Book Review - The Prophets of Allah (Muhammad) pbuh

My Review:

This book is a great book which is published for children in the age range of 8-12 years old. My 10 year old read this book and found it very interesting. I also read this book to my 5 year old who really enjoyed listening and looking at the illustrations in the book. The illustrations in this book don't show any living creature but you can still capture the story through the illustrations.

The story starts with the birth of Muhammad (pbuh) and ends on his death, covering the main parts of his life story.  There is a question page at the end of the book for the children to answer. These questions were too difficult for my 5 year old but challenging enough for my 10 year old to answer.

This is a great concise book about Muhammad (pbuh) that is great for children.

My 10 year old daughter review:

This book is about the life story and message of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). I found this book interesting because it has all the key facts, in addition is a great story to read.  It gives all the information you need and also explains everything in detail.

Muhammad – The Prophets of Allah

Age 8-12

Simplified by Omar Aly Al-Komy

Printed by Safeer

ISBN: 977-361-099-3

DIY - Painted Jars Tutorial

DIY - Painted Jars - These are one of the easiest and cheapest things to make.

Instructions:

1) Find an empty Jar and remove any labels and clean it out thoroughly.
2) Find some suitable paint - (I actually used children's paint for this project!)
3) Place Jar onto some newspapers/paper so that paint doesn't make a mess.
4) Paint all around the outside of the jar. (You could also paint inside of the jar to deepen the colour!)
5) Leave to dry and if needed add extra coats. I had to do about 3 coats for this project as the paint wasn't very thick.
6) Optional - Decorate with ribbons/beads/permanent marker designs etc.

This is so easy, you don't really need a tutorial for this, but at least with a tutorial you can see for yourself how easy it really is!

I have this jar placed in my bathroom.

My guest posting at Mariam Poppins - Algerian Cuisine

This week I was guest posting over at the lovely blog 'Mariam Poppins'. I was talking about Algerian Cuisine.

Below is part of what I was writing about - I shared a family recipe and talked about Algerian Cuisine, if you want to read the full story then please follow the link to her blog.

In the Kitchen with Mariam Poppins. Umm Suhailah is having a break today - so I am doing today's posts. Today's Topic will be Algerian Cuisine -

Today I am sharing with you a family recipe for some Shaped Vanilla Algerian Cookies. This recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law, it is my favourite! These are very popular Cookies in Algeria and each family will differ a little in how they are made.

 

Ingredients:

• 7 eggs
• 250g Sugar
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
• Vanilla flavouring
• lemon flavouring
• 1kg Self Raising Flour

To be continued over at Mariam Poppins..........
http://www.mariampoppins.com/2013/02/guest-post-in-kitchen-with-karima-of.html#more

Book Review - The Gruffalo

This book is one of my children's favourite books. They have all read this book when they were very young and they all loved it!  Today I have posted a video to this post which has my 5 year old daughter reading some of this book.

My Review:

I would recommend this book as all of my children have loved reading this book. It is read in a poem format so makes the children remember the words more easily. The illustrations are brilliant and truly engage the child into the book. The author has written follow on books which are also just as good.

Review by my 5 year old:

She loves this book and for today's post I have included a link to a video of her actually reading the book.

THE GRUFFALO

Macmillan

Julia Donaldson

Alex Scheffler

ISBN: 0333710932

Storage Box Reupholstered Tutorial - For Prayer Mats

I recently just redesigned my Living Room to a gold/black design and had some spare fabric left to cover this storage box. This is kept next to the Living Room and keeps all our prayer mats and prayer hijabs in one clean place!

The prayer mats are kept in the main storage part and I have added a pocket to the lid so to keep the hijabs stored away neatly too!

This was a really easy project to do and to do this all I needed was the fabric and a staple gun.

Items Needed

• Fabric
• Staple Gun
• Screwdriver

Instructions:

1) Remove the fabric already on (if possible)
2) Remove the old staples (if possible) this makes it easier to re-staple
3) I unscrewed the hinges from the box and lid - then replace these once you have placed the new fabric on the box and lid.
4) Stretching the fabric around the box - slowly staple the fabric to the box - making sure it looks neat where people can see.
5) Cover the lid of the box stretching so the top looks nice and neat.
6) Cut out a piece of fabric - the size of the lid.
7) Place the extra fabric on the inside of the lid and then with folded edges staple the pocket to the lid - leaving the top edge open so that you can use it as a pocket. (if you can sew - you could sew the hems of the fabric pocket before attaching to make it look neater).
8) Once all fabric attached attach the hinges back to the box and lid.

Using the same fabric I reupholstered my Sofa too - here is a reminder if you missed that one: reupholstering-sofa-my-mini-tutorial

 

Baguette Recipe

 

Here is my recipe for making these lovely baguettes. I used to buy a baguette daily as this is the bread my husband loves. When I decided to make some bread the first idea had to be a baguette, I will insha'Allah try some other varieties soon.

When I first attempted making these baguettes I followed an online recipe but found I had to make slight changes to it for it to work for me. Here is the link to the original recipe I followed: easy-homemade-french-bread

INGREDIENTS:

 

• 2 1/2 Cups of Strong White Bread Flour
• 1 tablespoon of Allinson Easy Bake Yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 Cup of Warm Water
• Olive Oil (used to grease the bowl!)
 

 INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Place the flour into a mixing bowl
2) Add the Salt and mix
3) Add the Yeast and mix
4) Add the glass of warm water and mix
5) Using your hands, you have to knead the dough for about 5 minutes
6) Grease another bowl with olive oil and place the ball of kneaded dough into the bowl, cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place somewhere warm for the dough to rise for 1 hour (or until it doubles in size).
7) Then I remove the dough and break it into 2 pieces. I then form the dough into a shape of a baguette.
8) Once you have 2 baguettes place them onto a baking tray. (I used greaseproof baking paper on the tray) With a sharp knife make some slits across the top of the dough so once cooked they will look like the photo.
9) Place into an oven (not pre-heated) then turn the oven onto 375 F or 190 C for about 30 min or until golden brown.
10) Once cooked remove and place on a tray. Can be eaten warm or left to cool down.

It took me a while to get this recipe to work. I followed the first online recipe but as I was using slightly different ingredients so it didn't work for me.  I have tried this recipe quite a few times and has worked great for me.  Don't give up if it didn't work - I tried the First recipes 3 times before I got it to work - so glad I didn't stay defeated!  Hope you find this recipe useful.

Please note all ovens are different, and food may cook differently - I personally used this method with an Electric Oven. 

Book Review - The Path That Allah Made

 

All my children have read this book and they have all enjoyed it. I am again going to give 2 reviews, one from myself and one from my eldest daughter, so you can see the point of view from a child.

 

My Review:

 

This book is actually an illustrated poem. To be honest even though it is a poem it isn't one that is easy for a child to read as a poem, even for me I wasn't sure which part was rhyming! It took me a few goes to understand which way to make it rhyme as a poem, at first I read it as a book. Once my 5 year old had heard it a few times she attempted to read it herself. The illustrations are very bright and really caught the attention of my daughter.  I have to give a bit of a mixed review for this - Yes it was hard to read and grasp at first, but once you do the story is giving important information to young children about all the things that Allah made, so is quite useful.

 

Review by My 10 year old daughter:

 

I liked this book because it is a wonderful story to read in addition has many beautiful illustrations. I learnt from this book how everything around us for example birds, trees, people are all creations from Allah and remind us of Allah.

 

 

The Path that Allah Made – Islam & Me

Goodword Books

By Adeeba Jafri

Illustrated by Soumen Bhowmick

ISBN: 81-7898-280-3