Let the countdown begin 🎉 

Friends how are you! 

I’ve been taking classes and stretching my brain! 🧠 😮‍💨 

My twin sister went on Umrah recently and it was a family event! I didn’t get to go but she shared a lot of video, photos and text msgs as to what it was like.
This Inspired me to make some new art.

I’ve been contemplating about opening this shop, and what to sell. I started with adding seamless patterns. And I made one that showed the Kaaba 🕋 . My children loved it so much they said I should sell the mugs in our shop.

Maybe 🤔 if you want to add some cuteness to your home, office and overall life…check out the Etsy shop.

​no pressure 

Anyways how are you guys? How are you holding up? 

📘 Bud, Bloom, & Blossom
📗 What is Swam?
🦒 Stretching Our Hearts: A Giraffe Family’s Story 
☀️ You Are the Rising Sun (yet to be released)
🕌 My First Qur’an Colour and Sticker Book
💬 Tell Me I’m Amazing (coming soon!)


I can’t reveal the covers for some of them just yet, but I’m excited to share more sneak peeks in the future.

​

And of course…the biggest, best, most wonderful thing that happened this year was the birth of our baby girl. Am I used to all the changes? Nope, not really. I’m still figuring out how to squeeze everything in while managing all my little humans, but, it’s all part of the adventure.

There are a couple of other things that happen this year. So stick around for part 2. 

Also how is your year looking so far?

Young man don’t you stop
reachin’
believin’
and risin’ 

There’s enough room for you
in this wild universe 


​I wrote this and I wanted to share some thoughts…

Risin’ is the response to the weight of living. Life is hard. So when rising there is resilience.
If you’re reading this and you’ve been told you don’t belong… if you’ve been told your dreams are too wild or your voice is too loud … remember this:

 Don’t you stop.
 Keep reachin’.
Keep believin’.
Keep risin’.

Howdy friends. As we head into a new week, I wanted to write this. It’s currently 8:42 a.m., and this post may not go out at its scheduled time. Maybe I’ll send it separately instead. Anyways—​

The past couple of days, I’ve been going through some life changes.

Had you asked me some days ago how was everything. I would have said:  “fine.” 
But inside I would have been feeling like everything around me was falling a part. I was in a ball on the floor, crying. 
‘My husband said many years ago that I do not take change well. Maybe he is right? 
​

But when I was pregnant with my last child, I noticed something. Everything I complained about, not wanting to be induced (never had that done). They scheduled me at 40 weeks to get this done. I complained through the whole pregnancy that I didn’t want to deal with contractions. Ohhhhh did I whine !!!!!
They say when you are induced the contractions are stronger? 
I complained so much about regular contractions that now I was faced with this task of having to manage even stronger contractions.

I should have been thankful for what I had. So let’s bring it into the present…..
​I was crying again….complaining about something that was hurting my feelings. I was giving it all my energy. All my thoughts. All my speech.

​Then something bigger than that happened to me. I was once again faced with something that would hurt me more and make me grateful for what I had prior.

I know times are hard. Remember to look to those below you that are in harder situations. It will help you shape your mind to being more grateful.

Friends Morocco did not get the much deserved time as it should! Last week was filled life altering changes and it’s been a bit heavy. 
‘So I feel we need to stay another week in Morocco!
So there’s no new Procreate brush this week. 

And I will  be sourcing some pics from Canva! 

 Feel free to share your art with me and this week I will try to leave my references pics available on the blog.

Hey friends! 

it’s a new week and we are going somewhere new!

This week, our Passport & Pencils journey takes us to Morocco  🇲🇦 .
a land of souks, beautiful tiles, and shelves upon shelves of brightly colored babouche slippers. 

And kicking off this first day with an illustration that is too cute.

I made a cute Procreate stamp so that you can stamp your art with. 
You can get it for free or treat me to a coffee!
​https://shop.beacons.ai/mariampoppins/18e583bf-4c5f-4b06-acfa-9af30a790269

Happy Traveling!!!

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Spain 🇪🇸! 
Right from the comfort of my home. 

Here are some of the illustrations I did. I missed one day!!!!! Last week was hard on me. I will share about it soon. For now let’s look at the art!

I absolutely love the art I did for this! It was an opportunity for me to do something different and now we are off to our next destination.

You ready? 

Revealing the next travel destination in a blog post, so stick around.