scrapbooking fix...

In the midst of a very busy July, we had carved out this weekend for some much needed family and chill out time. We spent yesterday at Barleylands (where we have an annual pass) with our wonderful friends the Baguettes. The children (7 and 4) and M love each other very much and had a whale of a time!

Last night, Andy was Street Pastoring and this morning had to be up at church for 8.30am for our Family Service with special Junior Church presentation - I was also doing a drama. By the time we got home this afternoon, we were knackered.

So M and Andy chilled in front of Shrek for an hour or so after lunch and I got on with some scrapbooking projects, after being very inspired (and released of some money!) at Sugar and Spice yesterday. I'm working on a BIG project at the moment, very exciting, but also have a few birthday and celebration bits I want to do over the summer. 

So, I made some quick mini albums using just one piece of cardstock:

 

this is it opened out...ready for inserts, photos and journalling.

This is it closed and ribboned up...guess who it's for?? bet ya can't!

This is another style of mini album using 12 x 12 cardstock but with specially made covers...

I'm also working on a belated anniversary gift for Andy's grandparents which is going to take a bit more research and collection work, but that will have to wait now until after Falcon Afloat which starts a week today!

So it's been a fun weekend and a restful if busy Sunday...Roll on the last week of term!

Couple more pics of our fun at Barleylands...

Easter Monday - an Essex Countryside walk!

We're going out for part of the day today...with our friends Karen and Shaun who we haven't seen for a while; it will be good to catch up!


So, we're going for a pub lunch at The Anchor in Rowhedge followed by a bit of a walk.
I got the info about the pub from a local free paper and it looks good on the website.
http://www.theanchor-rowhedge.com/ so the table is booked!


I then did a bit of a search online for walks and stuff nearby and found this: http://englishcountrywalks.com/blog/2007/08/01/adventures-in-beautiful-essex/ and we'll probably tackle part of the Rowhedge side of this river walk...


Will post some pics later on!
Happy Easter! 

half hearted hobby

sorry about the silence of late - it's been a busy time along with the usual nasty winter bugs and doing some decorating...

Latest news is that I've finally taken the plunge and got really sorted with my scrapbooking hobby. It's something I've done on and off for the last few years, starting with a gift book for my sister's hen do in 2007 and a few other gift bits since then. I follow a few scrapping blogs and sites and enjoy the creative and memory storing element of it, but always knew that I was only going by instinct and probably not using the right techniques, if there is such a thing. 

So I signed up for 4 classes at Pinnacle Crafts at Barleylands Craft Village in Billericay and had my second lesson on Tuesday night. It has been huge fun and I've learnt lots and am very pleased to have done 2 layouts for my first proper, personal scrapbook.

This one is from week one and concentrated on the basics of matting and layout and letting the page flow and guide your eye. I added the photos when I got home and intend for this to be a front page of a family scrapbook in due course.

 

This one is still a work in progress - the journalling on the right is not fixed in place yet. I enjoyed and have no difficulty with writing stuff - it'll probably be a challenge for me to know when to stop! This will be the front page of an album about me which is apparently the first album you should do, to pass on and to find your style.

I've enjoyed pottering on with a few techniques this week and practising layouts and colours etc.I have also made a few purchases on ebay of card stock and embellishments so I can get started and I have a few projects up my sleeve, not just for me but for some other important events this year! Watch this space!

an unexpected weekend of time

This weekend we were supposed to be running a Youth away day at Asheldham Centre, down on the Dengie. However, it was cancelled due to lack of numbers which has given us an unexpected Saturday to do nothing.
However, Saturdays doing nothing are not really possible with a toddler, so we have done some lovely things and had a splendid day! Let me tell you how it panned out - and it's not done yet!




Andy was Street Pastoring in Chelmsford last night and despite a not too busy night, didn't get in til 4.40am - so M and I kept quiet this morning, having a leisurely breakfast and watching Angelina while also ploughing through a few new library books and doing some drawing.


Andy stirred around 10.30am - just as M and I were about to go off out.  I had found a new Garden Centre advertised in a local freebie magazine which had a farm shop and animals and a shabby chic style Christmas shop! It seemed like a nice cheap and lazy option for a beautiful autumn day and when Andy heard what we were doing, he decided to join us! We were delighted to make a great find, just 8miles away from us!
Growing Together doesn't seem to have a website but it is in Smythe's Green near Layer Marney, just west of Colchester. They have a great selection of plants and bulbs, a fabulous farm shop with local meat, fish and groceries as well as scrummy cakes which you can eat on site with a cuppa - always a winner! They also house a variety of animals - ducks, hens, pigs and all in all, it was a fab 2 hours! We love Barleylands, but it is expensive for how long it keeps M's attention and while M isn't even 3 yet, she is perfectly happy with viewing animals and getting her hands dirty here, rather than a purpose built entertainment venue for kids! Long may it last!
On the way back, we popped in to Oasis Christian bookshop in Tiptree, got a couple more Christmas pressies (I did well yesterday and am pretty confident I'll be shopped out by end November!) and then bought some chips from the chippy to bring home for lunch. Yummy - M declared 'this is my best lunch ever' - her father's daughter indeed! She didn't like the mushy peas tho!
I've chilled out with some chores at home this afternoon while M napped - including wrapping some parcels to send to friends with new babies and some gifts to go to the States in time for Christmas. I've also got ahead with the roast dinner for this evening, while Andy has headed out for a small but significant event in Maldon this afternoon.


Stephen Carter is licensed/installed as the new Rector of All Saints Maldon this afternoon and his arrival is the beginning of the transition for us into our new church and season. From tomorrow, Andy will be dividing his time between All Saints and CGC Maldon, getting to know Stephen and preparing for us to move fully as a family in January. In order for Andy to progress on the journey of discernment and selection for ordination, we need to be in an Anglican Church and we need to have a 'recommend' from the priest there! So welcome Stephen and family, and we look forward to getting to know you and pray God's blessing on you as you begin your time in Maldon. It is good to see, from his newsletter linked to above that young people and children are a priority for him...reassuring as parents and with our other hats on!


I'm grateful today for extra time - just to be and to think at what is a time of much change in our lives. M has been great company the last couple of days, her insightfulness into things we forget to or no longer notice is often a real awakening. It's crazy to think that in just over a month she will be 3, we have nearly been in Maldon for 4 years and I am now in the 4th academic year of my job. God has really been doing so much - settling us at the right time, enabling us to deal with many aspects of uncertainty that have been present, drawing amazing people into our lives and at the right time is now moving us into a new 'place' with a new worshipping community, but still in a place that we love and surrounded by people who love us. That is the crux of the church - it is the kingdom of God and it doesn't matter what building you are in, or who leads you or preaches to you or who you affiliate yourself with, it is the seeking of God and of his loving community that will make a difference to those around us.
I leave you with this quote from the brilliant and irrevent Archbishop Cranmer blog:
Being Anglican can be one of the most difficult Christian paths to follow: one often feels that one is neither one thing nor another; as was once observed, that one is somehow 'crucified between the two thieves’ of the Puritans and the Papists; suspended between doctrinal fanaticism and superstitious ritualism. 

juggling

I'm still deciding whether I have successfully juggled my time over this half term. The guilt of the full time working mother has kicked in this morning as I have risen at 5am in order to work so that I can have time with M and Andy and then with my mother who arrives later today.
I didn't want to take any time off this week during half term when both the Bean and Andy are at home, as I'd like to have a couple of days leave later in November for Christmas and M's 3rd birthday preparations on 14th December. I also want to take a full 2 weeks off over Christmas and New Year as we do so much travelling. 
So, these last few days I've tried to juggle work at times when I would normally be sleeping or watching telly so I can have time with Andy and M and the fun things they have been doing.
So, 5am start this morning...6 am yesterday, managing 5/6 hours work before midday. Last night I babysat for some friends in our babysitting circle and I worked for 3 of the 4 hours I was there.
I'm tired...and I was ill on Tuesday too with a sicky bug or something, so time is even more stretched. But through it all, I'm looking forward to all aspects of my life, generally! The Labyrinth we are doing in St Albans Diocese on Friday is exciting and creative and stretching in terms of theology as well as good youth work. The time we've had with M this week and with each other, particularly because we have all been ill and run down at various times has also been precious - quiet, relaxed, homey.
I can't imagine having to work full time and not love my job - but equally I wish sometimes that I could have more days without feeling that something else is tugging at my sense of responsibility - M and Andy and home life when I'm working, work and deadlines and ideas for development when I'm at home being mummy....


Jenny Baker over at Sophia blogged on some stuff around this issue yesterday and I know she has commented on my previous post about us getting a cleaner and how I felt about that with all it's mixed emotions. I think these times are helpful reflections for me and perhaps you, my friends, will help me be real about my drivers to do what I do and why I work like I do - hard!


Here is some text from Jenny's post:

"There's no doubt that the demands of work on both men and women have a big impact on family life and social relationships, particularly the culture of working long hours that seems as endemic in the church and in Christian organisations as in business. That doesn't just apply to couples; people who are single can have as much expectation or pressure to work long hours.  Helen Jarvis from Newcastle University has identified eight 'drivers' for working long hours:

• tight deadlines due to working in competitive or under-resourced fields
• demand-led services - a few workers have to put in long hours to meet a seasonal demand
• portfolio worker survival - people on insecure or short-term contracts put in long hours to show their commitment or to update their skills
• enthusiasm for the work and a 'can-do' culture
• presenteeism where people feel they have to be seen at their desk or in the workplace to show their commitment
• moral obligation due to loyalty to colleagues or to the cause you're working for
• financial incentives - working overtime or more hours when self-employed means you have more to spend
• 'macho' goal-oriented motives - the lunch is for wimps mentality

I'm self-employed and I know how easy it is for work to expand to fill every available moment. So join me in a moment of reflection - do the hours you put in at work have a detrimental effect on your relationships with friends and family? Which of these drivers is behind the long hours that you work and do you need to resist them? Are you making enough space for rest and restoration?"


I'm really looking forward to going on Youthwork the Conference this year and also taking in the Retreat for the 24 hours before - although it will mean me being away from home for 3 nights which I have only done once before, I am sure it will be a great opportunity and an enforced one too!

A thigh slapping night in the URC...

Ok, I've been persuaded (some would say nagged) to try blogging. As with those annual news letters you get sent at Christmas, I wonder if telling everyone what you are up to on a regular basis is a touch arrogant.

You know the kind I mean, "things have been good in the Jones household this year - our wonderful son Tristan has overcome dyslexia to achieve a First in Classics from Oxford. He did this while circumnavigating the globe on an old moped to raise money for AIDS orphans...blah blah blah...

So I will endure to not brag about M and the fact that she can now wipe her own bottom and manage to flush the upstairs loo on her own. It would be too big headed...

Our good friends Jack and Emily have convinced me that this blogging business is a good thing. I haven't actually consulted them on the subject of blogging but I do follow their progress through their wonderful blog, "Red Bay Days." So I suppose if I find the idea of having a nosey into the lives of my friends OK, then I it might be safe to assume that they quite enjoy doing the same to us.

So where to start...

For those of you who don't know, I have finally answered what I think God has been calling me to for a while now. That is to say that I have started to explore the vocation of ordained ministry in the Anglican Church. A vicar if you will...

I have had an informal chat with the Diocesan Director of Ordinands who has given me some advice on the way to go. So I have ordered a couple of books: "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and "The Christian Priest Today" by Michael Ramsey. I will no doubt be obliged to review them on this forum for you at a later date. Hurrah...

Alice and I had a proper date night last Thursday (15th Oct). Not only is this rare, we managed to go and do something that we both were properly 100% excited about. There was no discussion about the right sort of restaurant, who would be the driver and what the budget was. That's because there was no food or drink involved. We managed to catch Show of Hands on the Chelmsford leg of their "County Towns" tour. Show of Hands are on of Britain's leading folk acts and are from Devon. They are made up of singer songwriter Steve Knightley and Phil Beer who can play pretty much any stringed instrument you dare to imagine. They are joined on stage by double bass playing Miranda Sykes for their live sets.

We first came across Steve Knightley at a gig he did with Martin Joseph at the South Shields Customs House in 2005 (I think). Anyway, I got a chance to chat with Steve during the intermission. It was very refreshing to be able to chat with the artist during a show, especially at the bar. I asked him a number of questions about the instruments he was playing. His main instrument, I found out, is a Mandocello - which is essentially a guitar sized mandolin. I was sad enough to take a photo of it the other night for your viewing pleasure. It's the one on the left...

The other thing that caught our attention that night was his voice. It is such a unique and powerful tool - deep and bassy but piercing at the same time. A really awesome sound.

The gig itself was excellent. The show was opened by the brilliantly eccentric Flossie Malavialle, a French singer/guitarist based in Darlington (!?!). She has a wonderful French accent, with Geordie overtones and is quite mental I'm sure. She talked (a lot) about the English language and its oddities - and for the most part was charming and funny. Flossie likes a good oxymoron (now then) and boy can she sing. She managed 5 songs in 40 mins and sang in French, Spanish and English. Her voice is incredibly powerful but remains sweet throughout. She finished with the epic "Amsterdam" by Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel - her tribute to a man who has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide. Very nice...

Show of Hands finally took to the stage after 9pm and opened with a song called "Tall Ships" - a nod to Phil Beer's involvement in the actual Tall Ships race this summer. The set continued for a few songs and if I'm honest, it was a bit slow. But then the smoke machine went mental and filled All Saints URC with a thick mist. Fantastic. At one point I lost sight of the band! Despite the crazy haze, the band relaxed and started to joke around. Steve started to quote from This is Spinal Tap and played the beginning of "Stone Henge", "no one knew what they were doing or what it was for.."

After that, the evening was filled with leg smacking fiddle solos, punchy folk tunes and some new material. The new song Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed from the new album of the same name pointed to insurance company AIG talking government money to pay massive bonuses to their staff earlier in the year.

After thanking Iron Maiden for the special effects, the boys finished with an unplugged duet, off stage at the front. Good stuff, a great date night for us old marrieds.

I'm not allowed to blog today on our Show of Hands gig last night, as Andy is taking on that review...once he gets his arse in gear!

Today is Friday, I love Fridays! It's my day off and my full day each week, just me and my daughter. Usually, it involves me and the Bean having a lazy morning, maybe playing, reading, watching TV or baking, then her having a nap. Usually we end up doing something out in the afternoon or getting the paints/playdough/bike out til Andy gets home.

Today however, we got up early to take Andy to school as he is still being careful with his back. We had a lazy breakfast, enjoying the lemon curd that Susie made for us.

M has been really enjoying the sandpit at nursery, so much so that she has a thick layer of sand all over her scalp. So we ran the bath and washed, conditioned and scraped her scalp clean of grit! She was pretty patient considering!
She's now napping, I have had a shower, made the beds, sorted out the airing cupboard and am going to head off down stairs shortly to do some other chores.
It's is so great having our cleaner - I just love the freedom it brings of not looking at the state of the house every Friday and thinking - pants, scrap the fun got cleaning to do!! Now, I can just put a wash load on or maybe unstack the dishwasher, but the rest of my time can be chilling out, with my daughter and enjoying some space for what days off are really about. 6 days work makes Alice grumpy on Fridays...but not anymore!!

Andy needs a hair cut - so we'll be meeting him in town later, probably stopping by at the Deli and having a cuppa and a cake before heading home for the evening. They do similar ones to the cupcakes pictured above, which are a particular M favourite!

Really hope your Friday is panning out well - what have you been up to??