Book Review - The Magic Words

This Islamic book is one of my daughter's favourite books! She loves reading this one on a night time before she goes to bed as it is about a little girl trying to get to sleep! This book teaches young children a dua or short prayer that can be said before they sleep.

My Review

This book is a lovely book for young children. It is about a young girl named Laila who is finding it very difficult to get to sleep. It goes through all the different things that she tries to do to help her to sleep. She eventually decides she needs to find her Mama who then helps her to get to sleep using 'the magic words'. The Author has done a great job of telling a lovely story with the added bonus of including a short dua that becomes part of the story. This book can be read to very small children as there are plenty of illustrations to help you follow the story and of course the older the child is they can read the story themselves. My daughter has read this story many many times and she still loves it!

Review by my 6 year old

This book is about a girl called Laila and her mum and her pets and sleeping.  I like this book because it is funny and you learn.

The Magic Words

Author: Lisha Azad

Illustration: Azra Momin

ISBN: 978-0-9562141-8-8

I took a video of my young daughter reading this book, you can watch the video below via YouTube:

Crocheted Jar Cozy and Matching Coaster

Last week I posted about the Jar Cozy that my 11 year old daughter made, this week she made another one but this time with a matching Coaster! These are very easy to make, just one rectangle piece of crochet for the Jar Cozy and one square piece of crochet for the coaster.

She even tried experimenting and used a different technique to make this one! She crocheted using 2 balls of wool at the same time - even I don't know how to do that! The photograph below shows her at her craft.

Here is a photograph of the Jar Cozy before she stitched it up to go around the jar!

If you missed last weeks photo of her jar cozy here it is below: crocheted-jar-cozy.html

Crocheted Jar Cozy

Today's post is showing a craft that my 11 year old daughter made this week! I was inspired to make a cozy by my blogger friend Ameenah from: http://www.mariampoppins.com/ after we both saw a lovely one made by my other blogger friend Ameera from http://traditionalmuslimah.blogspot.co.uk/. I was too busy to make one but my 11 year old also loved the idea after seeing her photograph and decided to make one herself. Here is the photograph of the one that inspired us, isn't it so cute!:

I don't think she has put this on her blog just yet! But you can see it on her facebook page if you have a Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/TraditionalMuslimah Once she has it on her blog I will give the blog link insha'Allah.

I think my friend actually made hers by knitting but my daughter made hers by crocheting, these are easy to make either way!  All you need to do is make a rectangle shape which is wide/long enough to wrap around your glass jar. Add your preferred decoration and attach the 2 ends and place over your jar - simple! Below is a photograph of the cozy on the jar and off the jar:

My reason for lack of posts lately

For those who follow my blog regularly you may have noticed the lack of posts for the last few weeks.  The reason for this was that my Mum was very poorly and unfortunately I have to share the news that she passed away on the 5th December 2013.  It has been a very difficult time for the whole family and blogging was the last thing on my mind at this time. For those who follow me on Facebook I have already shared this news but I know some of my followers are not on Facebook, so thought it best to write a post directly to my blog. I will try to share a quick crafty post tomorrow of a craft that my 11 year old made this week and then hopefully start blogging about my own crafts soon, insha'Allah. Thank you for being patient with me during this difficult time.

Organising Challenge - Days 17-19

Last week I only managed to fit in 3 challenges as I have had a very busy schedule including a lot of emergencies this past week! I haven't done any challenges this week too - so not sure if I will have a post for this challenge next week, but we will see! Below are the three that I managed to complete.

Day 17 - Downstairs Bathroom Cupboard Organised. I found so many empty tubes/bottles etc in the cupboard that needed to be thrown out - that it was then so easy to wash and rearrange the cupboard! Everything is now accessible for once!

 

Day 18 - Organised my Hijab Pins/Brooches etc. I already had a designated place but it was quite messy and not organised, so I started from scratch and made some lovely card hangers and arranged the pins in a better order!

Day 19 - Sorted out all the shoes! I had already sorted out some of the old shoes and thrown away or gave to charity. I have all the summer shoes put in the coat cupboard as they are not being used now and all the winter shoes stored in the shoe storage for easy access!

Crocheted Doll Clothes

My 11 year old daughter has been very busy the last few days designing crocheted doll clothes for her 6 year old sister's dolls! She has made different designs for different dolls and I thought I would share them with you.  She didn't follow any pattern she just crocheted free hand.

Below are some of the photographs a bit larger so you can see them a bit more clearly. The one directly below are some shoes to fit a standard baby doll.

The crocheted dress below was made for a small miniature doll. I love the bottom of the dress design.

The crocheted top and shorts were made for a standard Barbie size doll.

It has been a long while since she did any crochet work, I think personally it is the cold weather that has started her off. More time in the house during the dark cold nights means more time snuggling up and doing crochet work!

Organising Challenge - Days 13-16

Yeah I managed another 4 Organising Projects last week. This time the projects were slightly different, not just the standard sorting jobs I have previously blogged about!

So here goes the first one from last week:

Day 13 - Home Organising - Made my very own Windowsill Herb Garden! I really needed to make use of the windowsill and have a dedicated space for some herbs instead of the odd plant here and there! I used some old margarine tubs for the planters and made holes in the bottom. I then used a tiered metal bathroom shelf to keep the plants in.

Day 14 - Home Organising Wall Organiser! I used a plain Magnetic Wipeboard and used coloured tape to grid the board and printed of my own labels for the board! I am really pleased with the outcome!

Day 15 - Blog List Organised! I follow many great blogs, but didn't have a handy list of them all! I have now updated my blog and listed all that I can remember and have them on my sidebar so I can find them easier! If you look at the side of my blog to your right you will see the new updated list of Blogs I Follow.
 

Day 16 - I organised the children's Homeschool Files. They have a few months of work now and I needed to get their things more organised. I now have 2 sliding boxes under the sofa which keeps their day to day work in (one each for each girl). And a box each with all their subject work in (alphabetical) kept in cardboard files. Lets hope this system will work better Insha'Allah.

I am not to sure if I can keep up with doing 4 challenges a week - I still have not decided which ones to do this week!

Organising Challenge Days 9-12

I managed another 4 Organising Challenges last week! I am really pleased to have managed to get to number 12. I hope you are getting inspired by my challenge!

Day 9: Bathroom Cupboard Organised - I purchased 2 more grey plastic boxes for this task. Everything is in order now and looks much neater! I even treated myself to a new bath mat! PS: Sorry for photo quality - the lighting is so bad in that room for photos!

Day 10: Kitchen Cupboards more organised. This is just one of them, I did do another one too but I have no pics.

Day 11: Organising inside my Fitted Wardrobes. I know it may still look a mess - but honestly this is much neater! I had a lot of boxes and bags all piled on top of each other. I have now added some plastic storage drawers that fit nicely inside the wardrobe to keep things more organised and easy to get too now!

Day 12: Coat Cupboard. I have an under the stairs cupboard which was meant for coats and shoes, but got used for everything! I have now organised it for the coats and shoes and can now actually walk into the cupboard! Yeah!

 

I still don't know which challenges I have lined up for next week, we will just have to wait and see Insha'Allah.

Here is the link to my previous Organising Post: organising-challenge-days-5-8.html

And here is the link to the first post: 31-day-home-organising-challenge.html

Organising Challenge Days 5-8

I am trying to do a weekly post updating exactly what challenges I managed to complete during the previous week Insha'Allah.  I will try to provide before and after photographs where I can, if not I will definitely try to make sure I have some after photos - not sure I want to publish all the before ones.

If you are inspired and wish to participate in this challenge then you can follow me on my Facebook Page which I will update every time I have completed a challenge. I would love it if some more people were getting involved with organising their lives or homes. Karimas-Crafts

Here is the link to the previous post showing you Days 1-4: 31-day-home-organising-challenge.html

Day 5: Under The Kitchen Sink Cupboard - I had a clear out and then organised everything else that needed to be there.

Day 6: Bathroom Corner Organised - I bought a laundry basket with a lid (charity shop bargain!) so this spurred me on to do the bathroom!

Day 7: Organising my Freezer (Just after pics) I bought a few plastic baskets to organise the small frozen items, this makes it much easier to just pull out the basket rather than trying to reach something at the back!

Day 8: Organising Airing Cupboard - I know it still looks a bit of a mess - but it is much more organised and at least now when I open the door things don't fall on top of me! I already had 3 boxes, and was given another 2 from my mum and I had to buy 2 large boxes.

I will try to update you next week on this week's challenges Insha'Allah.

Safety Pin Brooches Tutorial

Today's post is showing you how easy it is to make your own safety pin brooches. My dear friend from www.Mariampoppins.com recently made some of these which then inspired me to have a go too!  Below is a photograph of the ones that she made - she also sells them online too!

Requirements:

• Safety Pins
• Beads
• Pliers (I used normal ones, but craft ones would be better!)
• Something to wrap the pin around, screwdriver or metal tubing)

Step 1: Unravel the safety pin using pliers or something else suitable - so that the beads can slot on easily.
Step 2: Place beads on to the pin.
Step 3: Then wrap the metal around something using pliers to try to reform back into the original shape as best you can!

That is it - so simple - the ones in my photograph were all made by myself with the help of my 6 year old daughter as the main designer!

  

31 Day Home Organising Challenge

I decided to give myself an Organising Challenge. A few of my blogger friends had mentioned it, so thought I would also participate in doing one. I started this last week, and have managed to complete 4 days of challenges. It isn't a challenge that I have to participate in every day as quite frankly I would find that too challenging with everything else I have to do during the day!

My friends are all being very supportive and we are sharing ideas with each other about possible projects. Some of my friends and followers have just finished taking part in a 31 Day Fajr Challenge - Details could be found on my Facebook Page, some are still doing this one.

I will try to do a weekly post updating exactly what challenges I managed to complete during the week Insha'Allah.  I will try to provide before and after photographs where I can, if not I will definitely try to make sure I have some after photos - not sure I want to publish all the before ones.

If you are inspired and wish to participate in this challenge then you can follow me on my Facebook Page which I will update every time I have completed a challenge. I would love it if some more people were getting involved with organising their lives or homes.

Day 1:  Girls' Bedroom - I dismantled their beds and put up some bunk beds in their place. I managed this myself with a little bit of help with my son to fix both beds together! This has made their room look much larger now!

Day 2: Girl's Bedroom - Tidying up the Wardrobe Area. I placed a curtain to cover the part where the broken door was missing to make it look neater.  No more junk on top of the wardrobe.

Day 3: Hair Accessories/Equipment Box - This is kept underneath the sofa for the girls to get to easily. All the items were messed up in one box, now I have organised the headbands into a zipped container, the hairbands into a plastic box, the misc. into a plastic box and hairclips into a zipped plastic bag.

 Day 4: Kitchen Shelves - I tidied up the shelves as they were beginning to be a bit of a dumping ground, which wasn't the original idea! Now they look neat and tidy and being used for the correct purpose now.

In case you are wondering who the other bloggers are that are participating, they are:
http://www.mariampoppins.com/
http://traditionalmuslimah.blogspot.co.uk/