Things to be Thankful For...

• 4 months of Married Awesomeness!!!
• My live-in husband back-scratcher = Bliss, actual bliss! :P
• Cold autumn mornings, with fog and white breath and sunshine all at the same time!
• Friends having babies - Baby Bella born yesterday and Baby Eden will be born next week hopefully! Beautiful, very excited for them :)
• Time to do a Jigsaw puzzle with friends who are waiting for the imminent arrival of said baby Eden.
• My first ever bunch of flowers from my husband! :D Don't worry though he is romantic in lots of other non-traditional ways :)
• Being able to make the most of last completely free saturday (maybe till christmas), with Mr V! What started with a lie-in became a lovely lazy day complete with Fry-up, PJs, Xbox, lots of laughter, some Alias, and lots and lots of hugs! :D
• A very successful first proper lesson at NGM on thursday, I felt like a proper teacher and everything! 
• Amazingly after pulling a muscle in my back last weekend and having a VERY painful week beginning, miraculously the pain had completely gone by tuesday lunchtime and I have had a brilliant and productive week despite the setback. Thanks for the prayers!
• Constantly finding more in our Bank Account than we estimated having in there.
• Having a fantastically talented Mum who is making me a new winter coat for this year! After having bought her the fabric and buttons, she will still be saving me at least £30, and I get a well-made, designer, original Coat that will last years longer than one from the highstreet! Genius!
• I got to go to the Cinema twice this week. Once for free, thanks to Nannying :)
• After weeks and weeks of my designing, our Wedding Photo Book has finally been printed and is stunning if I do say so myself!
• Being able to hold off turning on the heating that little bit longer due to sharing a bed! 
• Having travel expenses paid for work that effectively covers ALL of our weekly petrol costs as they pay 40p a mile (about double what it actually costs)! TYJ!
• The exciting weekends planned ahead!

This Week...

I have been lesson planning... because tomorrow I start teaching!

God is amazingly good at opening unexpected doors but he also has a great sense of humour because, classroom teaching..... I have always told everyone adamantly I would never do (especially my mum, who is a teacher)!

But now every thursday I am teaching Music Theory and Songwriting to a class of approximately thirteen 18-25yr olds. (This means that some of them could be older than me :S weird!)

It's all quite daunting but really trying to remember the big picture of how awesome this actually is! Having been on their mailing list for years, seeing their shows, following their bands at Soul Survivor and the like, I am now teaching for NGM (New Generation Music) - an awesome Christian Charity {here}. This is BIG!! And it keeps hitting me what a potentially massive door this is for me!
In their own words...

"New Generation Music is a vibrant community of artists who are passionate about art and life.

Filled with creativity, ngm produce music, artists, dancers, musicians, unique artist training courses, innovative conferences, and much more. As artisans they seek to bring beauty, excellence, and influence through all they do. They help to transform people and communities through their creativity all infused with their Christian faith and values." 

Cool huh!? So excited, a tad nervous and expecting to learn from this experience as much I teach, is how I will go tomorrow. Let's see where this road leads... if you're of the praying kind, then please pray :)

Image found {here}

Things I am Thankful For...

Original found {here}, also found {here}

• Slowly, but surely getting excited about song writing again! Feeling inspired and excited about ideas and potential collaborations.
• Pinterest! If you don't know what this is then check out my page {here}. Pinterest has seriously helped inspire me this week and I have a new lyric notebook starting to fill up :D
• Hugs that literally physically prevent you from breathing and all the words and feelings conveyed in those few breath-taking moments.
• A taste of heaven whilst at Church last night - AMAZING, beautiful, stunning, tear-bringing, life-bringing, eye-opening, hope-breathing, reality-checking, flaming AWESOME Worship moment! There is nothing better, not one thing, than being in HIS presence! Need to remember that!
• Once again for Mike, who I saw cry (good tears) last night for only the second time. What an amazing evening! So incredibly thankful to be on this journey with you, what an adventure and what a JOY!
• Finding my voice again... thanks to a fantastic new music find, I have been singing all week. And strangely enough, for a singer, that hasn't been very common of me in recent years - ask anyone. Audrey Assad - 'The House You're Building' = AMAZING album! It's hard to pick one song to share with you but here goes...

Home Sweet Home

Thought it was about time I showed you our nest, lovely little flat number 5, small but perfectly formed! And very very tidy today - hence the photo taking :P

You have no idea how much fun I had organising everything onto these bookcases! Creativity and perfectionism combined! 

Take a lovely new black sofa (amazing blessing IKEA bargain basement purchase!) and add TONS of colour! With the help of handmade cushion from OZ and mum-made quilt! Ta da!

My Office :D (... and yes it is a backwards clock! :P)

Bedroom fitting a King-Size Bed in it perfectly - and I mean perfectly!
Bath Georgian TownHouse view :)

Earring Collection - or as I like to call them... wall art!

Kitchen, obviously!

Useful/fun whiteboard :D

Pretty window-sill decoration

AWESOME wedding pressie! Thanks Amy Samuel! (unfortunately due to renting and not owning flat, we can't put it on the wall in this home as it needs mega-holes drilling into the wall!)

Our view! Very Bath!

A Very Cute Bonus!

Check out the extremely cute bonus I get in my nannying job!
Blog... meet 'Widget'.......

I have always loved dogs, especially Cocker Spaniels and this 3 year old is adorable! despite the fact that I have had to pull him out of the canal on 2 separate occasions lol!

So I get to walk him with the kids, play with him and get lots of doggy cuddles but I don't have to foot his bills or de-flea him :P NICE! :D

Things to be Thankful for... During the Lows!

For me it's been a week of both very positive/exciting highs and very confusing lows.
But in the lows I know that speaking out truth, joy, light and his promises over my situation is the best thing to do so I am really trying to remember and hold on to my many, many reasons to be thankful! For there really are, so many, amazing reasons!!

I'm Overwhelmingly Thankful for...

• Music and its power to inspire, encourage, heal, motivate, create atmosphere, bring freedom, bring laughter, bring tears, break down barriers, surprise, comfort and create a cry in me of either complete joy or complete surrender of emotions.
• The very exciting songs coming out of Freedom Bath & Bristol, the plans for our upcoming album, our passion as a team to reveal the heart of our church, the heart of its people - to the glory of GOD!
• I love playing with Lego, playing sporty games on the Wii, searching for conkers and know enough about Rugby and the like to hold a conversation - all very useful when you look after an 7 year old boy 3 times a week!
• This amazing book  'Living With a Creative Mind' by the brilliant Jeff & Julie Crabtree - I have a signed copy as of this week - before it's even published! Hopefully it's going to help me understand myself a little better :D (I must say - so far it's very good!)
• That I have a start date for my new job with NGM! (New Generation Music and Mission) On the 20th October I start as a Volunteer Music Teacher - teaching music theory, songwriting and vocal workshops - one day a week, for this amazing Christian Charity!  It's going to be a steep learning curve I'm sure but a very exciting opening door!
• Lots of people requesting my Singing Teaching services!
• Being born for such a time as this!
• However low I get, or how confusing life is, or how much I doubt myself, or doubt my abilities, or however much I'm overwhelmed by the task ahead - I know that HE is FAITHFUL, HE KNOWS ME more than I could ever know myself, HE will NEVER LEAVE ME, HE LOVES ME UNCONDITIONALLY! In short.... - Every little thing is going to be alright! (Makes me want to sing a song - thanks to Delirious! lol!)