Merry Christmas

What does Christmas mean to me?

A time to have faith

A time to believe

A time of laughter,

A time of giving and of completely living

rejoicing in all there is.

How I love the colours,

decorating the Christmas tree.

And the prettily wrapped gifts,

placed safely underneath.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa's Magical Sleigh

There is nothing like a bit of play acting to feed a child's  imagination  . And this is the perfect time of the year, with children taking part in nativity plays.  perfect opportunity to teach children about the importance of caring and sharing. When I got an email informing me of this competition being run bymattressonline  of course I wanted my children to take part. The only problem was today was the last day. We had to get our thinking caps on and fast!
The children came up with the idea of a time travelling, magical sleigh. It allowed Santa Claus to go back in time to different eras, such as the Victorian time. Santa Claus helps make the life of unfortunate children such as Victorian chimney sweeps. He allows them to sleep on his sleigh and have magical dreams. This super sleigh travels all over the world spreading magic where it goes.
By the time the sleigh was completed Santa and his reindeer were too tired and decided to have a snooze. Santa needs his sleep too!

This is my entry to Super Santa Sleigh competition being run by mattress online.
mattressonline.co.uk

Light Bulbles

Upcycling old light bulbs into baubles

It's the most wonderful time of the year is it not? It is lovely to see all the bright, colourful lights during these dark nights. It certainly helps lift my spirits. But then I am a colourful person. I like to be surrounded by beautiful colours.
There are so many opportunities to work with colour during the Christmas season. And so many creative things to do.
I love all things creative as you have probably already guessed by now. So when The lovely people at lightbulbsdirect asked bloggers to make baubles out of old light bulbs I just had to take part. I have never done anything like this before. I am a complete novice, but then I do like trying new things.
To begin with I gathered all the basic materials needed. I say basic because I tend to get more ideas as I work.

With my two little helpers, my kids I began work. We painted two of the light bulbs with white acrylic paint.

We painted  Christmas trees on one of these light bulbs. The other I used for the body of a Christmas fairy.  I drew a triangular shape on the bulb and spread on glue. And then let the kids loose with the glitter whilst I made the face and the wings. I had some silky cream coloured material from some old clothes. I used this for the face. I cut out to round shapes and stitched these together.
I used yellow yarn for the hair.

I cut out pieces of yarn and stitched these on the face. I put the fittings of the light bulb on the face and secured this with a loom band and some red yarn.
I cut the wings from white felt, spread craft glue on them and sprinkled them with silver glitter.

My little helpers spread craft glue on the other two light bulbs and covered them in glitter.

And here are my finished bulbles.

This is my entry to the light bulbs direct competition. More information can be found here:


http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/info/competition-xmas-bulble/

http://m.lightbulbs-direct.com/

Lofty Elephant bed

When I was a little girl I remember imagining what it would be like to sleep on a round bed that could spin. It makes me laugh when I think about it now. It shows what a vivid imagination I had as a child. I suppose all children have this quality. I know that my daughter definitely does. She has the strangest ideas sometimes!
When I saw that Silentnight were running a Design a Bed competition for bloggers I decided to put her imagination to the test. She is naturally very creative and a animal lover so I was not surprised with the ideas she came up with.
So here it goes then. This is my darling daughter's dream bed. The only problem is her room is tiny it would never fit it in there, if anyone had the will to create it!

This is how she describes her bed:
"This lofty elephant bed is fit for a king. You can store your bits and bobs in the trunk and pretty much anything else in the storage  boxes. There is a curtain at the bottom where you can create a den. The tail is a rope ladder to help you get to the top."

This Blog post is my entry to the Silentnight Design A Bed competition.
http://www.silentnight.co.uk/design-a-bed#.VIqVMMlFDqA

Autumn leaves

My best bits of Autumn
I love all the seasons of the year.  The long, cold nights of the winter or the first signs of Spring when the flowers start to bud. And then there is the long, hot Summer days. Each season has its own unique charm. It has to be said though that Autumn has its own magic and mystery. The nights start to get darker and colder. My children start going to bed earlier, which is an added bonus. There's nothing I like better than snuggling up in bed with a scary book and listening to the whistling of the wind outside. It makes me feel all warm and safe like a child. And then there's sitting in front of a warm fire with a mug of hot chocolate. I love feeling the chill on my face on a sunny morning when I walk my children to school.  The best thing I like about Autumn is the leaves. I love the vibrant colours of red, orange and yellow. I love the sound of them crunching beneath my feet and the sight of them blowing in the wind.
I wrote this Haiku taking inspiration from the beauty of Autumn.

Autumn leaves
Pretty Autumn leaves
red, orange and yellow from green
glisten in the sun.

This is my entry for the Sykes Cottages Autumn's best bits competition. You can enter too. Find out more at www.sykescottages.co.uk/blog/competitions/competition-dicovering-autumn-best-bits-13260#shash.CoxQy0kl.dpbs

Back to School!

The kids have finally gone back to School! I will stop not from getting too excited because my day so far has been rather boring. I am actually missing the constant noise and the movement here, there and everywhere. Life is never still when you are a parent. But it seems the holidays are over before they have even started.
There they were this morning in their brand new uniforms; fresh faced and eyes sparkling with excitement for the new term ahead.

Eid Mubarak

Today is the second day of Eid so I am a little late in wishing everyone but as they say better late than never.  The day of Eid is always a little hectic for me even though I spend in at my parents, which means no cooking! Even so I am running around trying trying to get everyone ready and trying to tidy up as I go before the place is a complete chaos.  
I remember those Eids of my childhood; the sweet memories linger on even to this day.
I would wake up to the smell of my mum's cooking and I would know that today is Eid. It was a tradition that remains to this day, to be up at dawn getting the Eid feast ready. We are all grown up and can cook ourselves but nothing beats the taste of mum's food, made with her loving hands. She would dress us up in pretty little frocks with matching necklaces and I would feel like a princess. Those were the days, made all the mire special by my mum.

Iftaar recipes

I have not posted anything on this blog for a few weeks and for that I really do apologise. I have been so busy with the getting ready for Ramadan and then the actual fast which is twenty hours each day. It really does drain it out of you. As I write this we are almost in the third week now so I thought I need to hurry up and post some recipes of Iftaar. In our house we mainly have snacks for Iftaar rather than a big main meal. And one of these is a snack that has become traditional for Ramadan. Every household has their own way of making these deep fried fritters. I hope you  enjoy it.
Ramadan Kareem everyone.


Pakoras

Ingredients

1 red onion, finely chopped
2 potatoes, thinly chopped
1 spring onion
Any vegetable you prefer ie cauliflower, aubergine etc
Besan (chickpea flour) as per requirement. You will need enough to cover all the vegetables
1 tsp Chilli powder ( add more for extra spiciness)
1tsp jeera (cumin seed) powder
1 tsp Dhania (coriander) powder
I tsp Haldi (turmeric) powder
1 tbsp amchoor (dried mango) powder. As an alternative try dried pomegranate seeds.
Salt, to taste
Method
In a bowl mix besan with a little water making a consistency of a paste.
Add all the vegetables and spices, mixing well
Fry a few at a time in heated oil for a few minutes, turning halfway through.
Remove with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper
Serve with mint and coriander yoghurt chutney. Enjoy
I will be posting more recipes soon.

Picture courtesy of my big sister who is also a great cook as well as being good at taking photos unlike me.

Jewellery handmade by me

I absolutely love making jewellery,especially with real gemstones. They come in so many beautiful colours and there is something about them that cannot be recreated by man. A sort of energy; a vibrancy. When I hold them against my skin I love the coolness which adapts to the temperature of my skin. I like taking out my stash of gemstones when I'm feeling a little low, their beauty never fails to uplift me.

Pink agate and smokey quartz earrings

These earrings were the first piece of jewellery I ever made. They are not perfect but they are special to me.

Rose Quartz and pink Magnesite bracelet

Yellow Magnesite bracelet

I love making stretchy bracelets. They are so easy to make.

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with gold and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread my dreams under your feet;
But I being poor, have only my dreams
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
William Butler Yeats

I absolutely love this poem. It has such a magical quality to it and inspires me. It is as if Yeats is weaving a carpet with his dreams his for his beloved to walk on

.

Rainbow Rad

I was putting off restarting this blog again mainly because I was not confident I would keep ahead of things. When I saw that TOTS 100 were running a competition to create a healthy super hero with the kids I could not resist. I simply love all things creative. As I am such a creative person I had many materials lying around the house. But first I discussed with my kids what health means to them. Here are some of the suggestions we came up with.

To be healthy is to eat properly and get enough sleep and exercise.

To be able to breathe properly(this because my youngest suffers from asthma).
To have heaps of energy.
To be happy and content with life and look forward to the day ahead.
To play outside and get enough sunlight.

To sum things up health is not just physical, it is experienced on an emotional, mental level as well.
We decide our healthy super hero would be the colours of the rainbow. His powers include:

Helping us grow our own fruit and vegetable. He helps us plant lemon trees and apple trees in the garden.
Taking children away from their gadgets and making playing outside fun, such as climbing trees and playing sports.
He helps us enjoy our greens.
He can cool fevers by blowing on the ill person.
His breath can release aromatherapy oils for a calm, serene environment.
His breath can also help asthmatics breathe by fighting pollution and making the air sweet and clean.
He can make sweets out of fruit.
Helps us stay clean and look after our environment by recycling bottles and paper.
His eyes are made of aventurine which give you good luck and prosperity when he stares at you.
His rainbow colours are magical with all colours having different functions.
Red is for all things to do with blood. It is healing and gives you rosy cheeks
Orange is for making you happy
Yellow is for making skin glow
Green is for helping the environment stay clean
Blue is for bringing calm
Indigo is for helping you concentrate
Violet is for helping you sleep and have nice dreams.

We decided to call our superhero rainbow rad.

He was created by cutting strips of different colour fabric. we hand stitched these together. I love making jewellery from gemstones and I had some green Aventurine so we decided to use it for the eyes.




This image is my entry for the TOTS 100/ Plum baby mighty moments challenge to create a healthy superhero.