Aisling Beatha

Dream Board

2012-01-30T09:29:00.001Z

Hello to any other Life bookers out there in blog land. Yes, I know, I am behind on doing my dream board, but I think it was worth waiting for because of how I ended up doing it.

What is a Dream Board?

Generally a dream board is a piece of collage art work that represents your dreams in a particular situation. For me this is my dream board for the next 12 months.

Normally you start by just scribbling down on your page some of the words that represent those dreams.

In this case I skipped that part, but here's why, and also the reason I'm glad I didn't do my dream board back in the 2nd week of January.

It was my birthday last week, and one of the things a friend gave me was a blank Christmas card which had Christmas Wishes on the front. She said it was because she thought I needed to write my wishes, dreams, hopes for the coming year down for myself.

Ta-Da the perfect push to complete my dream board and the perfect thing to centre my board around.

So, in this case I wrote all my dreams on the inside of the card and made it a part of the page. You could choose to do either way, or find some other way of incorporating the words or not include words at all, it's all up to you.

The next thing you need to do is find some pictures to go with your dreams. You can cut them out of magazines or find them on the internet and print them out. I did the latter but used proper photo paper to get good quality images.

Play around with a layout of the pictures on the page until you find one you like.

I think that allows me to see everything I need to see and still be able to open the card.

I carefully removed the card so as to leave the layout undisturbed, because I didn't want to attach the card until the adding the colour was complete.

Carefully glue the pictures down using whatever method suits you best. Most of the time I don't use glue sticks when doing art journaling projects but this time I have to admit to doing so. It was to hand and easy to use.

Next you want to start adding some colour. First of all I used some spray inks through stencils, but I didn't get photo of that stage, I was so into the process, I forgot. After the stencil work, I added some acrylic paints. I chose the colours based on the mug of hot chocolate in the top right, purple! I chose two shades of purple and used the same brush, mixing them together on the page as seemed to go well at the time.

Next you want to make it YOU in some way. If you are into fancy lettering, add some of that. If you are into scrapbook embellishments, use those, if you like glitter, grab some of that. I chose to use just a little gold paint. Some onto the page, and then some dry brushed around the very edges of the page.

Finally I added the card back into the middle of the page. This time I did use gel medium as a glue rather than the glue stick,. because I want to be sure it won't come up at a later date.

And there you have it, my dream board for the next 12 months, including the card, which does still open so that I can read what is inside if I choose to.

You can find the sites that i link up to over in the side bar. Come back soon to see more of the work I produce in Life book or my other crafty adventures.

Living Thankfully

2012-01-29T22:11:00.002Z

Another week, another list. Here we go then, in no particular order, On Sunday 29th January 2012 I am thankful for . . . .

576. Awesome, Incredible Amazing friend who made us a huge wooden front of a boat to use as a prop in school bible story assemblies.

577. Incredible school head teachers who can make a suit of armour from cardboard and a stapler in just 10 minutes.

578. Answered prayers for a member of the admin staff at school.

579. ME on the wall of rejoicing. For the current 8 week session of Sunday's Cool each week the children are drawing pictures of things that either make them happy or make god happy to go on our wall of rejoicing. This morning two of the children put pictures of me up there!

580. Although I ached terribly after helping out yesterday at a friend's father's 90th birthday party, I am more or less back to normal now and hope to sleep better tonight.

581. A friend who reminded me this morning that I don't have to DO anything in order to be acceptable to God and that it is OK to say no sometimes.

582. Another member of the church who soaked me in prayer during worship for quite an extended period of time.

583. That as I struggled during that soaking prayer to focus on Worship, God too reminded me I did not need to do anything and that in fact he was giving me this extended prayer time as a gift so that I would have a reason to not DO anything for that period of time.

584. Arch supports that give my feet a bit more support than shoes alone would.

585. By simply moving my chair from the side of the table to the end I now get to journal snuggled up next to the radiator on cold mornings.

586. A comfy sofa and a husband who took over the essential chores for an afternoon.

587. Tickets to a Holocaust Memorial Day event tomorrow (yes I know it was this week but the event is tomorrow) to hear a Holocaust Survivor speak.

588. That even though I have an assembly in the afternoon and have to travel by bus I will still be able to make it from there to the event.

589. The person choosing the nation for prayer for next week's Leadership course had chosen a nation that is not too complicated for me to find food for. There are two of us on food for each session and we have to base the food on the nation chosen for prayer. I am on the rota for food for this up coming one and the nation will be Turkey.

590. Youngest getting an invitation to his first event through a scheme for widening participation in higher education that he only qualifies for because of where we live. It might not be the nicest part of town, but there is plenty of good to living here, not just these advantages.

591.

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.

Re purposing Chocolate Boxes

2012-01-28T10:39:00.002Z

At Christmas I was given a box of these

I don't like that particular drink but did enjoy these chocolates. When they were finished I wondered what to do with the box.

I remembered that a friend has posted about covering boxes with paper.

So I pulled out some paper I had stashed away quite a while ago. Gorgeous, hand made papers from PaperChase from when they had them on offer with 5 for less that the normal price of 1. Heck, as a crafter when you see a deal like that you have to take advantage right. So the paper had been stored for a while and this was the time to bring it out.

The photo doesn't do it justice, red paper with gold threads and gold paper with copper threads, gorgeous stuff. I tore the paper into pieces.

Then I grabbed some PVA glue and diluted it with water. You can go 2 parts water to 1 part glue, but in this case I probably went thicker than that, with less water.

Because I didn't want to lose the effect of the threads I didn't soak the paper with the glue mixture, I brushed it onto the back of each piece.

Place each piece of paper onto the box, covering the whole surface, right to the edges, turning under at the edges, to the inside of the box.

Use more glue at the edges of each piece on top to secure it well. You could glue the whole surface but I found that meant the threads in the paper didn't show as well, so I just worked the edges in this way.

I used the gold paper for the bottom of the box and the red paper for the lid. I don't know what I am going to do with this box yet, but it appears to be just the right size for crayons.

At the bottom right of the lid, you can see what I mean about the gold threads on the red paper losing definition when too much glue was applied.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in the side bar.

Enjoy the Adventure

2012-01-26T08:16:00.000Z

That's my theme for 2012, Enjoy the Adventure. There are lots of things coming up that I already know will be classified as Adventure.

Leadership Course - Seriously, why would someone who struggles with criticism as much as I do take part in a course where basically no one teaches you anything, you just all take turns in doing the stuff and being critiqued by the rest of the people on the course. Seriously why? Because God said 2012 was the year to Enjoy the Adventure, and what is adventure if not a little scary, right?

Then there's another opportunity that is only a possible at this stage and I can't really share here. A team I am involved in, was asked to consider this IF it does come up, and after talking it through with the team, I put myself forward. I won't know until March now if I will go forward to do that, so I have to wait. But if I do, it is going to mean a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. Again scary and out of comfort zone.

Last week the church I am part of had a week of prayer. Meetings every evening. I had been to all so far, when on Thursday I was asked if I was going to be around on Friday. When I said yes I was asked to lead the Friday evening. Scary? Oh yes! But actually I wasn't as wound up as I had expected to be. A little, yes, but not as much. There was a time when even something like leading a small prayer meeting would have had me in the bathroom throwing up! It's still scary, it's still stretching, it's not something I would want to tackle without God, BUT I did it and it went OK, and I came out the other side stronger.

Are you beginning to see a theme here? Adventure, scary, stretching, hard, difficult, etc. What happened to the Enjoy? I actually asked God that last week in my Journal. Yes, I know, OUCH! But I was being real.

I know that there will be times in both those things coming up that will be enjoyable. There are things, already happening that will continue through the year that are both stretching, scary AND enjoyable. I am taking part in a year long online art class that has already had me doing my first 3/4 portrait, my first colour portrait, and my first profile portrait since discovering art as an adult. They're not perfect, but I am having a blast while being stretched at the same time. I also know that there is an element to this theme of finding the enjoyable within things that would normally seem hard to me.

However, God did not disappoint! You see, when I first got my theme, and you can read about it here, the word Enjoy came first, on its own, and God had intended all along for that sometimes to be the case. Monday was my birthday and in amongst the wonderful birthday greetings on facebook there were two that were so personal and so blessing that they brought me to tears. One of them spoke of being thankful my mother gave birth to me, being sad for me that she is no longer around and knowing that she would be proud of me if she were. Oh that made me cry, good tears. I sat and thought of all I have been doing in my craft room lately, thought of the creative woman my mother was and KNEW, probably for the first time in a long time, that my friend was right. My mom would be proud of me.

Then my dad phoned to sing happy birthday. He said he'd been looking at some of the pictures I'd shared on facebook of my recent art work and asked me "Where did you learn to draw like that?" and was asking all about it. That's a big deal to me, a seriously big deal and I am in awe that God would choose to bless me with that from both my mom who is no longer with us and my dad who is in less than 2 days! Enjoy? Oh YES!

Bible Assembly Props

2012-01-24T09:16:00.001Z

The latest in the line of props I have had to make for our bible assemblies is a Spear for the story of David and Goliath.

I had a spare garden cane, that I used for the handle. Then, I took some thick card, well it was 2mm pulp board, really quite thick, and cut out the shape of the spear head.

I covered the length of the garden cane with black duct tape and the cardboard spear head with the normal silver duct tape.

The top of the garden cane already had a split on one side, so I took my craft knife and matched the split with a notch on the other side. I slipped the base of the spear head into that notch. You might be able to see here that it sits IN the cane at the top.

Then I attached the spear head to the cane using more silver duct tape in various different directions to keep it secure.

I'm pleased with how it turned out.

The only problem with all these props for these assemblies, is where to store them. This one is 6feet long! Oh and I have to walk up to school today carrying a bag of costumes and this, and it's raining! Ho hum!

You can check out other costumes and props I have made by clicking on the creativity tab at the top of the page. You will also find my other art and craft projects there.

Prescriptions Getting Expensive?

2012-01-22T22:06:00.002Z

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Yes, I know what you might be thinking, who am I to talk about prescriptions being expensive, living in the Uk and having the national Health Service and so on, but I do hear from all my American friends and readers how hard it can be sometimes paying for your prescriptions over in America. I know of friends who skip doses or even skip entire refills because money is too tight. With some conditions that might mean the difference between a good day and a bad day, but with other conditions that could mean taking some scary risks.

If you have a regular repeating prescription, Walgreens might be able to help. They now have Walgreens Prescription Savings Club. $5 per year for an individual or $10 per year for an entire family.
For that you will get savings on more than 8000 brand name medications and ALL generic medications. You will also get discounts on things like your annual flu shot, nebulizers, diabetic supplies and EVEN prescriptions for your pets.

If you have a condition that means regular prescriptions, this is going to pay for itself really quickly. You can stay up to date with the latest from Walgreens by following them at Walgreens on Twitter or by liking Walgreens on Facebook.

Living Thankfully

2012-01-22T22:02:00.002Z

Another week, another list. Here we go then, in no particular order, On Sunday 22nd January 2012 I am thankful for . . . .

560. A lovely visit from friends this afternoon and fun playing on the Wii with their kids.

561. £10 for youngest for helping our neighbour cut the hedge.

562. on the same day youngest used the last of his credit on his phone.

563. Silence might not always be golden, but on this occasion God used it to speak.

564. The push to step out of comfort zone and do something unexpected, lead the last night of the meetings for prayer week at church.

565. The flowers to thank me for doing so.

566. Despite it being out of comfort zone I was nowhere near as anxious and wound up as I expected to be. I knew it was going to be OK.

567. In the middle of a church meeting room that is difficult to heat, when the sun streams through the windows, even on a cold January day, there are spots that are wonderfully warm.

568. Walking across the room away from that sunlight, I was amused by how long and thin my legs were. Hey gotta take it where it comes, but one day, with a lot of hard work they might look like that for real.

569. Gifts for my Birthday on Monday. I was allowed to open one today, a wonderful journal with watercolour paper and the rest that will wait until tomorrow.

570. Beginning to sense that God is speaking to us again about inviting people over, about things not needing to be perfect, and being able to work around the things that I might thing prevent it.

571. Low sugar cranberry candies, sweet and good for your bladder too. heeheeee.

572. Being free to step out of worship for just a few moments this morning to put my heart right with God and deal with a little issue of forgiveness, then step back in and KNOW it was dealt with, SENSE the change in worship for me.

573. The sound of children laughing and talking about what I've just said as they leave the school assembly hall.

574. Free WiFi in McDonalds meant I could check emails to check which week hubby and I are doing what on the Leadership Interactive Course and look up Haitian recipes for when I am choosing the nation to pray for.

575. Arrived early to pick youngest up from musical theatre group, so spent time in the car praying with hubby.

576.

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.

Life Book Lesson 2

2012-01-18T14:46:00.002Z

Just a quick shout out to any of my readers who are doing Life Book over on Willowing.ning

If you are struggling with this lesson, don't panic. If you are struggling with the whole idea of representing yourself as a goddess because your own beliefs differ from that, don't panic. I too find myself in that position. I am still going to go ahead and complete the page. I picked up on one phrase bonnie used in the video, she was still talking about Goddesses, but ones to represent different parts of your character and she said "Feelings and logic". I can represent the part of me that is more feelings orientated and the part of me that works well with logic, without my page having a single thing to do with goddesses. And yes, I am still going to focus on the fact that there is good in both parts of my personality, because there are good and bad in both, just like Bonnie said.

I am sure you can find two aspects of your personality that while they appear to be opposing can both have a positive influence on your life, when used right. Focus on those, and keep going, you CAN DO THIS and you can learn more about yourself through it without ever compromising your own beliefs.

Now, onto the other part that is stretching me with this class. FIGURES! Oh Lord, I did my first 3/4 portrait for the 1st class, my first ever canvas mixed media piece this week apart from Life Book and now I am doing my first ever figure since rediscovering my artistic side.

I decided to look online for pictures that might represent those two aspects of my personality and work from those. Here is my practice at copying a figure for Feelings.

Of course this particular image is also going to mean my ever face in profile, arrgghhhh!

Maybe you can find an image, look at the instructions in the pdf and draw over that image, with the stick figure that bonnie shows us in the pdf, so you can see where each part is on the photo you have in front of you. Whatever you do, don't give up! I know I won't!

First Canvas

2012-01-18T14:29:00.003Z

After a childhood and teen years believing I was useless at Art, I finally got into art journalling a couple of years ago. But everything I have done art wise since has been in my journal, or on paper, I had not dared to commit anything to canvas. Last week that changed. I saw some small chunky canvases in Home Bargains (a budget store), for just 99p. So I picked one up. I think it is either 6 or 8 inches square on a deep frame.

I started with collaging some scrapboook papers using gel medium. I did some stamping, stencilling and used paint on bubble wrap to create more texture. Then I looked for some shapes, the way Mystele does in her videos. I sketched the outline of the head and the clothes then worked on the background. I tried to do a crackle paint finish on the bottom, but that didn't work and I got bubble paint instead. Still, I like the extra texture it gives.

Then I grabbed some paints and pencils and worked on the face. It's certainly not the best face I've ever done, but overall I like it.

Finally, I painted the sides of the chunky canvas and ran that colour along the edges of the front with my finger.

Take a closer look:

Overall I am pleased with her. I am not sure however if it needs something more. Maybe a 3d embellishment? Maybe some words. It's interesting that for someone whose primary art is writing, I find it difficult to combine words with my drawn and painted art.

Any thoughts?

You can find the sites that I link up to over in my sidebar. Check a few of them out and come back soon to see what else I am doing.

Living Thankfully

2012-01-16T10:12:00.001Z

Another week, another list. Here we go then, in no particular order, On Monday 16th January 2012 I am thankful for . . . .

542. Still having fun in the craft room.

543. Enjoying the digging that results from God prompting me to write Jochobed's story.

544. The push that reading The Creative Call gives me to get writing, when I had expected it to push me to get arting.

545. I had forgotten how much I love creative writing. I am thankful for being reminded.

546. Cheap chunky canvases in one of the local budget shops.

547. The gorgeous looking frost that is outside this morning, and

548. The fact that I don't need to go out in it.

549. our central heating boiler was not condemned (although it may not pass next year's inspection) and we DO have time to organise a replacement.

550. When we NEED to do that God WILL provide.

551. While my attempt at milky jelly (jello for my American friends) didn't quite look right, it will still taste fine. I'll let it set up more next time before I whisk the milky stuff in.

552. the apps on my phone that let me read and stay organised on the go.

553. I was able to get the speaking slot I wanted for the Leadership Interactive course at church. I have until May to prepare a 10 minute talk on Encouragement.

554. Encouragement from a friend about my writing.

555. Questions from another friend about my writing about who and why? They may not be comfortable questions, but they will make me a better writer.

556. Week of prayer at church, time to focus in, and lift up the body before HIM.

557. Lunch with a family from church yesterday that went much better than I had expected. Must return the favour but we can't sit that many people around our table, hmmmmmmm

558. 17 year old boys still want to sit with their mom sometimes on the sofa.

559. The lime cordial that is making it much easier to drink more water each day.

560.

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.

This Week in the Craft Room

2012-01-13T15:14:00.001Z

Quick update on what is happening in the craft room this week:

Painting - I'm working on my first canvas, a chunky canvas I picked up for less than £1, which I collaged with some scrapbook papers, and then painted over with various layers. She's not finished yet. I need to do the face and finish the clothes. I'm thinking about doing a crackle paint finish over the background at the bottom.

Art journaling - Worked a couple of pages this week. One that recorded the words a friend spoke over me during prayer time at church and one that I started intending it to be that other one, but that morphed into something else as I worked. Ho hum, that's the thing with art journaling, sometimes you discover as you work that this page wants to be something else.

Writing - I am currently working through "The Creative Call" by Janice Elsheimer, a Christian response to "The Artists Way". Reading, writing, etc. The current creative writing piece that I am working on is "Jochobed's Story". The story of Moses birth and early years seen from his mothers point of view. I'm working on it a little at a time and struggling with some of the background details. I know Moses was 80 at the time of the Exodus, but how old would he have been when he left Midian and returned to Egypt? Would that have been just months before the Exodus, or could it have been a few years. It makes a difference to where and when I set the telling of the story.

I think it is reasonable to expect Jochobed MAY have had her first child as young as 14 or 15, women were married and mothers much younger back then. If we assume that that first child was Miriam, and that Miriam was around 7 or so when Moses was hidden in the bulrushes along the river, then Jochobed could have been as young as her early to mid twenties when she had Moses. 80 years later would make her over 100. Is it reasonable to assume she would still be alive at the time of the Exodus? I know in the early parts of the Bible people lived much much much longer, but Moses himself lived to be 120, so???? In my mind it probably would be stretching it TOO far to have her still alive and telling the story then, which is why I am wondering how much earlier Moses came home. If it was a few years, even just 3 or 4, then it would be feasible to set the telling of the story as one of the final things she does, telling the story to other relatives after Moses return. Ho hum, thinks thinks thinks.

Other Crafty Pursuits - Hubby and I have just started a leadership course at church. We were given the notes for the course as loose sheets, with the suggesting of putting them into a folder. We don't have desks to lean on during this course, just have our notes in our laps, and I don't know about you, but I can't be doing with a whole folder open on my lap and a bible and a pen!

So I decided to get my Bind it All out and put something together with that. I have some 2mm thick board, that I could use as the back, which would make it plenty sturdy enough to write on. That way I could fold the pages I have already done around to the back and still be able to access the pages I needed, with just one A4 space on my lap. I wanted to use some patterned thin card for the front but I discovered the patterned card wasn't quite A4, which all the papers are, oh dear!

Can you see that strip of pink at the top, yes, the patterned card is 5mm too short. I grabbed some plain card, and trimmed the patterned card down so that it was 5mm too short on all 4 sides, and stuck it down using my ATG gun.

Once that was done I headed to my Bind it All. Oooops, not concentrating and this happened:

It's supposed to look like this:

Don't panic, I found a way to still use this card. We'll come back to that later.

I added in a couple of blank sheets of paper after each weeks notes since we are also supposed to journal our experiences on the course and this means I can keep those notes in there. Then I punched all the pages and the backing board then pushed the O wires through the holes and squished it up in the Bind it All. For some reason I can't get my O wires to squish to circles, they always seem to go like this, with a kind of point in the middle, I wonder what I am doing wrong.

Now back to that badly punched bit. I was so glad I decided not to decorate the front until after I bound it, because I was able to switch that round to the upper right corner, and cover it up like this:

Girly enough to be me, but not SO girly and pink that all the guys on the course (over twice as many guys as ladies), give me weird looks.

Oh and BTW, does anyone think it has been far too long since I emptied out the chamber on my Bind it All?

You can find the sites I link up to, over in the sidebar.

Living Thankfully

2012-01-08T22:55:00.000Z

Another week, another list. I know a lot of people are following Anne's lead and starting again from 1. I won't be doing that, but I will be using the January suggested list as prompts to remember things. Here we go then, in no particular order, On Sunday 8th January 2012 I am thankful for . . . .

527. I had the courage to get back on the scales and back on track with logging what I eat and getting some exercise.

528. The words spoken over me by a friend this morning during prayer ministry.

529. I am surprising myself with what I can achieve art wise. Producing work I would never have thought possible even 6 months ago.

530. The extra windy weather of the last week has caused no significant damage in our garden (yard).

531. So far the rain that the windy weather brought with it down the river Severn has not caused significant damage in the flooded areas and the flood barriers seem to be doing their work.

532. One of the things about starting a diet at such a high weight is I can still fit in a McDonalds hot chocolate with my hubby and sharing a McDonalds fruit pie.

533. 2 hours in my craft room today working on something which isn't finished yet.

534. When I was trying to explain to the Sunday's Cool children the bible verse about motivating each other to good works, they all starting cheering ME on. Made me smile.

535. Youngest son is still enjoying having joined the local light operatic, musical theatre group and even doing some choreographed routines in the next showcase.

536. Being asked specifically to take part in a particular course at church. I had wanted to do it but hadn't put myself forward for various reasons, and then the leader of the course approached me and asked me to do it.

537. A full rainbow as we left for church this morning, right in front of the house, confirming my decision to yes go ahead and do the course.

538. We've had none of this weather so far this winter, although I hear the forecast has some after next weekend.

539. On Friday I got to go to the official opening of the new building for one of the schools that I do regular assembly talks for. WOW, so light, and bright. And I ended up in the photos on the local newspaper's website.

540. 2012 is going to be a SIGNIFICANT year, I just know it!

541. Only about 2 weeks to go to finish my current bible in 12 months reading, then I get to choose another reading plan.

542.

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.

Life Book 2012

2012-01-02T18:43:00.000Z

Hellooooo to any other Life Bookers out there, reading this.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, let me explain. Life Book is a 12 month, online art class put together by the awesome Tamara Laporte.

12 months, with 2 full video lessons each month, plus extra activities on the in between weeks. I treated myself to this by paying for it with what I earn from the sponsored blog posts that I make. Then I made a Christmas list with some of the supplies I would need, and was blessed to receive a lot of them.

Class opened as the year turned into 2012, and over 600 people are now arting away!

As a Christian some of the "healing exercises" that come along with the lessons, do not sit right with what I believe and the way I think. BUT that's Ok, truly it is. If you've been thinking about lifebook but concerned about that part of it, don't be. Take a risk and give it a go, I am sure you will find it's OK.

For instance, this very first lesson is all about identifying and celebrating our positive qualities. In the lesson they are described as "goddess superpowers" but that doesn't mean you have to consider them so and I would say that only about half of the completed pages I have seen so far have described them as such.

So, if the spiritual aspect of any of the lessons concerns you, you can do what I and others have done and put that little change to it, or you could just skip that part altogether and focus only on the art aspect of them, it would still be well worth the money in my opinion (and this is NOT a sponsored post BTW).

I didn't quite have the right supplies for the first lesson, not having the colours of watercolour crayons that Tam suggests, and not being able to find my brayer for the background. I know I have one, I have looked all over the craft room but I cannot find it. I wonder if I took it down to church for a craft project with the children, hmmmmmm.

So I improvised, I used the colours that I did have and I did some stencilled ink for the background instead.

Making the list of positive qualities is not necessarily easy, most of us are more used to thinking on the things we need to change, the things we need to do better at and so on, particularly at this time of year. Even if you don't do art or are not part of Life Book, why don't you sit down with a notepad and pen and make that list of positive qualities that you have and make celebrating them in some little way a part of your new year.
I started with a list of whole phrases, but was able to narrow each of those phrases down into just one or two words.

If you have been following my art journal adventures on my blog you will know that I have been learning to draw faces, something I could NEVER do when I was at school, and until less than a year ago still believed I could not do. This page is both the first face I have done in 3/4 profile since starting to learn properly AND the first colour face I have done in that time. I am over the moon with how it turned out.

You can check out the linky parties I link up to in the side bar and please come back soon to see more of what Life Book brings.

Living Thankfully

2012-01-01T21:20:00.000Z

Another week, another list. Here we go then, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . .

515. Awesome, wonderful, amazing art goodies for Christmas gifts!

516. Year long online art class, 2 proper "lessons" each month, but something new every week.

517. The "Celebration of the Nativity at J1" went really well. J1 is our church building and we had an evening for all users of the building with a bring and share meal, followed by a celebration in words and music. We had the indoor carpet bowl group, the Light Operatic group, the the art group, the charity working in supporting mentally disabled adults and the boys brigade group. Most of them are not Christian groups, they just happen to use our building. It went far better than any of us could have hoped for and was a really great event.

518. Christmas eve outdoor carols, with music from the Bournville Carillon.

519. Hearing my boys laugh in the other room.

520. Moments of connection with my teenage boys in between the attitude and other teenage/ young adult junk.

521. Hubby seems impressed with my gift to him, a year long basket of pre-organised date nights.

522. Lots of yummy foods over Christmas and a 17 year old son who is so eager to cook.

523. If I'm going to get a cold that blocks my nose and my throat (not at all fun when you have sleep apnoea and use a CPAP machine), I am thankful it happened while I didn't have "work" to do.

524. Questions that already had answers, just needed a friend to ask "So what do YOU want to about it?"

525. Having hubby's father round for Christmas day went well, even if we did have to watch an hour of Lawrence of Arabia. (Who knew that movie was over 4 hours long, good grief).

526. Party at my dad's house was fun, and the bouncy penguin made his annual appearance.

527.

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.

2012 - The Year to ENJOY

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

I really was NOT going to go seeking a theme for 2012, honestly, truly, I wasn't going to stress about it and make a big deal of it. It wasn't so much that I was determined not to have one, just that I wasn't going to actively seek one out.

It seems God had other plans.One day at the end of November I thought I got an inkling of something, just one word but it seemed ridiculous, so I pushed it out of my head.

The following morning that one word got more flesh on it and made more sense. Then that afternoon I was at a lunch with the team of a local anti trafficking group, where we met with the young ladies who put on the play about trafficking at the big fund raiser/awareness event we attended last year. We're going to put on a big event which all the other agencies working on trafficking will be invited to, at which the ladies will perform their updated version of the play, which we will then invite school staff, youth workers, local politicians, etc to, in order to build awareness but also build credibility for he organisation by hosting an event which all the other established agencies come to.Oh and we're also going to be planning a masked ball for October next year as well.Well after that I kind of knew I was right.

The word was ENJOY. I mean, seriously, like God is going to tell someone to take a whole year to just ENJOY? D'you know what that's not actually an accurate representation of what went through my head. If I'm being more honest it was "Sure, God might tell someone else to do that, (I have a close friend who had a year of Delight) but he'd never say that to me". There, I've said it! I figured it was something God could quite possibly say to others but never to me.

I did say that that one word got more flesh on it the morning before the meeting mentioned above. It did indeed, it became ENJOY THE ADVENTURESo there you have it. 2012, the year to enjoy the adventure.

. . .

What will that mean? What will it bring? I certainly don't think it's going to be a year of sitting back and doing nothing and just enjoying life like that, at all. I have an inkling of a slight possibility of something that MIGHT be coming up, that would certainly fulfil the adventure part for me. But it isn't even a definite possibility yet, so news of that will have to wait.

One thing I know I am going to be enjoying is the year long online art class I have signed up for over at Willowing.ning, which you can find a link to in my sidebar. In fact, as I write it is 5 minutes to midnight on New Years Eve and I am waiting for the stroke of midnight when I think the first class (or at least something) will go live.

. . .

Do you have a theme for 2012? If not, maybe it's something you could think about.

Taking a Trip in the Coming Year?

2011-12-31T17:17:00.001Z

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of My Travel Checklist for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of the things I did in the last year was take a trip to Romania. This wasn't any ordinary trip, it wasn't a holiday (vacation), it was a trip to a mission project that my church is involved in to teach craft projects to a group of Roma Gypsy women. That meant my packing needs were a little different than usual, we could only afford to take one case because of the airline we were using, but I filled nearly my entire case with craft materials. I ended up buying a bigger case!

Have you ever had problems packing for a trip?

Do you worry that you might forget things? I know I do. I usually write lists, lots of lists, but the problem is there is only one copy and that is at home and if I am out shopping and try to remember what I need to pick up for the trip, invariably I either forget something or pick up something that I already had.

That's where My Travel Checklist comes in. You can make a list online, or download an app to your computer or mobile phone, by first choosing between a number of option regarding who you are, how long the trip is and what type of trip it is, you will narrow down the options the checklist then offers you.

At this point you go through the suggested items and check which ones you want added to your list. Once you have completed this process you can add any extra items that you can think of. It doesn't just cover packing lists, it covers anything you need to get done before you leave. From this point, you can print out your list, or send it to your email. You can also continue to access it online or on your phone where you can check off items as your complete them, knowing that the list will be updated both in the app and if you check it online.

It makes making your list so much easier and ensures you will always have access to your list, no matter where you are!

2011 - The Year of NEW

2011-12-31T10:18:00.002Z

If you want to know more about yearly themes, or about my recent yearly themes and how 2011 came to be the year of NEW, check out my recent post about my yearly themes and the links I shared at the end of that post.

Specifically, you might want to check out the post from the beginning of 2011 about my theme for 2011, NEW, how I came to that realisation and the bible verses I was standing on. If you read that you will see there were certain things I was pretty sure were going to be part of my year but I wasn't yet ready to discuss. One of those was "teaching". I had NO IDEA how or why or when, but I knew in my gut it would be part of my year.

If you have followed my blog during this year you will know that I did indeed get to do that. I travelled to Romania at the very end of the summer to teach craft projects to a group of poor Roma Gypsy women and teens at a project our church has connections with. These were projects that hopefully will continue and be grown through the people that are still there, and eventually lead to these women having things they can make to sell. It was a hard trip in many ways, but we also had fun.

Other New things,

I have an eldest son at university and a younger son at sixth form college. That means I no longer have a son at school.

I picked up a new school in my work doing talks in school assemblies. I also lost one because their schedule can't fit around the other new thing. I now lead a team of 4 of us women from church plus the head teacher of the school, doing weekly bible story assemblies in our closest school. It has been a really exciting first term doing that and we have had lots of positive responses.

Do the New things end as 2011 ends?

As in previous years, there is certainly going to be an overflow of the previous year's theme into the new year.

On 1st January, Life Book Starts and I am really excited for a year of online art classes.

And as last year there is another possibility in the wings, waiting to be fleshed out and opened up. It fits with both the theme for 2011 and the theme for 2012, but at this stage is still only a POSSIBILITY, so I won't be talking about it until I know more.

Later today I will get around to writing a post about my theme for 2012, so check back tomorrow if it's not up there yet!

What is a Yearly Theme all about

2011-12-31T09:55:00.000Z

Reposting from December 2010, which is, in itself a repost from December 2009, which was an edited version of what I posted in 2008. Anyway, here it is:

I first came across the idea of themes for the year a few years ago through reading the blogs of friends. Basically the idea is to seek God for an underlying theme for the coming year and then watch how He works that out in your life. Also considering your actions and lifestyle in light of that theme.
I started doing this myself a few years ago and have noticed more and more people commenting on their themes for the year.
Some years this has been a process of taking time out, sitting with God, looking at the previous years theme, how that went, praying, reading, listening, and other times it has just been one word or phrase that dropped into my spirit and I KNEW that that was the theme for that year.
Some years the theme seems like a really nice one and you approach the year thinking "Yeah, I can DO this, this will be fun." and other years you approach your theme with a little trepidation.
For instance, I have friends whose recent themes include Patience, and everyone knows if God wants to grow patience in you, He's going to put you in some situations that will require you to grow patience and those might not be fun. I have another friend whose theme for the coming year is Enjoy and I'm really excited to watch and see what God does with her this year.
Other years you look at your theme and you think it's going to be one thing and looking back on the year at the end you see it totally fitted with your theme BUT absolutely NOT in the way you had expected that to work out.
As an example a few years ago my theme for the year was "Seeking God for myself, not relying on others to speak into me." I thought "yeah, I can do this, lots of time praying, reading my bible, listening for god to speak, yeah, I can do this." What I did not expect was for it to be the most isolating year of my life socially, where a lot of relationships were stretched, broken, and there were fewer and fewer people close enough to be able to speak into my life. I had no choice but to seek out God for myself.
Then there was 2008. REST! Great, fantastic, slow down, take it easier, REST. HA! God really has a sense of humour.
I started 2008 knowing that I was having some medical symptoms that I suspected were sleep apnoea related. I had tried to seek medical advice previously but had been rebuffed by our family doctor who would not refer me to a specialist. As my symptoms began to worsen, and I realised I had less and less energy, needing frequent 3 or 4 hour daytime naps just to get through the day, falling asleep sat up at the computer desk, and even, at times mid conversation with my family, I knew I would have to face the doctor again. And I was prepared for it to be a battle, I was prepared that I would need to FIGHT to be heard.
Alongside that, hubby and I had been struggling in our role as small group leaders at church. We had taken on what turned out to be an incredibly difficult group, for various reasons. We HAD previously tried to get help in our role, but had not been heard, we had even tried to quit before, but had been persuaded to stay. I was prepared for this, too to be a battle, I was prepared to have to FIGHT for what I knew God was doing in me!

So, here were two situations in which I was totally expecting a battle.
When I finally got up the courage to approach the doctors again, in the end I got my referral to the sleep clinic! PRAISE GOD. I went to my first appointment and for the first time in relation to these symptoms I felt like I was really HEARD. It truly felt like God had gone before me and prepared the way.

Small group leading? It was awesome. We hold no blame over the couple who led the ministry at that time at all, and they were absolutely fantastic, totally coming to terms with where we were at, apologising for not having realised before and giving us the space to step back with no repercussions.

So, two situations in which I expected battle and found nothing but the way already prepared before me.
A year in which physically I was forced to take more and more rest as my symptoms grew.
A year in which I tried to make much more of a focus on getting to "soaking" meetings, where we just sit on a comfy sofa, or lie on the floor and rest while appropriate worship music is played over us. Sometimes someone prays and sometimes they don't, but we just SOAK in God's presence.
Then, at church family camp 2008 I had the most amazing experience.
I wasn't sure about how attending camp would affect my sleep, and not being able to nap during the day, etc, but I went anyway, figuring if had to hide out in our unit I would. There was this one meeting, and worship was awesome, and I was singing and dancing, and then the tiredness, slowly began to come over me. And I got to a point, where I could not dance any more, but I still stood and sang, and raised my hands. And as the tiredness grew, my hands came down to hold on to the seat in front, and then I had to sit down and eventually even stop singing. I could not even muster to the energy to do that. I COULD NOT fight the sleep, I could not DO anything for God in that moment, I did not even have the energy to think through the words of the song in my head, it was all I could do to just BE. And in that moment I felt the nearness of God like I have NEVER felt it before, I felt His love and His closeness, and His passion, and it overwhelmed me. I mean, seriously overwhelmed me. I could DO NOTHING, and in that moment He came to me. I could DO NOTHING and in that moment He poured out His love on me. I could DO NOTHING and in that moment he came to dwell with me. I could do NOT ONE THING to make myself acceptable to God, I could not earn it in any way shape or form, I could not even keep my eyes open in the worship service, and in that place, He expressed His passionate love and care for me.
2009 began with a theme of Breakthrough but in fact, at first glance, it started with some situations that did not look like breakthrough at all.
I would not be allowed to drive my car for a few months at least. Due to my diagnosis of Sleep Apnoea, my driving licence had been medically revoked. My precious little gift of a car was put off road for a while!
I was to receive a local bus pass because of that but that would take 5 or 6 weeks to come through, so in the meantime, and for any journeys after it came through that were not possible by bus, I was reliant on others!

So, NO, this didn't look like breakthrough, and it didn't feel like breakthrough, but I KNEW that I knew that I knew, that God, the Father had His hands completely on this whole process and that He would use this, even this to bring about the breakthrough He intended!

And at the same time, I was heading towards some fantastic moments of breakthrough that I already knew about!
Hubby and I celebrated 15 years of marriage in February. Something a lot of people never thought we'd do!
I got my CPAP machine (Sleep apnoea treatment) at the end of January 2009 and despite an early struggle to get used to it and moments of absolute despair at the possibility of things never improving I am now able to go about my day without falling asleep and without needing daytime naps and live life more or less normally. Of course there are still bad days, bad nights, and I still don't have the energy to do EVERYTHING, but this is SO much better than things were before I got treated.
The restoration of day time energy levels meant I could focus once again on losing some weight and increasing my heart health through exercise! And that year I lost almost 30 pounds.
I have also seen breakthrough in other areas of my life, I got my driving licence back at the end of the summer 2009, and God met me particularly in the struggle and desire for deeper female friendship, with that being met in more than 1 way. God had also spoken to my local church about breakthrough, that October, using the very verses from Joshua that I had used to back up my theme for that year.

2009 was NOT over yet when I wrote this list of points. I did not Believe the year of Breakthrough was over yet! I believed there was much to come, both in the remaining 5 weeks of the actual year, and truly, I believed beyond that! When I sought God for a theme for 2010 it was not denying the breakthrough that would continue, it was merely adding to it!
So, 2010? This list was originally written in November 2009 and friends had been speaking of their themes for this coming year already, and I was refusing to even acknowledge it, refusing to accept that this was possible. I was still in the middle of my busiest 2 months of the year and quite simply, it was not even on my radar and I was fine with that.
THEN, one morning in November 2009, I was lying in bed and a thought dropped into my head, ONE WORD! And I thought after it, "Oh that might be my theme for the year" Then I reminded myself that I was refusing to think about that yet and that anyway was I really sure I wanted a theme like that? Remembering what I said up in points 6 and 7.
I mentioned to some friends that I thought I MIGHT have my theme and was GRUMP GRUMP GRUMP in response to it.
The truth is this theme fits in with other things that God has been speaking to me over recent weeks, and was confirmed by a blog post from someone whose writing I trust, the morning I wrote this list.
One word - or at least one word, that can be put in a number of different ways.
SIMPLE
simplify
simplification
SIMPLE!
Not working harder and harder, but working smarter. Not doing things just because "well someone's got to do it" but focusing on those things that I believe God wants ME to do. Not doign things because "Doing A is the only way B is going to happen" but trusting God that what He has promised to do, He WILL do. Simplifying STUFF as well, de-cluttering, getting rid of junk, emotionally, spiritually and physically. NOPE, I don't think this is going to be an EASY theme to live through, but I think it's going to be an adventure, and I am up for that!

addition in December 2011:

Check out the following links to see other posts on my yearly themes

What I Thought Simplicity Would Mean in 2010

How the Theme for 2010 Actually Went

Finally, a theme for 2011

An Art Journal Page to go With My Theme for 2011

Living Thankfully

2011-12-18T22:01:00.002Z

Another week, another list. Here we go then, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . .

499. Fun evening playing Wii with my boys and hubby.

500. I reached 500 things on this list.

501. Don't think I badly hurt the kid I accidentally whacked on the head with a microphone in this morning's Christmas celebration at church. He seemed OK when I last saw him.

502. The rest of the celebration went really well!

503. With the school term (and therefore Open the Book) being over, I could now take a bit of a break from costume and prop making for a couple of weeks.

504. I could also take some time to get a little bit ahead if I wanted to.

505. Fun evening with hubby in a gorgeous hotel, for his work Christmas party. Our table consisted of us, another couple a bit older than us, and the three youngest engineers in the company at 23, 23 and 26, with their girlfriends. Don't know if we were meant to keep them in line or what.

506. Fresh eggs from a friend's son. It's getting colder here but his chickens are still laying like it was summer!

507. Youngest son making the wise decision about what he should do with his time tomorrow even if it's not the fun one.

508. Eldest son is home for Christmas!

509. Small Group Christmas dinner was fun and got a lovely secret santa gift.

510. Think I've now bought every gift that needs to be bought, other than a few stocking stuffers.

511. We had a head start on writing this years Christmas cards when we discovered a pile we had written last year but not handed out!

512. New family were back at church this week and were able to stay for the bring and share meal. Would like to get to know them better.

513. God is good and his mercies never change!

514. Awesome book I picked up that is a great advent read!

515.

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.

How Much Could You Save?

2011-12-15T21:46:00.000Z

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of ING Direct for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Do you have a savings account? In these tough financial times, savings might be the last thing on your mind, but it is still important to put some money away, especially when the rainy day is more likely to be around the corner. Having that buffer to fall back on might be just what you need if the worst happens.
Maybe it's not a rainy day you are worried about, but you need to save for a big event such as a wedding, or family holiday.
How much are you saving compared to others? Ever wondered that? I had, and so I was interested to find out that ING Direct, here in the UK has a widget that gives you the ability to find out the average that households in your area are putting into their Savings Accounts.
Find out more about ING Direct SavingsCheck it out and see how you compare and whether you might need to increase your savings to keep in line with others or if you are doing really well and can give yourself a pat on the back.
It is just one tool you can use to work out how you are doing and maybe it will give you a push in the direction of putting even just a little away for the future.

Christmas Shepherds in Colour

2011-12-12T08:38:00.001Z

You may remember this picture from a few posts ago:

There was some question over whether I should colour them in or leave them as they were.

Then a week went by and this happened:

Can you see that? Yes, a child took a crayon to the wall. I spoke to a couple of people and it was one of our young adults who gave the most insight. He said if you were a child, with access to crayons and you saw an almost life size colouring page, what would you do? I concluded that he was right, and set about colouring them in over a few sessions. We do keep crayons in that corner for the children to use during the service, but most of them were broken, so we have temporarily removed them and all colouring pages. I will buy a new set of crayons for the children that use that corner in the new year.

I pulled the box of kids paints back out and began mixing colours to suit what I wanted. I quickly learnt that some brands of children's paints are better than others and know which ones to buy when we come to need more.

Finally though, the corner was finished. We have now pushed the tables up against the wall beneath the picture as the children kept standing up against it yesterday and we don't want the paper to come down.

You can find the sites I link up to over in the side bar! Have a blessed week, and if you don't come back before Christmas, I hope it's a good one!

Edited on 14th December to add:
One final photo that I grabbed last night. From the outside at night, with the lights on inside you can see the window shepherds just as clearly.

Living Thankfully

2011-12-12T08:15:00.001Z

Another week, another list. Here we go then, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . .

482. Eldest is coming home from university this week. It will be good to see him.

483. Youngest saying what needed to be said in a difficult situation.

484. Husband who while eager to move forward in a particular area is happy to wait and not pressure those making the decision. I wish I could be as patient, I wanna know now!

485. Ladies tea party and some ideas for how to move forward in the next year.

486. Losing my hair could be a fun event next Spring! (heehee)

487. Youngest having so much fun singing, both in the college choir and in the local Light operatic group. Although having to sing every conversation he had with me was a bit much last week, GRIN!

488. Apps on my phone that help keep me organised, things are a lot more likely to get done now that I can use this.

489. A second charger for that phone so that I can charge it by the bed overnight, means if I remember something at bedtime that needs to go on a list, I can add it right there on my phone. I can't tell you how many things this means have not got forgotten.

490. Enjoying journaling through some advent devotionals.

491. It looks like my father in law will be coming to us for Christmas day. Wish we had an extra bed so that he could stay the night too.

492. Slice and Bake cookie dough that is already in my freezer so that making the cookie trays for the schools that I do assemblies at will be so much easier than in previous years!

493. That also meant it was really easy to do one tray a week early for the school that finished their term a week early because they are moving to a new building over the Christmas break.

494. An invitation to the opening of the new school building.

495. Lunch at "Top Table" in one of the other schools I do assemblies at, with the whole Open the Book team.

496. The wall that was damaged in our church building is still standing and the landlord is insisting our neighbours who damaged it have to pay for the repairs. They drove into the party wall with a forklift truck and moved it 1 inch towards our side in a number of places.

497. Although that damage meant the local school could not come and have their Christmas carol concert in our building as planned, they were able to find another location.

498. The Shepherds corner (Christmas Decorations) at church is finished. Had I known it was going to take a total of 8 hours work, I'm not sure I would have started it but I AM glad I did it.

499.

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.

No Tree?

2011-12-08T08:33:00.001Z

We only have a small house and as various bits of furniture have been added over the years, there has been less and less room for a tree at Christmas. So I am having to find creative ways of using our decorations. In the dining room, I decided to go with something that hangs from the ceiling.

We have a whole load of blue tree decorations from a blue phase I went through a couple of Christmases ago, and our Christmas placemats are a snow scene with blue sky. I figured blue and white was a good idea for the whole room then, so I got hubby to put up our string of blue lights and I got to work.

I knew I wanted a frame of some sort to hang from the ceiling and then hang the decorations from. I grabbed my one remaining embroidery hoop, which I no longer use, some blue and white ribbon from IKEA and a glue gun.

Attach the end of the ribbon to the frame with a blob of hot glue at an angle, so that you can wind the ribbon around the frame.

Wrap the ribbon around and around the frame, gluing every few turns.

When you get back to where you started, cut the ribbon at an angle to prevent fraying and glue down. I used an extra blob of glue over the end of the ribbon to be sure of no fraying.

And you will have something that looks a bit like this:

You can leave the frame like this or you can add more to it. I had some wired decoration string, that I decided to use.

Being wired it was easy to manipulate into place and only needed hot glue at the very beginning and end, although I did have to hold the wire into the glue at the end, it kept wanting to pop up out of the blob of glue before it has begun to set.

I had just enough wired thingy left to create the hanging method. You could use more ribbon, or string, or even fishing wire if you wanted that part to be less visible.

I cut two lengths

Then I attached the first one by bending the wire around the frame at one end and twisting it back around itself like a tie wrap.

Did the same at the other end on the opposite side of the hoop. I didn't measure the exact opposite point, just eyeballed it.

With the second string, I did the same, but when it crossed the other wire in the middle, I looped it once around the first wire, to keep them together.

Next I grabbed narrow ribbon and baubles. If you don't have narrow ribbon, you could use embroidery thread, fishing wire or anything else you have to hand that you think might work.

I started with the 4 long, pointy baubles. I cut off those fishing wire loops that are on them in the above picture. I cut 4 matching lengths of ribbon and tied them onto the baubles.

Tie your baubles onto the frame. I started by putting these 4 in the centre of each section created by the upper wire and then worked to fill in the gaps.

Use a variety of lengths of ribbon and keep holding it up as you work to see where you need to fill gaps.

Deciding when to stop, when you have added enough, may be the most difficult part. But in the end I did. And this is the result. I have hung it from the ceiling in the dining room, using 2 drawing pins (thumbtacks), slightly to one side of where our usual dining table is. The reason it is slightly to one side is that we have 2 smaller identical tables in there, that we push together for special occasions. When we put the tables together for Christmas dinner, it should be hanging right over the middle.

You can find the sites I link to over in the sidebar. Go check a few of them out and come back soon.

Living Thankfully

2011-12-04T21:48:00.001Z

So much to be thankful for this week. Here we go then, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . .

461. Journaling 7 days running! Compared to recently I am doing well and this is something I am so thankful to God for because it keeps me grounded and helps me grow.

462. Children in school assembly who are totally willing to "give it a go" and eat a whole chocolate covered Brussels sprout.

463. Whole school that burst into spontaneous applause for her bravery.

464. My youngest got to pick up his exam certificates this week and we heard some awesome news about the future of that school that is also awesome news for the whole local community.

465. A friend's son being willing to loan us some toy swords for Open the Book.

464. Fantastic Open the Book assembly resulting in head teacher and 6 "Egyptian Soldiers" being drowned by another group of children who were playing the part of the sea. It was incredible!

465. Another school expressing possible interest in Open the Book.

466. Even though I had switched phone to silent in advance of assembly I still got message from the friend who picks me up, in just enough time to run up to school.

467. Waiting by writing . . .

468. Possible further involvement for one of the team in our main school.

469. Awesome meeting with a group of young actresses who want to bring their antic trafficking play to our church building as part of an event for the anti trafficking charity headed up by two members of our church.

470. Their acceptance of our concerns over the level of language in the original play and willingness to tone that down because of the performance being in a church building.

471. Their eagerness to go away and write more into the play to include everything they learnt from their meeting with us.

472. The incredible day 2 friends had at a government event in London on Monday.

473. The incredible day those same two friends had at another event on Friday.

474. Even though our next door neighbours in our church building ran into the wall with a fork lift truck (we meet in a converted factory unit), and have actually shifted the wall between the two buildings by about an inch towards our side, everything is still standing, no one was hurt and we were still able to use that room (our main room) this morning.

475. I have my theme for the year 2012, and find it quite amusing. God certainly has a sense of humour.

476. I actually got that theme confirmed on 30th November. Later that day someone pointed out to me that advent is the start of the church calendar year. How cool, so I could start considering this my yearly them right now! (I will write a post or two about that theme later this month).

477. Reminder from a friend that if I am tired my body needs rest and I should listen to it. Yes miss Dana, thank you!

478. Fantastic family that visited us at church this morning. The first time I know of that we have had a child in Sunday's Cool who is only just learning English. I hope they come back.

479. God speaks, today, and encouragement comes! THANK You LORD!

480. Invitation to "Top Table" for the whole Open the Book team. A weekly event in the school's dining hall, where specially chosen children and adults get to eat together at a special table, waited on and treated really specially. So looking forward to that this week.

481. Father in Law went away on holiday (vacation) by himself for the first time since his wife died earlier this year. He seems to be having a good time and coping OK.

482.

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Christmas Shepherds

2011-12-02T12:06:00.001Z

It seems the job of organising the decorating for Christmas at church has fallen to our small group. Thankfully others are helping but we are doing a lot of it. I volunteered for one corner in the main room and the room that the children meet in (although the idea for that room came from someone else, I am actioning it).

The corner of the main room that I am decorating is where we have our nursery corner. We do have a separate nursery room, but we have this corner as well, so that parents can keep their young children occupied and still be in the meeting.

First of all I took down the one piece of art work that was on the main wall in that area, and began covering the painted brick wall with frieze paper.

Once that was done I fetched an Overhead Projector and brought out the images I had printed onto OHP sheets the day before.

I pencilled in all the lines onto the paper. This wasn't easy as the sun coming through that window was very bright and making it difficult to see where the lines were. I had to put myself between the sunlight and whatever particular part of the paper I was working on. That, of course, meant I sometimes got in the way of the light from the projector. But eventually I got it done.

You can tell how bright the sun was by how difficult it is to make out the pencil marks in the above photo.

I used children's colouring pages from the internet for the images, and put bits from a number of pictures together to make my final image. I couldn't resist this sheep and had to include it, a number of times in fact. I even had one peeping out from behind the shepherd's robes.

I grabbed paint and brushes from the children's ministry supply cupboard and got to work going over those lines with the smallest brush I could find.

I only had that sheep printed on the OHP sheets once. I moved the projector around to get the sheep smaller, and flipped it over to make the other one face in the opposite direction.

Finally that wall was finished with the outlines and I turned my attention to the windows. I had found a fantastic colouring picture with shepherds looking in over a stable door or dividing wall. I couldn't resist using that on the windows.

And this is how I have left it for now. I had originally planned to colour them in as well, but now I am thinking that maybe just one or two pieces, such as the belt, hat, etc. Also, I can't decode whether to cut the excess backing paper away on the windows. I had planned to but I am worried about how narrow that crook is and whether it would get ripped if it was cut to the lines. If I don't do that then I will cover the rest of the window with paper.

We're also planning on putting a star up in the other window panel, above the shepherds looking in.

Buttons for the sites I link up to are over in the sidebar.

Advent Anticipation

2011-11-30T11:32:00.001Z

Referring to Luke 2:21-40

I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like for Anna. To have waited and waited and waited for God to show up. Always waiting, staying faithful, never giving up, day after day after day.

And THIS day, when it started, probably seemed like every other day. I wonder when she realised. Was it the very moment Mary and Joseph entered the Temple, even though she couldn't see them yet? Was it not until she caught sight of them or did it take a while of watching the family not yet understanding what it was that was stirring in her soul?

Whatever or however it came, that moment of realisation did come.
"This is it" the Holy Spirit whispered in her ear, "THAT child, He is the one you've been waiting for" and then He nudged her until she walked across and approached the family.

Waiting was over, anticipation was done, her joy was complete. The Saviour had come!

Living Thankfully

2011-11-28T07:29:00.001Z

Loook, 2 weeks running! How impressed with myself am I? This week, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . .

446. Both my sons. The first doing an amazing degree in stage management and apparently having lots of fun but working very hard during show weeks (this week being one!).

447. The second doing well at sixth form and winning a RECORD 7 awards (including student of the year) in the awards evening at his old school.

448. Even though I don't drink tea or coffee, squash (cordial) that is nice hot means hubby has added a hot drink for me to his morning routine!

449. Awesome day's training in child protection. Came home with two things to implement ASAP, one of which we already have a plan to act on, even though training was only Saturday.

450. Chocolate covered Brussels sprouts. Heeheee. I may write a blog post about that one later in the week!

451. Open the Book is still going well. The head teacher told us the other week that more staff make an effort to be at this assembly each week than ANY OTHER they do! WOW.

452. I was able to find a way to make the props for this week's Open the Book without me having to draw 10 huge pictures!

453. Even though hubby had offered to let me have the car for the training day at the weekend, someone else offering to drive meant he was still able to have the car.

454. Good bargains on ebay this week. I needed some inkjet printable OHP sheets and Staples wanted £23 for their smallest box (25 sheets). On ebay I managed to pick up a full unopened box of 25 plus an opened box with 17 still in it for less than £6.50 including postage! NOT BAD.

455. A school deciding they didn't want the Christmas assembly next week was actually a good thing as it means my incredibly manic week will be much less so!

456. Sunday's Cool (say it out loud and you'll work it out) "Wall of Rejoicing" which was started yesterday is already filling up and will most likely expand past the edges of the noticeboard and onto the walls by the end of the 8 lessons it will be up for!

457. The mild weather we seem to be having this year. This time last year we had already had the first big freeze. I don't mind some snow but last year was a bit much and it's nice to not have to worry about slipping and falling and so on.

458. Having a washing machine. I do remember what it was like before we got one and having to do laundry in the bath! Don't think my back could cope with that these days.

459. An interesting conversation last night about future possibilities. Things MIGHT turn out to be better than people expect, if they'll just look more carefully at the details.

460. ADVENT - a time of anticipation is HERE. Come Lord Jesus, come Holy Spirit!

461.

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Bible Costumes - Egyptian Princess Wig

2011-11-22T19:43:00.001Z

I am still making costumes and props for our Open the Book Team. Open the Book is a program that takes weekly Bible Story assemblies into schools that are local to the church providing the team.

So far, I have shared our first team photo (we were the 1000th team to be registered), quick and easy basic costumes, Joseph's Multi coloured coat and a basic male Egyptian costume as well as one or two props.

Today we have a black wig for an Egyptian princess because this week's story was about Moses being discovered in his basket floating on the water by Pharaoh's daughter.

I had looked in a number of places online for solutions for this part of this costume and got absolutely nowhere as far as making something is concerned. I did read something about making fun play wigs for children using yarn and a baseball cap with the brim cut off. I went through my yarn stash (what is left of it) and found that I did have some black yarn, but I couldn't find an old baseball cap, so I grabbed the next best thing, an old fleece hat. Fleece is good for this because it won't fray when you cut it, whereas a knitted hat would. You can see that I cut part of the fabric away. This is part of the section that would be turned up when wearing the hat. In the end I went back in and cut all of that section away, but it is up to you whether you do that.

I worked out and marked where each of the layers would be attached to the hat and began to cut yarn to double the length. I then gathered a bundle of cut lengths together and tied them at the midway point, in a knot. I used 4 strands together for the chunkier yarn and 7 for the Double Knit yarn. This worked OK, but I soon worked out a better way. Find or cut a piece of card (I used foam board that I happened to have) that is the length you want that layer of hair to be and wrap the yarn around and around and around it.

Don't go all the way across your card, you will need some space to section it off. Also, do not wrap too tight, this will stretch the yarn and mean your finished product is not as long as you want. Keep it only just tight enough to not slip but no more. Then, using a spare piece of yarn, gather the correct number of strands at one end of the board and slip the spare piece underneath them, tying it off. Do this all the way across the board.

The simply slip your scissors under the strands of yarn at the other end of the board and cut across. You will be left with lots of bundles of yarn.

Take your hot glue gun and begin attaching your bundles, at the knotted end, to the hat. You can either go all the way around and cut a fringe in later or do what I did and leave space for the fringe. Try and keep the tops of the yarn in as straight a line as possible and keep gluing.

On that photo you can see that I decided to do 4 layers of bundles, the bottom line you see there, the two lines you see marked, and the very top of the head. To be honest this gave a very thick and full wig that feels a bit bulky when wearing and I would suggest that 3 layers in total would be enough.

This next photo show you how I tried to keep things even. I would glue on the front ones on each side, the centre back ones, and then split each side into sections, gluing on one to mark the section first, then filling it in. I made these later bundles slightly longer than the first one.

Keep going until you have your first three layers done, or two layers if you have decided on 3 layers in total.

Then you need to work on the fringe. Obviously the fringe (bangs) needs to be long enough to cover the remaining edge of the hat, other than that it is up to you. I did two layers in much the same way as the sides.

Then I trimmed the fringe to give as straight a finish as I could manage. I don't think I would have made a very good hairdresser, ho hum.

That just leaves the top of the head to finish.

I decided that I would do the front and back section in slightly different ways. Truly the easiest way to show you that is with a diagram, because if I try and explain it in words, it probably won't make sense.

Because I realised at this point that I had worked slightly lopsided, I made the two sides meet, slightly to one side of the seam line of the hat. You need to be more careful with your glue now, making sure you cover up all the blobs of glue with the yarn, leaving none showing. For me this worked best by working with two bundles of yarn at a time. I applied a line of hot glue, across the seam line and then placed the two bundles into it, touching each other in the middle.

Keep going until you have covered the top of the head as shown in the diagram. You may then want to trim the bottom of the hair to even it up a bit. I did a little, but not too much.

Finally, I chose to braid some strands at the front on each side. I did about 6 thin braids on each side.

And there you have it, an Egyptian Princess Wig.

All in all it took me a total of about 3 hours, but if you dropped the one layer like I suggested, you could get it finished quicker than that, and it is the sort of work that can be done while watching TV as long as you have an electrical socket nearby for the glue gun.

It would work equally well in other colours for fancy dress costumes and so on.

If you put my wig together with my team members ability to put costumes together out of seemingly nothing, you get a fantastic result.

Next week I have no costumes to make, so if you check in here, there might be another craft project, or maybe some art journal pages.

Living Thankfully

2011-11-21T10:24:00.001Z

WOW, I haven't done a thankfulness Journey post since before I went to Romania. So this is well overdue. Here is my entry for this week's Thankfulness journey, in no particular order.

I am thankful for . . . .

434. The trip to Romania went well and I learnt a lot.

435. Although we had to wait in baggage claim for 2 hours, ours bags were OK, and we got them eventually.

436. There was time for work, teaching the classes we had intended to teach.

437. And there was time for fellowshipping and seeing a little of what Romania had to offer.

438. And there was time for tasty treats.

439. But most of all it was a safe trip that began something that is hopefully continuing.

440. On to more recent things . . . . Open the Book assemblies have begun and are going well, the children are really getting into the stories.

441. I'm having fun making props and costumes for open the Book and any hot glue gun injuries have been minor!

442. A fantastic weekend, with time spent with a good friend and growth in God.

443. We were allowed to attend a breakfast for leaders in a nearby town despite the fact that we are not involved in that town in any way.

446. I was able to clearly state what it is I do, no, who it is I really am, without fear and without embarrassment, fully believing what God has placed me here to do.

445. My youngest son's last minute (well, 3 weeks notice) addition to the backing singers for a local amateur dramatics/light operatic society performance went well. I have not seen him look that happy in a long time. Who'd have thought you could mix 3 different Shakespeare plays, show tunes and our local industrial history? But it worked!

446.

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Bible Costumes - Pharaoh and other Egyptians.

2011-11-18T08:02:00.001Z

Earlier in the week I showed you how we made the multi coloured coat for the Joseph story. This week we finished off the Joseph story with what happened in Egypt.

I wasn't responsible for the Pharaoh costume but isn't it amazing. A friend did this. The instructions for the head dress are available to Open the Book Team Members in the UK via the resources pages on the members section of the website.

The costume I was responsible for was When Pharaoh makes Joseph second in command. We needed something he could put on easily. This is what we came up with.

If you didn't have a fancy fabric, like we had for Pharaoh, you combine this with the head dress for a Pharaoh costume.

That is a very basic cloak, but with an extra cream coloured strip down each side of the front edges. Open the Book Team Members, this is the pattern from the website with just simple straight strips attached to each side of the front. What really makes this costume is the collar and the belt.

They are actually quite simple.

Let's start with the collar. You need two curved pieces of fabric the same size and shape. So I started with my fabric doubled.

Here, you can see that I had already marked the outside of the curve (Well, half of it, but you will see why that is later). I don't have a pair of compasses big enough to do that so let me show you how I did it by marking the inner curve.

Please excuse my burnt ironing board cover, ooops.
I wanted the radius of this semi circle to be 4 inches, so I kept the 4 inch mark on my ruler on the spot I had already marked as the centre, then swivelled it around and made a set of pencil marks at the corner of the ruler.

I joined those marks up to complete the line. The reason I only marked half of the semi circle is because I was then going to fold the fabric in half again and cut through all 4 layers together to ensure that both panels matched and that both sides of each panel matched.

Next you need a piece if interfacing the same shape but slightly smaller all round. The easiest way to do that was to draw around one of the pieces onto the interfacing, then mark where I wanted to trim it, to make it smaller, and cut that.

Iron the interfacing onto the wrong side of one of your pieces of fabric, keeping it in the middle so that there is an even strip around all edges that does not have interfacing on it..

Next you will need some ties. You can use ribbon, cord, or whatever you have on hand that will work. I still had some bias binding left over from neatening the edges of the robe, so I took that, folded it in half and sewed along it's length, then cut the pieces that I needed.

Take the piece of fabric with the interfacing on and place it right side up, so that the interfacing side is down. On top of that place the other piece of fabric, right side down, so that the right sides are together.

Now position your ties.

You want them near the inner edge of the straight ends of your semi circle. Position them so that the bulk of their length is between the two layers of fabric, then fold your fabric back and pin in place.

Sew around both straight ends, and the long edge of the curve, leaving the short edge unsewn for now. Make sure you do not catch the ties in any other point on the seam except where you have them pinned.

Next you will need to clip your curve. Cut from the edge of the fabric a few millimetres in towards the stitching line. You want to get close to the stitching but not all the way up to it.

Turn the fabric through so that the right sides are now outside and push out the corners. I find a chopstick works really well for this. Then press your piece flat with a hot iron. If you having trouble getting the curved seam to sit flat right on the seam line, try rolling it between your finger and thumb. Once pressed, it should look like this.

Now clip in inner curve in the same way you clipped the outer curve, but slightly smaller cuts. You can either mark the line that you will fold on or use the edge of the interfacing as your line.

I found the easiest way to then press this curve in, was to work on one side, then flip it over and work on the other side, but you could do whatever works for you.

Top stitch along that curve, close to the edge.

Your final job is to attach all the buttons that will really make this costume what it is.

I bought a pack of large cream buttons and supplemented this with buttons from my button box. First of all I laid them out in a pattern on both the collar and the belt, then hot glued them in place. You could stitch each of them individually, but that was going to take far too long.

If you do choose to hot glue them, BE CAREFUL, hold the buttons by their edges only, especially when pressing them down onto the fabric. If you press in the middle, well, let's just say those buttons have holes in the middle that hot glue can squeeze up through.

The belt is made in much the same way but much easier.

One large rectangle of fabric, folded in half. Attach the interfacing to just one half, sew along the long edge, turn through and press, turn the fabric under at the ends, tuck just a bit of your ties inside, leaving the length outside and top stitch. For the belt I used two ties at each end, but if one works for your that's fine. For the ties on the belt I used some ribbon that I had to hand. The buttons are attached in the same way. And there you have it, an Egyptian costume!

Right now I am working on another Egyptian costume, a long black wig made from an old hat and black yarn, for the Egyptian Princess who rescues baby Moses from the water. I hope to have a post about that up next week.

Bible Costumes - Joseph's Coat

2011-11-16T09:27:00.001Z

How do you go from this:

To this:

It's not all that difficult actually, as long as you have a sewing machine that will do stretch stitches for knit fabrics and a good pair of scissors you should be fine. Please excuse the quality of the photo, we have a teacher taking photos from the back of the assembly hall, and I forgot to ask her to get a good shot of the coat. I am making these bible costumes for use in our local school. A team from the church I attend are doing weekly Bible Story assemblies under the Open The Book scheme. We are up to the story of Joseph . . . .

# You need 4 or 5 T-shirts in bright colours.
All the same size and fit. I made the mistake of not checking the fit, so while they were all X-Large, some were slim fit and some were loose fit. If you make sure they all match it will be much easier. We bought ours from Primark and 5 T-shirts came to just £11.

# I took all the shirts and with my large cutting mat, quilting ruler and rotary cutter, cut each shirt into a top and a bottom, about 4 or 5 inches below the armpits. You could do this with scissors too.

# Decide which two colours you want for the front and cut up the middle of the front, along the side and underarm seam, and the along the shoulder seam and out through the halfway point of the sleeve, like so:

The two colours you are using for the back, will get the same cuts along the side, but the top to bottom cut will be through the centre of the back. You will be left with pieces that look as follows but in 4 different colours:

# Place one back down, right side up, on top of it place the front for that side of the coat, right side down, keeping right sides together. Sew the shoulder seam and the top of the arm, on both sides of the coat. Do not sew the underarms and side seams yet.

# Before we sew the side seams we want to lengthen the sleeves. So, cut the sleeves off the tops of the T-shirts along the seam. Both the whole sleeves and the 4 half sleeves. You then need to cut a strip off the bottom of the sleeve that is the largest you can cut but keeping it the same width all the way along. i.e. following the red lines below. Then you need to take that loop you have created and cut it open along the seam line.You may need to trim the ends so that your strip is square at each end.

You can either keep each one together, or cut them in half and match back up with other colours so that the front and back are different. I actually used both methods, keeping the front and back of the sleeve together for some colours, and mixing for others.

You will need to sew using a stretch stitch, or if your machine does not have those a zig zag stitch. I used an overlock (serge) stitch to attach and tidy in one go. Keep your seams fairly narrow, you don't want to lose too much of the fabric.

# Keeping right sides together always (not always easy to spot when sewing T-shirts) sew extra layers onto each sleeve. I sewed an extra 2 layers, but could easily have done 1 more if not 2, as I had 5 T-shirts. As it is I think the sleeves are long enough for something that is only ever going to be worn a handful of times for less than 5 minutes at a time. If you are making something for a whole show, you may want to make the sleeves longer by adding those extra layers.

# Repeat with the other side of the coat. Then sew together down the centre back, again with right sides together.

# Once all that is done you can then sew up the side seams and along the underarm seam, keeping right sides together.

You do not need to neaten the front edges, unless the coat is going to be used often. As a knit fabric the T-shirt material will not fray.

# Now go back to your pile of fabric and choose the 4 colours for the next layer. You need the bottom halves, that you have already cut off for this, straight up a side seam and then straight up the middle, front or back.

Choose your 4, all the time thinking about not putting colours right next to the same colour, either on this row or on the previous row.

Keeping right sides together, sew two pieces together at the side seams, the same with the other side, then sew both of those together at the centre back as you did with the top part.
Once you have your 4 panels together, THEN place right sides together with the top of the coat, and sew all the way around. By now you will have something that looks a bit like this:

# Now you will add another two layers using more or less the same method above, except that we want to widen the coat as it goes down, so you will need to cut your panels slightly differently.
Each panel now needs to be the same width as the panel above it at its top edge, but wider at the bottom edge. You can cut these panels from what is left of the T-shirts, either using the bottoms or using the pieces of the top that you still have left.

I went back to using my cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter so that I knew my angled lines would still be straight but you should be able to do this with scissors if you are careful.

# You will now have 4 panels that are square on one end but angled on the other as shown above. Keeping the square edges to be the centre front and centre back, and right sides together, sew your 4 panels together in one long strip, then sew that strip to the bottom of the coat you have completed so far.

# Repeat the last row again, but remembering that your panels will need to be wider still as you still want the coat to widen as it goes down. So cut your panels so that the top of the new layer matches in width the bottom of the previous layer.

# Neaten the bottom if you need to, although I managed to work mine so that each of the bottom pieces had T-shirt hem at its bottom edge and did not need to neaten.

It might look like it needs to be longer but the teacher who was playing the part of Joseph is very tall and I was aware that other people will be using the coat at other times, and did not want them to be tripping over the hem. if you feel you have enough fabric for another layer and want to do that, then just follow the same method you used for the last two layers.

A child's version of this costume could be made by using children's T-shirts in a couple of sizes bigger than the child normally wears.

Artistic Journey

2011-11-07T20:21:00.000Z

If you know me outside of this blog or have been reading here for a while, you may know that over the last couple of years I have got into Art Journaling. For someone who grew up believing she was no good at art, this was a big deal. In fact, there is a friend who was kind of doing this before me who can relate a conversation I had with here where I said categorically I could NEVER do anything like that! 6 months later as I was showing her my art journal, she just smiled and didn't say a word of "I told you so."

I convinced myself that Art journaling was just having fun with paint and ink, pens and stamps, paper and glue etc and that if that constituted art then I could produce art! But still, if you asked me to draw anything then NO, I was certain I could not do that.

Sometime in that journey I decided to have a go at a face. My first attempt wasn't all bad, there are some things I like about her, but seriously, it was obvious I had a lot to learn.

I tried again later on,

but then got sidetracked from any sort of art journaling at all and didn't do anything for a good 3 or 4 months. There were a few other faces along the way, some of which I was incredibly proud of and some of which made me wonder if I would ever "Get it".

Then I heard about Tam's 12 month art class for 2012 over on her ning site. £60 for at least 2 classes each month for 12 months, with extra classes thrown in here and there. As a Christian I was a little apprehensive about some of the spiritual aspects of the course, BUT I am certain that I can take from it what I need to take from it, learn lots, stretch myself and have a great time doing it, without compromising anything I believe.

For that £60 price tag you also get to do one of Tam's other classes that are self paced on the Ning Site. I chose her Fabulous Faces class, something I had been thinking about treating myself to anyway, before the year long class came along. While we have to wait until January for the main class, this one I could start now. I have not been feeling well for a few days now, and decided today that I would take the afternoon a bit easier, and sit and watch the first video and give it a go.

We have our laptop set up on a desk on the treadmill, so I angled the screen right that I would be able to see it from the sofa, set the volume up, and set the video to play full screen. I had a few interruptions at various times, but finally produced this:

Although I think I prefer her before I did the hair. Hmmm, wonder if I can learn to paint bald women, heehee, and would anyone want to look at them?

Well, that's it for today, but please come back soon if you want to see where else this journey takes me.

Romania Part 2

2011-10-29T11:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I told you how I ended up going to Romania and shared some photos of the sewing classes that I ran while I was there. The awesome thing about the classes and craft materials is that the ministry has two long term volunteers with them at the moment and one of them was a seamstress in one of the main opera houses in France before she came to the ministry. I think the sewing classes will be safe in Clotilde's hands!

Today I want to show you a few photos from the Gypsy quarter and explain conditions a little.
Families in the gypsy quarter do have houses, but they are basic. Thankfully, the ministry has been able to work with the families over the years they have been there, to build new houses, so they have gone from this:

to this:

or from this:

to this:

You can see the difference this is making. The houses are basic, do not have running water, there is a communal well in the gypsy quarter and the homes have outdoor latrine pits. They do have electricity and I was amazed at how nice some of the homes were despite their tough circumstances.

Talmid ministries provide clothes and food packages where necessary as well as providing a sponsorship scheme that allows the children to go to school. Schooling in Romania is officially free, but the children once they reach secondary school have to travel on the school bus and this has to be paid for by parents. This help does not stop when the children finish compulsory school age, and there is the opportunity to also sponsor young adults who wish to continue on to university. The ministry also provides packages of materials for school, without which the children would not be able to complete their classes.

Here are some photos from some of the lighter moments of our trip, from turtle releasing to some delightful tourist spots.

The turtle had been given to the family but was actually a variety of turtle that is native to the waterways of Romania, so once it was healed up from some wounds, we took a trip out to release it.

The little house where we stayed.

Rifka the husky. Not at all scary but quite noisy!

One of the churches in Sibiu. If you ever get the chance to go to Romania as a tourist, you really should go to the art museum in Sibiu, it's INCREDIBLE!

This was on our final day, back in Cluj Napoca. Another must visit if you go to Romania as a tourist. The Botanical Gardens. Such a beautiful site, I could happily spend hours and hours there, with my journal and a pen!

Will I go back? Maybe not, but I will continue to send craft materials that are needed for the classes.
Did I gain from this trip? ABSOLUTELY. I learnt a lot, about myself, about the way I react to situations, about what I can achieve and do that I never thought possible. I also gained new depth to my relationship with God. I am glad I went to Romania, and I hope that you have enjoyed hearing about my trip and seeing some of the photos.

Romania

2011-10-28T11:16:00.001+01:00

At the end of August this year I travelled to Romania for 2 1/2 weeks. There are lots of beautiful places to visit in Romania (and I shall give you tips for a couple to check out if ever you go at the end of this post) but I was not there or a holiday. Neither was I there on business, although there were business men on our flight. No I was there to teach and to help.

Over the last few years I have been putting photos of my sewing projects on facebook. Shopping bags, handbags, microwave wheat bags and so on. The church that I attend has links with a ministry in Romania that works mainly with the local Roma gypsy population, Talmid. I have members of that ministry as friends on facebook and one of them suggested in passing that I come over to teach the gypsy women some projects that they would be able to sell. I wasn't sure if she was serious or not at first, but it turned out she was and so a friend and I launched into a fundraising campaign which finally resulted in our trip, accompanied by a whole case full of craft supplies which we had also bought with the money raised.

YES, I literally filled that case and realised I could not fit that quilting ruler in it. So I bought a bigger case which enabled me to take all the craft supplies, 3 folders of printed out projects for them to try after we had finished our trip AND some clothes. Thankfully September in Romania is still quite warm so we needed no thick chunky clothes.

I do however have a CPAP machine due to Sleep apnoea and had to find space for that in my hand luggage. We were flying with a budget airline so an extra bag would have cost us dearly.

We arrived in Cluj Napoca pretty much on schedule and had an adventurous drive crammed into the back of a car full of laughter and silliness on the way back to Romosel.

The following video is from the first walk around of someone else who visited the same project as us.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;lt;span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;gt;lt&amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;gt;;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;lt;span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;gt;lt&amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;gt;;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;lt;span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;gt;lt&amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;gt;;/center&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;lt;span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;gt;lt&amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;gt;;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;lt;span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;gt;lt&amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;gt;;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

We settled in at our little home for 2 1/2 weeks and each day would walk from there to the house that the ministry is based at. The weather was hot and dry. I think it only rained once the whole time we were there and we only needed jackets on a handful of evenings.
We soon got to work sorting through the fabric that had been donated in recent shipments that the ministry regularly receive from other European nations.

From that we worked out what we would do in each of the 6 sewing classes we would be doing. Over the 6 classes, we made various fabric flowers, did some silk painting and made 2 different designs of bags. We started with hand sewing and finished the 2nd week using 2 of the sewing machines that had also been donated.
Here are a few of my favourite photos from the classes:

The lady in the top photo only came to two of the classes but she was so lovely. I told her (through our translator) that she could teach me to sew because she obviously knew a lot more than I did and she shrugged and told me no. I don't believe her!
And that last photo is my favourite. We were only allowing the girls 13 years or older to come into class once we had the sewing machines out and this girl was pleading with me to let her make something. The look on my face, does not depict some of the hard moments of this trip but does depict the joy of teaching and being around those girls when they were focused and enjoying what they were doing and creating and learning.
Come back tomorrow for more photos from the Gypsy quarter and the places we visited while we were in Romania

Menu Plan Monday

2011-10-24T06:30:00.000+01:00

This week's menu plan Monday will have to be really quick as we are off to Cadbury World!

Monday - Turkey Meatballs with pasta and salad
Tuesday - Pork Jambalaya with salad
Wednesday - Chicken Paprika Bake with steamed veggies
Thursday - Chicken Cashew nut Stir Fry
Friday - Fish with a Chorizo crust with mini rostis and salad
Saturday - Noodles with mince
Sunday - Birthday dinner (I KNOW I asked someone to write it up there but they didn't)

Underneath is a couple of baking choices for the week. Me and my 17 year old son are going to have a go at choux pastry and make chocolate eclairs.
We also want to do a marmalade steamed pudding.
At the end of the week I will need to do some teen friendly baking. There is a youth all night prayer event happening at our church building and they are going to need some goodies to keep them going. Any suggestions gladly received!

Gingerbread

2011-10-20T15:35:00.002+01:00

This is the famous gingerbread. The one I have been making for years and years. It's a Mary Berry recipe but not the one that you might have seen online from a recent TV programme about baking. This one is from one of her older books and is very similar to that recipe but not the same:

You can see from the spine that it has been well used over the years. As my cookbook collection has grown there are not many recipes I cook from this book anymore, but this one STILL has a post it note marking the page!

Like I said I have been baking this gingerbread for years and there was one friend who would insist on her own personal portion to take home whenever I took it to events. Sadly I rarely see her anymore, but Diane if you're reading this, now you can make your own!

First of all prepare your cake tin. It should be 9" by 12" according to the recipe. This is the closest I had. Grease and line the tin.

Weigh 250g of butter or margarine into a saucepan.

Add 250g of dark muscovado sugar. Now this is where my secret weapon in the battle of the gingerbreads comes in. I use this wonderful stuff:

Now add 250g of treacle (molasses to my American friends).

OK, so I went over the 250g, but seriously I am NOT trying to get stuff back out of that gloopy mess.

Put that onto a low heat and stirring occasionally,

wait until it all comes together.

It will take a while, but you need to do it over a low heat because we just want to melt it all together, not get it too hot.

While that is melting, or while it is cooling get your other ingredients ready.
375g plain white flour (I think my American friends could use all purpose flour here)

Now I know the scales are reading higher than 375 in this picture but I promise you before I picked the camera up it was correct, maybe I moved the scales a bit and the number changed, I don't know!

To that add
5 tsp ground ginger and
2 tsp ground cinnamon

I did not have enough ground ginger, but don't worry, I am going to correct that with something else later. Ideally though, I would stick to the recipe as I know it works!

You need to sieve those together.

Next you need two eggs.

Yes, I can count, yes I know there are 3 eggs in that mug. I get my eggs from the son of a friend who keeps chickens and at the moment they are very mixed sizes. You can see how tiny two of those yolks are. I felt justified in using 3 of them today.

You need to beat the eggs.

Then you need 3 pieces of this wonderful stuff:

It is very sticky and truly the easiest way I have found for chopping it is to use a small plate, a fork and a small sharp knife. You want to chop it fairly small but it does not need to be neat.

Finally you need
300ml of milk and 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda for my American friends)

When your butter, sugar, treacle mix has cooled slightly you can move on to the next stage.

First, you need to add the spice and flour mixture to the saucepan.

And mix until it is all combined.

Sometimes it will come away from the pan like this, sometimes not. I think it must depend on how much you have cooled it.

Now you need to add the eggs and the stem ginger. Remember how I said I would correct the lack of ground ginger earlier? I just poured a little of the syrup straight from the jar of stem ginger into the pan.

You need to mix that until it is all combined and then move the pan to one side while you heat the milk.

When the milk is nice and warm, add the bicarb. It should puff up like this:

Pour that into the other saucepan

where it will immediately look as if everything has gone wrong.

Do not panic, keep stirring and eventually it will all come together.

Pour that into the prepared cake tin and bake at 160c (325f)

for about 1 hour until well risen and springy to the touch.

Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire cooling rack.

This cake is even better on day two or even three. Store in an airtight container to prevent it drying out.
And enjoy!

Excellent Choice for Mobile Phones in America

2011-10-18T07:35:00.001+01:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TracFone for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

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In short if you are looking for a phone that will fit well into the needs of your family, whether that be the youngest or oldest members of your family, or anywhere in between, TracFone are sure to have something for you. Get into Everywhereness

2 Journal Pages

2011-10-10T16:59:00.001+01:00

I finally got back into my art journal this last week, after a long summer break for various reasons.

First of all was a page which doesn't have as many layers as some of the ones I have done in the past. The quote is "Don't ask what the World needs, ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the World needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman.

To see any of these pictures closer up, just click to open them in a larger format.

I started with the swirly stencil in a darker colour of acrylic paint on the blank gessoed page and then covered that over with a couple of colours of acryclic paint, although you can still see some of the squiggles through the paint. I added a few bits of patterned paper, another couple of squiggles using the stencil, which I outlined in white, and then wrote the quote which uses Kuretake metallic calligraphy pens. I know a lot of art journalers have trouble finding pens that will work over acrylic paints. There are various pens that I use, and some have trouble on different backgrounds, but the kuretake pens in metallic have never failed me yet. I did a bit of journaling in the corner using a white jelly roll pen, about what makes me come alive and used copper acrylic and deep madder acrylic on my finger around the edge.

The stencil was one of a pack of two that I bought from a budget book shop called The Works. In fact, that is just half of one sheet and there were two sheets in each pack. I managed to pick up two different packs at just 99p per pack. Not the thickest stencils ever, but who cares, they work!

The second page already had some colour on the page and I didn't quite know what to do with. I tried to add some mica spray but the spray was a bit clogged up and I got splatter rather than spray. I knew if I used anything wet over it it would smudge it and decided to use that fact to my advantage. I journaled all across both pages about what makes me cry, using a basic cheap biro pen. Then I took some white acrylic and brushed it into the page, smudging both the mica spray and the written words. Normally I would have used gesso but when I opened my tub it had gone mouldy, eugh! Thankfully there was only a tiny amount left in that tub so there wasn't a lot wasted.

I printed out the quote, coloured it lightly using an ink pad and a make up sponge. I cut it into the individual words and edged them with a darker ink pad then glued them to the page. I found the pictures of babies crying online and changed the basic colour of them in Word I think, then printed those out and glued them down. Finally I wrote on the right hand page in a pound shop metallic pen, which I drew around using the white jelly roll.

"Crying doesn't indicate that you are weak. Since birth it has always been a sign that you are alive."

Eden Tree - Part 2

2011-10-07T16:43:00.003+01:00

The tree is finished. I know I said I would get it finished yesterday but I had a weird day yesterday with dizziness from when I got up until lunchtime, so I left it for today.

No idea what I am talking about? On Wednesday I began making a tree out of foam board to represent the tree in the garden of Eden for a bible Stories school assembly team I am leading. You can read about how I made the pieces here.

Today it was time to put it all together. First of all I took the two pieces of the trunk and laid them side by side and used a piece of duct tape to stick them together along the gap.

You can see that now I can angle the two pieces and it will stand up all by itself. Fantastic.

Next I held the flat bottom of the tree to the top of the trunk and marked where I wanted it to sit. If you are making your own you will want to do it further back than this, more on that later.

Then I cut a piece out of each foam board trunk. I did this at an angle, not straight through although I don't think you can tell from the photo.

Finally I cut matching slots in the bottom of the treetop piece and fitted them together.

This is where I realised I had cut the slots too near the front of the trunk and the whole thing wants to overbalance forwards and fall over! Oooops! I'm not sure if I will try and cut a new set of slots further back and use the pieces from that to patch the holes, or if I will simply place something under the front of the trunk as you can see I have done here. That balances it fine.

When it's time to go to school for the assembly it will be easy to carry, it will go together in seconds and be ready to carry home in seconds too.

The week after that we need a Noah's ark made out of one sheet of the same foam board. Any volunteers? I think that might be beyond my rough and ready painting style.

Eden Tree

2011-10-05T16:06:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I was privileged to be part of the start of something new and exciting. My church has been blessed to be asked to put together an Open the Book team at our local primary school. Open the book is a scheme where teams of volunteers from local churches go into primary schools to give weekly storytelling assemblies based on the Lion Storyteller Bible.

Our local primary school approached me early this year to ask if we would be interested and I have been able to put a team together and yesterday was our first ever session in school for open the Book.

If there is one thing Open the Book is NOT about it's acting. It is definitely NOT acting, it is interactive story telling with props and costumes. Because we are reading not acting we want as much visual impact as possible and so a lot of effort will be going into the props.

Yesterday we did the story of creation and tomorrow we will be doing the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Today I worked on making our tree. I used two sheets of 5mm thick foam board in A1 size, which is 594mm by 841mm or in inches, 23.39 by 33.11

On one I drew a rough shape of a tree trunk and on the other a rough shape of a tree top. I then more or less ignored what I had drawn when it came to cutting out with a craft knife, but hey it gave me an idea of where to go! For the trunk, I cut one side first, then flipped the piece I had cut out and placed it on the other side, then cut around that.

Then I cut the trunk straight down the middle, because I am going to be angling the two pieces in order to make them stand up.

Then I took them up to my craft room and painted. I am not a neat and pretty painter but that's OK in this case. I painted a coat of light green roughly onto the tree top, then stippled a darker green in splotches all over it.

The trunk I just painted roughly, all over in burnt umber.

Tomorrow, when the pieces are dry I will put duct tape up the back of where the two trunk pieces meet, and stand them up at an angle to each other. I will cut a slot in matching places at the top of each trunk and make matching slots in the tree. Don't know if I will get the photos of that part of the process up tomorrow as I have a busy afternoon, but I will get them up on Friday.

Away From the Shire

2011-08-30T09:39:00.000+01:00

In about 3 hours I will be leaving the Shire for a few weeks.

I am heading down to Luton airport today because we have an early flight tomorrow morning.
While we're on the subject of Luton Airport, does anyone remember the Campari adverts? You'll have to excuse the sound quality, it was the best version I could find.

Tomorrow morning we have to be up early and at the airport for 5:45am. Flight leaves at 7:45am local time. We will arrive in Romania at 12:35pm local time there. 3 hour flight with a two hour time difference.

I'll be back on Sunday 18th September, again very early. In fact our morning flight FROM Romania is a 6am flight!!!!!! That means we have to be at the airport for 4am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good grief.

You might be wondering why I am not afraid to mention online that I will be away. You may be worried about security of the house and so on. That's simple! The rest of my family is staying at home. This is a trip I am making without my husband and without my children. I am going with a friend from church.

I don't know if Romania is considered much of a holiday (vacation) spot these days, although it's coastline certainly was in the past, because I went there with my family as a child. THAT was a bit of an adventure, but those are stories for another day!

This trip is being made for other reasons than a holiday (vacation). We are going to visit a family from Belgium who now live in Romania working with the poor Gypsy communities in a fairly rural area. The ministry is called Talmid and is based in the heart of Transylvania, in the mountain village of Romosel.

They are involved in a lot of different projects with the gypsy community, one of which is a ladies sewing class. Earlier this year I had been posting photos on Facebook of some of the sewing projects I had been undertaking, and was asked if I would come over and teach the ladies sewing class some projects that they could then sell at local markets. So that is what we are doing. My friend is going to be doing some silk painting with them and I am going to be doing some sewing and other fabric projects with them. Hopefully we will be able to combine the two into some cushions or wall hangings.

I have put together some files of projects I have found from around the internet. I have set them out with plenty of photos, and then the English instructions on one side of the page, with plenty of space for a translation into Romanian on the other side of the page. There are far more projects that we can undertake in the time we have with the ladies, so this will leave them with a whole set of projects that they can then work on after we have come home.

We have raised funds for this trip through sponsorship from our church, Springfield Christian Fellowship, and through other fundraising events, such as cake sales and car boot sales, as well as sales through my Etsy shop, and donations from internet friends. Those funds are paying for all travel expenses as well as for a whole load of craft materials which we have bought and are taking with us. And I do mean a LOT! There is not all that much room in my case for clothes, which is not all that bad, since the weather will be hot while we are there. Not hot by the standards of some of my friends in America, but hot by our standards here in the UK. Still, I am glad we avoided going in July or August, because that is exceptionally hot. A forecast taken a couple of days ago, is below, but you should be able to see a more up to date forecast at the top of this blog, although I am not sure how accurate that forecast is.

There will also be time to take part in other ministries that the family are involved in, and amongst other things we definitely hope to do some baking! I do hope I have enough time to take lots of photos, particularly of the ladies sewing class, but don't know if I will be too busy actually teaching and helping to remember to take the photos.

I'll write more when I get back, but in the meantime, if you want to read about typical Romanian party food, you should check out this blog that I discovered, just this week.

SORRY

2011-08-08T09:18:00.000+01:00

I know it has been a while since I posted but life has been pretty chaotic.
With our eldest home for the summer I have lost my craft room and so there has been no crafting going on. With the disruption that comes with having an extra one home I haven't done any photo recipes. Add to that the fact that we spent a week on vacation (video coming up) and the fact that last week my dad was rushed into hospital and is awaiting more test results this week, but does know there is a part of his spine missing with something else in its place.

and you have for one non blogger for a while.

So here you are, a few holiday videos First, where we stayed:

the beach:

and the mirror maze at Wookey hole:

2011-07-03T07:44:00.002+01:00

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

434. Fantastic trip to Bath to visit our eldest son for his 20th Birthday.

435. Youngest son had a successful first day of his induction at sixth form college.

436. The lady who tried to put her car where our car was, having not checked her blind spot, saw us just in time and managed to avoid us.

437. Cute, cheap fabric, and the ability to reign myself in and only buy 2 metres.

438. A week off from school assemblies last week.

439. Exciting news that this week's Monday assembly will be with Ofsted inspectors present.

440. Eldest finishes his internship on Friday and we will have him back for the summer.

441. Seeing all the positive comments in his thank you card from the church he was an intern at.

442. Finally getting to see the house eldest has been staying in since December and the amazing incredible, awesome views!

443.

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.

Ofsted Assembly

2011-07-02T21:43:00.000+01:00

Those of you who have been around my blog for a while will know that one of the things that I do is give assembly talks at local schools. Mainly primary schools (5 - 11 years old). I have a pretty full week coming up with 4 assemblies. The assemblies are of a mainly Christian nature with some of them having more content than others. Some make no mention of God or the bible at all but talk about things that are important to people of all faiths, such as making a positive difference in people's lives. Some may talk about a topic such as bullying and mention a particular bible verse that fits in or have a prayer that finishes the assembly. For Christmas and Easter there is always more overtly Christian content as i find creative ways to cover those stories.

I received an email last night from the head teacher of the school I am in on Monday.

They have received notice that they will be undergoing an Ofsted Inspection this week. Ofsted is the government schools inspectorate. Schools used to get a few weeks notice but now only get one or two working days notice and in some cases, where there are serious concerns, can turn up unannounced. So the inspectors will be in school from Monday morning and the head teacher STILL wants me to come in!

I can't tell you what a big deal this is! For a school to still want me to come in and do my assembly during Ofsted is huge!

I have to head over to the school tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) to run through the assembly with the head teacher and work out any kinks in the plan. I'm excited and a little nervous.

Living Thankfully

2011-06-27T15:21:00.002+01:00

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

422. Romania trip is PAID FOR! People at church have come through and we have the flights completely paid for! Awesome news!

423. There is also money left over for a few craft materials.

424. Any money we raise, either through selling cakes at church, or doing a car boot sale, or through my Etsy shop, will now go towards buying craft materials for the ladies!

425. Had great fun at school last week taking a team photo for Open the Book.

426. My summer sourdough experiment is going well. So far I have made waffles, English muffins and today I am making bread.

427. Eldest son got some good news on his university applications, after a 4 hour time frame of having to completely trust that God was still in charge.

428. This morning we learnt that if youngest son misses the earlier bus to college in September (he was doing a trial run), he will still have time to cross the road and get the bus that goes in the other direction to get another bus that will JUST get him to where he is going on time.

429. Lovely weather we have had the last few days.

430. Worship Jam went well last week, had a good time even if I did pick up a very minor worship injury.

431. Had fun catering for the Alpha meal again last week. This time we got some of our small group to come along and help with the clear up!

432. I get to bake cakes for Alpha for another 4 weeks!

433. Will probably be taking youngest to the Black Country museum this week.

434.

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.

Quick and Easy Bible Costumes

2011-06-24T16:24:00.000+01:00

Today I needed to provide costumes for a quick team photo for Open the Book. Between us I think we did rather well don't you?

The golden cloak used to be a curtain but has been used in various drama productions over a number of years. The turban and other head scarves are all pashminas. The blue and white costumes are all made in the way below, the white one is just a little wider, whereas the stripy one, is made by pinning two pieces of fabric together in 4 places along the top and popping the head through the middle.

The following instructions come from the Open the Book resources.

Making basic costumes

The following instructions are very simple and require only basic sewing skills.

Tabards (open-sided tunics)

These are the most versatile items of clothing. This team has striped ones (worn by the shepherds), a white one (usually for Jesus), a blue one for women, a brown one and muted pattern one for "ordinary" roles of men or women and one of a richer fabric for a higher status person.

Materials

2 1/2 metres of fabric x 115cm wide (45") will make TWO tabards economically.
Bias binding (or use strips of bias from extra width of fabric)
Cord for belt.

Construction

Fold the fabric in half and cut out hole for head.
Bind edges of neck with bias binding or use strips of surplus fabric cut on the bias.
Sew narrow hems all round.

As we go along we'll pull more resources together but I think that for now we're doing very well.

One last photo, just to show how excited we are to be part of this:

Sourdough Waffles

2011-06-20T14:42:00.001+01:00

I hope you have been following my attempts to start and grow a sourdough starter. This morning I used the starter for the first time. Sourdough Waffles!

I've been following the starter instructions at the Gnowfglins website and decided to follow their recipe for waffles that is part of their sourdough e-course. I dragged my waffle maker out from it's hiding place deep in the back of a cupboard. Seriously, I cannot remember the last time I used this thing.

When you want to use you sourdough starter for a recipe, you have to bear in mind how much you will need when you feed it the feed before (and sometimes the feed before that as well if you need a large amount). I knew I needed 2 cups of thick starter for the recipe today, plus half a cup or so to keep the starter going. I fed it with a whole cup of water and a cup and a third of flour. Actually I could have done with a little more of each. As it turned out that I ended up needing to keep some of the 2 cups back to keep the starter going. That meant the waffle mix was a bit thinner than it should have been, but they still came out just fine.

I needed

eggs, oil, some sort of sweetener (I was hoping to use honey but our honey had set and I decided to use maple syrup instead), vanilla, salt, baking soda and a little water.
(for amounts you will have to check out the e-course)

I mixed everything except the baking soda and water in a mixing bowl.

Then added the sourdough starter.

Finally used the baking soda and water to get the mixture to sponge up a bit and it was time to cook the waffles.

It took me a couple of attempts to remember how much mixture was ideal to fill the waffle maker without spilling over, and well, not all of those attempts made it to the pile of waffles at the end, I may have been a little eager to try them, mmmmmmmmmm.

But finally I got the hang of it and was making a pile of gorgeous waffles, youngest son (16) said it smelt a bit like eggy bread, and he doesn't like eggs, but he ate them just fine, so they can't have been that bad! Wonderful, whole wheat, sourdough waffles.

If you'd like to see what else I make with my sourdough starter in coming weeks, why not subscribe, using one of the links over in the sidebar.

Living Thankfully

2011-06-20T08:56:00.005+01:00

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

410. Another opportunity to cater for the local Alpha meal tomorrow night. Looking forward to it.

411. I have been successful at growing a sourdough starter. I was a bit nervous about this, but it actually worked!

412. Summer has officially begun for me. Normally in the UK our summer break from school is only 6 weeks, maybe 6 1/2. This year, because our youngest is in his final year of compulsory education, I get 10 weeks, because he did his last exam on Friday last week.

413. Our team for Open the book was the 1000th team to register and this week we will be putting together a team photo for a press release!

414. The fund raising/publicity event for the fairly new charity (anti trafficking, particularly internal trafficking) I am involved in turned out to go really well. We looked professional, we had fun, and other than a few light rain showers the weather was fine. In fact, I even got a little sun burn.

415. The drama production that was written specially for that event, will be going on tour and will be coming to our town.

416. After a run of really rough nights with poor mask fit on my CPAP machine, last night was registered as EXCELLENT mask fit. Thank You LORD!

417. Fathers day came at the perfect time to get hubby a new wallet as a gift, his was literally falling apart last week.

418. I managed to get my Etsy shop open and am raising money for the Romania trip. Little by little the money comes in.

419. Also managed to sell a cake at church yesterday for the Romania trip.

420. Some awesome comments from staff members at schools I have done assemblies at in the last couple of weeks.

421. The sourdough starter at the top of this post, this morning, became sourdough waffles. mmmmmmmmmmm.

422.

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Messenger Bag From Cargo Pants Tutorial

2011-06-19T07:00:00.171+01:00

With two teenage boys in the house, I often come across pairs of trousers (pants) that are beyond repair. In the past these have gone in the rubbish bin (trash can), but since I got my craft room, I have begun to save anything like that, that I come across, to make into other things.

The great things about Cargo pants, is all those extra pockets.

Take your pair of Cargo Pants and cut the pockets off, leaving a fair bit all around. You will need to tuck this under for stitching them on.
The lining on the back of the pocket, often extends past the stitching line on the front, bear this in mind when cutting the pockets out, in fact, it might be better to cut from the reverse side. I didn't do that and almost left myself not enough fabric to turn over and stitch.

Turn those edges under and top stitch all around.

For the body of the bag, use the leg, below where you cut off the lower pocket.
Trim off any unusable portion at the bottom of the leg.

You can get two bags from each pair of trousers. You can use the waistband as the strap of the first bag. Carefully trim close to the edge of the waistband and unpick any waistband loops.

For the second bag from each pair you will need to make a strap from any fabric not used in the main body of the bags.

You will have to adjust measurements depending on the size of your trousers and positioning of the pockets, but I managed to cut all these strips at 3 3/4 inches wide, from the remaining fabric.

Join the strips using the same method you would use for joining bias binding strips.
With right sides facing each other, place the strips at right angles to each other, pin and mark a line across the diagonal as shown. Here I used a Frixion pen, because the pen marks disappear with friction or heat from an iron.
Stitch across the line, remove the pins and trim the seam allowance. Finally, press the seam open and you will have one long strip with diagonal seams, so that all the seam allowance does not bulk up in one place.

Take this strip to the ironing board, and press in half along the length.
Open that out, and press the two sides into the middle.
Finally, press in half again.

To stitch along the strap, I moved the needle position to the right and then lined the edge of the fabric up against the right hand edge of the presser fooot.
If you do not have an adjustable needle position, find some mark either on the bed plate or on your presser foot, to keep you in line, and stitch down the length of the strap.

In order to prevent puckering of the fabric, it is best to do all rows of stitching down the strap in the same direction. To do this, I moved the needle to the far left and lined the edge of the fabric up with the left hand side of the presser foot.

Because attaching the pockets is going to be a fiddly job, I prefer to first attach them with iron on hemming tape and then stitch, but if you prefer to pin then go ahead. If using the hemming tape you will need your iron on it's hottest setting and to press hard, because of all the layers of fabric in the pockets.

Most trouser legs, have one side slightly wider than the other, you want the wider side to be the front and the narrower side to be the back. If your cargo pants pockets come in two sizes, use the smaller one on the front, and the lager one on the back.
Position the pockets with their bottom edge at least 2.5 cm from the bottom edge of your usable trouser leg with whichever of the above methods you prefer.

Sew in place. This is fiddly and needs to be done slowly and carefully.
I did one side and the top from the top end and one side and the bottom from the bottom end. Working in this way using the free arm on my sewing machine for part of the time, and turning the fabric tube inside out as I worked I was able to get them sewn in place.

Take your time, and make sure your needle is down, into the fabric whenever you stop to check or adjust your fabric, and you should be able to complete this task.
If you are really not sure about this, you can machine sew the top and bottom using a free arm, but hand sew the sides.

Turn your fabric tube inside out so that right sides are facing each other and centre the two side seams.
Stitch in place. I used two rows of stitching just to make sure it was all secure.

Turn your bag back the right way in and push the corners out. I use a chopstick for this. Then press.

I hope you can see the marks on these next photos. I used the Frixion pen again, but you could use tailors chalk or some other method. On the two seams that were the side seams of the trouser leg, make a mark that is in line with the top of whichever of the pockets is higher. Make another mark 2.5cm above that.

Remembering that the front is the wider of the two sides of the trouser leg, and therefore the one with the smaller pocket attached to it, cut down the side of the seams, on the side nearest the front. (so in these two photos following, the back is the side facing up).

With the front of the bag facing down, fold the resulting top flap up and mark and cut a line between the bottom of your two cut edges.
REMEMBER, here you are cutting the front of the bag, the wider of the two sides of the trouser leg, with the smaller of the two pockets attached to it.

Go back to those side seams and extend the cut to the lower of the two marks you made.
Zig zag or finish in some other way, both raw edges, then fold in, press, and fold in and press again, before top stitching in place.

Attach the straps to the bag. overlap the front of the bag, with the overlap going inside the bag, and line up the side of the strap with the side seam.

I used a triple stitch setting to make this as secure as possible, and did two rows of that triple stitching to be doubly sure! On my machine the triple stitch setting is achieved by setting the bottom dial to straight stitch, and then turning the top dial to the blue S1, which gives access to the stitches that are marked in blue on the bottom dial.

Now it's time to make a closure for the flap. I chose to use a button and button hole. For the first bag I made, I used the button from the waistband of the trousers, on this second pair I used a button from my button box.

The position for the closure happened to be on the upper layer of the two flaps for the pocket on the front of the bag. These two flaps were attached securely with stay stitching which made it difficult to stitch the button on. So I used my handy seam ripper, very carefully and unpicked those stitches, opening the two layers up, enabling me to attach the button.

It was at this point that I realised it was a good job I had a spare button exactly the same for measuring to make the button hole.

You would be better making the button hole first, then attaching the button.

You could of course use whatever method of securing the flap you prefer, a magnetic closure, or other snap would also work.

And there you have it. If your Cargo pants have 4 cargo style pockets, and you managed to use the waistband for the strap on one of the, you now have 2 messenger style bags from one pair of trousers! Well done!

You can buy this bag, or it's matching bag, on my Etsy Shop.

Sourdough Starter Part 2 - Success!

2011-06-18T09:25:00.000+01:00

Great news, I now have a successful colony of aliens growing in my kitchen. Well, not really aliens, since it's all natural wild yeasts and bacteria. If you want to check out progress so far and links to where I got the instructions from check out the Sourdough starter post with a video in it.

Thursday evening things were not looking good, it appeared that nothing much was happening. I was sure we should be up to doubling by now. We were getting bubbles but no particular increase in volume. Thursday evening I rested the starter, instead of feeding it, I jsut gave it a stir and decided that if nothing had happened by Friday morning I would give up and start again.

Sure enough Friday morning it was pretty much the same, but I decided to hang in there and feed it again. I also decided to warm things up just slightly as our kitchen is not all that warm at the moment. I zapped a hot wheat bag for just 30 seconds in the microwave and put it near the jar on the counter. Not particularly warm, but just a little. I did that, I think, 3 times during the day and by the evening we had growth!

It had grown from the line on the left to the level you see here. Not bad, the best growth so far!

So, Friday evening I fed it again, I zapped the wheat bag for just 30 seconds, and left it near the jar, just once, and headed off to bed.

This morning, well, WOW!

Look at that! DOUBLED! Awesome! I have fed it again this morning, but have not put a wheat bag round it since the jar is sitting on the counter above the washing machine and that is going to be on most of the morning, generating at least a bit of heat.

Apparently, according to Gnowfglins, I need to keep feeding it every 12 hours for 3 weeks, before I can start storing it in the fridge and only feeding it when I intend to use it. But I CAN begin to use the starter that I pull off at each feeding. I shall start with the sourdough pancakes recipe in the free sample of the e-book, and then pay for the e-course and move onto other recipes. Check back later in the week for a report on those pancakes. In the meantime, I need to go put that starter that I pulled off before today's feed, on the compost heap!

Blueberry lemon cake

2011-06-15T08:08:00.000+01:00

I got this recipe from Food.com

Blueberry Lemon Cake

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine (113g if it is butter)
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cups blueberries, tossed with
1 tablespoon flour

This is originally a Bundt Cake recipe but I am using a daisy shaped Silicon cake tin. Even though it is Silicone I still like to grease it. I had been greasing and flouring but then I bought a bottle of Cake release. I use a small amount of that and brush it on with a pastry brush. It works really well, even for more complicated cake tins.

Heat oven to 350°F. For other UK bakes like me, that's just under 180C.

The recipe says to beat the butter until soft and smooth, I softened it in the microwave instead. Then beat it with the sugar in my stand mixer.

Once that is mixed and nice and smooth, add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly between each.

Add lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in flour in three additions, alternating with buttermilk. Beat for 2 minutes.

Fold in blueberries.

Spoon into prepared pan.

Because my cake pan wasn't as big as the one called for in this recipe I was also able to make 6 muffin sized cupcakes.

Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

When using a silicon pan, it is much better to actually leave it in the pan until completely cooled. However, with using the cake release I find I can turn them out while still a little warm.

There is a glaze to go with the cake in the recipe, but I didn't use that. I just sprinkled the cake with icing sugar.

You'll have to excuse the Christmas cake board, it was the only one I had in my cupboard the right size. Must remember to pick up some more.

I hope you try this out it was so yummy, we finished it off for breakfast this morning.

You will find the link parties I join up with over in my sidebar. I hope you enjoyed your visit and come back soon to see what else I have been up to. Or you could check out my other recipes and food posts.

Kitchen Chalkboard Tutorial

2011-06-14T17:21:00.001+01:00

I know there are a lot of tutorials for kitchen menu boards or kitchen chalkboards online, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to share how I did it.

Before:

Please excuse the filthy wall. My aprons usually hang on that hook there and I had no idea that mess was behind them. I cleaned it all up after I took this photo.

You will need

something to thoroughly clean the surface with
a method of sanding or keying the surface so that the paint adheres well
masking tape
something to cover any areas you don't want to paint
a tin of chalkboard paint
a screwdriver

I took the door off it's hinges, took it outside and used plastic bags to cover any areas I didn't want paint on, attaching these with masking tape. I cleaned the surface thoroughly with sugar soap solution, sanded it lightly, and wiped off any dust.

Lots of light layers are better than trying to build up thick layers. Follow the directions on your can, but for this one it said layers could be just minutes apart.

Eventually I ended up with this:

I got it put back up on the kitchen cabinet once it was touch dry but you have to wait 24 hours for it to be "hard dry" before you can use it.

Then you take a piece of chalk on its side and cover the whole surface of the board.

Wipe that off and you are ready to use it as a chalkboard.

I added another level to mine and pulled out my white paint pen.

I printed out the things I wanted to write up there onto paper, chalked over the back of the paper, held it up to the cabinet and wrote over it with a pencil. This transferred the exact font I wanted to the cabinet in chalk and I went over that with the paint pen.

I'm really pleased with it.

You can check out all the sites that I link up to in my sidebar.

Why not check out my other posts and see what else I have been up to this week, what I have planned this summer or come back later in the week to see how my sourdough starter is coming along.

Sourdough Starter

2011-06-14T12:22:00.001+01:00

When I wrote my Summer Bucket List at the weekend, I included the whole idea of starting and growing a sourdough starter. I said, at the time that I had almost begun. What I meant was, I had put some water to sit out for 24 hours to get rid of the chlorine. Apparently sourdough starters do not like chlorinated water. So, you can either leave it out uncovered for 24 hours, OR you can buy mineral water, which, you will see, is what I did later on.

I got the instruction from Gnowfglins. They have an e-course on sourdough and lots of other naturally fermented foods. To go with that e-course they sell a book, and on the page for the book there is a sample of the first few pages of the book to download for free. That sample includes the basic starter instructions. So I figured, I would get the starter going first, then either get the book or pay for the course.

Saturday evening I got the starter going.
1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup of flour. Hmmm wonder if anyone sells a 3/8 cup measuring scoop? I use 1 1/2 of the 1/4 cup scoop, but it would be nice to have a scoop that was the right size.
I left the jar open and covered it with a clean tea towel.

Sunday morning there didn't seem to be much happening yet, and the instructions say if nothing is happening to give it another 12 hours. So I let it rest.

Sunday evening I fed it with 1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup flour.

This is how it looked then.

Monday morning I removed half of the starter and put it on the compost heap.
Added 1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup flour

Monday evening it didn't look like enough had happened since the morning so I gave it another rest.

This morning I fed it again, and yes the smell is there that you expect with a sourdough starter and the bubbles are there too.

Before I started:

You can see that the jar is much too big, but it is what I had.
With such a big jar there is just a small layer in the bottom of the jar, but it definitely had bubbles:

I removed half to take out to the compost bin:

Then I added the water and flour. Hmmm, I knocked the jar over after I put the water in, so I put a bit more water and a spoon of the removed starter back in, then put todays flour in.

At this point I decided that I needed to transfer to a smaller jar and went searching in my box of jars in the shed. YEAH I found something that I think will work. The jar needs to hold at least 2 cups, but not too much more, this looks just right:

After transfer to the other jar, the contents looked like this:

After taking this photo I took a permanent marker and marked the jar at the level of the starter contents, so that when I come to feed it this evening I'll know how much it has grown.

Wish me luck! And come back later in the week for an update on how well it's growing.

You can check out the Gnwoflgins sample video here:

Part 2 post now up. We have LIFE!

Living Thankfully

2011-06-13T08:37:00.000+01:00

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

395.The trip to Romania is definitely on, tickets have been purchased and we WILL be going.

396. I have been able to combine my love for creating with fundraising for the trip and have set up an Etsy shop, wonderful friends have been buying!

397. The realisation of just how long my hair has grown, means I get to play with lots of different ways of putting it up!

398. A friend and I had fun catering the meal for one week of an Alpha course being run by another local church.

399. We get to go back again in a couple of weeks time and cook for them again.

400. As an offshoot of that I get to bake for them every week until the course is finished.

401. Because of that hubby let me buy a couple of gorgeous silicone cake pans.

402. The very new charity I am involved in is finding favour beyond measure that just HAS TO come from God.

403. Just one example of that is that we have found a printer who is willing to do whatever we need, literally whatever we need, right up to billboards! FOR NOTHING, FOREVER!

404. Compliments on my hair and my shawl yesterday morning at church.

405. Powerful sermon at church yesterday.

406. We have managed to pick up free 90 day national art passes which give us free entry into a whole host of museums and galleries, including our local Victorian living history ones. Think I might head down down to the main site one day this week, for a hot chocolate in the cafe with my journal. Mine, youngest's and eldest's have arrived, while hubby has had the confirmation email from them his hasn't arrived, hope it gets sorted soon.

407. Also managed to pick up a 90 day Taste card which gives 50% off or buy one get one free at a whole range of restaurants, including our favourite pizza place.

408. Summer bucket list is written and already underway.

409. A friend let me have her button box and I am having fun sorting through them.

410.

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.

Summer Bucket List

2011-06-11T10:54:00.000+01:00

Summer (as far as break from school is concerned) for us usually starts at the end of the 2nd week in July and finished 6 weeks later at the end of August. This year will be different. Youngest is in his last year of compulsory education and finishes the day of his last GCSE exam, which is Friday 17th June.

I do still have a bunch of school assemblies to do in July but since they only take an hour each, I’m counting our summer as beginning on Saturday 18th June. Eldest returns from his internship later on. In total that gives me 10 weeks of summer! YAY!

So, with such a long summer, a bucket list in order.

Start and grow a sourdough starter (I’ve actually already almost begun this process).

From that sourdough starter make pancakes
From that sourdough starter bake bread
From that sourdough starter bake 1 other item
Go on vacation and sit on the beach as much as possible
Ride on a steam train

Make something for my Etsy shop every week
Celebrate 4th July with a meal from the Jamie Oliver American cookbook
Travel to Bath to celebrate Eldest’s birthday and visit as many of the gorgeous craft shops as possible!
Begin walking again and work up to longer walks.
Find and buy a pair of shoes that actually fit me properly!
Get back into journaling and keep it up
Keep up the art journaling
Try and do something creative EVERY DAY
Get some more things started in our veggie garden and keep on top of the plants already there, watering, harvesting and so on.
Do something totally, completely and utterly NEW
Sunday Night Jazz at the Mytton and Mermaid, even if we only have a drink in the bar.
Declutter at least 1 shelf, cupboard or drawer per week
Raise all the necessary funds for the Trip to Romania
Hold at least 1 car boot sale in order to raise that money
Put together file of sewing projects to leave with the ladies in Romania.
Order and edit Sunday’s Cool materials for September
Purchase necessary items for Sunday’s Cool for September
Get back on track with healthy eating and lose at least 1 pound a week (not a huge target, so very achievable).

oh WOW, buttons

2011-06-09T08:00:00.002+01:00

Last Sunday one of my team of kids workers brought in a big box of craft materials for us to use with the 5 - 11's over the summer. With it she brought a button box! I didn't know it was a button box, so I opened it up to have a peek. As soon as I saw what was inside I asked her if I could have it and wonderfully she said yes.

There's going to be some work involved in getting them all cleaned up as there is a lot of dust in there. But first I wanted to sort through them.

I tipped them all out onto a tray.

And began to sort through them. These are some of my favourites, although I have done more sorting since I took these photos.

Those buckles are tiny and so cute!

I've been researching how to clean them and so far I have discovered that the best way to start is with a dry cloth and to only move on to other methods if really necessary and that the other methods vary depending on what the button is made of. So, I will be doing that later today.

If you want to see how they turn out you can subscribe over in the sidebar.

Romania

2011-06-07T09:23:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I mentioned that I will be making a mission trip to Romania in September and I promised more details. Well, here you go . . .

Our church has contacts with a Christian ministry called Talmid in rural Romania. The following is taken directly from their website.

The communist ideology and dictatorial regimes after the Second World War left their mark on the Eastern part of Europe. Especially Romania changed in less than forty years from a prosperous country into a nation where hunger, sickness and fear dominate. Talmid Ministries was founded to reach out to the material needs of a destitute population, but even more important to bring the Good News of Jesus where it was almost shut out for decades.

The inspirers and co-founders of Talmid Ministries are Dirk and Nicole Weyts. Dirk graduated as an officer of the land-forces. Nicole is a junior-high school language teacher. In 1996, they started organising relief transports to the ravaged Romania. In the year 2000 they moved with their three daughters Shari, Jana and Amy to the heart of Transylvania and live there amongst the local population in the mountain village Romoşel.

Talmid Ministries distributes clothes, food, school supplies and medication to the poorest families. By means of the sponsoring program, widows, families and students are helped financially. The school project provides the bus ticket or the school costs for approx. Hundred students, when their family is too poor to pay for that.

Besides the practical aid, much attention is given to spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. Seminars, teachings, youth meetings, women's gatherings are provided to the local churches, regardless their denomination.

Talmid Ministries founded the Christian Center Speranţa (hope) in the gipsy area of Romos. Children are helped with their school work, childrens' afternoons are organized and different courses take place such as English, computer, sewing, creative work, etc.

The house of the family Weyts in Romoşel is a refuge and a place of 'shalom' for young people, who stay there for a shorter or longer time, to live together with a Christian family, help in the ministry and get immersed into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The objectives of Talmid Ministries can be summarized as follows:

Practical help to needing people, especially gypsies

Providing spiritual help to the local churches

Spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ and disciple believers, by immersing them into the Reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

The motivation for this work we find in the gospel of Matthew:
“Therefore, go and make people from all nations into my disciples, immersing them into the Reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
(Matt. 28:19, Complete Jewish Bible)

You can see I have highlighted the one word up there. Sewing! Nicole has asked me to visit and teach the ladies some projects that they can then sell at the local markets. This is a very exciting adventure for me. Right back at the beginning of this year God spoke to me about this year being a year of New Things and I had a gut level feeling that one of those things would be teaching, so when Nicole made a comment on my facebook that maybe I could do this I jumped at the chance.

I found a photo of the Sewing class on their website:

So, you can see, they already have some sewing skills, this trip is not about teaching them to sew, but about teaching them to take what they know and make it into saleable projects. I'm going to take with me a file of projects, far more than we can get through in the 2 1/2 weeks I will be there, that I can leave with them, with clearly set out instructions. I will lay the pages out with English instructions on one half of the page and leave plenty of space for them to translate into Romanian. The point about teaching them saleable projects is that it enables them to support themselves and fight their own way out of poverty.

Two of us are making this trip, myself and another lady from my church, who has visited this ministry before. We have to raise the funds to make the trip. Travel costs are probably going to come to around £340 for the two of us. Ideally we want to raise all that and more. So I have asked all my facebook friends to donate towards the trip. If everyone I know on facebook donated just £3.50 we would cover those expenses and more!

I have also set up an Etsy shop where I am selling products that I have made, with all profits going towards the trip. Once we have covered the expenses involved in getting there, any more that we raise will go towards buying craft supplies for the women, as they are incredibly difficult to get hold of where they are. The name of my Etsy Shop is Aisling Beatha, which is Gaelic for a Vision of Life. It is properly pronounced Ashling Bey-ha but to be honest I never seem to remember that.

I promise to take lots of photos while I am there and write all about it here on my blog when I return.

If anyone is interested in donating towards this trip, please get in touch.

Bags bags bags and other things

2011-06-06T09:06:00.001+01:00

I've been busy creating and haven't been blogging. First of all I finished up the two handbags I have been making for my Etsy shop.

Then I finished up the shopping totes also for my Etsy shop.

All of those are being sold to raise funds for a mission trip I am making in September. Watch out for more details in a blog post tomorrow or Wednesday.

Today I have to cut fabric for 2000 wristbands! Yes 2000! Oh my word, I am sure I will be glad of my HUGE cutting mat and rotary cutter by the time this is done!
A group of people at our church are involved in an an anti trafficking charity that is brand new and will be at a music and film festival in a week or so where we need to publicise the charity. Because it is so new we don't have any publicity stuff to hand out, you know, like printed wrist bands, or the other kind of stuff they hand out to young people at festivals. So we have decided to make fabric wristbands, write the web address on them and hand those out.

I realised that I have a huge stack of sheeting fabric that I bought ages ago and never used. I measured it up, worked out what size the bands need to be and figured I could get just over 1000 from each piece and I have two pieces. I'd been asked for 2000 so this is perfect!
We're hoping to use jewellery making ribbon ends to make half of them and knot the other half. So far I have managed to get 500 of the ribbon ends from my usual supplier. Add on the 50 I already had, and that still leaves me short. Hmmm, better find some more then.

Prayer Map of my town

2011-05-23T10:58:00.001+01:00

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?

2011-05-19T14:04:00.001+01:00

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

2011-05-18T09:16:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-17T15:06:00.001+01:00

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

2011-05-17T09:08:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-16T11:50:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-16T08:51:00.001+01:00

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

2011-05-09T10:27:00.003+01:00

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.