(www.abdullahkidshow.com)

A few months ago I was feeling a bit crafty. I hadn’t worked on a project in a long time “just for fun.” So I decided to go to the local arts and craft store to pick up some supplies.

As I was walking past the painting section, strolling past wood arts and gliding past the coloring section I was trying to decided what creative project will I invest the next few hours of my time on. I thought about a project I have been wanting to begin for about a year; an Islamic kids’ show.

“I’ll make a puppet,” I told my husband.

By the time I started, it was pretty late at night. My husband was fast asleep and I was working hard. About three hours past and I was finally done.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a creative, artsy person. In fact I’m just downright horrible at it all. And this puppet did not turn out any different.

There comes a time after you start working on something so intently that when you’re done and you sit back and see your final product, you realize the reality of what you just made- good or bad; only this time… it was bad.

So after seriously working on this thing for about three hours, I finally burst at laughing at the thought that I had “wasted my time.” It turned out to be very ghetto.

My husband woke up to my laughing and when he saw my final product he got terrified. “That thing is SCARY!”

I began taunting him and asking him if he’d make a video of my puppet. He finally gave in. We obviously went unscripted just playing around with the thing, and we decided to put it online because we had a lot of fun doing it.

We made two videos:

“Do something productive:”

“Abdullah works on a theme song”

We got people sending us messages and emails asking us to make more videos of “Abdullah.”

After seeing my poorly-made puppet I was not really intending on using him for anything other than scaring my husband from time to time. But after seeing peoples’ responses, we both agreed “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to get going.”

So that was the starting point for producing our Islamic kids’ show. We are hoping to get a DVD out by the end of the summer.

After six weeks of production and post-production we are happy to present episode 1 of “Abdullah.”

If you would like to see the FULL EPISODE, since it’s not on YouTube (over 10 minutes) go to www.abdullahkidshow.com

I’m the type of person who’s always on the lookout for the next project I want to complete. I find something I believe to be beneficial, fun and challenging all at the same time.

So what’s my next big project? Producing an Islamic kids show.

After doing research, I decided to see where I could cut costs for production. After seeing where all the costs would be coming from, I determined the best way to save money would be to make the puppets for my show myself. Typically, a custom-made puppet professionally done cost around $1,000.

I went to an arts and craft store yesterday to pick out my supplies and while my husband was asleep, I spent a good three hours working so hard and so diligently.

I had to figure out how to make the mouth part to move and somehow put it all together into the puppet. And after all the gluing, cutting and planning I take a good look at my final product and…. I BUST out laughing.

I couldn’t help it. The puppet was just so pathetic. My husband had awoken to my laughing and I showed him what I made — only for him to cover his eyes and tell me how scary it looked.

I asked him to take a picture of it and put it on his Facebook and his reply was, “I don’t want to for the safety of the people.”

Anyway, after much convincing he reluctantly decides to make a video for fun of my masterpiece and this was the result:

We decided to use this as a means to raising funds for our REAL kids show (which I’m happy to say will NOT have beat boxing, and will not feature a character such as Ghetto Abdullah).

Find out how you can invest in our project soon.

Let us know what your thoughts are.

When I heard her speech, the ayah “Abasa wa tawala, an jaa’ahul ama3″ came up. Subhnallah, smiles are acts of charity, would we suppress our smiles if we knew the person we were in front of was blind? Allah watches us, even if he/she can’t.

I’ve worked for many clients before, but none compare to Bayyinah. There is a certain barakah in the organization that subhanallah draws you so deep into your work.

In a recent survey, it was discovered the, least trusted professionals between various markets were found within the media profession; this included journalists, people in advertising, public relations and marketing. Six out of ten people said they don’t trust people in these professions. Ouch.

There’s this notion out there that if you’re in one of these fields, you’ll do anything to help your client, even if it means becoming a “spin doctor, a “deceiver” or even a “liar.” It’s that idea that says a person in one of those fields will say just about anything to serve their own interests. I guess it goes triple for someone like me who is in three of the four fields listed above.

I remember an article I wrote a little while ago that was posted on Muslim Matters about Bayyinah and the “Divine Speech” class. I’m sure anyone who has taken any classes with Bayyinah attest there is something different about this organization than others; something that you can hold dear to your heart.

Someone commented by saying, “Has anyone attended one of the classes? Please honest critique, I don’t want a marketing spin. Jazakum Allah kheir.”

I’m generally not a sensitive person, but I took offense to it. Even though the brother has somewhat a point to be skeptical, I guess I was just so sincerely writing the article out of the love I have for the organization, I indeed forgot I’m the public relations specialist.

This poses a problem for me. Press releases are great, mostly because editors of newspapers take what the want from the release and use their own names to write the article. For blogs and Muslim publications it’s a little different. They usually publish the article as it was sent, and accredit it to the original author. That’s great too, but it somehow tends to put this tint on the glass when people are looking through, so to speak. People now see the articles and see that it’s written by the marketing director and automatically think it’s no good.

When I started my PR firm, Minbar Media, I did so with the intention of only servicing clients I truly believe in and clients I could be proud to help out and bring with me on the day of judgment.

I’m going to remain true to my intention, inshaAllah.

The staff is so sincere and the volunteers I work with are all amazing, subhanallah. Currently, I’m working on a campaign to better acquaint the public with our other two instructors, Sheikh AbdulNasir Jangda, an Imam in Dallas, TX and AlHafidh Wisam Sherif who is currently studying in Egypt until the end of summer.

If people knew their work/style, they would love it. So be on the lookout for that campaign, inshaAllah.

More later, bi’ithnillahi ta’ala. I’m definitely extremely busy, but I’m hoping to update my blog often.

I think I might have to watch some of the things I write from now on, now that I’m not only representing myself but others who are pretty public figures or entities. Wallahu alem.

It’s been a really long time since i’ve actually written some of my own words. Wallahi this is the busiest time in my life but inshaAllah I’m hoping during “Mardi Gras Break” next week (yeah only in Louisiana), I’ll get a chance to update everyone on things going on.

Bayyinah is definitely one of the things keeping me busy. And I just wanted to share Br. Nouman’s Promo for his Divine Speech seminar with everyone:

Part 1:

Part 2: