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!