Praying for Blessings.

Do you know what this is?  It is an origami crane.  I was told the other week about a Japanese tradition of giving people who have been in your thoughts origami cranes to show them that you have been thinking of them.  You would go and see the person you have been thinking about and making for, with a handful of these origami cranes and they would know the precious moments that you have been thinking about them.  The cranes themselves are worthless and not particularly precious but the knowledge of you being in a persons thoughts for the duration that one is made is treasure from Heaven.

I could not believe it when I heard all about this.  In the first year of writing this blog I wrote a post about 'blessings' bracelets , these were bracelets that I had started making with a needle, thread and seed beads.  I started to call them this when I realised that while I was making them I could think and pray about the people I was making them for them.  With every bead I picked up on my needle I was praying blessings (most unknown) for that person.  Then just the other week I made a cushion for a friend who is sick.  This time I knew I was not going to get to see her for at least a week from when I found out she was sick, so I wanted to make something for her that would keep her in my thoughts.  I had the pleasure of giving her that gift today and feel blessed myself by her reaction to it. 

I have been doing a little more crochet this week in a few quiet moments in the evenings. My daughter will be 10 at the end of the month and has quite a passion for all things cupcake, so I have used those moments to think and pray blessings for her and have this to give her on her birthday.

sorry the quality of the photo is not very good - our camera has broken and I had to use my webcam!

I am going to be doing a talk on 'Prayer' to the young people doing confirmation classes with me at work tomorrow and it has made me think about encouraging them to see counting their blessings as an essential part of their prayer life, and the blessings they can ask for on those who linger in their thoughts.

520. Time to make and pray
521. Lunch in the garden with the sun on my face.
522. Energy to get through a busy day with lots of children.
523. Quiet time with my husband.
524. Attending my first 'ashing' service.
525. The opportunity to offer emotional support to a friend.
526. The gorgeous long brown curls on my sons head.
527. My parents having a good holiday and getting home safely.
528. Eating rhubarb from the garden (frozen from last year), just as the first sprouts of this years is coming through.
529. Hubby winning another magazine competition getting us £100.00!

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Getting Creative.

I have had the chance to do a little beading this week. As you can see my beading box has got a little dusty, it has been a few weeks since it has been out...(though it is one of my dads old work boxes from his shed so not too surprising that it looks a bit rough)...

I've made this button for a friend to put onto a black cardigan.

One of our God-daughters is going to be 7 on Friday and so I have made her this..

It's the first time I have attempted this pattern and have to confess to be rather pleased with myself!

I think I am going to attempt to teach myself (with a little cyber help) how to crochet.

The Best Monday Feeling.

I am so enjoying joining Ann Voskamp in counting my blessings.  My attitude is slowly turning through the week as I think about what I will include in my next list.  Those who have visited before have made several comments about the photos that I have been including.  This has inspired me further to try and include a photo with each of the blessings - I have a very picture visual memory -  I can picture my blessings rather than just remembering words!  I hope you might join me in enjoying some of this weeks:

141.  Celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary in simple style during the day while the children were at school.

142.  First borns socks and t-shirt hung by himself after an afternoon kayaking to celebrate a friends birthday.

143.  This beautiful Acer tree which reminds me of prayerful people in the North everytime I look at it.

144.  Water fun in the garden.

145.  Finding a use for all those sweetie wrappers I have been saving - bird scarers to keep my seeds safe.

146.  Shaded space and make do games.

147.  Time to design, bead and create.

148.  Gorgeous summer weather.

149.  A house that stays reasonably cool when the temperature soars outside.

150.  Finding a use and new way to use discarded CD's/DVD's, in the garden.

151.  Lots of beading!

Another week of blessings to look forward to and I know that there are going to be blessings, because I KNOW that he wants to give me more than I can ever imagine possible.

One Thousand Gifts.

205. Time to make a 'Blessings' bracelet for a dear friends 50th birthday.

206. My faithful dog waiting patiently for my return home.

207. The excitement she shares with me when I return.

208. My husbands muscles and time - sorting out our compost heap!

209.  All this lovely compost, made from all our garden and kitchen waste! Ready to nourish this years growth.

210. Time to walk, and to find my limitations.

211. Crafty hands using scrap fabric, that can take over when my legs are not working properly.

212. Beautiful wild flowers.

213. A new plant for my garden 'Veronica'.  I just couldn't resist a reminder of a friend overseas!

214.  Books to read and stimulate me - currently reading Grain in Winter, full of musings on difficult situations in life.

Beaded Jewellery

This week I have completed a knitting project that I have had on the go for at least 3 years, possibly longer! It was supposed to have a knitted tie wrap around to fasten it, however I decided that I fancied doing something a little different. My initial intention had been to thread ribbon around the neck and then have a thicker ribbon to fasten it to one side. However I couldn't the ribbon I wanted so...........

I surfed around on the internet for beaded brooches/ buttons, I have another cardigan that I bought which fastens with a brooch and quite liked the idea of making one.  I stumbled across images from this blog which made me think - I can do that!  I already had lots of seed beeds (the little ones) so went and purchased some brooch fixings and some larger beads in a colour that matched my wool (forgetting to take the wool so having to rely on my memory!).  I spent the princely sum of £3.50 and came home with my goodies.  After and evening and an hour the following morning this is the result:

I used an old large button (2" diameter) and some left over curtain lining cotton to cover it.  Once covered I then set about with needle and beading thread to layer the beads, starting with placing the large beads then working around them with the tiny seed beads and small beads.  Once completed  the brooch fitting was sewn onto a round piece of felt which was then sewn onto the back of the button.   Et voila!

I was so pleased with the outcome that I then continued this is my little work tray I used so that I could sit comfortably on the sofa with my puppy:

I still had some of the large beads left and so decided to make a necklace and some earings - I had purchased all these jewellery fixing bits from a beading shop when we went to Brighton last month.

And here are the finished results, if I every get to inspire anyone else to try beading I would be very honoured, in the mean time I will just enjoy having made something for myself for the first time in a very long time.

Ethical Brighton!

Last week after going to visit my dear friend Helen, we continued our journey south to go back to Brighton, on the south coast of England.  We stayed there back in September for a couple of nights and found the best vegetarian restaurant we have ever been to Terre a Terre .  So it was the thought of visiting this and knowing that I had also discovered some great fairtrade shops that we decided to go back.  I had time to prepare myself this time so spent a few hours surfing the net the day before we went, finding the Fair trade shops that I wanted to visit and marking them on a map so that I wouldn't forget where they were.

We arrived late, booked into the same hotel as before (we are such creatures of habit!).  Fortunately they had space we hadn't dared to book anything as the weather had been so unpredictable and there was still lots of snow on the ground.  After a quick freshen up and a cup of tea we made our way down to the restaurant.

We both had potato rosti's, mine with spinach and poached egg, my husbands with spicy halumi tika, this was washed down with a fine local West Sussex white wine.  We then treated ourselves to one of their yummy puddings.  I had a cheese cake that was accompanied with a lemon and rosemary sauce which was just divine, while my husband had something very very chocolaty.  My husband brought me their cookbook for my birthday at the end of last year and so I now feel re-inspired to get it out and get cooking.

After a very warm nights sleep (we could not cool the room down, even with the window open!), we went off for a days shopping map in hand.

First we went to Gossypium which is a shop I have brought from by mail order many a time, they do a superb selection of fairtrade fabrics.  It was lovely to browse, I was interested to see if they had any sale items as they are usually a little bit pricy.  Unfortunately the only bargain I found didn't fit, but I enjoyed the looking.

There are lots of little gift shops in The Lanes, many of which stock fairtrade products, so I enjoyed having a little look around these.

We then walked up Bond Street in the North Laines area.  Here we visited a small gift shop called Evolution, they are almost all fairtrade, and we managed to pick up 3 lap trays for the children that were a little damaged but had their prices cut from £10 each to £2.00 each.  So we got those!  I loved looking at all their FT jewelry, but resisted it knowing I was going to the bead shop.

We passed another shop that I noticed had clothing by Nomads on a rail outside.  So I went inside.... there I found right at the back a whole rail of sale items and managed to pick myself up a lovely white long sleeved shirt (my husband loves me wearing white) for £15.  Another succesful purchase.

From here we went to my very favourite shop Infinity Foods for an organic ethical vegetarian you just cannot get any better.  Here we stocked up on lots of house hold items, chocolate shampoo, seaweed shampoo, lavender bath soak, Weleda rose cleansing lotion, replaceable head toothbrushes for my youngest - we got these last time we came and were very very impressed. We then went into the food section and brought some Vegan Worcestershire sauce, which I didn't know existed, the normal variety, used alot in sauces has fish in it.

We were now laden down with 'stuff', so my husband offered to take it all back to the car while I went on the a bead shop that I wanted to visit.  I eventually found it and spent 20 minutes in my heaven!  I was very restrained, I just picked up a few bits, jewelry fastners, earing hoops and a few packets of seed beeds in colours I had never seen before.  This restraint cost me £6.50, and I have enough 'bits' to keep me going for quite some time, so watch out for some more making.

We then went into Costa Coffee for a lovely fairtrade Late, shared a sandwich and lovely crunchy granola bar.  After a much needed sit down and rest we had a little wonder around the book shop we were in, I managed to find 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd for my mum, I read this several years ago and thought so many bits reasonated with my mums growing up years that she would really enjoy it.  This made the perfect little gift to give her for looking after the children for us.

There was not much energy left in me after this, my husband on his way back from dropping the goodies at the car had managed to find a second hand copy of a jazz cd which had lots of clarinet playing on it - so he got this for our eldest (who has been asked to join the school jazz band).  He had also passed a second hand book stall and saw copies of the original Dr Who books, so he purchased one of these for our son.

I just had a couple of shops left on my list, on the way to one we passed a small tucked away shop called Fair Play, they did not have a huge collection, they had some People Tree clothing and lots of gifty bits.  What did catch my eye was bedding.  This is something we were looking out for for our bedroom, they had some gorgeous sets, but didn't have the one I liked best in King size which we needed.  I got talking to the sales lady who gave me the details of where they purchased them from.  This is the set from   Fairly covered that we are going to order.  It goes just perfectly with the husky pink and deep ruby reds we have in our bedroom.

There was just one shop left on my list but I knew that would be a car ride to make, so we went back to the car and headed off.  Kolkata has some very unique fairtrade clothing and gifts.  What I did find here that I have found no where else is fairtrade wools and cottons for knitting with.  We got a small hair band for my youngest, so that they all had a little gift, and headed home.  We were just commenting on how lovely it had been to spend so much time shopping in our kind of shops when I noticed a huge Co-operative Supermarket shop.  This store is a big favourite as they sell lots of fairtrade produce and we also use them for their ethical banking and insurance.  I remembered that I had a cheque in my purse that needed to be paid in so we pulled the car into the car park and my husband whisked the cheque in.

This made me realise, that if I had to move anywhere in the UK then Brighton would probably be my choice, just because it seems to so support the life style that we have chosen to live.  Moving is not something that I particularly want or would like to do, so for now,  I shall just treasure a lovely time away with my husband, chatting, shopping and eating.  I shall also continue to pray that the area of Hampshire in which we live might be transformed into a similar ethical living style one day.

It was fab to get home and discover there had been no upsets, the eldest went off to her Church run Youth Group, the younger ones went off to bed and we settled down to a nice treat of an Indian takeaway with my mum and dad before heading off for an early night in our own, cosy bed.  Perfect.

Beading.

If you look very closely you might just be able to pick out a needle and thread and some beads. As I have been sat on the sofa rather a lot in the last few months a very kind friend came round to try and inspire my craftiness. She has introduced me to the world of threaded beading. I was amazed at how simple such an intricate looking craft could be. I was hooked immediately. while we were on holiday during the summer I made bracelets for all my 3 children (even my son wanted one - though he did request it to be all black!) and for my mum. My mum hasn't taken hers off since. It's a simple procedure of counting beads on and then back threading very soothing and therapeutic for me in both body and soul. A bracelet takes me about an hour.



Some weeks ago on deciding that I would make them as presents for children who had birthdays coming up I felt prompted to spend the time that I was making them in prayer. Prayer for the one person whose bracelet I was making. This is not a totally new phenomena for me as I have always enjoyed making cards and praying as you can see here. It was when I started to pray while making the next bracelet that I felt God asking me to pray for 'Blessings' for the person I was making it for. So as every bead went on a blessing was requested, some were specific some were not. This was just the most lovely way to spend an hour. This is the end result:





So I am calling these bracelets, 'Blessings bracelets', I did a rough count up when I had finished to find that in this children's bracelet there were over 365 beads in them - so there is a Blessing for each of the new days in their new year ahead.



Another fact that I really like about these is that I can do them in the colours that I know the children love, I know that means that a lot of girls are going to want pinks, but as with the one above as they get a little older their tastes do become a little more sophisticated.



Below are a small collection of adult bracelets that I made during the summer that have yet to find homes. I had an interesting conversation with my husband a little while ago when we were pondering answerable questions that we would like to ask God. One of these was 'Can you ask God for something in arrears - as in when the time you want it has already passed'. We decided that if He is Omnipotent then you must be able to as he lives outside of time! So with that in mind I have prayed over these bracelets and would love to give them away.



The first 4 people to email me their addresses can receive their 'Blessings bracelets' absolutely free, a gift from me to you.