Category: <span>Design</span>

img_3117.jpgJess was right, I love these cushions. They are from an online store that has just recently kicked off it’s opening.

Heague & Moran

The materials/products come from Cambodia and a percentage of the profits go back into assisting the women who are involved.

I always find projects like this interesting. Part of me wonders where the profit margin sits. Such as, the 10% goes to the women, the excess profit goes to where? Surely all extra profit isn’t about perpetuating the business? Regardless, it is something.

What a brilliant thing it would be to run something that totally gives back into the people we are trying to help. But then, maybe it isn’t sustainable to run a business that way.

Perhaps I need a reminder that this isn’t all about the money, it is also about improving the quality of life for these women by even just simply providing them something to do that is productive, useful and values their talent.

Anyway, do go and check them out and buy something. I’m going to be having a bit of a further look myself.

We partner with several projects that counsel, train & equip women to overcome the circumstances of poverty, lack of education, sex trafficking & the burden of HIV by providing them with on going care & meaningful vocational training.

This training provides the women with a means of supporting their families, of exiting the sex industry, furthering their education & seeing a hope for their futures.

Through these partnerships it is our hope to support local women & their families, by facilitating opportunities for them to improve the standard of living for themselves, their families & the generations to come.

We strive to undertake all our business dealings with honesty, integrity & transparency.

10% of profits made from the sale of our partners products goes back to their projects to further their work.

Design Social Justice

dan-mccarthy7.jpgAfter all my whinging, the internet is not totally destitute of quality help for stuck youth leaders.

In my digging for something that we needed for youth on Sunday FAST, which I didn’t end up fulfilling (but things wound up okay), I found a whole lot of intriguing and useful blogs. Along with design related thing – a spawn from Church Marketing Sucks. Interesting.

Chase these links:

Church Marketing Lab – brochures/cards/flyers/posters done by people for Churches, some pretty good work here. I have a small bit of fun doing youth programs now and then, but I really don’t produce masterpieces. This might inspire me.

Jonny Baker – check the ‘Worship Tricks’ on the right hand side.

Passionately Pensive – her writing is fun and she shares ideas now and then.

Rethinking Youth Ministry – the title says it.

If you know of any other good ones please share.

image by Dan McArthy (I sourced it from somewhere else… but as usual I have forgotten where) regardless, there’s something pretty timeless and beautiful about it.

Blogging Christianity Church Design Ministry

Hahaha.

This is like the Panda Says No! for Designers.

Props to my uni tutors…. and I haven’t even gone back for the year yet.

Design

invite1.jpgI wish there were more resources out there on running girls discipleship groups. A blog? I want to look at prayer this time and I’m not sure where even to start activity/discussion wise. Except to get them praying.

Our kick off is a lunch at a cafe in March. I’m going to get 3-6 girls (estimate) – the same group as last year (which I’m pretty happy about) minus one who is going into the Yr.7’s to be with a friend. This year it’s Year 8’s for me. It’ll be interesting to see what it brings maturity-wise, because Year Sevens seem to grow up an awful lot from the start of the year to the end. I’m proud of them!

I had way too much fun making invites* this morning… perhaps I should pour my effort into actually working out what we’re doing, but hey, if I got something like that back in Yr.8 I would be really excited. Probably beside myself (inside). I’d stick it on my wall.

Here’s a confession. I have a card my youth leader gave me (several years ago now) and I framed it because it meant so much and it’s lived on my wall ever since (except now because we still don’t know if we can put hooks up).

It scares me now that I might have something remotely close to that kind of influence.

*This book by the way, is sweet. I’m studying package design this semester so I thought I’d load up (Mostly it was an excuse to have something to make boxes etc for fun). It supplies the templates in eps. form and you do what you want with them. Ahh the world has opened up!

Church Create Design Ministry

page-14b-aqua-art.jpg

“Writing is but thinking on paper; and if you have any thoughts at all, you may commit them to writing” (Harvey Newcomb)

This is about the state of life, Terry Pratchett, music, WordPress and a theory.

I do not think I have experienced being this settled for a very long time. Life feels really good on a whole number of levels and on okay levels. Settled isn’t always good but this kind I think it is.

There has got to be something distinctly wrong with the levels of stress that happen in preparation for a wedding/marriage. Infact the whole boyfriend-girlfriend, near-fiance, fiance thing isn’t really the greatest. Despite sitting on a high for good parts of it and it being really, really fun – a spot of massive learning. There’s all this unspoken emphasis and pressure on self, sexuality, time, friendships and more.

Farewell oh carefree days of being too-young-a-teenager to care. Suddenly, I may have a marriage and a husband to think about and that’s not no work, but pffffffffh all this planning, stress, unrecognised pressure is gone. I have my head back, my brain back, and a good lot of self freedom along with someone who makes me incredibly happy by just existing.

I’ve always thought I was a pragmatic person. Our friends Beth and Brian have this theory where when two people become married the one-ness contributes in a few amusing ways. Things even out. Such as, Bec is more funny now she’s married to Geoff. Which of course is the compliment to Geoff, and not to me. The sideswipe compliment. We use it on just about anything regardless. Geoff is more attractive, I am taller. On the pragmatic thing though. I really like how Geoff has a way of looking at things especially regarding people, his observations and understandings of situations go far beyond where I would ever even arrive. It’s shocked into me this realisation that I miss an awful lot. I hope it wears off onto me.

The other things I’m really enjoying at the moment are simple;

Terry Pratchet books – which I always avoided in the past because his fans are fanatical and I wasn’t sure. Sure the volume of characters means that you cannot go near the books when you’ve got much else on, but my they’re funny. My delight was only extended while sitting on the train reading, a girl sat down next me and pulled one out. Spread the amusement. It’s somewhat global.

Lately I’ve been discovering a whole lot more about coding through the need to butcher and expand WordPress templates. Sure it means you’re up to your elbows in a mash of CSS, HTML and the dreaded PHP, but it’s beautifully satisfying when you get something to work. I like to expand my repertoire where it’s useful. It’s fun, it spits out something visual and when that visual matches what you’re after it is fantastic.

On Thursday night Jess and I went to a Justin Grounds gig. I bought the tickets for Geoff who loves his stuff, however work was a moron and kept him there. It was really good to spend time with Jess. We got to Northcote (across the city) on time. The supporting act started a bit later than we realised and Grounds later still. We found a chocolate/coffee/restaurant place. Cocoinc. Ordered tentatively. Enjoyed ourselves and were ready to be hit by the cost when it rounded out to a $2.50 coffee and a $4.00 gourmet hot-chocolate. I enjoyed that coffee oh-so much more, and it was good coffee. Perhaps I should move to Northcote? It’s too a strange part of Melbourne really.

At about 8:40pm we walked back to the venue and caught the tail end of the supporting act Osh-10. I’m kind of glad we weren’t there earlier as conversation seemed more important. They were okay. Jazz and ethereal based, just vocals and bass but their songs sounded fairly uniform. Perhaps it’s just not my thing. The girl’s face looked strikingly like my cousin-in-law.

Justin Grounds was fantastic as ever. His recordings do work for his music – but he is still better live. I have seen him play at informal gigs before, it’s still somewhat magical when you have a whole room of people sitting silent because it’s just so beautiful. I confess at one I nearly cried. There is something when music brings to the surface the gut of who Jesus is without even mentioning him by name.

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