Adventures on the interweb

'Ello 'ello! This week I've been all over the internet talking politics on Threads

 ....and doing a bit of story telling over at Tearfund Rhythms. So, dear blog readers, I send you in their general direction.

Read, comment, see you soon! x

Sewing Box Restoration

For Christmas I was given a very lovely gift of an old vintage sewing box that I came across while on a trip to the in laws in Kent. The lady from the second hand shop there is well aware of my weakness for all things old and sewing related and, spotting me on the street, lured me to her car where this lovely little specimen was in the boot. A bit unloved. A tad forlorn. I had to have it. Manfully, however, I resisted but luckily my mother in law didn't and so, hurrah, on Christmas day it arrived at my house and a brand new project was born.

The inside of the box was very ragged and needed stripping so I first of all ripped out all the lining and then sanded it all down to get rid of the glue marks.

 

After stripping it out and giving it a sand all over I painted it using an eggshell in light blue. I got the paint from a junk shop so it cost me 50p! And here are the results!

I lined the draw with some oil cloth I had hanging about. Always worth picking this up when you see it. I got his from Cath Kidston for £6 in the sale a couple if years ago and it has been used for many, many projects.

I painted the inside, the handles and the bottom shelf area in a more aqua blue using a little paint tester I thieved from my Pa. Oh the joys of having a decorator for a Dad!

Then came the joy of organising. I don't know about you but this cold weather is making me inclined to nesting and organising. A happy afternoon was spent ordering all my bits and pieces into my new box.

 

The drawer now houses all my threads.

 



 My books look lovely all stacked up.

My fabrics are all 'filed', a genius idea I saw on Pinterest for clothes but works well for fabrics to and means you can see what you've got going on in there.

 

And my buttons in a tiny, weeny jar. Too. Cute.

I've said it once (ok, a hundred times!) and I'll say it again. Why buy anything new when you can get such fantabulous stuff second hand?

Theatrical Adventures

As the college vacation draws to a close I've been taking the opportunity to get out and about. For the last few days we have been in Bristol, where I did my undergraduate degree ten years ago. We caught up with old faces and haunts, sampled some fruit beers at a micro brewery and frequented a few of the best second hand bookshops. I picked up this guide to Oxford just on the off chance that the diocese are mad enough not to keep me next year and I have to leave my beloved city (sob!).

A piece of my heart is definitely in Bristol so it was wonderful to be back and even to mull over perhaps heading back there one day. That is one of the best aspects of this way of life for me. We anticipate many moves ahead which, though involving the sadness of separation, also means the excitement of new places - or perhaps even back to old ones. It was also great to reflect on how far things have come since my time in Bristol. My favourite quote of the trip was from my room mate of ten years ago who said I was the least likely person from Uni to have ended up a Vicar! Claim to fame! Or at least a testament to the way of God to use the most unlikely of people!

After Bristol I hopped on the bus to London to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform Richard II staring one David Tennant. After performing my own standard trick of emerging from the tube station in completely the wrong direction and so walking an extra couple for miles for funsies, I found the Barbican, and my good chum Lou, waiting for me. The performance was spectacular with all the usual ingenious set design of the RSC. David Tennant just lit up the stage. It was hard to even compare him to any other role he had been in before as he so inhabited the character. Even a foolish and selfish young King became likeable in all his fallibility.

From http://www.rsc.org.uk/

I always find a trip to the theatre so inspiring. There is nothing like simply seeing people live in front of you bringing a story to life. To pour themselves into something, and even better into those ancient words full of beauty and meaning, and do it so well. Acting has never been my calling. I had a single ill fated performance in secondary school where I forgot my lines and just stood on the stage repeating the only line I remembered. But to see people put their all into something, to be fantastic in their work, it inspires me in my own work to shoot for the best.

I also got to crack out my old Handy Volume Shakespeare from 1892, swoon!

All in all, a good few day. Ah holidays! Can't they just last forever?!

Six Impossible Things

Well here we are. A brand new year all shiny and new and ready to be unwrapped. I started mine with a late breakfast of a sausage sandwich and a gallon of tea accompanied by my favourite occupation, leisurely speculation about the future. This year is a bit of a hairy-scary one for me. Once again I find myself staring out into the unknown. Lots will be decided, or at least the wheels will be set in motion, like the location of my first job as an ordained minster starting in 2015 (gulp). Will I be up the road or on the other side of the country? Will I be hanging out with students in some urban jungle or cycling between churches in some rural idyll? It all very exciting, but completely unknown and therefore, by default, pretty unnerving.

In the midst of all this I like to be in the habit of, as the Queen in Alice in Wonderland would say, believing 'six impossible things before breakfast'! Just when things start to get a bit predictable a new idea pops into my head. A sweet little 'What If?' and before I know it I'm off down some new avenue, sending audacious emails and banging on doors for opportunities like a woman possessed. It's amazing what you get when you simply ask.

This blog emerged out of one such wander into the impossible. Three and a half years later and I am still here infinitely the better for having decided to put pen to paper and start writing. That willingness to follow the impossible road led to a course in creative writing, winning a short story award, reading my work at a literary festival, publishing a book, seeing my name in print in a real life magazine, scaling the BT tower for a bloggers event and, most importantly, having the most extraordinary amount of fun.

It is amazing what you can do when you take your own life seriously enough to strive for what you really want. Getting up before the sun came up to write stories was the first step in a road of committing to the life that I knew I could have. One full of colour, excitement and adventure. I realised that most of the limits on me were of my own making and the options were, in fact, infinite. I credit that time for me eventually going forward for ordination. I would never have believed such an impossible thing if I hadn't taken those first strange and wonderful steps.

So this year in the midst of final exams and job interviews, being wife, daughter, auntie and friend, I'm going to do a little wandering towards some new impossible things. Why not, eh? I'm going to email people I admire, submit articles to sites I love, ask questions, read books. In fact I'm even going to start drafting an outline for my own book this summer when my finals are done. Yep, its adventures all round. I can't wait to begin.

And so here's to you in 2014, to the life you imagine and to believing all sorts of impossible things before breakfast.

Where you'll find me

Things have been a bit quiet over here, really because things have been a bit quiet in my life. I've found myself, at the end of another busy term, feeling pretty wiped out. All I've wanted to do is retreat under a blanket in my living room and stare at the twinkly lights on my Christmas Tree. My days have become the occasional trip out to sample the many festive varieties of hot chocolate available in Oxford, of course, with a book in hand. Work plods on but in a more leisurely pace, a lot is being produced from underneath my duvet! Other than that everything has become very low key around here.

In our mad cap world it can be such a temptation to just push on. To always be doing something exciting, to always have something to say. Right now I have neither of these things. My thoughts have gone quiet and I have no desire to make any plans. In some ways I am sure this is a natural thing, that it is important to go with the seasons and to give yourself what you need. So often daily life squeezes out the things of real value: just sitting idle for a while, a long lunch with a good friend with no where to rush off to, curling up on the sofa with a mammoth box set and a box of Quality Street, eating mash potato – A LOT of mash potato.

After a roller coaster few years and a busy term moving at lightning speed towards final exams I feel like my cup had begun to runneth dry. I need to be filled up again by all the things I love so that I have something to pour out again. So that's where I am right now, wrapped up and reflective somewhere in the Oxfordshire countryside. I will be back in due course, meanwhile I hope you are finding your restoration this Christmas, wherever you are.

Why I want* to be a Vicar

I had a request today via Twitter for a post on this subject and what can I say, dear blog readers - you ask, you receive! Just call me your Fairy God-Vicar. Hmm...that sounds a bit weird.....

Anyhoo, back to subject in hand 'Why I want* to be a Vicar'. I use an * here because 'want' has always struck me as a weird term to use when talking about this subject. When I first got through the selection process for ordination training people would often say 'So you want to be a Vicar?' and I would say 'No! Well, yes, I suppose. Gah! I don't know!'. There were a few quizzical brows! But the thing is, does anybody really want to be a Vicar? It's a massive responsibility to which you commit your whole life and that, if you have any sense, you feel completely inadequate for. To say it is something I 'want' to do just doesn't ring true to my ears even now.

No, rather than 'want', its almost a 'must' and there a few reasons for this. Firstly because of that pesky, every disruptive force, the notorious G.O.D. I didn't plan this or decide it would be a clever way to spend my late twenties. Rather it was something that burst suddenly into my life one day and just wouldn't go away. I first felt that this Vicar-ing lark might be for me when I got married. The only way I can describe it is that I felt a deep sense of recognition as I sat opposite the Vicar who would be marrying us. There was something in her that rang out like a bell to me. I knew that one day, I would be there. It would be me.

Being a (vaguely) sensible sort however I figured this strange idea, should it ever come to fruition, would do so sometime in the very, very distant future. I mean, who has ever heard of a twenty something Vicar? I had no mental image for that so I just carried on with life, wondering about it periodically but no more than that. It was simply an impossibility to me until I was much older, much wiser and perhaps had a rocking chair that I would rock back and forth knowingly in.

Until, that is, one evening on my way to church where, amid the turmoil of yet another disappointing job, I foolishly prayed that I might know what the right thing was for me to be doing with my days. I walked into that church and realised I has unwittingly stumbled into an ordination service. I felt sick throughout the entire thing, like the finger of God, in buzzing neon, was pointing right at me. From there I did a little bit of testing the waters, quite certain that I would be laughed out of whatever official church bods office I was sent to before too long. Three years later, here I am in my second year of training for ministry. Look who got the last laugh eh? Pah!

So the question of what I want and why I am here has felt like a journey of discovery. From sitting in my final interview answering the question of why church ministry was for me and (weepily) yelling out 'I don't care about anything else!' to realising on my many placements last year that what I have been called to is the most awesome of privileges. Slowly, I have been figuring it out. In many ways it feels like a process of decoding myself and my past, like solving the great big puzzle of why I came to be where I am and how that might be part of building a future for the church.

Yes, I am a bit of a wild card. I have no credentials to speak of, no great ancestry of Vicars behind me. I'm just a small, loud girl from Windsor who picked up a bible a few years ago and now gets to lead a church. But I've come to think that that, really, is the genius of it. Because God, my friends, has no favourites. We are all infinitely cherished and loved and if me being plain, ordinary and even a little bit daft at times helps people to see that then my work here is done.

So that is why I want to be a Vicar, to share this tremendous secret, this great big love I've found. I want people lives to be better and fuller and more technicolor than they already are. I want them to be themselves but in surround sound and HD. I believe that that is what knowing and loving God is all about. I want to build happier and healthier communities. I want to share gospel values of service and kindness and love. I want to be with people in their best and their worst. I want to leave the world a little bit better than when I came into it. And when you think about it like that, well, being a Vicar is the best darn job on earth!

The festival that shall not be named

Unless you have been living down a hole for the last few weeks you can't have failed to see the deluge of emails, tweets and adverts that have flooded our world all preparing us for the big 'C', the 'festival that shall not be named'. I have blogged about my great joy at this particular season but I am still a stickler for it remaining in its proper time and for me that means December. But just you wait, come December the 1st IT. IS. ON. Until then John Lewis can send as many anthropomorphised bears and rabbits in my direction as they like. I shall not be moved.

I am, however, starting to think about gifts for my loved ones as, well, I quite like them and want to get them something good. I also start thinking early because time is the friend of the well thought out gift rather than the last minute 3 for 2 from Boots. Time means I can do some online ordering from companies who are doing some real good in the world. There are so many people making beautiful and ethical products and I'd much rather be giving these that some naff plastic affair I picked up a couple of day before the 'festival that shall not be named'.

So here are a few tips for brilliant companies doing brilliant stuff for your nearest and dearest:

Crafts

Whether you are making your own items for your family (go you!) or you have a crafter in your midst there are heaps of excellent crafting companies online and many are small, family run affairs. I just got this stash of seasonal fabric for my 'festival that shall not be named' bunting from Plush Addict. Swoon.

Created Gifts

From one of my most favourite charities, Tearfund, comes this brilliant online shop full of gorgeous jewellery and homewares that are all fairtrade and made by skilled people from around the developing world. Lots of the products come with videos or stories about where the products came from. One of my particular favs are their bangles. Everyone needs bangles.

From Created.com

I also love Exclusive Roots who have a store in Oxford but also retail online. They have brilliant homewares, jewellery and fashion. I picked up a dress made for Paris Fashion Week by an outfit of Kenyan ladies for Global Mamas there and I still absolutely love it.

Beauty from L'Occitane

I recently went for a free facial at L'Occitane and bloomin' eck their stuff is lovely. Anything from their range would go down like an ice lolly in the desert with me this 'festival that shall not be named'. Even better than the general yumminess of their products is that their Shea Butter range uses fairtrade butter from Burkina Faso. Double win.

From http://uk.loccitane.com/

Fashion from People Tree

Got a passion for fashion? I do! And there is no where better to indulge than at People Tree as it is another fairtrade wonder! Lots of lovely dresses for all those 'festival that shall not be named' parties you will be going to as well as great gifts of cosy jumpers and scarfs for the people in your life that you really, really like.

Swit swoo from www.peopletree.co.uk

If in doubt, buy Tea

I'm afraid I'm going to break my rule with the next image, but you can handle it, right? You've survived much worse as you struggle round the supermarket listening to Mariah Carey belt out completely seasonally inappropriate tunes. The reason I am compelled to break my own rules is that I am just loving this tea at the moment. It is everything good about winter in a cup, warming, spicy and just darn perfect.

Happy 'festival that shall not be named' preparations my loves!