Why Jewel?

Salam my beautiful jewels. Okay so I wanted to delve a little bit deeper on why I call you jewels. So here we go, jewels when held can be heavy or light. They come in all different shapes and sizes. Some have rough edges and some are precision cut. Some have more shine than others. Some have deep grooves. Some are just hard to get. Some can just simply take your breath away with one glance. Lastly, some just know their worth and therefore can preserve their beauty. You got me? Have I broken it down well? I hope so.

So if you are small, rough, or green or white, know that in Allah's (swt) eyes we are all so precious. It is time to realize that and recognize it. So when you are out and about, know that you are a jewel. Don't let anyone ever man handle you or even get the opportunity. For when a pearl is in its shell, it is the hardest one to keep. I love you all and hope you are having a wonderful Ramadan so far.

Keep smiling :)

Ooopps My hair is showing...

Salam everyone!!

Okay so I posted a video about my hijab mishap that happened to me today at Target. I will post the video here so you can watch it. Has this ever happened to you? If so, how did you go about handling it? Did someone every point it out? I am curious to hear your experience.

Long time No Type!

Salam ladies!

I have been a little bit busy. I have noticed that I have not posted a blog in a while. Things are going ok. Just the pregnancy at the beginning can be rough at times. Anyways, I was invited this past weekend to a Muslim festival event. It was SO fun! I loved it! I don't think I have ever said salam walaikum to so many people. I do on a daily basis but at most I may say it to a fellow muslimah like once or twice a day if we happen to cross paths. But woah big mistake in not wearing my tinted moisturizer with SPF cuz I got sunburned. I got a hijab tan line! ha ha! My sister was making jokes about me. I was like shutup girl. We always insult each other lovingly.

There were lots of rides for my kids. They had a blast. Lots of women selling hijabs and abayas. I did buy one hijab. I bought my son some building blocks with the arabic alphabet on it. I also connected with some lovely sisters who invited me to sister circle events. I thought that was great. I have never been to a sisters event before. I also connected with others who I knew already. So all in all it was a great event. Super hot outside though! I didn't vlog about it when I was there out of respect of some people may not want to be on camera. So I decided to create this blog post about it. I hope you are all doing well inshallah.

Take care and Know your worth!

Skincare Routine

Salam walaikum! I finally found the right products for my skin. I have been using the Olive Essence Spa Experience product line from www.homespacollection.com. This has made my skin so much cleaner and healthier. I will link the video here for you all. The facial scrub really cleans out all the gunk and dead skin cells. You can feel a deep down clean after using this product. I use the day moisturizer right after and use a pea size amount throughout my face. The smell of olive is very subtle with this product. There is not strong odor or fragrance. The glycerin is of a natural origin. That is very important. Especially since we all know that some glycerin comes from pork or animal bi product. Lets take extra care of our skin as it is what Allah has blessed us with. Until my next post...keep smiling jewels!

How to wear a crochet flower

Salam walaikum. Hello beautiful jewels. I hope you are all doing well inshallah. Remember to never forget your worth! I have uploaded a video on youtube to demonstrate how to wear the crochet flowers. I have found the headbands to be much easier. They are stretchy and won't be so tight around your head. I really love it this way. They do not slide off. Let me know what you think. If you are interested in purchasing any of my work, please send me an email to: julcruz0430@live.com   Payments are accepted through paypal. I appreciate all of your feedback.  Laterz!

Tropical Sunset

Salam walaikum Jewels! How are you doing? I am doing well alhumdulilah. I love you all by the way. I mean really. You ladies are all amazing strong women. I respect all of you. Here is my makeup and hijab of the day. I was thinking maybe I should do this at least once a week or something like that. What do you think? I'm not a makeup beauty guru but I do a little somethin somethin in front of the mirror. Here are the details. 
Tropical Sunset Look. Makeup and Hijab of the Day. Hijab from Target. Avon e/s palette aquadelic quad limited edition, Avon glimmerstick waterproof eyeliner in blackest night. Avon super full midnight mascara in black pearl. Avon lipliner in natural. Avon plump pout lipgloss in honey delight.


Keep smiling! 

Summer Scorch!

Salam walaikum everyone! I hope all of you jewels are shining and keeping cool. Wow. Finally got some hot weather and boy I remembered why I don't like the humidity. I can see why thin hijabs are must have. Alhumdulilah, I am grateful to have even just one. I got a few scarves from my mom and my husband that serve well for this type of weather. I am addicted to Naked Juices. I could like drink them all day if I could. I usually have one a day. I still have not moved yet to my new home. I am still waiting for my daughter to complete the first grade. She has a few weeks left. I know the moving process is so annoying but I am trying to be ahead of the game by declutterizing and getting rid of any crap. One thing about me is that I hate having too much of one thing. I feel like someone else could make use of it. I am always thinking of the next person. Once we move, inshallah my children will have more space to play and grow. After its all over, designing, decorating, and painting; I will take some pictures. I hope you are all well and inshallah will be in good health.

Changes

Salam walaikum

I have decided to sell my crochet flower pins through my facebook fan page for right now. Please LIKE my facebook fanpage Jewelize444. I have uploaded new pics to the crochet flower pins album. If you are interested in purchasing any of my pieces, please email me julcruz0430@live.com  I have a paypal account and all purchases will be through paypal. Inshallah I will have a website where I can make this a lot easier. For now this is the best tool for me. Prices are in the description under the photo. I will also have a video coming up showing you how to accesorize the hijab with crochet flowers. Hit me up if you are interested!!! Take care !

Tired of the Ignorance

Salam everyone! If you are subscribed to my channel, I just posted a new video about my recent experience. I know I am not arab and racism is a real issue with people. In islam we are unified and should not be discriminatory to our brothers and sisters due to race. I will put the link below to my video. I hope you like it.

Yay! Giveaway!

Salam! Hello to all my jewels out there! Keep shining and know your worth! I got a giveaway! IF you are subscribed than you can enter! Check out the video below and leave your comments on the youtube video. Thank you very much! Deadline will be June 1, 2011.

Giveaway Coming Soon...

Salam walaikum

Okay so I was like thinking..let me do a giveaway. You are all so so awesome!! I mean if you are tuning in and watching my crazy butt than I have to thank you. LOL. I am almost at 300 and I was going to wait until 500 but then I was like nah it's ok. You guys deserve it! Info on that giveaway will come up soon. Here is my video about that and Time Management. Take care and stay strong in faith!

Salam

I Be Haulin

Salam walaikum

If you have not checked out my most recent haul video. Well here it is. I had fun and I love the items that I chose. I am grateful and fortunate. All praise is due to Allah (swt) for all that I have acquired and have in my right hand. Take care! Stay peaceful!

Time to Point and Shoot!

Salam my darlings!

I hope everything is going well for you. I had a photo session with myself. I came up with this hijab style and as weird as this may sound I still can't remember how I did this! Been quite busy but I am still trying to update my blog and YT channel as best as I can. I am not a superwoman but I will learn how to fly one day! Ha ha! I love you all! Remember you to never forget and honor your worth as a woman. We are jewels and should preserve ourselves! You are expensive! Don't forget that one! If you can't realize it than jewelize it! Laterz! Here are a few of my shots! Hijab is from Avon. Carina-like body top from Egypt. Undercap from www.uniquehijabs.com

Crochet Flowers

Salam Everyone!

Okay so if you follow my YT channel, you will know that I have talked about a particular project my mom and I have started. Well below I have different pictures of crochet flower pins that we have made. They are handmade from a high quality yarn and will look great as an added accessory to your hijab. If you are interested please leave me a comment or email me julcruz0430@live.com    All payments will be made through my paypal account. If you see something that you like but would prefer a different color please let me know. I look forward to your inquires. I am shopping around for a higher quality camera but for now this is what I am working with.

 Orange Flower with Faux Pearls 100% cotton yarn
$15.00 USD

Blue Green Crochet Flower
$9.00 USD

White Crochet Flower with Blue Faux Pearls used 100% cotton fine yarn
$15.00 USD

Dark Green Crochet Flower with small leaves and flower detailing. I apologize for the poor quality of this photo.
$15.00 USD

Black Crochet Flower with small rhinestone in the middle
$15.00 USD

Something Old & Something New

Salam walaikum everyone!

Okay so I have to admit coming back to my apartment here in NYC was dreadful. I was not wanting to return to the madness and stress. I am grateful for being able to experience the outdoors with my family. I was able to breathe some fresh air and my kids could run around in the backyard. It would be definitely be a few months before the actual move. To be perfectly honest, I can already see my family moved in. I just have to go through all of the kids belongings and do a spring cleaning. I want to move in with the least amount of things as possible. The Mister and I have plans on doing some redecorating and purchasing new furniture inshallah. He is an interior designer so I leave mostly all of it to him. I do add my touch here and there. With the construction completed on our home the only thing left is paint and flooring. I am excited. Once we have it all completed I will take some pics and post it. Saying goodbye to my apartment will be the easy part. I have invested 10 years of my life in a place that has seen me grow and mature. I am now ready to move forward towards a home! In fact, my children deserve a better living environment.

I do have a few ideas on bedroom sets and see many future trips to IKEA. Well I will get back to making videos as soon as I get a moment. My daughter's birthday is this weekend and I have been pretty busy preparing for a family dinner/party. I hope you are all doing well inshallah.

Until next click....

Salam!

Been Away...

Salam everyone!

So sorry I have not posted in like what seems is forever. I have been so so busy relaxing. I am on a mini getaway vacation and have found some peace and tranquility. I am visiting my mom and helping her around a bit. I love to get away from the chaotic city life and retreat into the suburbia. I really love this. My kids and I love to walk around and enjoy nature. When you live in the city, you don't get to really enjoy all of the greenery/plant life. I love this!!! Who knows. I may just move out here. Let's see. Insha allah. I hope you are well and in the best of iman. Take good care of yourselves and always be grateful for everything and everyone!

Salam walaikum

Moving on Up...

Salam Everyone!

Okay so here we go. What happens when the city girl moves out into the country side? DO I take the city with me or just adapt to the country? Well okay so I am visiting my mother's house in Connecticut and well my future house is just above to my mom's house (3 family home). Basically, working on flooring and painting but it looks so so beautiful. I am staying out here for the week to get a general feel for the area. I already started looking online for local mosques and islamic centers. I can't wait to live here. I thought after coming a few times before that living here was going to be hard. But spending quality time here has proven to me that this place could be home. Once we add more design and furniture, we can add our touch of love to the place and it will be amazing. I can already see it coming together. I will still travel to visit my other relatives in New York/New Jersey area of course.

I don't really think the city can ever come out of this hijabi but I know that I can always bring the best anywhere I place my feet. If you are living in the CT area please let me know of any good halal food places!! Send me a message! I would greatly appreciate it. Take care!!!

Transition Into Hijab

Salam Ladies!

I decided to make this video because a sister reached out to me through private message asking about my transition into hijab. I thought this would be a good topic to talk about as I can remember it being something I was thinking about doing and wanting for a while. I just had alot of blocks of fear in my path. So here in this video I talk about it based on my own personal experience. I hope this is helpful to you if you are thinking of hijab.

Salam walaikum

Needs a Title!

Just finished recording this hijab tutorial but I am stuck. I don't know what to call this hijab style. Your input is much needed! Thank you for even listening or reading this!!! I appreciate all of your comments and feedback.

Photo Session Numero Tres

Assalam walaikum beautiful sisters!

Here is my mini photo session of my tutorial looks. I hope you likey and visit my YT channel for more upcoming looks. I have gone a little hijab shopping crazy lately! ha ha! I want to buy more and more. Like my eyes just seem to get bigger and bigger. Until next click....salam

Tutorial Times

Finally!! Okay, so I finally got the time. After many requests, I have put up some hijab tutorials. Now, since I am fairly new, I am not an expert. However, I have found these styles to be very simple and creative. I will do more inshallah. I hope you enjoy!!!!

Photo Session Numero Dos

This is one of the hijabs that I had featured in my recent haul video. I got this as a gift from my hubby. It is straight from Egypt. Yay! I love the quality and its a very light hijab good for warm weather. In my video I actually said that Su would probably wear this because she looks very good in this color hijab also.

I will have tutorials coming soon just waiting on some more undercaps and hijabs to feature.

Black and White

I came up with this different hijab style today. I know it does not seem like your average or typical comfortable hijab style. I feel like this is sort of artistic and creative. It is like a combination of two hijab styles into one. I may do a hijab tutorial video soon inshallah. I know it looks like one half of one thing and another. But really focus and take a look at how this "whip effect" could actually work. Let me know what you think.

Love and Peace

Jewels

Vlogs and more Vlogs

Here is my most recent video post. I hope you all enjoy it. I have some exciting ideas and projects coming up. Stay tuned for more inshallah. I hope you are all well and in good health inshallah.

Nice gifts

I am super duper excited. My hubby just got back from his trip and brought back some lovely gifts. I can't wait to share. I got like 10 hijabs and a few underscarves as well. Awesome! Yeah, I know. I was actually surprised that he knew exactly what I like. Well I will maybe feature them in a video soon inshallah.  Yay!!! Woohoo! (Insert backflip NOW!)

Okay love you all! Peace and blessings unto you all!

(www.youtube.com/user/jewelize444)

New Face on the Tube

Salam walaikum,

I have a new youtube channel. I was inspired by a dear friend of mine to make videos. I can be a little silly and wacky at times. I thought it would be fun to chronicle my journey both here on my blog and on video.
I hope you will subscribe. I plan on doing some hijab tutorials and fashion outfits of the day. I hope to hear from you soon inshallah.

You live and You learn

I was performing my prayers yesterday when my toddler decided to climb on top of me during prostration. He is innocent and really doesn't know much. My goal is that he will soon copy me because he is at this learning stage. After prayers, I took some time to reflect on how far I have come to now. I would have never thought of myself being a mom now. I am grateful that I am because you see how much you sacrifice for them. You will literally give up your plate of food for them in a heart beat (if you have to). I have been so busy with the kids that I haven't had a chance to really do some other projects. I figured I would put up this blog post because not only is it therapeutic but it is also a good way for you too look through my window of life.

I was also thinking of participating in hijabi fashion week. Are any of you thinking about it? Please let me know. I have a few ideas of some outfits I would like to put together. I like to come up with my own style now. I have gotten comfortable with some hijab styles and some clothing as well.

Now that I am a muslimah, I have had to an intervention on my closet. No, SERIOUSLY!! I was wearing lots of stuff that just can't be worn now. So I decided to donate the clothes to charity and also sending some of my kids clothes (that no longer fits them) to my country's poor.

I hope everyone is well and in good health. Until the next post (inshallah)...
BarakAllahfiz

Salam walaikum

Photo Session

So yesterday I decided to take some pictures of myself with the scarf that my mother bought me. Yes, surprising isn't it? My mother bought me one. So this is a great step in the right direction. I was very happy and I took some pictures with it on. Check it out. Let me know what you think? Oh yeah and I don't know where she got it from. I will have to ask. I did get creative with it. <3
Peace and blessings to all.

Contest Entry

Salam walaikum Sisters

I just entered a contest. My first time entering any contest on youtube. Ha Ha! A sister youtuber that goes by the name of hijabifiedchika has a contest going on. I will link the video that gives all the details. I entered my photo on her facebook fanpage. I thought maybe trendy hijabi was the best look I could go for.
Peace <3

Parent Teacher Conference

Salam everyone!

I had parent teacher conference yesterday. I have a six year old daughter in the first grade and she has excellent grades. So, I got her report card and was extremely pleased. At the beginning of the year she was weak in mathematics but now she has gotten much better in that area. I had been working hard with her to strengthen her problem solving skills and comprehension. I know math is not easy for a first grader but I did what I could do to make it easy for her. I bought workbooks and also used basic problem solving skills in our daily activities. She is doing much better now and I am pleased. As a treat I brought her to Target to have pizza and an frozen ice drink. This is the outfit that I wore to the meeting. I am wearing a similar black pashmina hijab as from before. I have on a long sleeve grayish bluish shirt from the Gap. The abstract print dress is from Forever 21. My jeans are from Old Navy and my shoes are from Target.

Going Out..

On Saturday I went to a kid's birthday party with my sister. It was nice for the kids to play with other kids. I wanted to look my best and still be modest. I wore a black maxi dress from Marshalls paired with a blue long sleeve crew neck shirt. I wore a black pashmina hijab to complete the look. I could have accesorized it up but when you have a toddler that pulls at everything and wants to eat everything. It just becomes some what of a hazard. I had a good time. Here are some pics of that day. Hope you likey! Salam Walaikum

Experimenting...

Trying out new hijab styles. I have found a few that I am comfortable with. My hubby became the photographer. Tell me what you think.

It gets better...

So now my life as a hijabi has completely bettered my life and health. I don't know how to quite explain it but my overall emotional health has improved. I have this unique inner glow and self confidence. I feel like I just followed my spiritual heart and Allah (swt) has guided me to the right path.

Yes it does get sweeter

Wow. What can I say. Today is a monumental day. A day that will go down in history books. Today was my first day wearing hijab. Today was also my mother's birthday. So I just went with the flow of things. I just decided that whatever it is I can be brave and keep reminding myself that I am following Allah's command. I kept thinking oh gosh my family will think the worst of me. Instead they just opened their arms and lifted me up with honor, respect and praise. I love it! I still have to invest in more hijabs and undercaps. But, this is progress. A lot of people have been a positive influence to me a long the way. A select few of hijabi YT gurus have been a total inspiration for me. You ladies are awesome.

Food Memory

Something about food that has the ability to encapsulate the memories of every time you ate it or who prepared it for you. Wow. I just had some kofta and rice and as it hit my mouth it just took me back to Egypt. I love the flavors in my mouth and how good it hits your stomach. I love it! What is your favorite dish? What type of memory does it bring? I hope you all are having a good day. I also made it to Target today and picked up two turtlenecks on clearance for 3 bucks each! What a steal! Well salamz

Spring is Coming!

Wow I heard the birds chirping this morning. This reminded me a lot of when I lived in the suburbs with my family. Living in the city you don't get to be awoken by this beautiful sound. I normally hear cars passing by or people yelling to one another. I feel like Spring is soon to whip itself around the corner. I can't wait. I look forward to planning outdoor events with the kids. Time to come out of hibernation. What are your plans for the spring/summer? I hope whatever they are be sure to include a walk in the most beautiful park with a friend or family member. Never lose sight of what is most important to you. Not the materialistic things. Only that which is not seen has to nurtured. Love and laugh as much as you can. Peace everyone!

Finally

It was about time. Welcome. This will be my dumping ground for all of my thoughts, rants and opinions. So, if you do not approve, please press on. This is my opportunity to really express myself as I am extremely busy with living this wondrous life. I am married and have two beautiful children. Allah has blessed me and I am extremely grateful, alhamdulilah. I am going through a turning point in my life where everything means something special. I don't want to let anything go to waste. Not even a single ounce of air. I really take a fresh breath of air when I approach new things and ideas. A little bit about me. I love to listen and compose music. It is an immense escape. With music it encapsulates a memory as does food. For example, you may have danced to a song and ten years later still remember the steps. You may come across the same cookies your grandmother baked for you as a child, and one bite brings it all back to you. I love that type of nostalgia. I love to read but lately have not been able to sink into a book with all of the children's books that keep me busy. Another joy is dancing and exercising to keep me physically fit and healthy. Using the Wii with my kids helps us all have fun and stay fit. I really don't want my children to face any health issues as they become older. I feel that it does bring us together. Lovely invention. Anywho...I hope this has somehow impacted you or inspired you or made you laugh. I look forward to writing a bit more when I squeeze in the time.