple of weekends ago (though technically not at a beach, it was a lake reservoir, but still there was water and sand!) Then this past weekend, when Nasir came home from work, we packed up some food, towels, blankets and chairs for a spur-of-the-moment outing. This is the advantage of living so close to the ocean. You can totally be spontaneaous!

When we got out there and set up, I took Zahra out of her stroller. This was the first time that she actually ventured out onto the sand, barefoot and excited to be exploring this new environment. I took her down to the water and saw that there was no fear in her, only awe and curiousity as the waves crashed on the shore. She made a decision to go farther and tried to get me to let her go. Not a chance!! But I did let her get her feet wet and she absolutely loved it! I remember the first time that we took Fazal down to the water...he wasn't having any of it. He was scared and clingy and was satisfied with admiring the view from far away...very, very far away. But this little firecracker of mine wanted to dive right into this unknown that she was facing. For a few minutes, I let myself think of everything from her perspective, the newness of the experience, the intital awe that we get from encountering something so breathtaking that there is no room for fear. It seems like that feeling is getting so hard to come by as the years go by, and even if it does come, we tend to skip over it.


And now some lovely finds from some wonderful and talented Etsians. I hope they fill with you with awe and inspiration!

Gold Starfish Necklace by Cindy V. Designs

Lola's Greens Brown Wrap Skirt by Vidals

Shell and Pearl Rose Ring: The Sea Treasure Collection by Star of the East

Urchin Bowl by Element Clay Studio

Beach Umbrella: 8 x 8 Fine Art Photograph by Daydreamers

Cape May in Pictures

I have a lot of wonderful pictures from our recent trip down to Cape May. I thought I would do a two-part series on it, just so that I could get everything in. This post features the pictures that I took. This pic features the Emlen Physick Estate, a gorgeous Victorian mansion. Ironically, there was a craft show going on there...which we missed!

This is the old 5 & 10 store in the downtown Cape May area...things cost a little more these days!

Zahra splashing in the fountain in downtown Cape May. When I pulled her away, she immediately let me know that she was not appreciative of my interruption.

Carpenter's Square Mall that had even more cute little boutique stores. To the left, under the teal green tent is Gecko's, the Southwest cuisine restaurant that we had dinner at one night. They had a delicious tomato and basil salad and tiny cornbread muffins with jalapneno jelly. It was divine!

I took this picture on our foray into Wildwood and the boardwalk there. They have a amusement park there, Morey's Piers, and Fazal had the time of his life riding the rides. This was of the balloon ride and I love that I got it just as one of the balloon cars (or whatever they're called!) eclipsed the sun.

Fazal riding the cars at the pier! He rode this ride twice, since he wanted the racecar the second time around.

The beach at sunset. Both kids loved playing there in the sand, though it was starting to get chilly. Still the weather was beautiful!

Congress Hall, a lovely hotel in downtown Cape May. Very Victorian and elegant, I hope we stay there on our next trip!

Another lovely Victorian house, this time functioning as a bed and breakfast. The architecture was so stunning, I think I may have gone overboard with the pictures!

So that is a tiny piece of of our trip. I still want to mention the shops that I really liked, but I'll leave that for another post!

A Cop Story

This past Friday, I was on my way to a friend's house for a committee lunch. This committee is not for planning something; it's more or less a way to get out of the house for a while and also a way to save some money. The idea is that all the people in this committee put up $100 every month and then whoever ends up getting that money (via a drawing or whatever), hold a luncheon at her house. So if there are 10 women in the committee, they get together once a month for 10 months until every woman had had a turn. At the end of that time, each woman will have essentially saved up $1000.

So anyways, that's where I was going on Friday. I had never been to this friend's house, but I trusted Mapquest would get me there. Well, not quite. I got to the end and I realized that my directions did not tell me which way to turn after taking my last exit. So I turned right and kept going. I soon realized that I was probably going the wrong way but I wanted to make sure. So I called her. I had turned right at a light onto a dead end street and I was turning around while I was on the phone, when lo and behold, I see that a policeman sitting in his car had seen me on the phone while behind the wheel. So he pulls up next to me and rolls down his window. By this time, I had hung up with my friend, (while she was still talking, I might add!), and waited for what this cop would say to me. So he's like, "That's $105." And I'm like, "Excuse me?" He repeated it, adding that that was the amount of the ticket for being on the phone while driving. My bewildered mind thought that he was asking for the money right now. I quickly apologized and told him the truth, that I was lost and I was getting directions. Looking back, I am so GLAD and LUCKY that I didn't pull out my wallet; he might have thought that I was trying to bribe him or something!

Anyways, before we got any further, he glanced in the backseat where the kids were and proceeded to tell me what was wrong with the way they were in their car seats! On Zahra's seat, I had left the car seat carrier bar up and Fazal's shoulder straps were not posititoned correctly. He made me get out and fix that and then he got out of his car and started looking at how the seats were installed. By this time, I was over an hour late for the lunch, but I didn't care. All I cared was cooperating with this cop so that I wouldn't get a ticket! Anyways, he ended up taking both seats out and reinstalling them correctly, telling me horror stories about children being in car accidents while sitting in car seats that were not properly installed. He ended up being really nice and gave me credit for having the child safety lock on the car doors.


Here are some guidelines that he gave me:

-In an infant car seat that doubles as a carrier, the bar should always be down (I think I knew that but I didn't follow through with it; I'll spare you the details of what MIGHT happen if left up)
-There should be a fist's width of space between the passenger seat and the car seat
-The shoulder straps for an infant should come from below the baby's shoulder
-If you use the LATCH system to secure the seat's, put all your weight on the seat while installing the seat and pulling the belt
-For a front-facing car seat, the shoulder straps should come from above the child's shoulders and the front clip should be at chest level
-The car seat should not move more than an inch around any which way


Whew!! I think that was all. He was nice enough to ask me if I had the time so that he could install them right. Well, of COURSE, for my children's safety, I have all the time in the WORLD!
These two are my everything!



I was more than happy to get out of the car and take time to listen to him and have hims install the seats right. I really think that
having a car seat installed correctly is very

complicated. Not all parents, even the very
careful ones, take the time to make sure that the seats are installed correctly. No parents wants to think about the "what-ifs"


But as parents, we must be prepared to take every step possible to safeguard our kids. I know that hospitals will not release you and your new baby unless you have a car seat. But I am not sure how many make sure that the seat is installed right. Just like car inspections are required by law, perhaps child seats should have the same kind of law. You should be required by law to have your car seat checked, because I am sure that in a lot of car accidents, the extent of injuries and even fatalities could have been prevented by proper installation.

In the end, the officer was extremely nice (he introduced himself but I forgot his name!) He didn't give me a ticket and helped me with the directions. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He made sure that those seats were really secure and tight. He may have saved their lives. At least, now I have learned my lesson to be even more diligent in these types of things and be more careful. My little munchkins deserve that...and so do yours!

The Paci Wars

Oh my goodness gracious! Well, here I am again...at least it hasn't been quite a year yet since my last post. I think I may be getting better at this. Well, no matter. I write this for myself and, in my defense, it is hard to find the time to sit and blog while I have these 2 running around. So anyways, all is good at our house. Fazal and Zahra and I have settled into a comfortable routine that definately has its moments of utter chaos. The latest is getting Fazal, who turned 3 this past August, to give up his beloved pacifier. He calls it his "patha"...don't ask me where he got that name, I have no clue! I know I am going about it the wrong way. Let me tell you, it's been a struggle and it's still going on! My father-in-law is a dentist so he is always worried about Fazal and his need to, at the very least, go to sleep with his patha. But his doctor was lways like well, as long as he gives it up by the time he is 3, it should be fine. Well, he's 3 and it is most definately NOT fine!

I started to wean him off a few months ago. I didn't want to start right after Zahra was born for the obvious reasons. So we talked to him about him being a big boy and only needing it for sleeping time, not during the day. He seemed to understand that pretty well and was actually really good about it. Then came a few days where he wanted it again during the day and I would always distract him. One day, I came home after running errands. Nasir was with the kids and it had been a particularly long day and what do I come home to? Fazal is running around with his patha in his mouth! Back to square one, so to speak. I glared at Nasir, knowing that he gave in, and proceeded to gather up all the pathas and took them into the kitchen and cut off the fronts. I showed them to Fazal and told him that they were broken and he couldn't use them anymore. Well, of course, he started to bawl. Of course, I realized what I did was horrible! He loves his patha and he didn't want to see them broken! So I began the whole "big boy" speech thing again and supporting and encouraging and only giving it to him when he went to sleep. He was okay for a couple of weeks, and again, he has started to ask for it again. But this time, the demands are accompanied by lovely temper tantrums involving screaming and flailing about. Even now, as I am am typing away he's at my shoulder, begging me for his patha fix! What's a mother to do? But I am resolved to be strong and get him through it, because I have realized that this is about him, not me. He has spent his whole life thus far with his beloved patha. Of course he needs time and patience on my part to get used to a life without it.

But that doesn't make it any less annoying!

Back to Blogging

Ok well, here I am again. I must be the worst blogger in the world. But to be fair, I did just have another baby. Yes, Nasir and I are now the proud parents of our baby girl! Zahra Noor was born on September 15, 2007, so she is now 4 and half months old. I have visited some of the blogs that I used to read, so I have yet again been bitten by the blogging bug. I am sure there are millions of people who are clamoring to see what I have written ;) But seriously, even if there are only a few people who do take the time to read this, I think I just like doing this for myself. I could describe myself as one of those old-fashioned girls who still wishes that people wrote letters to friends and reltives instead of sending an email, however efficient it may be. Don't get me wrong. Technology is great and email and all that is fun and fast. But there is just something so wonderfully romantic about sitting down with a cup of tea and some beautiful stationary and writing letters. I am so glad that Nasir and I wrote letter, not emails, to each other during our engagement. Even though I was in Oklahoma and he was in Pakistan, we wrote letters. Of course, computers over there had not become that common as they are today (we're talking about late 1990s here). So now I have this bundle of our old letters all tied up with a ribbon. I can't imagine doing that with email. I might have printed them out and then tied them up...but somehow it's not the same thing.

So, now dear readers, I have now finished with my musings for right now. I have some serious tending I need to do to my blog. And of course, I have forgotten the slight amount of HTML that I had taught myself so I will have to brush up on that so that I can update everything. So please, stay tuned!