Santa arrived today 🎅💞

 

Truly Family Link Up... my daughter Nicola in Yorkshire sent some activities gifts for the girls and thanks to GLS Europe delivered today Christmas Eve... today is Bushra's birthday ...so amongst the play they are having birthday cake too.. i feel happy now the parcel got through...as life for us all is in such chaos.... I have gifts planned for when the post calms down for Leens birthday in January.  I am busy knitting in our lockdown here in UK, this will be for Bushra's sister and her children in Germany. 

Have a Happy Christmas stay safe.. 🎅🎄

Princess Therapy

 

Yesterday I fell in the bathroom...all the lockdown sitdown zooming, knitting, reading created pressure on the right branch of my sciatica nerve... I have limited feeling in my lower leg...but pain in my knee & thigh. I am on prescribed painkillers. My fall was because my leg gave way.  Spookily was like an Angel lowered me down ...no head injury or broken bones, but in shock and grief as I see this as going deeper into my older vulnerable years. I told my family including Bushra. So the girls rang me to cheer me up...hence our fun photos. I feel loved & cared for as I love & care for them. My family rallied round and came with a stock of food for me and check on my mobility. I desperately want to keep strong & my independence...when all this pandemic nightmare over ..I will want to travel to Belgium again. 

This morning my Princess Leen rang me from her little house in her bedroom...she makes a house out of the mattress bending it. Lol she has made it cosy with my knitted blankets and has so bauble lights inside. This morning we were learning Nederlandse together from and animal boeken... I had to guess which page and she gave me clues. Then she had some toys and I had to close my eyes and guess which she had hidden behind her back. We like to play "give me a clue!" She does me good wonderful friendship between us. 

Looking good in her Christmas Robin dress..💖

Creative Reindeer

 

Leen called me all excited to show me the reindeer she had made at school today.....looking good too Rudolph with his red nose....and a bell. She was saying they sung Jingle Bells at school too. Exciting times!  we are trying to get my daughters parcel of games delivered. Its in Oostende but the delivery man came in the morning when Bushra out helping at the kindergarten. We are emailing the company to sort out whether another attempt in afternoon or to collect at the nearest collection shop! 

I have knit more warm jumpers to send to Bushra's sister in Germany ..but i will send after Christmas as post manic now.. Got more yarn for another knitting project.

Festive cards arrive from Medact

Medact Order Link 

Thank you to the caring doctors at Medact for choosing Bushra's Duality Artwork

You can see more of Bushra's art on 

Bushra's Art Gallery Page

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Girls got Mama's love of art

 

The girls Leen & Celine getting into the art mode.  But was rather precariously funny the other evening I watched Bushra working on her latest piece see below and a small black painted finger appeared on the screen... lol Miss Celine about to add her touch to the canvas... A flurry of Arabic and a cloth from Bushra just stopped disaster!  Bless only helping mama hhhhh 

Christmas outfits love love love

 

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Well impressed with the customer service of JoJo Maman Bebe I have been able to order some lovely Christmas outfits for Leen & Celine in Belgium and for Adam & Leanne in Germany with direct delivery too. So this is good we have a good connection. Adam has a lovely Christmas London Bus top.. we are waiting for him to come back from kindergarten to try this on. 

Leanne looks mega cute in her Robin outfit and Asma (Bushra's sister) was telling me it feels so soft and warm... so she is well chufted. 

The range of clothes are beautifully made, help the kids looks wonderful and will last all the pass me downs too, so an investment purchase. 

The dresses for Leen & Celine I was able to purchase with the commission of a good couple of orders from a NYR registered customer.  

JoJo Maman Bebe Christmas Clothing

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See Marjorie's Yard for how to be a registered NYR customer of mine to help earn commission for my Family Link Up project.  Befriending is so important to help rebuild lives with love, dignity and respect.. it is my life.. 

Great to help link up businesses too with the needs of the family met.  See how your shopping with me can help me shop for Family Link Up!

✿✿✿Christmas Gifts ✿✿✿

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Culture learn link up

 

Last weekend Leen and me looked at the traditional artwork of canal boats. This would always fascinate my grandchildren when little as I lived near the Grand Union canal. Leen too liked the artwork as my Princess because there are castles in the art as well as flowers. :-) We also had fun drawing objects without one another seeing then guessing what we had drawn.. I was impressed with her command of description as clues for me to guess her drawings. Even more impressed when she was giving me a clue about a planet she had drawn it was Saturn she told me as i "gave in to guessing" when she showed me was a dot with a ring round ...bless the teacher had told her and she remembered..She absorbs knowledge and even more feels understands and into the logic.

Good News Art Share to help others

 

The Duality artwork has been chosen by our kind activist doctors group Medact for this years festive fundraising cards. It is quite moving and Bushra is so happy that her work will help others that have fled for safety and needing specialist medical & psychological care.

You can order and find out about Medacts work on this link 

Festive Card Order

More share times

 Someone had kindly got the girls a Bambi, but liitle sister Celine had insisted it was a donkey lol so I showed them Bambi and on YouTube that fun scene where Bambi & Thumper go ice skating..with Bambi mostly falling with legs all over the place..hhh.. So amazing I was telling Leen that when I was at Junior school the headmaster had organised a film showing of Bambi in the hall..for a Christmas treat... here I am as 66yrs old sharing with my Syrian Princesses..over messenger skype call... Leen was full of animated discussion on the film..Celine was giggling at the scene..shared joy.

We also shared the Sleeping Beauty fairytale 

And Leen loved watching The Chase with me 

Hot off the Easel

 

Love can turn you upside down

This morning woke to the latest creation of Bushra's artwork...I had glimpses through the week when Leen was skyping me... There is no title yet but as the face is shaped as a love heart I was thinking ..that love can turn you &  your life upside down.  Love changes your prespective on life...this can be for the better or can be a challenge... love lost can truly turn you upside down in the pain of loss.  Look at the self hug is there a message to be kind to yourself, love self not in egotisical way but to heal and care for self. There is such a need to heal inner self and create inner well being.  I love the surround as in this I see the message to surround yourself with beauty and colour that nourishes inner self.  Wow Bushra how you inspired this Sunday with your artwork.. contact me marjoriebahhaj@gmail.com if you are interested in commissions or purchase of Bushra's work...this so I can help with English..though Bushra is becoming fluent in Dutch and picking up on English through Leen and me chatting & learning together. :-) see more of her work Bushra Art Gallery

Lockdown Knitting

 

Knitting for cousins in Germany ..A favourite baby balero cardigan for Leanne and jumpers for Adam ..one to grow into lol Good use of a stock of lockdown wool..

Good to spend time over messenger skype call with Leen to chat while knitting, teach her some stitches....and in stitches with fun too.

Lockdown Fun Learn Sharing

This princess is keeping me company over skype as both UK & Belgium in our second wave lockdown. This morning Leen called me ..she adds magic to a dark cloudy day. We have been learning to read..with word recognition cards in English.. she is getting good at this. Loves the flashcards.  We have been finding missing letters to complete word spelling.  We had the word Kite ..so we googled kite flying and found a childrens kite competition in Singapore..some amazing kites, with faces and animals..So general knowledge building 

Through the week skype shares we have been doing more number magic ..adding, take away and fractions ..lol that is fun thinking of cutting pizza and cake into portions. Drawing pictures and even made a present for her teacher when back at school. We have been problem solving with games.  Celine has been building castles with plastic cups..But the most amazing awesome has been Leen singing "1 2 3 4 5 catch a fish alive" song ..we have been doing that as a duo with drama ..WHY did you put it back? WHICH finger did it bite?  me asking  in dramatic way.....we had a laugh ..but but but she can sing it in Dutch tooooo..awesome. 

This week I got some commission from a customer's 2 orders with Marjorie's Yard and my personalised NYR Online Shopping Link so I have been able to order 2 pretty dresses one for Leen & one for Celine from JoJo Maman Bebe   they deliver direct to Belgium and are on the way...So thanks to my customers orders 💗