Archive by Author

Twenty twelve: April in pictures

May 4, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Happy May Everyone. How was your April?

I have already shown lots of pictures this month, but these sum up April for me.

 

1. New shoes from the lovely supersimbo to wear during a little heatwave that lasted little under a week. Global warming?

 

2. Easter happened – undoubtably my favourite holiday of the year. Celebrations all round.

 

3. Our new kitchen corner complete with owl and tablecloth.

 

4. My first Chanel – don’t get too excited it is only nail polish. . . . even so it is still Chanel.

 

5. A portrait of myself (in the dress) and husbando (sporting a beard) by Christine of navyblur. They can take good pictures and draw good pictures!

 

6. Our good friend Laura introduced us to our favourite new coffee stop Nettys in Ahoghill.

 

7. Preparation for Sunday school teaching.

 

8. A lovely quote from a brilliant book. “The Sister Brothers” by Patrick DeWitt.

 

A book I hate, I book I loved and a John Piper.

May 2, 2012 in Bible with 0 Comments

One of the books I least enjoyed when reading the Bible in a year was Job. Job is a good man, but God gives Satan permission to challenge Jobs motives for following God so faithfully. Satan takes away his family, wealth and health in order to make Job curse God. His ‘comforters come alongside and do very little comforting in chapter after chapter of doom and gloom. However Job remains faithful to the end and the last few chapters are amazing – but it all just seems unfair and hard and horrible.

A friend recommended a book called Code Red by Andrew J. Drain which really helped me accept the lessons of Job. Drain was a surgeon from Belfast working in New York when he was stuck down by cancer. He suffered and recovered and relapsed and in the midst of it all he taught lessons about the book of Job. He shared the John Piper quote above which I really liked.

If you want to learn more about the lessons in the book of Job you should pick up the book. It is 100 pages long and I read it in one (emotional) night. It is really worth it.

Anyone tired of the Titanic?

April 30, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Anyone tired of the Titanic? Our little capital city has gone Titanic mad over the past month, and rightly so. Those hard working men at the shipyard built the largest thing to float ever (at that time).

I am dying to go to the new Titanic building and visit the exhibition…..I will certainly share it all with you when I do.

For now enjoy this from Stuart McLachlan via Upon a Fold.

& for those Belfast-city dwellers, who are sick and tired of it all, enjoy some dreamy fairytale magic!

Oh all the things I love, paper cutting, drama, birds.

Amazing.

A very good idea indeed

April 26, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Super packaging – Muji T-shirt in a Cube.

Giving up clothes for lent : Part 2 The Aftermath

April 24, 2012 in Issue, Style, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to a higher purpose or to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship. – Wikipedia

When you look at these two ‘Lent’ blog posts does it look like I had to sacrifice anything? These photos (taken over the time span on 6 months) shout out NO!

Even without buying clothes for the period of Lent I still wouldn’t need to re-wear of reuse any item in my wardrobe (except shoes). Why am I saying this – not to show off the size of my awesome / disaster of a wardrobe but to remind myself that clothes are definitely something I don’t need.

When lent ended I will admit that I splurged, buying a skirt, blouse and hoodie in one go from the highstreet but having been denied for so long I was clear on what I wanted and am sure that I love them enough to justify the purchase.

From now on I will focus more on needs and not wants. I will admire things but not necessarily have to wear them.

Was there any real sacrifice in what I did over lent – probably not but I found that giving up on clothes left me free more free time to think about other things. No more building outfits around those must have pair of jeans!

Will I think twice about where I put my time and money in the future – BIG YES. . . . .

& I am going to do it again!!

Giving up clothes for lent : Part 1

April 20, 2012 in Issue, Style with 1 Comment

This year for the period of lent I was banned from buying any new clothing.

The truth is that I managed fine despite two pre-event ” I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR” tantrums.

I often found myself completely lost because I had no “new thing” to build an outfit around that day.

I realised my problem isn’t about clothes and fashion, but is about greed.

I want the new thing, I want the cool thing, I want the reward of something nice.

This coincided with 31Proverbs which ended with Proverbs 31 on 31st of April. This chapter sets out the characteristics of a ‘wife of noble character’. Verses 25-27 say;

“She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.”

Oh to be worried more about being clothed in dignity and strength than in the the latest tribal print or colour block dress.

Part 2 : The aftermath . . . coming soon

Page 2 of 91«12345»102030...Last »