Our Mum's Journal

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

We hope you are all well and are enjoying your Ramadan, insha'Allah. In today's post we will be showing you some photos from our mum's handmade journal. She made it and started using it some time before Ramadan, and has done quite a bit of journaling in it so far, masha'Allah!

Here is the front cover.

The spine of the journal. As you can see from the binding, there are three journal inserts inside.

Here is the first page.

Here is another colourful page. Our mum added a lot of artwork to make her journal very interesting and fun, masha'Allah.

We really like the black and white pages too, masha'Allah!

There is a section which is incomplete at the moment, but will insha'Allah have all the ninety-nine names of Allah.

A couple more pages.

Here is the back of the journal.

Well, that's all we have to show you. We hope you liked it and have perhaps drawn some inspiration from our mum's journaling too, insha'Allah!

We will be showing you some of our journaling this Ramadan soon, insha'Allah. Are you thinking of making a journal or looking for ways to improve an old one? Click here to see our post on five creative ideas to spice up your journal!

Take care and Wassalam,

DIY Ramadan Journal

Assalamu Alaikum!

We hope you are all having a peaceful and productive Ramadan, insha'Allah! In today's post, we will be showing you how Sumayyah made a Ramadan Journal with our mum's help.

For this craft you will need:-

Card

Patterned Paper

A4 Paper

Glue

Needle and Thread

Pencil

Ruler

Scissors

Binder Clips or Paper Clips

Awl

Step 1. To make your journal cover, fold a large piece of card in half.

Step 2. Then take some patterned paper and cover the front of the journal with it.

Step 3. Next you will need to fold some A4 sheets of paper in half. These will be the pages inside your journal - make sure that your journal cover is big enough to fit them!

Step 4. Place the pages inside your journal cover and secure in place with binder clips.

Step 5. Make eleven evenly-spaced marks down the middle of the book. Sumayyah's were around 2cm apart and she left 1cm off the top and bottom. Hopefully the photo explains better.

Step 6. Now take your awl (or some other sharp object) and poke holes through the pages. Make sure they come out neatly (on the other side) along the spine of the journal.

Step 7. Once you've made your holes, it's time to bind the journal. Thread your needle and begin sewing.

Step 8. Bind your journal however you like. If you don't know how to and find it hard, follow this simple tutorial and ignore Step 5 about making 11 holes.

Step 9. If you use 11 holes then the end result should look like the photo below, insha'Allah. If you only use 3 then it will look like it did in the YouTube video.

Step 10. Then all that is left is for you to decorate the cover of your journal and you are done!

If you liked this DIY then you might also like this other journal making post we did a while ago. Take care and we will see you soon, insha'Allah!

Love and Wassalam,



Another Update on Cata

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

We hope you have had a good start to your Ramadan, insha'Allah! It's been a while since we've done an update on our cat, so that's what we are doing in today's post. In case you are new here, you might want to read this post as an introduction to Cata.

We have had Cata for six years and she is around 7 1/2 to 8 years old now, masha'Allah. When we first adopted her she was very feisty and bad tempered. However, alhamdulillah, she has been steadily improving as the years have gone by and has almost done a complete 180. This past year, she has definitely become more grateful, loving and gentle. Bellow is a list of the things she has improved on, masha'Allah:

1. No longer scratches unnecessarily.

2. Lets us roll her onto her back.

3. Lets us stroke her belly.

4. Has gotten used to and accepted the blow-dryer (after showering).

5. Has accepted Huraira. 

All of these things are important milestones to us and we are very proud of her, masha'Allah.

If you are wondering who Huraira is, he is a neighbourhood stray that pretty much lives in our garden full time now. It is not that Cata likes him, but rather she tolerates him. They are quite comfortable around each other which is a big accomplishment for Cata. She really doesn't like other cats, but she has actually accepted Huraira, masha'Allah.

Huraira is a sweet cat and is not trying to challenge Cata's authority. He just wants food, comfort, love and protection. That brings us to Bully. He is a stray that has been terrorising all the cats in our neighbourhood. He has attacked both Cata and Huraira before, and is always causing trouble. We have to chase him away whenever we see him and he is the reason why Huraira is currently living in our garden.

As you can see from his photo, Bully (pictured above) looks a lot like Edelweiss another one of our strays (pictured below). We say he is his evil twin brother! 

Edelweiss (pronounced a-dill-vice) is also scared of him and hasn't been coming around as often. Hopefully Bully will leave someday soon and the other cats can live in peace, insha'Allah.

Well that is all for this post. We hope you liked the update and we will see you next Friday, insha'Allah.

Take care and wasalaam,

        

     



Ramadan Mubarak

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

Ramadan Mubarak! May Allah accept our fasts and Ibadah during this Blessed month.

Love and Wasalaam,

Coming up: Ramadan, Quran Journaling and more Baking

Assalamu Alaikum!

Without a doubt, Ramadan is our favourite time of the year! We love the peaceful atmosphere and the calmness that descends during this blessed month. It is a time of worship, reflection and togetherness. This year, due to this global pandemic, things will undoubtedly be different. Most countries around the world are currently in lockdown, and here in Qatar we are self-isolating.

The masjids are closed and we expect them to remain that way for the foreseeable future. This unfortunately means that there will be no congregational prayers and we are really going to miss them. Insha'Allah, we want to focus more on the good and are aware that such measures have been put in place for our safety, alhamdulillah.

Ramadan Crafts

It has almost become a tradition in our household to have lots of Ramadan-related crafts completed before and during this blessed month. Last year, however, we did two big crafts that we knew would change things. In an effort to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly, we made a couple of reusable crafts, pictured and linked below.

Reusable Reversible Ramadan Banner

Ramadan Reward Calendar Craft

Both of these crafts take a while to make, so if you have the supplies you might want to get started soon! We won't be doing many Ramadan crafts this year, but we will try to do at least one, insha'Allah.

Quran Journaling

Almost two years ago, Hanifah made us each a Quran and Dua'a journal. We tend to do more journaling in them during Ramadan so, insha'Allah, we will be sharing some photos of our Quran journaling. We have recently been inspired by our mum's style of Quran journaling and are excited to show you some of her work too!

Baking

Every Ramadan we have shared a recipe that includes dates, and this year we mean to do the same, insha'Allah. We will also try our best to get two recipes up as we have usually been able to do during this blessed month, masha'Allah. If you want to try out some of our previous Ramadan recipes, we have linked a few below.

Date Ma'moul Recipe

Liqeemat Recipe

Date and Ginger Muffins Recipe

Well, that's all for this week's post. We hope you are all safe and looking forward to Ramadan which is only about a week away, subhan'Allah!

Take care and Wassalam,