10th Annual Black Women's Roundtable "Women of Power" National Summit

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Bucilla Kit Brand Review

Though I already reviewed Bucilla products in this blog, I couldn't but  give a 10 out of 10 review to Bucilla because it is truly an excellent  Christmas crafts and decorations supplier . To start is accessible to everyone in Britain via amazon.co.uk and to all levels of experience, so whether you are into needlepoint or not you can make your own Christmas decorations, like stockings because there is the felt option next to the needlepoint option. Buccilla also supplies stamped cross stitch Christmas fabric .

To recapitulate this brief review, Bucilla is accessible via amazon, affordable, excellent quality and the customer has the option of a variety of materials to make the kits . I would give a plus point as the canvas and needle is suitable for people like me who only get to craft late at night. 

Below is a picture of me before my dad went into hospital over this Christmas holidays.

Below are some pictures of the kit when arrived via amazon. I paid less then ten pounds on a 24 Friday sales - thank you Amazon!

The instructions sheet is great for adding decorations if you run out of Bucilla canvas. Is the ordinary plastic canvas available on amazon for 1.50  A4 sheet. You should get at least 8-12 decorations per sheet.

Other great advantage of Bucilla is that this company supplies Christmas supplies through the year.  Check the kits available via this link https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Bucilla+Christmas&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 .

Christmas wrath 

Mini Christmas Decorations ,Counted cross stitch on Aida fabric

Christmas tree skirt

Baby Crib Cover

Christmas Decoration panel

Christmas embroidery napkins

Princess Christmas stocking

Mini Christmas Decorations

Christmas Decoration or bull bell.

Remember that you don't need to "buy to make" , sometimes all it takes is carboard from an amazon delivery box, a potato sack and you can make and create. The kids and I made a lot of house items out of newspaper and flour and were items that we ended up painting, decorating and having more hours of creativity and fun. The items proved useful to put stationary , snacks, odd bits and pieces and above all useful to encapsulate memories in pictures of vital stages of their growth.

  

If you don't have kids, do it with friends or alone watching tv.  

Best wishes,

Ariane

 

BOOK REVIEWS: Peter Frankopan 2 Volumes on the Silk Roads and 1 Volume on The First Crusades

 

Review left via amazon :

I really find this historian very good as he makes history simple and fascinating from an objective, high calibre academic point of view.

The book is fascinating, the views and angles  targeting pertinent issues are on point and the inclusion of countries of the "third world" in this history book really shows how this man book is non-racist, non-imperialist and gives the world the opportunity to be included in history. 

Is really refreshing to listen to History I lived through as an adult,( recent history ;) ) , and to hear an inclusive world analysis. that included all continents as key players and not just Britain and the US.

I could not recommend more this book than I do! 

Also, he mentions the India-China Wuhan Summit in 2018..Is there any chance Cov-19 was used as a biological weapon that went awfully wrong and not as suggested that it escaped on its own from the Wuhan Lab? Cheers if Prof Frankopan cares to look at this potential popular conspiracy theory -yet to be a theory , for now just a suggestion from a fan!

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Review left via amazon :

I couldn't be more happy to review the history I learnt in school as a child that brought so many fascination, yet incomprehension as to why the Crusades took place . Well in the motto of " Live and Let live" , I thought that nothing would make me understand the cruelty of the crusades but to relive the history of Portugal during the three decades of Muslim occupation and how Somalia and Turkey unleashed hell on earth in the peninsula gave me a new perspective and therefore understanding as to how the Crusades became indispensable for religious motives and secular motives , both well grounded in the need to contain further expansion of Turkey and allies.

Must say that this is epic and grandeur yet hundred per cent academic and a valid authority to the historical context of the Crusades in all its reasoning ,the puritan related to the Christian Faith and the less puritan and more barbaric, related to the Survival of Europe. Thank you, a very grateful reader, listener and now a fan!

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Review left via amazon:

This fascinating book detangles the entangled history of Empires, religious worlds compressing economies and armies against each other for pure economic and trade goals.

Really recommend this book to people looking to understand how the Christian and Muslim worlds fought for power instead of joining forces for a better world. 

In today’s reality we know that capitalism won, and the silk roads now only will serve the power of money, not of military empires and Religious worlds. 

If you are following contemporary China expansion in the silk road route by financing of the silk road project in Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries than this book is a must. Enjoy!

Ariane

Making it to Virginia State with pure politeness!

 Galas are not only about dressing nice once in a while, smiling and meeting new people, Galas can also be a way of exchanging cultures and experiences, of celebrating History or just making history!

When a bunch of very clever historians get together to celebrate history we get : VIRGINIA STATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH GALA BY THE VIRGINIA BLACK HISTORY  MONTH ASSOCIATION!

You are suppose to only take your body and glamour to Galas, but ladies....and gentlemen, I took it all , gave it all and got a shout out!!!! 

That is right, the hosts and presenters of the Gala mentioned me as that lady who outreached to them from London and asked if she could join the Gala !As it was virtual because of the pandemic lockdown I was sold a ticket, then refunded and then got a shout out!

Very happy and obviously delighted!!!

The Gala was ever so classy , lots of youth singing, Afro American couples talking about their experience as being misrepresented in the media as divorced, broken, etc, and obviously history, but before we talk about the whole purpose of the Gala -History!- let me tell you this, I baked for the occasion just as if I was visiting the hosts themselves!

What did I bake? Well, I started by baking a typical Georgian Southern pie! Can you guess??? I baked Virginia State Rhubarb pie with crumble topping!

And thanks to who? Thanks to a fantastic blog by an online celebrity called Steve! If you haven't checked his step by step tutorials on Southern food , do check him out- he is awesome!!!

Polite as I am, I said thank you! 

My Rhubarb Pie with Crumble Topping  came out like this,

I also tried to balance this with healthier bakes so as to make for the rhubarb sweetness and the crumble sugar, so I baked a small corn bread and a few cheese muffins which baked quickly and tasted delicious!

The day itself was stressful, as as you can see by my clothing and stressed demeanour I was somewhere else! I was participating in break-out rooms discussions with other Afro Americans via a Urban League event that brought many community leaders and members of the community together to discuss pertinent issues that arouse with Cov-19.

I never thought that the pandemic could cut off people in need of clinical care from most basics, even safety.  Also communities experiencing Cov-19 pandemic, homelessness in consequence of massive protests and arsons are left out of the media and their stories are left unheard but we have to discuss these issues and how many families had their businesses and family homes destroyed during Kenosha riots, Chicago riots etc and still after all Black Lives Matter protests we had rioters at the Capitol with hoses , torches, hammers, guns and chanting " Burn them up, gas them up, round them up!" 

The idea that we are progressing out of hate crime is a unconcreted state of affairs because we jump from one nightmare of crying for help and shouting " We cannot take injustice no more!" to another nightmare of people wanting to gas American senators and politicians and bring Afro American senators and politicians to be hanged and lynched outside the capitol!

What does this tell us about hate? It tells us that evil never dies! Wanting to kill others is not only mentally ill, is also a form of extreme evil that is always unjustifiable and unnecessary!

Getting out of intense  sessions of discussions and private groups  for hours on end and getting into a Gala celebrating Virginia Black History month was a process of cooling off and at the same time of anticipating what I was about to see and I knew already that would be part of the "historical menu" of the Gala and this would be replete with pictures of torture instruments and people being photographed while having their teeth ripped off to make dentures or people exhibiting terrible marks as consequence of being victims of extreme torture and abuse because of slavery, abduction and being sold from owner to owner since their birth.

Passed that "historical photographic menu", there are people of today recounting their ancestors stories of suffering, loss, being separated from their parents , sold for goods, lent to other farmers, just exploited over and over again. 

People who worked since childhood, were barred from everything like learning how to read , having a family and yet never got paid for their work.

Just imagine that the slaves were borrowed to other people to be exploited, to do their housework, fieldwork, masonry, building work, sex work, everything you can imagine and in-between tortured with horrible tools. Terrifying experience based on race!

Well, this is part of Virginia State History and will not go away!

I was blessed to have attended, blessed to hear from the descendants of these slaves who suffered immensely throughout their lives, and I am blessed to see much shinning future in the youth that honour their ancestors memory during this February, Black History Month in the US.

Do check them out and register for next year Gala! Let me tell you this, there were people watching from all over the country and all ethnicities, Hispanic, Chinese, etc.

  Virginia Black History Month Association. is a gift to all of us!

Best wishes,

Ariane

Knitting Yarn can sometimes be useful for quick crocheted scarves and matching weaved clutch bags

 

If you are in no mood to knit as your head is not for counting stitches, you can still get rid of knitting yarn by crocheting with an afghan crochet needle or weaving using a card box from a delivery package.

I decided to make a quick scarf and matching clutch bag out of a small left over of knitting yarn.

 At the end I was not happy with the scarf as it is a true waste of yarn as knitting yarn is well more stretchable and rentable for knitting than crocheting.

Best wishes,

Ariane

The Humanitarian Cov-19 Campaign Video

 I enlisted my kids to work on the media side of the Humanitarian Cov-19 Campaign and my eldest son reluctantly works as a cameraman . He does not get paid, nor do I, but being his mom I get to boss him in theory, because as you can hear him he is literally fed up and behaving like he is the boss!

Here is the video I made for our campaign 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/mG1BNutuLRND1k2CjIL8di8AXLLRLdYJyF33VYdiv6d

The purpose is to reduce this catastrophe in many children's lives who are facing Cov-19 as the war killing their grandparents, parents and relatives at a very quick rate. The pandemic has also brought terrible humanitarian crisis to communities who have no access to international supply chains and depend purely of external help like Ethiopian and Latin American communities.

Kitty is trying to participate in the videos but not so fast Kitty, as this is for serious people only! :)

Ariane