Sunday 23 September 2007

And a bag is finished

In between clearing up vomit, washing endless loads of laundry, shouting abut the state of the house which i had spotless only 5 days ago, I have made this. It is another basket bag, but they do seem really popular. Both the handles, fabric and metal bits and bobs come from u-handbag. I really like this even though i am not a big lover of the colour pink. Being a red head means that pink is not worn too often.

Anyway just recently at my cousin Danielle's wedding, which was absolutely fantastic by the way.


I managed to pinch this lovely fabric (see picture below) It had been used to dress up Martha's high chair for the wedding breakfast. As the latter part of the year is upon us, and posh parties are looming, not for me obviously but other people that have a life outside nappies, i thought it would make a lovely flower pin for an evening bag. An idea mainly pinched from Lisa at yes you've guessed it U-handbag Click here and you will see her latest bag for the Sewing World December issue. I am a big fan of this magazine but my ignorant husband describes it as the kind of magazine that is featured on "have i got news for you".

On another note. Oliver who is 4 1/2 has started to ask questions about God. They say Grace at his school - the village school being linked to the C of E church St Georges. I have no faith unless you can include worshipping glasses of white wine and gin and tonic. However i appreciate it is something that needs explaining to him so that he can make up his own mind in years to come. My friend has taken her daughter to church this morning as her daughter who is very bright has been asking questions for sometime now.

I really do not want to do this for the purely selfish reason that i do not want to go to church. This may seem hypocritical when you learn that i got married in church and Oliver has in fact been christened. Although when does the subject of religion veer that far from hypocrisy.?? All during my Philosophy degree the subject of religion and the existence of God has always been one that i have stayed away from as I could never reach any conclusion. I still can't. My husband does believe however and it is for this reason our marriage was held in a church and for this reason we got Oliver christened. As for Oliver saying Grace before his lunch at school this is not something that bothers me as if we remove GOd from the equation, all children in affluent parts of the world should be taught to say thank you for food before they eat it. we live in a part of the world that has so many riches when large chunks have so little. I want my children to grow up saying thank you for the little things and remembering how lucky they are for the choices they are given.

My sister-in law has suggested getting a big book on all the world religions and explaining them to him in simple terms so that he doesn't get his horizons narrowed by just learning about one religion i.e Christianity. A concept i whole heartedly agree with. But how to do it without confusing the poor thing i do not know. Has anybody else faced this crossroads before and found themselves in a similar situation??

4 comments:

Susanne said...

Oh yes, that one. We have bought our son an excellent book on all major religions (sadly for you it is in German). Then we told at length about different people we know: his grandmother is catholic and believes in this, his other grandparents are atheistic and believe that, we are somewhere in between, believe in God and reincarnation. We told him that nobody can be sure what's right or wrong in these matters and so it's a matter of belief. And that he can choose when he is older.

On a less serious note, I love the pictures from the wedding. And I especially love your shoes, I just wouldn't want to spend any amount of time in them.

julia said...

Thanks for visiting. I hope Oliver is settling in, it is hard to have an sensitive boy, they can struggle to fit in. However I am so proud that my son cares about others and is bright and interested in the world - that's not to say that he doesn't drive me mad at times!

As for the religion issue, Jack informs me he's a non-believer, I'm on the fence, changing as I get older. All we can do as parents is give them as much info as possible, bring them up to consider others in their actions and set them on the right path. Oh, and love them to bits too!

Julia x

ps. totally agree on the trainers issue, Jack was given a pair as a present when he was 2 and I cried when he put them, bit of an over-reaction maybe??

Sophie Honeysuckle said...

Loved looking at your photos, especially the bag and shoes!!

Gill said...

Hi Joanna, thanks for visiting!
Great post, ah yes the religion thing...all you can do is give them the information and let them make their own minds up, Faith is a personal thing and no-one has the right to force theirs onto someone else.

My kids are total non-believers but their Grandmother is C of E, very religious and they still love her and respect her beliefs. I did go through a religious phase when the kids were small, took them to Sunday school, went to church every week too and I seemed to get something from it but I couldn't say exactly what (looking back, probably peace and quiet when I was going through a difficult time). And then a new vicar joined the Church who I didn't take to at all and I stopped going. And never wanted to go back, still don't. I don't know what it is that makes people religious...do they feel something that I didn't, have some sort of experience that makes them believe?
Car boot Sales are my new religion on a Sunday morning now. I know, I'm a heathen.