The 30 days of Ramadan Crafty challenge

I have been having a very hard time finding Arab or Islamic crafts for my daughters (ages 9, 8 and 4) to do. So I asked them if they would like to invent our own crafts for the month of Ramadan. The days are long in the summer and it’s good to keep busy doing something other then thinking about food. They were very excited by the idea and we headed for the library to do some research. Of course there were no Arab, Islamic or Ramadan craft books, except for the occasional book on how to make an Egyptian mummy. But instead of being sour lemons, we decided to make lemonade!

We took a stack of books home (21 in all) that looked like they have the most potential. I’m also a big fan of FamilyFun magazine and we did some reading from my collection of the past three years. I gave them post it notes, which they tore in stripes and used them as place marks for the crafts they wanted to do. There were more crafts then days, so they had to decide together which ones to eliminate and which ones to keep. It was so great to see them spend some family time together, talking it all out.

The first step was for them to create a calendar for the whole month, which I did very easily using Excel. Once I gave them the calendar, they wrote down the craft, the book it was in and the page number where they found it. They picked some silly things to do that were not very Arab, Islamic or Ramadany, but I let them pass, since it might be fun to take a break every once in awhile. And really, isn't it important to also create some games to pass the time? They also decided to take Fridays off from crafting and have a Free Day. I was very proud of their selections and decisions for the 30 crafts.

For each craft, we will have a supply list, take photos of the supplies and show the process step by step. This will make it very easy for you and your children to follow along with us. It will look very similar to the Crescent Moon & Star Yarn Window Art Ornaments we made last April.

So get your glue guns and googly eyes ready and let’s have some fun crafting, inshall’Allah!

'Grandpa's Farm' Translated into Arabic

Grandpa has a farm with animals
On his farm he has a duck
Look kids!
Duck here duck there
Quack quack here quack quack there

Grandpa has a farm with animals
On his farm he has a roaster
Look kids!
Roaster here roaster there
Kookoo reko here kookoo reko there

Grandpa has a farm with animals
On his farm he has a dog
Look kids!
Dog here dog there
Woof woof here woof woof there

Grandpa has a farm with animals
On his farm he has a cat
Look kids!
Cat here cat there
Meow here meow there

Grandpa has a farm with animals
On his farm he has a chick
Look kids!
Chick here chick there
Too too here too too there

Grandpa has a farm with animals
On his farm he has a lamb
Look kids!
Lamb here lamb there
Maa here Maa there

جدي عنده مزرعة فيها حيوانات
في مزرعتة عنده بط
شوفوا يا صغار
بطة هون بطة هوناك
كواك كواك هون كواك كواك هوناك

جدي عنده مزرعة فيها حيوانات
في مزرعتة عنده ديك
شوفوا يا صغار
ديك هون ديك هوناك
كوكو ريكو هون كوكو ريكو هوناك

جدي عنده مزرعة فيها حيوانات
في مزرعتة عنده كلب
شوفوا يا صغار
كلب هون كلب هوناك
عوعو هون عوعو هوناك

جدي عنده مزرعة فيها حيوانات
في مزرعتة عنده قطة
شوفوا يا صغار
قطة هون قطة هوناك
مياو هون مياو هوناك

جدي عنده مزرعة فيها حيوانات
في مزرعتة عنده صوص
شوفوا يا صغار
صوص هون صوص هوناك
توتو توتو هون توتو توتوهوناك

جدي عنده مزرعة فيها حيوانات
في مزرعتة عنده خروف
شوفوا يا صغار
خروف هون خروف هوناك
ماء هون ماء هوناك

Jaddy 3enda mazra3a feeha 7ayawanat
Fi mazre3ta 3enda batt
Shoofo ya seqhar
Batta hoon batta honak
Quaq quaq hoon quaq quaq honak

Jaddy 3enda mazra3a feeha 7ayawanat
Fi mazre3ta 3enda deek
Shoofo ya seqhar
Deek hoon deek honak
Kooko reeko hoon kooko reeko honak

Jaddy 3enda mazra3a feeha 7ayawanat
Fi mazre3ta 3enda kalb
Shoofo ya seqhar
Kalb hoon kalb honak
3o3o hoon 3o3o honak

Jaddy 3enda mazra3a feeha 7ayawanat
Fi mazre3ta 3enda ketta
Shoofo ya seqhar
Ketta hoon ketta honak
Mew hoon mew honak

Jaddy 3enda mazra3a feeha 7ayawanat
Fi mazre3ta 3enda soos
Shoofo ya seqhar
Soos hoon soos honak
Tooto tooto hoon tooto tooto honak

Jaddy 3enda mazra3a feeha 7ayawanat
Fi mazre3ta 3enda 5aroof
Shoofo ya seqhar
5aroof hoon 5aroof honak
Maa hoon maa honak

Islamic Scrabble Tile Necklaces

A while ago, I created these really nice Arabesque Scrabble Tile Designs and started selling them on my Zibbet shop.

I decided to take this idea one step further and create more Islamic designs and put them on the Scrabble Tiles. I have a dear friend that wanted an Allah necklace, but didn't want it in gold. This is the standard look for the Allah necklaces in the Middle East.

She felt she was hip and modern and wanted something fresh. So I started playing around with (copyright compliant) Allah and Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem designs and came up with 12 new looks for her to choice. I hope you also like them. For now I've listed them all on my FB page. I hope to gradually list them all in my Zibbet shop soon. I'd love to hear what you think of them!

Arabic Alphabet colouring pages...Part Ithnan

I'm started to take the animals from my Arabic Alphabet Animal poster and turn them into colouring sheets! I'm still trying to figure out if others can download them and use them. Anyone want to be my first tester?!?

Here is the newest page to print:
Faraasha Colouring Page

Firyuza Interview

Tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Firyuza. I am a Russian speaking Muslim born and raised in Uzbekistan (how many can show where it is on the map? :-) ) One day I was reading a newspaper, and there was an article about several women that became successful sellers on Etsy. I started thinking about it. I loved the idea of working from home and doing what I liked. But I did not know what exctly I wanted to do. I wanted it to be unique, and to do something with either clothes for muslim women, or hijabs. After numerous experiments and many ruined scarves, I created what I call, No Pins Hijab, and I have started selling in my own Etsy shop Firyuza. Hijab that does not require any pins, is very easy to put on, but it is not a simple Al Amira. There are different styles, only two are presented in my store now, with more to come. There is so much for me to learn and do as I am only at the beginning of my trip!


Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?
Besides taking care of my family and helping my hasband with his business, I love spending time with my friends, reading, and going outdoors. Calgary has so many beautiful parks and I haven't visited them all yet. This is to be changed this summer!


What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?
Everytime I get a compliment about my hijab, it inspires me. When my friends ask me to show how I make my hijabs looks so different, it inspires me. When I just started wearing hijab, I did not know how to put it on, how to coordinate with my clothes, nothing. I hated looking in the mirror, as the only thing I saw there was "testimonial of absence of any taste". It was really depressing, but it shouldn't be! It should be enjoyable. And when I think that my hijabs make somebody's day brighter, it inspires me.


Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?
My mother. She is just an amazing woman. I learnt and keep learning so much from her. I wish we would live closer to each other, at least on the same continent :-).

What other passions do you have in your life?
Gardening. Even though I am still getting used to growing something in Canada. Being from Central Asia, I am too spoiled by long hot summers.


How do you promote your work?
There are so much for me to do in this area as I opened my shop very recently. For now it is mostly word of mouth. I also just started my blog, creativehijabs.blogspot.com.

In the future I’d like to be…
I am happy with who I am in present, thanks to Allah, but there are several details I would like to be different.
I am a mother of two on weekdays, and a mother of four on weekends :-) . I have two wonderful stepkids, and they are with us on weekends only. We need more kids in our team! I want to be a mother of more than four. This is the first thing I want to change.
Another one is about my Etsy store. I do want to be a successful owner of two Etsy stores- the one that I have right now, and in the second I would like to have clothes for young muslim girls.

To Mankind with Love from the Middle East

I recently came across this list that was put together by the National Association of Arab Americans.

A* accounting, algebra, alkali, agriculture, alphabet, arabesque, Arabian horse, architecture, astrology, astronomy, Atlantic Ocean (discovery), axe, azure
B* Bible, Baha’i, Bathtub, basilica, bazaar, beer, belly dancing, book, botany, bracelet, bread
C* caftan, carpet, calendar, caravan, cartography, ceramics, chair, charge account, cheese, chemistry, Christianity, church, clock, credit, coffee, cosmetics
D* damascene, damask, date, day (24 hours), dentistry, dish, domesticated animals, drums
E* earrings, elixir, enameling, embalming, engineering, eye liner, eye shadow
F* faience, flag, flute, fork, free enterprise, funeral
G* gauze, geography, geometry, glass, government
H* harp, history, horticulture
I* illumination, irrigation, Islam
J* Judaism, jurisprudence
K* knife, Koran
L* law, library, linen, lipstick, literature, lyre
M* magnetic compass, mathematics, mattress, medicine, missionary, monastery, monotheism, mosaic, mosque, music
N* nail polish, navigation, necklace, needle, numbers
O* oboe, olive, optics, optometry, orange
P* paper, pen, perfume, pharmacy, philosophy, phonetics, plow, plumbing, poetry, pottery, prophets, psalms
Q* quarrying
R* razor, reed instruments, rice, ring, rosary
S* satin, skyscraper, sofa, spoon, stairs, stoicism, sugar, surgery
T* table, tambourine, temple, theology
U* university, urn
V* vineyard
W* week (7 days), weights, wheel, wig, wine, writing
XYZ* year (365 days), yoghurt, zero, zither, zodiac

I found it in a book that was printed in 1978 called The Arab World: A Handbook for Teachers. My copy is starting to fall apart, so I wanted to share this on my blog. I think it's really neat to see the contributions made from a part of the world that is currently known for conflict and political unrest. Think what mankind would be today if some of the items on the list didn’t exist!