The Urban Missionaries Series: Aaron Albu

So, I've been thinking a lot about a new favourite word in the Christian vocabulary: missional.
To be missional involves no less than making Christianity a way of life, making evangelism just one step in a whole lifestyle of discipleship and makes our walk with God something that we must do together, not just something reserved for Sunday mornings, words we say, and choosing to live a moral lifestyle.
Trying to live missionally has been one of the most rewarding and one of the most challenging things I have done in my life.
It constantly takes me out of my comfort zone and it puts flesh on faith.

And it's hard. To live a life of discipleship, where our focus is no make disciples, it's saying that God comes first and we come second. It's saying we're forgetting our comfort, we're letting go of our own dreams and ambitions. It goes against everything that culture and self tell us to do.

At least, it's hard at first. - The spirit in us is the same spirit who lived in Jesus, who inspired the apostles to radical lives, and not one of them ever regretted giving everything up for following God. This life is crazy and counter cultural, but I am more and more convinced that it is the only life worth living.

Until then, it's the first step that always seems to be the hardest. We feel convicted, we repent, we may cry, we make a choice, we decide to do it... then Monday morning comes and we go to work/school, and suddenly all of our attitudes shift back to the current that our life already flows down. We forget, we complain, we isolate, we loose sight of God and of our mission.

I'm getting tired of loosing sight.

So I decided to do something, something small and maybe something that's a little crazy. I wanted to ask the question - who's already doing this? What are they doing and how's it working? Maybe I won't find the answers to my personal calling by asking, but if this life that I live is by faith and in fellowship with other believers than I think knowing the callings or ministries of others can only help. It doesn't just put flesh on our faith, but on the faith and walks of those around us. How are practical and impactful ways to change the world around us? Who are those missionaries that don't have to leave Edmonton to make a difference? Those people who live ordinary lives for an extraordinary God? I wanted to try and find out, just by asking people in Edmonton, starting with my own home church. A search for Urban Missionaries, hoping to put a finger on God's pulse, to see where his heart beats...

Even if it's places I am somewhat uncomfortable, like sports!


Urban Missionary:

Name: Aaron Albu (an Athlete in Action!)

Favourite dessert?
Ice cream. I would have to say my favourite flavour of ice cream is Chocolate peanut butter... probably?

What is it that you do missionally?
I work for Athletes in Action, a division of Power to Change. It's basically working in missions wherever you live, Athletes in Action hires people who want to be involved in pro sports chaplency, leading bible study groups for anyone from University teams to CFL or NHL teams, or you can work with them on university campuses, mentoring university athletes. You can also work at their summer sports camps.
There's a really big need for AIA, there are not many organizations for athletes, who can struggle with identity and easily find themselves defined by their skill. Once athletes are no longer competing they can struggle with depression, and with life circumstances, as they no longer identify as these pro athletes.
How I'm involved is mainly in the office, doing a lot of fundraising stuff and online work. The missionaries get monthly support which I help them track. I also help them track their "insights" - how many bible studies they've done or outreach events or how many people they mentor.
In the past I've helped with discipleship groups on the U of A campus, with the football and hockey teams.

Are there overseas missions opportunities?
The people who work for AIA focus mainly on home based missions, most people are just working in their own backyard - whether that be the University, or their team or just mentoring and discipling or camps in the community. There is the option to go overseas as well, you can get an international placement in a different country (AIA is in over 60 countries). Or last summer I was able to go to Brazil on a soccer tour. We would play against mens teams, sometimes semi-professional, sometimes amateur. After the game we would buy snacks and refreshments and share our faith with the other teams. They were really willing to listen,  teams of Canadians or Americans coming over to play sports against them is really rare, so it really fosters a good environment to open up and share our faith. The people really wonder why we're doing what we're doing. We try to make the point that we love soccer, and we believe people can be united by soccer, but we wouldn't be here just for soccer, we're here because we love Jesus more.



Do you see sports as a good way to share your faith?
I think it's a hobby for a lot of people, so it's a good gathering method, and a way to get people to relax. There are groups that do recreational games where believers bring their friends and it creates a good community that hopefully becomes something more.


How did you get started with AIA?
I got started on Campus at the U of A, I went there in 2010, I was part of the student group that met on Monday nights, basically people talked about the issues of faith and sports, like how do you compete to the best of your ability while still believing and trusting in God, and not being performance oriented. Which isn't just an issue for athletes, but for lots of people - they want to be known for what they do instead of letting God take that, like you don't have to perform for God.
I got involved with that more in more and became a student leader in my second year, so I would help run the Monday night meetings, and bible discussions and other groups. This September I started as a full time volunteer. I'm now hoping to rase support to work for them on a part time basis.


Did you play a varsity sport?
I played soccer at Kings college for two years.  When I transferred to U of A I did not continue to play soccer. There were a lot of things going on in my life at the time, so I could have tried out but I didn't.


What's the most challenging part of being involved in AIA?
You really really want to do well - the purpose of it is really empowering, because I know I'm making a difference for the kingdom. But the challenge is when you think you're going to change someone, you have to let God do his work as well, and know that he is sovereign. Sometimes you have to realize that God is in control and will change a person whether you say the right things or not, or whether you influence them or not.
Right now a challenge is trying to make it an actual living. I can't continue at this pace without making money, so I'm starting to raise support to cover my basic needs.


What's the most fulfilling part of being involved in AIA?
I was just thinking about this the other day, my boss and I were trying to figure out what motivates people to try to get by on donations, what really makes someone want to do missions? I think it is just the whole kingdom picture of seeing lives changed, and being able to assist in that process however God calls you to. I think what I see as really rewarding is when I see someone living a life away from the gospel and slowly you see them start living their lives differently.
AIA focuses on long term relationship building, some people are friends with those they mentored years or even decades ago, it's definitely a lifelong process. It's not "convert and move on" but it's a relationship building ministry that focuses on making disciples, getting the people you're discipling to the point where they're discipling others.

How have you seen God at work?
I've seen numerous circumstances of people on the hockey team or the football team come to Christ, lots of people who grew up in the church but stopped going in High School and kind of turned away, I've seen them come back and embrace faith again. I guess I could talk about myself: I was pretty similar to those people, I grew up going to church with my parents but in high school I fell off, I would call myself a Christian but my actions didn't represent that at all so after my first couple years of college no one that met me would describe me as a Christian. I was rude, I slept with my girlfriend, I would drink every weekend, I wasn't living a Christian life at all. It's not like AIA changed that when I first started going, God was working in my life, but it was the one on one mentoring that I got when I transferred to the U of A - meeting for coffee once a week or whenever we could. Just kind of guiding me through what it looks like to be mentored and how I actually wanted to take this thing seriously. It was a time of need and I was kind of like "what am I doing with my life" and AIA was definitely there and guided me along the process and softened my heart towards what God was doing in my life.


How can people help you?
There are a lot of different ways to get involved. AIA as a whole has a lot of needs in everything from HR to business, to camping and coaching. With our summer camps there are a lot of ways to get involved. There's a lot of events every year, like the Grey Cup breakfast that people can volunteer for every year and lots of overseas missions that they can support or even go on.



Thanks Aaron! I love organizations like AIA because it focuses on what people are already doing and what they already love. To love God does not mean that we must be less who we are, but more!

Advent Ornaments

This year, as I thought about Christmas I reflected on advent, it's importance and the value of taking time out of our Decembers to remember why we celebrate Christmas. 

I thought about how we often put our tree up on the first Sunday of Advent, and I figured it would be fun to have themed ornaments for each Sunday, to reflect the different weeks as a way to remember the bible story. 

It didn't happen quite that way... 

BUT I did manage to get the ornaments made before Christmas!! 

Each one represents a different part of the story, a different character and how the different themes of advent would have effected them. The images are those parts of the story, and on the back is a bible verse. 

Hope: 

Hope was the first one that came to my mind (possibly because it was the first week of advent...). For me, the characters that embody hope are the Wisemen, biblically we know very little about them except that they were from the East, brought expensive gifts, and knew the prophecies about Christ. 

How much hope would it take to embark on a long and dangerous journey with an expensive gift for a baby? What did they think and feel on that trek? How did they feel when they saw the star that foretold his coming? 

It amazes me that not only did they see the signs and know what to look for, but also that they followed the star.  They believed in Christ so deeply, they were so full of hope that the baby they saw would change the world, that they took an amazing journey and will be remembered for it forever. 

Joy: 

While shepherds watched their flocks by night... A boring old night job, maybe lonely, definitely not glamorous or powerful in any way. If anyone needed something to be joyful about I bet it was these guys. I can't even imagine the excitement that seeing an angel would produce, especially one saying "good news!" And they didn't just see one! 

I love that God chose shepherds to share the birth of Christ with, the wisemen came to him, he got the shepherds, Christ was born for ALL people, which in and of itself is a reason to celebrate! 

Peace: 

Do I assume that Mary's birth was painless and her baby was perfect? No, I do not, and I also don't think she walked an easy road, being an unmarried teen mom 2000 years ago. But "Mary treasured up all of these things, and pondered them in her heart." The common image of Mary is one of peace and tranquility, and I think there's a reason for that, through it all, Mary's posture was one of obedience to God. She was not worried about what Joseph would think, she didn't ask why it couldn't be a married women, or even to wait till SHE was married, she simply said, "let it be as you have said." Peace is not about what's going on around us, but where are roots our planted. Mary's had grown deeply into God. 

Love: 

Above all, put on Love. 

God is Love. 

Faith, hope and Love. 

A cross is not a typical Christmas emblem, but I felt I would be cheating my original intent without remembering. 

For the cross was why Jesus came to the manger. 

Christmas is not an isolated event, it was a step that the son of God himself took, a desperate move into enemy territory. 

For us. 

For you and me, the manger was a step to the cross, God himself came down to save us.  

If you ever, EVER feel like God can't or doesn't or won't love you, for whatever circumstance or sin, IT. IS. A. LIE. 

The manger and the cross prove that. 

He already has come for you, he was born a baby on Christmas day, he died for your sins, he rose again, it was for you. It was for love. 

Making the ornaments was quite simple, I found a great link to baking soda dough recipes on-line (http://theimaginationtree.com/2012/12/white-clay-ornaments-tutorial.html) and used a mug to make perfect circles in the dough, and used a straw to punch a hole in them for the string. 

The images and bible verses were all done on Adobe illustrator, but it would be easy to do them by hand or find clip art. 

Once the ornaments were dry I used Mod Podge to put them on, which worked really well. I had to sand the ornaments on the sides and the backs, they did not come out evenly, but my family is insisting that they look good anyway. And I very much recommend the coloured boarders, the clay looks perfectly white until it's right up against paper! 

In summary, this is a simple DIY that would be good to do with kids (or just by yourself, whatever). And when you have them at the beginning of December NEXT year you can put them up on the Advent day and reflect a bit on the reasons we celebrate Christmas. 

Happy Holidays!! 

Chocolate Nougat Pretzels

What's salty and sweet and a great little Christmas snack? You may have guessed Chocolate Nougat Pretzels from the title of this blog!!

Seriously though, tasty.

Also quite simple to make, though it is time consuming dipping a large amount of pretzels into a large amount of nougat, then a large amount of chocolate. But their fun! Bite sized! Very unhealthy!

(Also a cameo of our awesome seasonal snowman plates)

The basic concept is rather simple, take pretzel sticks, dip them in nougat, let them freeze overnight than dip them in chocolate, but it is something I've never seen before and is a very tasty sweet/salty combo. If you feel REALLY ambitious, I was thinking of adding caramel, maybe next time. 

Chocolate Nougat Pretzels: 

Bag of Pretzels 

Nougat Ingredients: (nougat recipe is from here: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/01/homemade-snickers-bars/)

1/4 cup butter 

1 cup sugar 

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped, roughly chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups chocolate chips (give or take) 

Directions: 

Nougat: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved and bring to a boil. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in fluff, peanut butter and vanilla, stirring until smooth. 

Once your nougat is done, dip your pretzels, covering 3/4 or so, and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Let the nougat pretzels freeze overnight 

Melt chocolate chips in the  microwave, and dip your nougat covered pretzels in the chocolate. 

(pro tip: The nougat is very sticky and will not come off the parchment unless completely frozen, I found that it was easier to do the chocolate dipping in smaller batches, leaving a majority of my nougat dipped pretzels in the freezer, just, you know, chillin') 

Refrigerate until chocolate hardens

Enjoy! 

Mini Christmas stockings

Hello Christmas crafting season! 

I must say one of my favourite parts of the Christmas season is the copious amounts of crafting that lend themselves to the festivities. 

Homemade presents, 

Homemade decorations, 

Homemade candles 

Homemade ornaments.

The list goes on and on! 

Last year I decided to take some felt and reimagine the typical Christmas stocking. The size of my family and the ages that we are make gift card sized stockings just a little more practical. 

The other nice thing about these mini stockings is that they're all customized to my family members, aww :). 

You'll need: 

Felt - I only used three colours, Red, Green and White 

Embroidery floss - For mine I used Yellow, Green, White or Red. 

Sewing needle 

Pins (optional) 

For the pattern I simply placed a gift card on a sheet of paper and made a stocking shape that I liked around it. Just make sure you have a bit of a seam allowance.  It's more important that all of the stockings are the same size and shape. The other pattern piece that I used was a long and skinny rectangle to make a loop for hanging them up. 

Other than that all of the pattern pieces were done in pencil on the felt itself. 

(just like this snowman)

Then you just have to make sure that you cut carefully around it. 

To do the appliquéing onto the stockings I used a blanket stitch. For embroidery I pretty much just did free hand, sometimes you just have to experiment! 

I used a blanket stitch again to attach the two sides of the stocking together, and when I got to the top I simply included the small rectangle (folded over) in the blanket stitch. 

Easy and fun and it adds a nice personal touch to your Christmas decor. 

Enjoy! 

kb. 

Pecapple pie

It's not a spelling error... it's not a new Pokemon... it's the greatest pie mash-up ever made! Perfect for giving thanks, or any other holiday that may be coming up in the next three months! Looks great next to pumpkin pie AND versatile enough to be had on a snowman plate without looking out of place!

It is rare that such earth shattering, mind blowing and taste bud tingling inspiration comes upon us, but yes, this recipe was a pure stroke of genius!

... by my mother...

Which makes this a family recipe! Her brilliant idea was to add apples to my grandma's amazing Pecan Pie recipe. The corn syrup and brown sugar combination makes it very similar to caramel, and adding apples to it makes it basically a caramel apple with crust, that's easy to eat (alternate name: Caramapple Pie).

Pecapple Pie:

Ingredients:
Your favourite lovingly and laboriously made pie crust (Or a store bought pie crust, no judgement here.)
2/3 cups of sugar
1/3 cups of butter, melted
1 cup of corn syrup (oh yeah.)
1/2 teaspoons of salt
3 eggs
3 apples, peeled and cut into your favourite shape for a pie
1 cup of pecans

Directions:
pre-heat oven to 375
Mix all ingredients in a bowl (except for the pie crust)
pour goopy mess into your pie crust, Pecan pie is an open faced pie, like pumpkin. The Pecans float to the top and make a type of shell.
bake at 375 for an hour or "until pie doesn't jiggle" (I told you, this is a family recipe)

So easy right? Pecan pie has been a family tradition for us, mostly because it's SO EASY and SO GOOD, adding apples just makes it legendary.

It was so good I feel obligated to put pictures of my food on the internet!! 

Um, I may need to work on my food photography. But still, looks nummy right? Right?...

...you may have to try it for yourself ;) 

This one is pumpkin, but it's cute :). Happy holiday season everyone! 

kb.

Crazy, scandalous, wonderful grace

A few weeks ago I went to a Passion Play with a group of friends.
I feel I must start this blog by saying this is a really cool Passion Play. The set is a combination of a natural amphitheatre and a permanent stage that makes you feel like you're going back in time. Most of the actors in the huge cast are volunteer and you can totally feel the authentic love of the story through the sacrifice of the actors and creators. I was even in it myself one year, and recognized some of the faces on and off the stage.

It's an awesome play... but.

While watching the production I felt a twinge of sadness in the very classical and well done depiction of Jesus' life and death. The play was through the perspective of John, and out of the book of John, with the actor playing Jesus reciting scripture almost word for word, which was good, but something was still off for me, and I called it 'the untouchable Jesus syndrome.'

The Canadian Badlands Passion Play is not the only time I have seen Untouchable Jesus, it is actually how He is depicted in almost every movie, every play, every paining, a lot of songs and most of popular Christianity. Somehow we have developed this sense that Jesus was dignified, that Holiness means a sort of distance or detachment from human emotion, that Jesus as a man on earth would not have run anywhere, or that He was always immaculately clean. As a very cool metaphor in the play, Jesus wears a blue robe and as his influence spreads to the people around they soon end up with flashes of blue as well. Even that, though it created a great visual, also alienated Jesus from the rest of the crowd, put a distance between He and them. He was the sky, a man of the heavens which cannot be reached. A few years ago I would not even have noticed this, I would have said how well done the production was, how well the integrity of scripture was maintained, but in the last few years my faith has been tested, and my depiction of Untouchable and Overly Dignified Jesus has been challenged, to my great relief.

It started with the Matthew video, my family's favourite of the films depicting Jesus life, for the simple fact that Jesus is not only very full of emotion, including happiness (shock!) but also because He is so very touchable, I thought it was a cool depiction of Jesus, something slightly radical, but didn't think on it much more. Shane Claiborne came next, in his book "The Irresistible Revolution" Shane comments on what Jesus would act like if he happened upon an American Mega Church, Shane speculates that Jesus may actually turn over cash registers at book stores and coffee shops and play with kids in foyer fountains. It is a humorous aside in the book but for me it was one of the most important things I got out of it.
 How would Jesus act if He were to visit our churches? The next question was one that literally changed my life: How would I act if I came face to face with Him? The immediate response in my spirit was of me racing towards Him, like so many sinners had done before, and hugging Him with all my strength, not letting go for the world. That was how I so desperately wanted Jesus to be in my life, huggable, touchable, forgiving. Why did that image take me so off guard? Why did it feel slightly sacrilegious to think such a thing of Jesus? It took me a little while to realize that not only was this how I wanted to act around Jesus, but that it was also possibly how He wanted to treat me. The extravagant love of God is so obvious in the Bible, even if only in the fact that He died so He could be with us.
I think the biggest thing that changed my perspective of the Untouchable Jesus is "The Beautiful Outlaw" a book by John Eldredge, in which he adds a little bit of perspective to Jesus' life, a little emotion and imagination, looking at Jesus as a man in a complex world fully charged with emotion. In the book he speaks of the religious spirit, which causes the Untouchable Jesus syndrome. It is not Jesus who wishes to create a separation between Himself and man, it is not Jesus who was accused of being hypocritical and no fun (He was actually accused of being a glutton and a drunkard). Jesus was not religious, He does have a few things to say about religious spirits, and if you notice - it is the religious whom He confronted most often, and the religious who killed Him. And now, for the sake of piety and religion, we place Jesus on a pedestal away from us, it is so ingrained into our culture that we don't even bat an eye when Jesus is a solemn and ethereal figure (in the worst cases), or when He is simply not hugged, not touched, not dirty, not hungry, not tired, not emotive. Our God of Love is often depicted as a God of Distant Affection, and we wonder why the world does not take notice like it did in the early church.

So, how do we change that? How do we challenge the religious spirit and embrace Jesus for who He really was? I think the most important thing is to seek to know Jesus for who He truly is, look at nature, the world He created reveals His Glory. Read the Bible with a different lens, look for Jesus' humanity. Stop fearing the judgement of a God full of scandalous grace (and stop dishing out your own judgement), and seek Him from that bloody and embarrassing place that you're in right now and most ashamed of. I guarantee that if you go to Him he will embrace you with open arms. Repent of the religious spirit, and ask God to reveal His true nature.
He became a man, indistinguishable from any other man in appearance, He laughed and He cried, He got sweaty and tired, He was hungry. He was also humble, and a fun guy to be around. He was the kind of man that had broken people running to Him, washing His feet with tears, how do you think that was received? I imagine that woman was wrapped in the arms of her Creator. He constantly broke down the dignified barriers others put around Him, and He continues to do so today.

He was touchable.
He was huggable.
God Himself: which is just part of His crazy, scandalous and wonderful grace.

A tale of 3 t-shirts

Gotta love DIY parties! They are a great place to get some new shirts!
                                                ... but not a great place to take pictures for amazing tutorials, sadly.

But you potential DIY-er's are in luck! I can only take creative credit for one of these DIY's, and that one is pretty simple, I may do a proper tutorial for it some day, but we'll see. 

 This is the shirt in question:

Like I said, sorry for the lack of before pictures. Close your eyes and think really hard of two t-shirts of blue, both a few sizes to large. Like I said, this is a really simple DIY, and I don't think I did it great, I may do it again. Anyway all you have to do: 

Put on the "base" t-shirt (the baby blue one), and put a pen mark where you want the "belt" to go. With a ruler draw a straight line from your pen mark all around the shirt. 

Cut (eek!) along the line 

From about the same place on a second t-shirt measure out and mark lines for the width of the belt you want, with a little bit of extra for the seams. 

Cut along those lines. 

Sew the belt onto the other shirt (make sure you use a serger, if you don't the seams won't stretch with the shirt and will pop) 

I also brought this shirt in at the side seams, by a few inches, if you don't know how small to make it, centre one of your own shirts over it, trace it out and add a seam allowance. 

Pretty simple :) 

The other two shirts I did with internet tutorials that I will attach the links of, hopefully they offer clearer instructions than I do... 

This one I do think it pretty cute: 

The DIY element to this was the braided neckline, shown here: 

So this tutorial is from this link here: http://www.hernewleaf.com/2011/07/21/diy-banana-republic-braided-neck-tee-shirt/ 

For this one I sincerely suggest practicing on a shirt or scrap material you don't really care about, it's pretty easy but it does take getting used to, I think mine is a little junkier than I would like on something I would wear all the time. Still a fun and easy no sew tutorial! Once the neckline was braided I actually liked that the shirt was too big, has a kind of Boho feel (Megan!) 

And last but not least, my favourite of the three diys and one I actually took pictures of: 

The mens shirt to Dolman top! TA DA! This one I didn't actually do at the DIY night, but a day later. I'll admit that I bought this shirt just to do a diy on it, but it's wonderful! It says "make time for spontaneous wilderness adventures" on it! How can you not! 

So here's the before: 

It's a mens large... always make sure you have room! So this is the tutorial that I followed for this shirt: http://www.trashtocouture.com/2011/11/old-mens-t-shirt-sewn-into-womens.html, but I didn't freestyle cut like she did, I traced the sleeves and neckline of other shirts that I have, just in case. 

If you look closely you can see the pen marks, the inside ones were the ones that I followed, and for the sleeves, make sure you sew over the current shoulder seam, or there will be little bulges at the shoulder of your dolman top. 

So there they are, three shirt DIY's! Had lots of fun making them :). Hope ya'll are feeling inspired to go crazy on some ill-fitting, drawer stuffing t-shirts (or some men's large tee's that you happen to find).

The Mom Dress

My favourite projects are always the ones that offer challenges unique to a particular person (and involve sewing knits).

(or a dress I made for my Mother, my number 1 fan) 

My mom was having difficulty finding a dress for an upcoming trip, finding it very hard to fulfill some very particular criteria: she wanted it to have wide straps, but no sleeves, a band under the bust, but not one that had a "girly" bow or ribbon, and one that falls right under the knee. She's also in love with stretchy fabrics (called ITY stretch knits) and the colour blue. 

Great success!! 

We're both pretty happy with the result. I think if I were making it again I would have a white neckline and make the waistband white as well, just to separate the blue a little bit. But other than that it's just what she wanted for easy wear/travel. The material doesn't really wrinkle, and can be compacted easily, so it's really nice for packing, and if you have sharp eyes you may notice that this dress is so stretchy it doesn't require a zipper or other closure, it just pops right over your head and you're ready to go! 

Making dresses like this one is pretty simple... especially if you "borrow" the pattern from some dresses you already have in your wardrobe. Mom had a few dresses that we "borrowed" elements from to make this one. 

We liked the overall shape of the brown one for inspiration, but thought that the V was to deep and didn't like the arm holes, the blue one had the right arms, but has a ribbon (not shown) and wasn't the right length.

So taking inspiration from both dresses, I simply traced out the elements of both that Mom liked, tracing the skirt, waistband and most of the bodice of the brown, and then the armhole of the blue,. I made the V higher, and adding a seam allowances on the paper I had traced it all out on. After that it was smooth sailing for serging away! After the muslin we decided to make the belt narrower, more like the blue dress that's shown, but that was really the only change we had to make to the traced pattern. 

I also made sure the top of the dress had a lining, not only is it the best way to finish the neckline and armholes, but it also adds a little bit of support, just making it a nicer piece in general. As you can see in the picture I just surged the lining into the waistband along with the blue fabric. Pretty simple. 

And that's it! A simple project, making a hybrid dress out of a few that were in the closet already. Taking inspiration from what my Mom knows looks good on her, and from what she needs for a vacation dress. So there you go, designing your own clothing isn't hard, it's not really a sacred art form, and it's not taboo to be inspired by, or borrow elements from, what's already in your closet.  I had lots of fun doing this quite simple project and I hope that Mom enjoys this dress for many years to come! 

The why-isn't-this-a-thing-yet? Pocket bookmark, aka Book Buddies!!

Seriously, why isn't this a thing? I made my Mom one of these little guys many years ago and she loved it so much she wanted me to make her a new one now that I know my way around a sewing machine a little better.
So, what is a Book Buddy, you may ask? Good question!

This is a Book Buddy, it's literally as simple as a bookmark that marks the page with an elastic and sits on the outside of a book, holding pens (and rulers if you REALLY like straight lines). It's great for text books, bibles and bible study books. If you don't want to ruin the spine of your book by jamming it full of highlighters, pens, or pencils, but you love to highlight and take notes this is a nifty little device to have! Pretty cool right? (umm... maybe?) 

So why am I telling you all this? Glad you asked! Since you can't pick these up at the check-out counter at your local bookstore (seriously, why isn't this a thing!) it's necessary for those of you with some basic sewing skills, and a love of highlighted/underlined pages to make these bad boys yourself! Ready for a tutorial? I know I am!! 

Book buddies: What you need 

Scrap material for base, I used thicker materials like cotton twills, cut into rectangles of desirable sizes, mine are about 2" by 6" + 1cm seam allowance. Cut 2

Scrap material for the pocket, this can be thinner material such as extra quilting cotton, slightly smaller than your base material, I only had my pocket about 1/8" smaller around the side and bottom and about 1 1/2 inches shorter, Cut 2

Elastic (black looks more professional than white, but that's preference), for the length of the elastic it's best to judge based on the size of the book, wrap your elastic around just the front cover of your book, leaving the 6 or so inches for the book buddy to know how long it should be, make sure your elastic is stretchy enough to also go around the whole book. 

Very stiff fusing, used for making purses, cut to the size of the base, no seam allowance for the fusing. 

Sewing supplies, such as a machine, pins, ect. A point turner is very useful for this project, but not necessary. 

How to make: 

I started with the pocket. For this project I decided to make lined pockets, just to keep them cleaner and more durable. 

Right sides together, sew your two pocket pieces together, leaving enough of a gap to flip the pocket inside out. 

 Clip the corners.

Invert the pocket so that the right sides are facing out, 

Iron the fusing onto one of the two base material pieces, making sure you're centred properly for the seam allowances. 

Sew the pocket onto the base piece that has the fusing, which will close the opening left for the lined pocket. Pro tip: When your sewing pockets or other stitches that people will see it's nice to increase stitch length to 3mm instead of 2.2, just adds a nice touch :). 

Once the pocket is sewn on, make sure it's square to the edges of the fusing (flip the piece over and look at your stitching from the fusing side, where you can see it more clearly. It's the worst thing ever to finish the project just to have the pocket crooked. 

With your perfectly straight pocket sewn onto your base piece you're ready to put the whole thing together. Centre and pin the elastic to the top and bottom of the top base piece, the one with a pocket. 

(sorry that the picture's blurry... oops :/) 

Making sure that the elastic is tucked inside, place the second base piece on top of the first one, right sides together (make an elastic sandwich) and sew along the edge of your fusing, not on the fusing though, the seam will be pretty bulky if you do. Leave a gap like you did for the lined pocket. Clip the corners and invert the base pieces so the right sides and the elastic are out and the fusing is now on the inside. Press. 

Stitch along the edges of the outside of the book buddy, closing the gap left open and creating a cleaner edge.

 That's it! You're done! Highlight and underline to your heart's content without ever ruining your book spines again! Yay! Make some more for all your friends and family :) 

with love. 

Kenya: The dramatic Conclusion.

It seems rather ironic that I'm writing this blog post during a snowstorm that's been going all day, but that's life sometimes. Getting back to blizzardy Alberta after being in Nairobi is a little sad, but still theres something about the relentless snowfall that makes it feel like home :). 

But that is the end of the adventure. 

This is a recap of the last few things I did in Kenya and what I learned while I was there, so, lets begin. 

First off, the reason I went in the first place, work. Overall I designed, drafted, and sized the 16 patterns that I was able to complete (out of 18 that I had planned) as well as designing some shoes for infants which were a wonderful treat to make. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what the collection looks like. 

I have to say I really loved being able to work with these Kenyan girls, it was really wonderful to see my designs being worn by actual children before I left. The one above is called the Pocket Tunic. 

This one was probably the hardest to design because of the multiple layers of colour and the appliqué design. It was so worth it though when I think about how iconically Kenyan it is. It just turned out beautifully. 

This is the Katie skirt! My favourite piece in the collection, it's been in my head since last September and it was so rewarding to be able to have it finally done and designed! 

This was the first dress that I designed and drafted for Amani, I love the colours and the floral batik, it was a great way to get started! 

And of course, the shoes! These were so much fun to draft and design, and it was so rewarding to see them completed! 

So that's a short recap of the work that I did. I have to say I have never felt so excited to go to work everyday. It's amazing how encouraging and excited the women were to have me there helping them. They had such a desire to learn how to make the different pieces, and while it can be frustrating trying to get things done when people do not move as quickly as expected I would have missed out on many rich interactions and blessings if I had not taken the time to walk them through the steps and I doubt I would have been anymore productive at the end of the day. Amani Ya Juu is a very special place with very special women and I only hope I was able to bless them as much as I feel blessed by them. 

But work is not all encompassing of any trip, and while I sadly was not able to go to the Masaii Mara I was still able to have some good mini adventures, and now I just have a good excuse to go back to Kenya! 

This is a photo of one of God's most wonderful creations... TEA! That's right, turns out Kenya is one of the places that grows and exports the most tea in the world, delicious delicious Kenyan tea! Not only is it a wonderful crop to grow because of how wonderful it is, it's also very beautiful, turning miles after miles of hillsides into this deep green colour. Very beautiful. 

Also beautiful is Brittany, the other Amani intern while I was there, she is in charge of their social media (you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter if you are interested) as well as doing many other odd admin related work for them. We went to the tea plantations together and had a very lovely day :). 

And just one more picture of tea (can you tell I love tea?) :). It really was delicious. 

I was also blessed with the opportunity to go to one of the local churches for a worship concert Sunday, they had some really amazing local artists perform as well as an extended time of praise and worship. This picture is of the worship team, who decided to coordinate their outfits for the special Sunday, looking pretty sharp! 

And what's a trip to Africa without a Safari? Crazy! This time around my host family recommended the walking Safari, as it would be more time conscious and I would get to see the animals guarenteed, which is not the case on a game drive. And did we ever see some animals! I went with my host-sister Dorothy and it was a really spectacular trip! 

First we got this close to a pygmy hippo, SO CUTE. 

Then we got this close to a rhino, there he is, just eating hay and chillin'. 

Next we got as close to lions as I ever want to be! It was rather unbelievable how close we were, they're such beautiful animals. 

Maybe this one was a little grumpy... 

The walking Safari has a random assortment of monkeys who just wander around, they were very cute and again we were able to get very close to them for some pictures. 

  

This is a water buffalo, as you can see, they ARE very different from bison, 12 years of Canadian education has not failed me (I remember that being emphasized often in elementary)! 

                                    

And this is a cheetah, it was acting just like a house cat, which was adorable to watch. So beautiful! 

And that is the pictures of the walking safari that are worth showing off, it was a great way to spend the morning and I did get to see some wonderful animals! 

Thus ends my five week adventure to Nairobi, Kenya. It was an experience I would not have traded for anything, both as a person and a designer. I feel as if the experiences we have and the cultures we visit open us up to learning more about ourselves and humanity in general. It is amazing how small the world can seem until you take the time to go somewhere, and experience something you had never really even thought about before. I would recommend anyone, artists and designers especially, to at least get to know someone from another culture if not to visit one for a while. It's such an enriching experience. 

I hope you all enjoyed these Africa adventure blog posts, I'll put tutorials for craft things on here eventually, I promise! 

Katie <><