Prayer Map of my town

This is what I spent most of Saturday morning putting together in my church building.

It took 3 hours, and that was with my hubby helping.  I dread to think how long it would have taken on my own.

We have had the map of our town up on the wall there for quite a while, just sitting there on it's own.  A few weeks ago I had the idea to mark all the schools in town, on the map.  That has now expanded to a rolling program of displays that will have different themes.  Well, you can read about that here:

Over on the right are some prayer pointers

and a list of the schools covered by our local education authority but not included on the map.  The schools covered on this map are the 5 - 11 year old schools, except the special schools for disabled children and children with special educational needs.  Because there were so many schools to include, I decided to add the special schools into the next display which will have the 11-16 and 16-18 provision marked as well as the local university campus.

When we have finished with education I was thinking about marking all the doctors surgeries and the hospital one time, and the police stations another, with fire and ambulance stations another.  After that I have no idea what we will do, any suggestions?

I'll leave you with one final picture.

Save Your Marriage in 5 Minutes a Day?

I recently received a copy of this book to review.  I wasn't sure I was going to like it, I mean, SERIOUSLY? 5 minutes a day?

The book is split up into 4 sections,
5 minute strategies to keep the spark alive.
5 minute strategies for domestic bliss
5 minute strategies for great communication
and
5 minute strategies for marital hiccups.

It does indeed give suggestions for things that can be done in 5 minutes, suggestions of things to say and ideas to try.  Many could be expanded to more than 5 minutes, but sometimes the 5 minute rule is a good thing, such as in the suggestion of broaching a difficult topic, the first time, to only talk about it for 5 minutes, then do something fun together and come back to that topic at a later time, so that your spouse understands that even though you might disagree you still love them and want to have fun with them.

I like a lot of the ideas in the book, and in fact quite a few of them can cross over into other relationships, like learning to accept compliments and not deflecting them, and so on.  It does, however, assume a certain level of communication already exists within the marriage and I don't know how much difference it could make in a marriage where one partner is completely closed down and does not communicate on anything more than a basic level.

As a Christian I cannot agree with the authors suggestions that an affair can be good for marriage (in an example she gives), or towards the use of pornography.  Having said that, those are very small, indeed momentary sections of the book, and I can put those aside and benefit from all the good suggestions that the book includes.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Spa Wrap

To match the towel wrap for my hair that I made the other day I also made a Spa Wrap. I used a pattern from Sew4home but I did not make the ribbon straps.

As you can see, the wrap is trimmed with a patterned fabric, has a pocket and a flower, which is removable.

The strips fo fabric for the trimming need to be 8 inches wide.  I have a large quilting ruler but it is only 6 inches wide, so I marked the 6 inches point at both side of the neatly folded fabric,

Then moved the ruler across so that the pen marks were under the 4 inch point, and cut along the edge, making 8 inch strips.

It's a great pattern but I did have a problem with the way they tell you to do the elastic.  I measured, I pinned, I checked it, I checked it again, it all fitted fine, but somehow when it came to sewing it on, something went wrong and it was no longer as tight as it had been when pinned.  So I opened up the ends of the channel that folding over the elastic has created, and threaded another piece of elastic through which I secured about 1/4 of the way in from one end.  Then I pulled the fabric up across the elastic until it had gathered as much as I needed it to, and secured the elastic 1/4 of the way in from the other end.  Then finished it off as suggested in the instructions. 

If I were to make one of these again I would do the elastic that way from the start.  Apart from anything else. making the channel on purpose would mean just two layers of towelling at the top, not 3, and believe me, sewing through the ribbing on 3 layers of towelling isn't easy.

Finally, a close up of the flower.

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Apple Cake

Today I needed to make an apple cake for a meal I'm helping with this evening.  It's an Alpha meal for 30 people. I decided to use a recipe I found on Food.com for Apple Swirl Cake

You will need

• 2 cups apples (2 cups ended up being 3 1/2 of those apples, so I used the whole of that last one, making 4 apples)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup cooking oil (I only had a small amount of basic vegetable oil and had to top up with cold pressed rapseed oil, which has a bright orange colour)
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups flour, Sifted
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the 3 tbsp sugar with the cinnamon

Chop the apples

and toss in the cinnamon mix

Beat the oil and sugar together, then add the orange juice, eggs and vanilla.

Then sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix.

Beat until smooth then layer in your cake tin, 1/3 mix, then half the apples, then another 1/3 mix, the other half of the apples and finally the last portion of mix.

Look at all the luscious juice the apples have made while sitting in that cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 325f (around 165c) for a whole hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

While the cake is baking deal with this:

This note particularly for any teenage budding chefs out there, HINT HINT!

Cool in pan for 15 minutes.

This is a sprig form pan, so then I released the sides, inverted a cooling rack over the top and flipped in order to pull the centre piece of the cake tin out.

Removing the centre was a little more difficult than I had hoped, you may be able to see a crack in the cake.  I will have to be careful when moving it.  Next time I will grease the bottom of the tin better.  Finally I got it removed.  I used another inverted cooking rack over the top and flipped it again to finish cooling.

This should be served just sprinkled with icing sugar.  I won't do that until we get to the event this evening.  Maybe I will remember to take a photograph.

Mini Cinnamon Whirls

I am sure most of you know how to make puff pastry cinnamon whirls.  But have you ever thought of making mini ones?

I needed to make some for a dinner that I am helping to cater for tonight.  It's an Alpha meal and there will be 30 people.  This will just be a little snacklet for when everything is finished, I am also making an apple cake.

Sooooo, you will need:

a mini muffin pan, such as the pampered chef one.
sugar
cinnamon
a pack of ready rolled puff pastry

I don't measure the cinnamon and sugar when I make these.  In fact, you can see how much cinnamon is left in the jar.

I just topped that up with the sugar and shook and rolled the jar to mix.

Open and unroll the sheet of puff pastry.  And here's the really NOT tricky part that will make these into mini whirls.  You simply cut the sheet in half along the length.

Sprinkle the whole thing with your cinnamon sugar mix, like so.

The far side is the cinnamon sugar made with caster sugar as shown in the ingredients photo, and the near side is some cinnamon sugar made with granulated or maybe even demerara sugar that I found I already had in the cupboard.  some people also add melted butter before they sprinkle the sugar on, but honestly this is puff pastry, it doesn't need extra butter.

Roll each piece, from the long edge to make a long narrow roll.

then slice that into pieces.  I think mine are just a bit smaller than a cm each.  But it worked out at 24 pieces from each roll.

Place each piece into a section of the mini muffin pan and bake in an oven at 200 c or whatever temperature your packet of puff pastry says. 

20 minutes later you will have a tray of gorgeous little cinnamon whirls, like so . . .

You could make mini versions of many other puff pastry whirl recipes, both sweet and savoury.  ENJOY!

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Towel Wrap

I've been meaning to make one of these for SO long now and finally decided to just knuckle down and get it done.  A towel wrap for my hair.

I have to admit that I have a large head, very large, in fact even men's extra large hats don't fit me!  SO in order to get a towel wrap that would fit me well and encompass all of my hugely long hair I knew I needed to make my own.  I decided to use the pattern and instructions at Skip to My Lou and just make the wrap bigger than her pattern.

I think I might have made it too much too big, looking at how much fabric I'm having to tuck into the elastic when I use it.  If I make another of these for myself I will probably go with something half way between her pattern and the size I made this time.

The pattern over at Skip to my Lou wants the height when cutting out to be 12 inches.  From the following photos you can see I used almost 14 inches and used the full width of the towel available between any ribbing.

Sewed it together, inserting an elastic loop at the curved end and it was complete.

I also made a spa wrap from a much larger towel, and will share that project later in the week.

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Living Thankfully

Here is my entry for this week's Thankfulness journey, in no particular order . . . .

381. Dinner with friends and hubby able to sort out their computer problems.

382. Awesome meeting of creative team for a charity some members of our church are organising.

383. Surprise of seeing a friend from church at an unexpected time and place.

384. Got some good work done on a sewing project.

385. Learnt more about some of the details of the trip to Romania in September.

386.  Began fund raising for the trip to Romania, and ALREADY it is beginning to come in!

387. New washing machine (washer/dryer actually) arriving today after old one died.

388. Online voucher code sites that gave us an extra 10% off the washing machine that was already on offer, PLUS another almost £10 in cashback.

389. My car is still going and so I am able to take youngest to school on the days he has exams.

390. Hubby has finished the fence we've been waiting quite a while for.  Well, we still need to put a narrow piece of trellis in the very last gap, but all the fence panels are done.

391.  Eldest had good interview at University this week.

392. That meant he was home for a night, and it was good to see him.

393. Lighter month with the school assemblies because some schools are skipping them during exam season.  I have 3 to do instead of 5, although it's a shame that 2 schools are missing out on a fun story.

394. Youngest begins GCSE exams today which means he is moving towards his dreams.

395.

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Treadmill Desk

I spend a lot of time at my computer.  An awful lot of time.  Probably far more than I should.

I also need to get healthy, and part of that is exercise.  A few years ago we bought a treadmill, but never quite used it very much.  I realised this was because it took time out of my day and I wondered if there was a way to combine the exercise with something I already do, so that it wasn't taking any extra time out of my day.  Then I discovered the idea of treadmill desks, both ones that you can buy and ones that you can make yourself.

From then on I was looking for a way to make this work for us.  Finally we did it!

This will only work on treadmills that have their arms a certain way.  Ones with really short arms, or arms that slope down more than this, will not work.  This is what we started with.

 

Then you will need a plank of wood or chipboard or whatever.  We used a piece that was in the shelving section in the DIY store.

You will also need tool storage clips.  These are designed for going on the wall in a shed or garage so that garden tools can be stored on the wall.

We put two on each side of the plank.  I marked the positions by putting the clips onto the arms of the treadmill, laying the plank over the top and then marking the position from underneath.  Just screw the clips on and you are ready to go.  Then turn the plank over so that the clips are underneath, hanging down place it over the arms and press down, the clips open up and grab onto the arms of the treadmill and the shelf is now quite secure, yet easily removable when you need to.  If you look back at that first picture you may be able to see the marks the clips have left on the foam on the arms of the treadmill.

Then all you need to do is set up your laptop and you are ready to walk and do your computer work at the same time.

I can walk at up to 5 km per hour and still check emails, facebook etc, although if I need to type a reply I will usually slow it down to around 4 and if it's a long email or complicated, I'll slow it down some more.

Most mornings I am on there for anything from 30 minutes to a whole hour and even do my daily bible reading on there some days too.

Living Thankfully

Here is my entry for this week's Thankfulness journey, in no particular order . . . .

369. Good Irish honesty in prayer. 

370.  40 isn't 30.

371. Still so thankful that hubby fixed the shower cubicle, it makes life SO MUCH EASIER!

372.  That we have a treadmill that it was possible to fix a laptop shelf onto and that enables me to kill two birds with one stone and exercise while I am doing something I would have been doing anyway.

373.  Gorgeous weather we have been having lately.

374.  And we finally got the needed rain over the weekend.

375.  New motivation.

376.  New communication.

377.  A church that loves and allows for creativity in worship.  Watch for a video post later this week.

378.  Plans for a mission trip moving ahead nicely, should be booking flights this week.

379.  Friends who understand that certain medical conditions can make certain situations difficult and give you a get out without embarrassing you in front of others.

380.  Encouragement from a trusted source.

381. 

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts or in Thankful Thursday, you can do so by clicking on the banners at the top of this post.

Living Thankfully

Here is my entry for this week's Thankfulness journey, in no particular order . . . .

356.  Beautiful, unseasonably warm weather.

357.  Free books.

358.  Taking photographs without looking at the camera screen can yield some interesting results.

359.  Bargains in a store that is closing down.  Including a gorgeous picture frame.

360.  Artists that sell at farmers markets, particularly mixed media abstract artists, particularly when they have bargains available .

361.  Putting 358 and 359 together!

362.  Fantastic encouragement from a totally unexpected source.

363.  Finally got to play with my sewing machine (see an earlier post for my video review of the Singer 4423 Heavy Duty Machine).

364.  Friends who want to pray and be prayed for.  Even over facebook messages!

365.  Possibility of seeing a blast from the past play a comeback gig in July this year!  Fat n Frantic fans - are you going to eb there?

366.  Forms eldest son needed to send in finally got posted off.

367.  Trip to Bath this week to finally do some of the touristy things we never get to do when dropping son off or picking him up.  Thankful in advance for the chance to make this trip.

368.  Having had eldest here for 2 weeks.

369. 

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Max on Life by Max Lucado

Max Lucado answers questions on a whole range of topics.  Questions that have been posed to him over the years, by a whole range of different people.  The 171 questions are grouped into 7 topics: Hope, Hurt, Help, Him/Her, Home, Haves/Have-Nots and the Hereafter.  He tries to bring simple, bite sized answers to what are often complicated questions.

If you want a book to dip in and out of and only have a few minutes at a time to read, this book might indeed be ideal, but I felt that the short answers (1 1/2 pages at the most) don't suit Mr Lucado's writing style.  His greatest skill in my opinion is in story telling, especially in his non fiction books, and here, there is no space for that skill to come through.  I felt that a lot of the answers were too simplistic and did not communicate an appreciation for the depth of feeling of some of the questioners. 

The answers do, however, appear to be biblically based, with references given.

All in all, this book was a disappointment as I have enjoyed every other book of his that I have read.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”