nrhaziqah.: 2017

Hello lovelies.

With the year coming to an end, it’s been my tradition to summarise my feelings and thoughts about the year. 2017 has been by far, the most gruelling year I’ve ever had to experience, with me losing too many damn times and me falling into that emotional rollercoaster again and again. This year has been chewing me up mentally, physically and emotionally. I’ve never had a year where I’ve cried too many tears and fought too many battles.

But even when I was dealing with hardships after another, I’ve always tried to see the positive side to things. My mum, my rock, has always been the one to tell us that we will always need to be strong and think positive because positivity is a very powerful weapon by itself.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt this year, it’s the bond that I have with my family. I’ve always been a family girl, prioritising my family over myself. After so many incidents, I’ve grown to love them even more than I’ve always have. I wish for nothing but health and happiness for my dad, my mum and my sister. I’d never want to lose them at all…

With the things that happened during the second half of this year, it made me realise that I too needed to become a better person. And so, I made the leap and started donning the hijab. Honestly, I’ve had thoughts before but I’ve never had the courage to don the hijab as I was scared. But now, I’m glad that I’ve gotten stronger and am so proud of donning the hijab. I feel so much happier now that I was before but of course, I am still learning to be a better person, and a better Muslim.

It’s been more than a year since working full-time and I’m glad to say that I’ve gotten the hang of my job. Being an adult has its perks and disadvantages, but what can I say…..life goes on. I’m super thankful for the bunch of people I call my friends, who has stick with me through this year. We may not meet as often as we do previously, but coming back to them feels like home. Love…….what can I say about love? I think I can safely say that I’m excited for what’s to come.

For the new year, I wish for happiness, health and love, for both me and you, reading this. For all the struggles that you’ll be facing, I hope that it’ll be bearable and please always have the strength to overcome it.

Goodbye 2017, I hope to god that 2018 wouldn’t be as tough as you.

With love, Haz x

Hello lovelies, welcome back to this favourite space of mine.

June is by far the best month ever - not being biased at all - honestly it really been an amazing month so far. As you all can guess from the title, you know what's this post is going to be about.

As some of you may know, I turned 21 on 14 June and needless to say, it was an unforgettable birthday for me. Initially, I wanted to invite my closest friends for a birthday party but I decided not to because my birthday fell on the fasting month. I may do it next year, heads up for that friends.

I guess my 21st birthday celebration started on the birthday week itself when Azzah, Kak Ain and Abang Cik came over to break fast with us on the 13th. I wasn't able to reach home early to break fast with them since I had quite a number of work to do back in the office so I rushed back home the moment I was able to knock off. I bought Starbucks on the way back for my two little sisters. When I made it home, everyone had already broke fast and we're completing their prayers.

Our families rested for a while and were talking about Raya outfits when my uncle spilled the beans about my birthday present. My aunt smacked him and we all started laughing. Alas, I was asked to take the gigantic Yankee Candle bag from behind the dining table. When I say gigantic, trust me, it's really huge.

To my surprise, they bought me this beautiful Candle Warmer Lantern in Antique White along with a beautifully scented Yankee Candle - in Macaron Treats! I instantly fell in love with it and it's resting on my new side table as we speak.

On the 14th, I spent my leave day with my family to Plaza Angsana. We went there in hopes of finding new Raya outfits and kuihs for us to bring back home. The last time we stepped into angsana was when I was 6 years old, my sister wasn't even born yet. We were excited to experience the Ramadan culture there, but also anxious about it since we have no clue on how long it'll take us to reach there via public transport.

After about 3 hours in the mall, we managed to find ourselves a pair of baju kurungs and about 4 bags full of kuihs - traditional and modern. We then made our way to Pizza Hut since it was close to breakfast time. After completing our meal, my dad told us to buy desserts so I settled for a molten lava cake for a mini celebration. We half-whispered half-sang the birthday song before making my wish and eventually blowing the imaginary candle.

Did I forget to mention that I didn't have my data for the whole day? The moment we cleared SG customs, I switched on my data and was super surprised when I received so many notifications, from text messages to snapchats. Very blessed to receive all the kind messages from everyone.

On the 15th, my cousins came over to breakfast with us too! Initially I made plans to watch WW with Nad but I had to cancel it off. Thank god we haven't book the tickets, if not wasted..... As always, they always came armed with delicacies from pezzo, stuff'd kebab, polar puffs and a wide range of traditional kuih muihs. Needless to say that we all were well-fed.

They surprised me with a birthday cake and a big bag of birthday gifts!! Everyone whipped their phones while singing the birthday song together. Me being the extra queen that I am, I made them waited for me for a few secs before rushing into the room to grab what? A tiara. (self entitled princess privileges HAHA) Then it was time to open the presents, also this time round everyone was recording my reaction towards the presents. I can safely say that my cousins bought everything that I wanted and needed 😂

A few days back, my mum gifted me her key necklace that she wore when she was 21!!! She kept it for me all these years so that she could give me once I turn 21. That must have been a long wait for her hehe.

I used to think that birthdays are the perfect way to show someone that you love and appreciate them. A few years back, maybe around secondary school, I had this thinking that if someone doesn't wish you on your birthday, they might as well be dead to you. Everyone was waiting for the clock to hit midnight so that they can text their birthday wishes to their friends, vying for the "first person to wish _____ on her birthday" crown. Of course in that time, all of us were only students. We didn't have bills to pay or significant others. We didn't have to juggle all these responsibilities that we have now as we get older. Over time, I've come to realise that as long as your loved ones remember your birthday, it's more than enough for me.

From the bottom of my heart, I'm very thankful for the sweet messages I've received on my birthday - be it from closest friends or acquaintances. Let's start planning for the next birthday party insyaAllah and pray that your names will be on my guest list xD

With love x

Welcome back.

Trust me, I have been blogging these past weeks but most of them didn't make the cut.

Usually I just lose my creative juices or I just didn't feel like posting it. As always, April passed by really quickly, just like the other months.

Here are some of the significant events that happened this month:

010417: Mama and Abah's Anniversary

We celebrated my parents' special day with dinner @ Spize. It was our first time there and of course we needed to dress for the event. It wasn't the first time there for my parents as they went there with their friends the week before. Their impression of the restaurant was pretty great and they wanted the rest of us to try the amazing delicacies there.

There weren't many choices to choose from for me because I'm a pretty picky eater. I ended up ordering Bangers and Mash - just a sophisticated way to describe sausages with mashed potatoes. When the food arrived, I was kinda bummed because I had a feeling it wouldn't be filling to the tummy. Oh boy, I almost tapped out halfway through the course. It would have been better without the caramelised onions but best believe I finished everything in the plate.

We had to clear the area by 7pm as there was another reservation for that table. So we made our way to the next destination, bearing smiles thanks to the amazing early dinner we just had. Since it was still early and we felt like we look good today to be only going for dinner, I suggested that we went bowling instead. And boy, what a great decision that was. Exhausted ourselves during the first few rounds before we called it a night.

070417 & 080417 - Wedding Bells

Mind you, I wasn't referring to me getting hitched. Nad, my best friend, invited our circle of friends to her second brother's wedding. We were invited on both Saturday and Sunday - Saturday for the akad nikah and Sunday for the wedding reception. Trust me, I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to Malay wedding terms and customs because 1) no one from my paternal and maternal side is getting married yet, 2) my friends and I are only 21, and we aren't getting engaged yet (let alone getting married)

We haven't met farhana in such a long time and it's always good to know that we can talk about anything and everything eventhough we don't meet on a frequent basis. Wished nabilah could have joined us during the ceremony but she's always in our minds and hearts. Like they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I told Nureen that this looks exactly like the picture we took back in secondary one, during those exhibition trips. I would have inserted the image here but it's okay, if you remember which image I'm talking about, good for you.

nrnslmt takes over nrhaziqah's phone

We went to the bride's side on Saturday for the solemnisation. We were supposed to help with carrying hantaran but guess who were the last ones to reach the destination? Throughout the whole event, all we were thinking was when we could eat because all of us were starving. Plus, it didn't help that it was my first few days so occasional bursts of crankiness from me were present. Nad was busy with her family and she kept apologising for not spending time with us more. Little did she know, all of us were just chilling at the back of the room and we used up the time catching up with each other's lives.

On Sunday, all of us attended the wedding reception with our own families. Without fail, farhana was the first person to arrive, followed by saj, nureen and the fashionably late - me. Ironic though because I'm the one living nearest to Nad compared to the rest 😆 Initially we decided to crash at mcd for dinner but we realised nad couldn't leave the event. So we stayed with her till the end of the reception. If you followed either one of us on snapchat, you would have seen the hilarity we had while our time there.

We tried to play with Nad's nephew and niece - Aaqil and Nayla! Those two toddlers were a joyful bunch of kids, running around and it's cute to see their interactions with each other. I wanted to play around with Nayla but she was shy around me. So you know I had to whip out my secret weapon a.k.a. snapchat filters.

Here's a short snippet of me admiring this cutie (also understand that my voice goes 3 notes higher when I'm around kids - even higher with this voice changing filter)

who's getting hitched first?

Oh, we definitely didn't plan our colour scheme for Sunday. All of us weren't shocked at all when we came wearing the same colour palette. This week was a pretty tiring week because your girl had to wear heels for both days as she doesn't own flats.........just because I believe that flats aren't flattering on me.

150417: Singapore Modest Fashion Weekend (SMFW)

First and foremost, I've always been into fashion since young. Heavily influenced by fashion reality shows like America's Next Top Model and Project Runway, it carved my liking towards fashion and progressed from there. Fun fact - I wanted to enrol into Fashion Design in poly but I decided not to. Fashion design is an extremely challenging path to take, with the art not being recognised in Singapore and the fact that you'd need to survive using lots of connections.

I have always dreamed of working in the fashion industry - be it modelling or designing. I used to stay up with my mum back in my primary school days to watch ANTM on channel 5, right at the 11pm timeslot. I remember complaining how I lack sleep because I was up way past my bedtime but it's always worth it. The dream is still deep inside of me, not giving up yet. I guess I just need more knowledge and courage to make the leap of faith.

SMFW was one event that I'll never forget as it's the very first event of its kind and the event showcased fashion lines from upcoming and promising fashion designers - mostly local and Malaysian designers. One of the designers that I've followed since the start was in the fashion show lineup too and I was so stoked for them. When I saw that they were giving out free VIP tickets for their fashion show, I tried my luck and entered the contest. One night my sister called me as I was on the way home from work to tell me that we won the tickets!!!

this was how close we were to the main stage

My sister went as my plus one and boy, she had to handle this mess.

So there we were, sitting in the second row. I swear to god, I couldn't breathe properly when I was seating there. My heart was super jumpy and I was just too anxious to see the beautiful designs on the runway. Needless to say, the hour long show got me in awe and I couldn't leave my seat after the show ended. I have vlogs from that day still in my laptop, definitely going to edit that soon.

Did I mention that I loved my outfit of the day? Lately I've been into long outerwears and I purchased this beauty on Zalora. Can't wait to wear this out more often because it makes me feel like a princess (not that I'm not already one) Also, I helped my sister pick out her outfit! She wanted to play around with floral prints and voila, there you go. I was pretty proud of my pick - can become fashion stylist already.

Update: hey guys, I just uploaded my vlog on youtube, I've embedded it here for easy viewing! Share the love by liking and subscribing to my channel if you haven't already 💜

220417: Artbox Singapore + Simching's 21st Birthday Party

I'm kinda impressed with myself this year as I've been going down for most of these new exhibitions and local events, those types that are hyped on twitter. When I found out about Artbox, I immediately asked my friends if they'd wanna go for it. Artbox was held over two consecutive weekends so when the news about the overcrowding in Artbox that happened on the first weekend was circulated all over the internet, I was second guessing the trip there. Even my friend told me the trials and tribulations getting there, I was convinced not to go.

I had a 21st birthday party invitation that night and I decided that it'll be fun to at least visit Artbox for a while. So I can include another indie event into my event hoping journal (kidding I don't own that) My beautiful Nureen was my date and we had so much fun. We haven't went out in a while and it feels goooooood to spend all my time with her. Honestly I don't remember the last time we hung out for the entire day, other than occasionally meeting after work.

Our plan was to visit Artbox, try some delicacies there, kill time somewhere else before making our way to the party at 7. Initially we were supposed to meet at 12-1? Guess who took a long time to get ready...... We eventually met at 2, if I could remember properly.

Even before stepping into Artbox, we were sweating like mad thanks to the sweltering weather. Thank goodness for my guardian angel because she brought an extra pair of sunglasses for me. It wasn't as packed as the first day, which was a plus. Maybe people were turned off by the crowd and decided to forgo Artbox. Despite the bearable crowd, it was a bit disappointing for me as I was expecting the venue to be a little bit bigger. There weren't enough space to walk through the booths. Not to forget that I was wearing a white top and my ultimate fear of ruining my top kept bugging my mind throughout the whole time there. We came across the Dragon breath booth and I actually wanted to get it but girl, I couldn't stand the queue. At least we purchased Thai milk tea (obsessed)

We went about two rounds around the place and realised that it wasn't worth it. However, we saw plenty of polaroid booths so we stopped by one of them. I love collecting polaroid strips from events like this. As of now, I have about three - winter wonderland, SAM and Artbox. We managed to get a few shots of the atmosphere there before making our way out of the place.

Feeling touristy for the day, we went touring inside shoppes and stopped by our favourites - bath and body works & Sephora. Both of us were starving so we stopped over Yellow Submarine at Bugis to get our food fix. After an hour of hysterical laughter over the past, we slowly made our way to Ascott where the party was held.

We were supposed to be there by 630 but we arrived an hour later. Thankfully we weren't the last few people. Simching looked stunning and it's been such a long time since our last meet. I met sc back in year one when we shared a few modules together and she was one of my first friends that I know that isn't from my course. Nureen and I claimed the spot at the end of the couch and continued talking from where we left off.

All of the attendees gathered around to sing the birthday song in three different languages - English, Mandarin and Korean. She had unicorns as her birthday cake and cupcakes!!! Too adorable.

exhausted faces after the tiring day

A pretty lengthy post for once huh?

So that's the gist of my April. April has been an okay month for me, hopefully May will be a better one! Thanks for staying on till the very last paragraph. I kinda like the style of this post - summarising the important events at the very end of the month. Maybe I should continue like this for the upcoming months? Provided that I have exciting events for the month of May.

With love x

20 February 2017, 1:34PM -

Here sitting in the van while accompanying my dad at work. It’s the 20th, meaning it’s my sister’s 15th birthday. Yes, no matter how old she’ll be, she will always be that small little cutie patootie to me. Maybe thats how my parents feel when they look at me, now I understand.

Yesterday I made a really big decision with my finances (at the moment) I already had planned out how I’ll be saving up for the year of 2017. I was planning to save up a few thousands by this year for a driving license and a macbook. I decided to forgo education first because I’m still unsure of what to pursue, for now. My windows laptop from poly days is slowing down with every passing day and I’m afraid it might fail on me. It’s been my dream to own a macbook since I discovered Apple back in primary school. After much thinking, I realised it wasn’t worth it to wait for December to buy myself a macbook. I still had enough to get myself one now, and so I decided to ask for advice from the technical genius himself, my dad.

It didn’t take me much convincing because I knew he’ll give me the best advice regarding tech. I narrowed down the models that I was interested in and asked him what’s the differences between them. He also asked me if it was necessary to get one now. My mum on the other hand, told me that if I’m not rushing to get the macbook, I can wait for another few months so that by the time I have more than enough money, it’s better to get it. But one really bad trait of mine is when I have my eyes on something, I’ll never let it go until I get my hands on it (not applicable to guys) so it took me a few more tries, and my dad backing me up, my mum then agreed on it.

After that hole in my pocket yesterday, I kinda need to rethink my expenses and how I plan on saving money HAHA. I even told my parents to stop me from getting unnecessary items but we all know how big I am on self control. Scratch that, I’m good at self control, but when it comes to my family members, I can spend hundreds without thinking.

So off I went with him and my sister to the nearest Apple Store and bought myself this baby. The feeling is still surreal, knowing that I finally get to own a macbook. Today I went searching for a sleek cover and screen protector for my baby and spent my day with my dad. I always love following my dad and it warms my heart to see that he is working so hard to provide us for the whole family all these years being the sole breadwinner. I tend to forget that he’s not getting any younger and when I saw him carrying heavy objects, I just wish for him to be as strong as ever. Now that I’m working, I need to lessen his burden too..so that he can go to work peacefully knowing that I’m able to help him too.

figured I needed to release my thoughts healthily, so here you go. pretty stoked for tomorrow as I'll be meeting gzb for a day out and dinner with girlfriends afterwards. gonna prepare for my sister's birthday, till next time.

with love, haz x

letters to myself

Blog Archive