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Well…. I managed to accomplish everything on THAT list apart from MY TOPS.. which doesn’t surprise me in the least, with a wardorobe to get organised and a fabric stash that looked like a cyclone had hit it, the weekend could very well have turned very ugly indeed….but
I’m happy to report though that calm WAS eventually restored to my sewing cubby
The four year old is pleased with the progress on her pink monstrosity beautiful pink blanket
and you know there’s a certain sense of satisfaction to be had from having your blanket get so big you can fold it, only problem is due to a miscalculation I still have a bout FIFTY of THOSE heagons still to make a sew in 
I really hope the four year old appreciates how demented this whole procees is in danger of making me !!
I have a new love though, I’ve been waiting for a pattern easy enough to make on of these for a while now, and I finally found one….if blanket number one drives me to insanity for sure the beauty of blanket two will restore it….
see!!!!! aint she sweet???
and last but by no means least, there was revison to be done, and done it was..lets see if my teacher is pleased
the list was such a success and managed to keep me so focuse i just might do the same next weekend 
I’m planning for my weekend…. why ten? I have no idea… don’t ask me I’m just the fool that writes this stuff…
- Practice my tajweed for Monday’s lessononly the lesson will tell IF the revision went well!!!
- Work on the four year old’s blanket (cos she’s getting mighty peeved that it’s NOT finished yet!!) managed to sew together 20 odd motifs masha’allah
- Read some of my book (Abu Bakr as-Sideeq)managed to read a chapter and a bit with the children masha’allah
- Make a hijab for DD17Do you KNOW how stressed I get making hijabs arggghhhhhhh !!!!!!!
- Finish pinning and sewing the tops I cut for myself
- Organise the wardrobe (yawn) it ONLY took about FOUR hours!!!
- Cook some nice homely, wholesome grubI’m seriously thinking of going back to being veggie full time,
- Watch some tennis (In fact probably watch quite a bit of tennis)no more tennis now till Monday, but I fulfilled my quota
- work on my NEW crochet project….a RIPPLE blanket on my 5th row already
- Reply to the patient friends who have emailed me and STILL haven’t had a reply….. DONE!!!!
Am I confident that I can achieve all this and still keep my sanity intact?…most of them in fact are things that make me happy….apart from the hijab making and the wardrobe that is… but a girl can’t have it ALL her own way can she?? My aim is approach the weekend with a calm and contented air..and to savour every single moment insha’allah…..
You know sometimes life is so satisfying that you feel you have to pinch yourself to make sure it’s all real… I had the most wonderful morning, with sisters..discussing deen over tea… there was a real buzz in the air…and so much love for the sake of allah… it was hard to come away, but I came away with such a feeling of contentment and happiness…
I have gained so much from this deen, and one of the most special things I have attained are my sisters in islam… the sisters who are there when you need someone to talk to..who understand when something crops up suddenly and you have to drop out of meetings last minute, the sisters who love you for the sake of allah, who love you for who you are, who feel sad with you when things aren’t going quite the way you expected & who share the ups and downs of life with you. My children have become so close to their *aunties* that they have become surrogate family for them, replacing the blood family they lack… there are many gifts that Allah has blessed me with, the sisterhood I have found in Islam is one that I will treasure always…
And then on a crafty note just before I become so lurved up I won’t be able type…my lovely new crochet hooks…I have no halaqah tomorrow, and the tutor isn’t coming either so I’m planning to start my weekend early… I’ve got plans…lets see if they come to fruition shall we???
Dh gave me a new toy…so I HAD to take a pic and test it out…. the toy WAS the pic taking equipment, I now have teens on the lookout for picture taking opertunities for their blogs…mmmmm now how to let them down gently
erm..sorry the picture isn’t more exciting, I’ll TRY and do better tomorrow insha’allah.. we have a ladies cake scoffing get together tomorrow so you never know….
On the crafting front, i aqquired three new WOODEN hooks today which I’m very chuffed about… there’s not alot of choice to be had where I am on the crochet hook front so these were a major find masha’allah…
with the urge to bake this morning and so I did… I whipped up a batch of fairy cakes for the small girls to chomp on, lemon and lime fairy cakes with lime icing….they loved them, as did the boys when they came home, it was just a regular batch of fairy cake batter with lemon and lime rind mixed in at then end, and the icing sugar to top when they were cooled was mixed with lemon juice instead of water and I grated a little lime rind into it which made them look really pretty. And I made a batch of flapjack which always goes down well with my lot, I made it this time with muesli instead of plain oats which worked a treat masha’allah
Flapjack
- 225g oats (or museli)
- 125g butter
- 125g sugar
- 5 tbsp honey or golden syrup
- pinch of ground ginger
melt together the butter, sugar and honey and pour into the oats or museli, add a pinch of ground ginger and combine all the ingredients well. Then lightly grease a round baking tin (I used a round sandwich tin) and bake in a moderate oven (for me GM5) until the flapjack is lovely and golden on top (takes about 20-25 minutes in my oven)
Other things that have been going on here today… I managed to cut out a couple of tops for myself, which will need to get sewn tomorrow morning along with the hijab that I desperately need to make for DD17 but am avoiding like the plague..hiab making and me do NOT get along for some reason…I will just about have time to do it before my tajweed lesson IF i look lively and don’t waste my time…
DD16 has conquered ZIPS before I have which I’m not at all BITTER about….how can I be when she made a beautiful little ZIPPED purse and then gave it to me…
And so I hereby pledge that I will try my very best to overcome my irrational fear of all things zipped and will endeavour to make something with one of them there beasties during the course of the week.
I’m off now to help tidy up before dinner,not because I want to you understand but because I’m in grave danger of losing some of my offspring in the debris that is our lives if i don’t make at least some headway with the mess that seems to be seeping from every crevice of my home today…. one of the downsides to homeschooling a tribe like mine is the constant mess we seem to be in…but we’re happy..that counts for summat doesn’t it??
Dinner is dal and rice with salad and yogurt…. did I tell you I’ve been on a mega health kick this week.. not only did I lose half a stone but also my mad craving for caffiene …. and I think I’ve cured my addiction to cake… cake made me ill on Friday.. after being good all week I endulged in senseless gluttony during our regular Friday get together and my body spent most of saturday recovering from the violent abuse I had put it through the day before….cake is my enemy ….I know that now…..and it’s a shame because the cake tasted gooooood while I was eating it….
you’re clutter phobic like me then this will appeal..I watched with my kids and even the smallies stayed with it till the end….
the story of stuff
I got a frenchy bag!! DD16 caught a fit of boredom this afternoon and set to, making another bag..and I was the happy recipient…. and at last i’ve found a home for a crocheted doily….
tres chic non??
it’s got my current crochet project in progress lurking inside it….
off now to make flapjack….
we seem to have evolved into a family of crafters..
DD16 found an overpriced frencybag in the thrift store while we were out searching for material and had the canny idea of coming home to make one for herself…here’s the result with a flower crocheted by DD17 to finish it off…
lI believe there are more bags in the planning after this initial success
Oh and I didn’t forget about myself, I bought myself some material for clothes making… something which is making me happy right now masha’allah
and I broke a trend, i bought something pretty (but probably non-functional) just because i like looking at them so much in the thrift store i couldn’t leave without them… I don’t normally do knick- knacks, they usually leave me cold and panic ridden, but these I love…
see, pretty innit
reminds me of Algeria
blog at the start of a new day, but after a breakfast of organic museli and citrus herbal tea, I’m feeling like a good girl and I’m ready to GO!
The dh called to say the smallie girls are going with the boys to karate which means it will just be big girls home, so yay! I get the oppertunity to potter in peace cos I alwaysREALLY look forward to cleaning up everyone else’s messI might even finally get that top cut and sewn that I’ve been promising myself for weeks now…
Insha’allah I’ll make some more headway with THAT blanket today aswell, I’m itching to start something new and have been looking at patterns to tempt myself with ….
I’m still busy working on the four year old’s blanket, and only Allah knows how impatient I am when it comes to long projects that seem to have no clear end in sight…so to alleviate at least some of the boredom and to get the instant results I so badly crave, i made some sweet little purses this morning..the pink one was claimed instantly by the four year old, the cream one went to the eight year old, and in the midst of crocheting I was approached by a hopeful teen bearing green wool, red button and a want for a purse… so being the dutiful mother I amI made her one too… I’m fairly happy with them, but changed the pattern slightly from the one given which only has one dc in the corners and a seperate button loop.
I used a 4mm hook for no special reason other than it was the one closest to hand, and here’s the pattern if you want to have a go..
PURSE
With C, ch 18. Treble in 4th ch from hook, and in each ch across – 15 Tr
Row 1: Ch 3, turn. Tr in each st across.
Rows 2-20: Rep last row.
Do not fasten off.
Edging
Work 1 round double crochet evenly spaced around entire outside edge of piece. Fasten off. (I actually used three dc in each corner to make it look neater)
Fold Row 20 up to base of Row 4. Pin along both sides to hold in place.
Rows 1-4 will be flap of Purse.
Join C with sl st at folded end and ch 1. Dc evenly along side of Purse, working through both layers of edging then continuing along side of flap until you reach the middle of the top of the flap, i then chained 10 (this becomes the button loop) and then carried on with a dc in the next stitch and all the way down the other side of the purse.
I think the whole thing took about1/2 from start to finish masha’allah
And the rest of the afternoon was spent weaving ends into the blanket thats haunting me… it is looking nice, but it’s taking a long time and the four year old is bugging me to finish it quickly…
it has to be at least 60 motifs big and as you can see i still have a fair way to go… I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…
