Adventures in Floristry

So I have finished my 5 week taster Summer Floristry course.

Have a look at the things I learnt to make! It's very exciting.

Adventures in Floristry

So I have finished my 5 week taster Summer Floristry course.

Have a look at the things I learnt to make! It's very exciting.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Alex E Jones

Some random thoughts...

O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Shops. Why? Why are Irish sandwiches a good marketing tool?

After the first 20 mins of pain, the numbness and pressure caused by a pair of high heels is strangely comforting and supportive.

Marks and Spencer has an amazing selection of Hats and Fascinators in at the moment.

Posted via email from Alex E Jones

Some random thoughts...

O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Shops. Why? Why are Irish sandwiches a good marketing tool?

After the first 20 mins of pain, the numbness and pressure caused by a pair of high heels is strangely comforting and supportive.

Marks and Spencer has an amazing selection of Hats and Fascinators in at the moment.

A Birthday Poem for Rachel by James Simmons

For every year of life we light
a candle on your cake
to mark the simple sort of progress
anyone can make,
and then, to test your nerve or give
a proper view of death,
you???re asked to blow each light, each year,
out with your own breath.

I wanted to put this on the blog so I don't forget about it. I think it's a lovely, insightful view into birthday celebrations and parenting.

A Birthday Poem for Rachel by James Simmons

For every year of life we light
a candle on your cake
to mark the simple sort of progress
anyone can make,
and then, to test your nerve or give
a proper view of death,
you’re asked to blow each light, each year,
out with your own breath.

I wanted to put this on the blog so I don't forget about it. I think it's a lovely, insightful view into birthday celebrations and parenting.

Posted via email from Alex E Jones

May So Far

April was horrid and I don't want to speak of it again! May has been better.

May has seen me become a member of the PCC for our church in a bid to
help the community I love so much. I've also been working at my
floristry course and enjoying every minute of crafting highly
unethical blooms into beautiful shapes. I wish there was a way to make
floristry more ethical. It's so wasteful! One use only foam, tape,
wires and flowers flown around the world! But it is gorgeous. I have
even learnt to make one of those amazing bouquets that stand up on
their own in the water. anybody need flowers for anything - shout!

Jess came to stay, which was awesome. She's moving back to
Southampton, and this pleases me no end, as I miss her! We spent a
good 6 or so hours shopping for wedding underwear and had such a girly
but fab time. I got to see her again when she came down for the
Celebration of Steam at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

There wasn't as much there as I expected, though that might have been
the rainy weather. We saw the Steam Land Speed Record Car, and they
had the engines going on HMS Warrior which were amazing!

I've also had a couple more wedding dress fittings. My gran who is
making it is amazing - it's just what I want. Each time it looks
closer and closer. Quite exciting.

May So Far

April was horrid and I don't want to speak of it again! May has been better.

May has seen me become a member of the PCC for our church in a bid to
help the community I love so much. I've also been working at my
floristry course and enjoying every minute of crafting highly
unethical blooms into beautiful shapes. I wish there was a way to make
floristry more ethical. It's so wasteful! One use only foam, tape,
wires and flowers flown around the world! But it is gorgeous. I have
even learnt to make one of those amazing bouquets that stand up on
their own in the water. anybody need flowers for anything - shout!

Jess came to stay, which was awesome. She's moving back to
Southampton, and this pleases me no end, as I miss her! We spent a
good 6 or so hours shopping for wedding underwear and had such a girly
but fab time. I got to see her again when she came down for the
Celebration of Steam at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

There wasn't as much there as I expected, though that might have been
the rainy weather. We saw the Steam Land Speed Record Car, and they
had the engines going on HMS Warrior which were amazing!

I've also had a couple more wedding dress fittings. My gran who is
making it is amazing - it's just what I want. Each time it looks
closer and closer. Quite exciting.

Posted via email from Alex E Jones

Will you come and follow me?

Will You Come and Follow Me?
(tune: Kelvingrove, Scottish traditional)

Will you come and follow me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don???t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown
in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see
if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean
and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean
in you and you in me?

Will you love the ???you??? you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you???ve found
to reshape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound
in you and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I???II go
where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I???II move and live and grow
in you and you in me.

John L. Bell and Graham Maule

Follow me ???

This has been going round and round in my head.

How can I live up to this?

Will you come and follow me?

Will You Come and Follow Me?
(tune: Kelvingrove, Scottish traditional)

Will you come and follow me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown
in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see
if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean
and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean
in you and you in me?

Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
to reshape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound
in you and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I’II go
where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’II move and live and grow
in you and you in me.

John L. Bell and Graham Maule

Follow me –

This has been going round and round in my head.

How can I live up to this?

Posted via web from Alex E Jones

The Greatest of These is Love

The Gift of Love from bible.oremus.org

"13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my
body so that I may boast,* but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or
arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but
rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as
for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an
end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but
when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was
a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like
a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For
now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now
I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully
known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the
greatest of these is love. "

God grant me faith to keep my hope alive.

The Greatest of These is Love

The Gift of Love from bible.oremus.org

"13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my
body so that I may boast,* but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or
arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but
rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as
for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an
end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but
when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was
a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like
a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For
now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now
I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully
known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the
greatest of these is love. "

God grant me faith to keep my hope alive.

Posted via email from Alex E Jones

Fear

If nature, silence and writing are the ways to make you feel happier and more at peace, then that's what I'm going to try.

Maybe gardening is the ultimate combination of silence and nature? Certainly our garden needs some attention, tidying up the debris from the last tidying session that we've left in the centre of the garden. I've found that each evening as I peer into the miniature plastic green house my spirits rise slightly. There are the tiny plants I planted in trays sat on the kitchen doorstep in the dark in early March. It's probably time to move them to larger pots.

Silence is so hard to come by. Work surrounds me with chattering, and life has not time for it. In my silence yesterday I could hear all my hearts cries pounding with every breath and pulse. It was an odd prayer session, with God being very present, and I having so much to say to him, over and over again. I wasn't sure if I was talking to God or if God was talking to me.

And here I am writing...

Things haven't been so good for me this last week. Fear of life, and my future, have been intruding in what was a happy existence. I wonder how one can ever be sure of anything? How can we be sure of God's salvation? How can be sure that we've chosen the right thing to do?

Fear

If nature, silence and writing are the ways to make you feel happier and more at peace, then that's what I'm going to try.

Maybe gardening is the ultimate combination of silence and nature? Certainly our garden needs some attention, tidying up the debris from the last tidying session that we've left in the centre of the garden. I've found that each evening as I peer into the miniature plastic green house my spirits rise slightly. There are the tiny plants I planted in trays sat on the kitchen doorstep in the dark in early March. It's probably time to move them to larger pots.

Silence is so hard to come by. Work surrounds me with chattering, and life has not time for it. In my silence yesterday I could hear all my hearts cries pounding with every breath and pulse. It was an odd prayer session, with God being very present, and I having so much to say to him, over and over again. I wasn't sure if I was talking to God or if God was talking to me.

And here I am writing...

Things haven't been so good for me this last week. Fear of life, and my future, have been intruding in what was a happy existence. I wonder how one can ever be sure of anything? How can we be sure of God's salvation? How can be sure that we've chosen the right thing to do?

Posted via email from Alex E Jones

Mostly March

I love Tom so I made him a Giant Flapjack:

He was happy:

He was also happy when we went to see Jess and some stuffed sheeps:

Tom made amazing diary free beef stroganoff:

and I arranged flowers for mothers day:

I cut Pie and Emma's hair:

and got to see the veil I made in action at Ben and Laura's wedding:

Laura had beautiful hair:

There were lots of girls:

I had a massive hat:

and an old car:

There were also ducks:

Posted via email from Alex E Jones