Exciting Times Ahead ...

What a lovely morning it was at ACC this week. A great turnout, we welcomed back Sue and Sarah after long breaks which was really special.
Jo treated me to an undeserved latte saying that, on her first week, someone shouted her a coffee and she's never been able to repay the favour. It's the tiniest things like that which make ACC such a fabulous group, when I hear these little anecdotes they warm my heart.

Even though I have known who she is for sometime now, Janet finally found out who I was and came to put an idea to me. She often creates hanging banners for our local church and has the idea of making six new ones for the Autumn. She thought it might me the kind of thing that some of ACC might be interested in getting involved with, and had given some consideration to how we might like to mark William and the bible verse "shine like stars in the universe" (which is used as a basis for children's work at the church). As a bizarre coincidence, three of us had been researching a new café which has a 'Stitch' room at the back only the day before.
I had tentatively suggested that we may host a Strawberry Tea for Breast Cancer Care at The Lounge, but now think that this will be the ideal location (all set up with sewing machines) to make up the banners.

So, with the banners likely to happen in The Lounge, one of my next jobs is to arrange and co-ordinate the Strawberry Tea. My home is as good a place as any, Stephanie wants to mark her Mum's triumph over breast cancer by getting involved with making goody bags and Priya has already offered up her baking skills ... all good so far. You WILL be invited in due course, patience.

And the third 'thing' we have in the pipeline is dependent on how successful my and Emma's first foray into soap making goes next week.
We went on a course last Sunday (you can read about it here) and it turns out that Alison is a very experienced soap maker who we have inspired to dig out her kit and get making!
If all goes well, we'd like to draw on her experience and generosity and run small soap making courses for interested members of ACC and beyond.



















So, milestones this week were Sarah making it along with the help of Ruth, the return of Sue who wisely brought a friend for moral support, Emma getting her knits out for the first time at ACC since, erm, February at a guess, Janet and I finally getting to meet, Lesley parting with an 80s Laura Ashley dress for me to refashion (thank you, so very kind), and not one, not two, but three 'events' in the pipeline.
This community just goes from strength to strength, we must start adding more photos to this blog so that you can see what we get up to!

Love for the week ahead
C&C
xxx

Wow wow wow Whata Lota WsiP

Loads and loads of crafters came along this morning for A Crafty Coffee. Two new ladies bobbed by to say hi, one on her day off because she thought if she didn't come then she'd never get to see what she was missing out on, and the other because she usually plays tennis but has had an op on her shoulder so is out of action. I do hope she comes back next week so that we can get to know her better.

Newlyweds Dee and Ron came in for a while which was really quite special and I was literally delighted to see Alison make a return visit, I caught her knitting out of the corner of my eye, but the table layout in Trago Lounge does mean that we are in smaller, more disparate groups than we used to be. Ah well, my positive thinking leads me to believe that we will forge more intimate relationships with a few fellow crafters this way, as opposed to having superficial relationships with lots of people.

Sadly Sarah won't be with us for a while, and some of the group members are very keen to find out how she's doing and to support her where they can. This is where I believe a community like ours really comes into its own. The craft is great, as is the conversation, but the way a group can pull together to help a friend in need is really special, and pretty rare in the society that we inhabit these days.

Want to know what was going on craftwise?
I'm crocheting a camping blanket, and 'Is' took great delight in teaching me Tunisian crochet today which could easily become a project!
Carol was knitting socks, on needles so small and fine that it looks like she's knitting on cocktail sticks.
Alison was working on blanket squares for the project she's been working on since we inspired her back in April. 2010.
Stephanie is cross-stitching Disney Princesses to go in frames in her DD's bedroom.
Su is working on a crochet cardigan for a friend, as well as a lace knit cover-up for her DD.
Karen is crocheting a border on the baby blanket that we were all contributing to for Meghan, a member of Trago Lounge staff who's expecting in September. Karen got carried away with her little hexagons and before she knew it she pretty much had the blanket all sewn up. I do think it is a very special way to show our thanks and appreciation to the staff, to make them a little gift when they reproduce.
Amy was making the Peter Pan collars from Mollie Makes, her friend whipping up sock monkeys at a rate of knots.
Liv chose to work on her crocheted shawl, I'm led to believe it is to be a gift so she needs to get a shift on.
And that's all I can reliably report on, but I know there were other things going on and that there were at least seven crafters present who have remained un-named this week.

I am sorry I don't get round all of you anymore, there is something about that 'bride at a wedding' thing that is so lovely, but also so superficial. And it always meant that my own craft never got touched.

See as many of you next week as can be there.
Love Crafty.

Resolving Conflict

Well hello lovely crafters and coffee drinkers.

Crafty here, was rather hoping Coffee would be back at the helm soon, partly for her own benefit, but also so you could all hear from her directly since it's been an age since she's managed to blog anything.

Anyway, for the time being you are stuck with me I'm afraid. And I have two weeks to catch up on with you all.
We have finally welcomed Coffee (Emma) back into our warm embrace. I think, with what she, Sheena and Sue have been through, it is important that we are all as loving and 'normal' (whatever that is) as we can be, whilst still obviously acknowledging that they are grieving.
For me though, it's just nice to have my partner in crime back, no matter what else has been going on, it is just wonderful to have my old buddy back nearby.

So, crafts I have seen over the last couple of weeks are as varied as usual, and I myself have been inspired by Eddie to do a spot of refashioning (InexpertCrafter). I've seen crochet and knitting, obviously. But also cross stitch and jewellery making which was refreshing.
Being part of a crafty community has its benefits when you come to planning an event. Our Steph is planning a bit of a Fairy Gathering for her little Roo's 3rd birthday, and lovely Lesley has given her some Flower Fairy bits and pieces which will go on sticks in the garden to enhance the ambience. How lovely?

Now, onto a slightly more difficult matter ... since the staff of Trago Lounge have undergone a complete turnover, I have been very remiss in my duties of getting to know everyone. This was an error on my part and has resulted in one of the assistant managers being a little offhand with us on more than one occasion. Now, I decided to do something about this because A Crafty Coffee is a very important group of pretty vulnerable people and we need to have a comfortable environment and a happy atmosphere to continue.
What I have done is pointed out that there is a problem, introduced myself and helped to put a new strategy in place so that there is less difficulty delivering hot drinks to the right customer amongst the hubub of chattering and cackling women.
And this week, by way of a thank you and an apology, the coffees are on The Loungers.
When asked at the till for your name, it is to enable the waiting staff to get your drink to you and not just loosely to the area in which you are sat. Please help us to help the team get this right, service with a smile is their aim and our desire.

Anyway, enough of my gabling for today. I do really hope that you will have a change of author in the next few weeks.

Much love
C&C xx

Lego Lighthouses and A Celebration

Hello All.
We met again on Friday, Trago Lounge have rearranged the furniture again and this way is really not conducive to a social space for us crafters. Especially as we welcomed two new members who found us on the Stitch 'n' Bitch site. It was really hard to physically include them though I do think we were welcoming so I expect them back one day.

I was rather hoping Emma might make her return this week, but she has been fighting a nasty virus since before William died and she is truly exhausted.
In her absence, can I extend her invitation to you to come and celebrate William's life? The celebration service will be held this Saturday, 14th, at 11am in Highfield Church and there will be refreshments afterwards. It will be entirely family friendly.

Perhaps you are sat wondering about the Lego® lighthouse? William wanted to be a Lego® designer when he grew up (just like my own son wants to be) and he planned to invent a Lego® lighthouse. Little did he know that Lego® are already bringing out a lighthouse in June, they must have read his mind huh? Anyway, that is the significance of the image.

Love to you all, see you Friday and I hope on Saturday too.
C (&C) xxx

Good Friday-Resurrection Sunday, Hope.

On Good Friday a handful of us met in Trago Lounge to craft and chat. Amy was there in the calm before the storm as she was performing in the Southampton Passion later that evening, Eddie was spinning, and flitting between at least two other projects, Cecile came and span, Karen mopped me up and held babies and totally spoilt both my daughter and hers, all in all it was a lovely morning.

A lovely morning, with the undercurrent of knowing that a little boy was suffering, and a Mum and Dad were suffering watching their little lad struggling. We all knew the end of little William's life on Earth was drawing closer, what we couldn't know was when he would go to rest.

Now, whether you are familiar or not with the Easter story, I will share a little of it here. The gist of it is that Jesus and friends went to celebrate the passover (Jewish festival, greatly significant, look it up) ... and on the day we call Good Friday (for reasons I don't yet know), Jesus was turned over to the authorities by one of his buddies and tried (if you can call it that) for blasphemy. He was sentenced to death and later crucified.
It was told by Jesus that this would be the sequence of events and that on the third day he would rise from the dead and walk with them once more.

The story that leads up to the crucifixion is filled with high drama and makes an excellent play, but it is the story thereafter that gives us hope.

William died in the small hours of Easter Day, Resurrection Sunday. That he died on that particular day is a poignant reminder of the Christian message of hope in eternity. I do understand that most of the people reading this post will not be Christians, but I for one am so pleased that William's Mum, Dad and brother have a hope, a peace and a security about where William is now.

And the bluebells, William is to be buried in a sustainable way that is quiet and considers our planet. As opposed to marking graves, families may plant native wild flowers and William's favourite colours were blue and green, I sat among the delightful, heady fragrance and photographed the bluebells in my garden for this post, I will never see a bluebell again and not think of the cheeky little lad that touched so many of us in his short life.

When William refers to a Lego Beach Party, I am not sure that this is what he has in mind. But since this post is going to be a tough one to write, I thought a beachy, Lego-y image might do the trick.
Both of the Reynolds' boys love Lego, really love it! Throughout William's hospital stays he has been spoilt rotten with Lego bravery treats, Lego gifts and of course, Lego birthday gifts too. He is Legoed right up!

My little lad sent me up to Bristol last week armed with some of his best Lego Minifigures (including some StarWars ones) for William to enjoy. We share the Lego love in this house too. On Thursday Emma called me with a confession that Yoda had gone missing, I couldn't stress enough that she had bigger things to concern herself with and that nothing material is irreplacable. I am glad we had that conversation.

Yesterday evening she called me again to say that they would be coming home. I knew that this meant they were coming home so that William could enjoy his last few weeks at home with friends and family. I was shocked that the news had come earlier than anticipated, and I am not sure I handled the call that well at all, but Emma and Steve both have a real sense of peace at the moment which is testament to their faith.

This morning I went along to ACC as usual but I knew there would be people there to share the burden of breaking the news, I was relieved to see I and Karen, with a huddle around them so that I hardly had to tell anybody at all. People are being very kind and supportive which is nice, but in truth, I don't know how to feel ...

I echo my daughter's prayers that Emma and Steve and Edward don't struggle too much and that William has fun while he's alive and it doesn't hurt when he dies. Children are amazing!

Thanks to all of you for being a part of the ACC community, for all that we share in the good times and the bad, for the fact that we are all there for each other, and for all of your offers of help.

Much love to all of you.
Crafty (Dee) and Coffee (Emma)
xxx

A Blue Ford Cortina

At the very least, the post title will have got your attention, am I wrong?

This morning's ACC started out as an intimate affair with Alison quietly enjoying a latte whilst pondering whether we had a new venue unbeknown to her. After a time, Liv joined her with little K, and it wasn't much longer before I rocked up myself and put my order in for a large americano.

For those who are waiting, there is no news as yet from the Reynolds'. I will let you know, I promise. For now, Emma is 'coping' ... as best as one can I think, W has been unwell with a chest infection, Dad is to-ing and fro-ing and exhausting himself in the process and E is doing okay, living with Grandma and Granddad but missing his Mummy very much.

The group was slow to grow this morning but at some point or other it did spread to three large tables of crafters/chatters.
Our table was graced with the presence of, well why don't you guess who?, who swiftly took our minds away from life's ills with her comedic tales, most of which involve knickers in one way or another. Whether it was selling glimpses of her knicks for Smarties in the woods, or unwittingly flashing her crocheted pants through her split pinafore, she had tale after tale to get us in stitches this morning. A personal favourite, that had me laughing for quite sometime, was the tale of a sister of a friend of a sister ... or something like that.
Apparently, the poor girl was flashed at in the woods. When asked by the police if the man had an erection, she is alleged to have responded, "No, I think he had a blue Ford Cortina."
Laughter, that great relief for all other pent up emotions.
I for one thank you from the bottom of my heart for the light relief you provided this morning, after a heavy laden, emotional week, it was a blessing!

It wasn't all fun and laughter, we did have some proper conversation too, covering attracting menfolk, understanding and communicating with your other half, sex and relationship education, depression, kids' eating habits, allsorts really. And there were even crafts happening alongside all of this.

I'm missing having my partner in crime around, missing you Coffee!
Until next week ...
Love
C (&C from a distance)
xx