A long weekend in Brighton

A few weeks ago we spent a long weekend with some special friends at their new home just outside of Brighton. It was so good to see them again and it was like they had never left Birmingham.
The nice thing about taking this trip is that Sam has become more open to taking long spontaneous weekend trips a bit further afield. That's the great thing about living where we live - there are so many places to visit only a few hours away at the most.

They live in a really sweet, leafy village but can still travel into Brighton which has a beautiful beach and lots of alternative, vintage shops and cafes.
We enjoyed a long spontaneous hill walk on saturday afternoon in new shoes (not the best idea, but if its spontaneous that's what happens!) then jam doughnut & marmalade & amaretto ice cream on the beach on a lovely sunny sunday afternoon. It was so nice to get away and explore a new place. We'll definitely be going back!
I wish I'd taken more photos but sometimes you just have to enjoy and take in the moments instead of being behind a camera. Next time...eh!?

Xx

Spread a little love and light

We had never seen Downton Abbey *shock horror!* until recently when a friend lent us series 1&2! We have been hooked every evening for the last three weeks catching up and watching episode after episode. I must tell you though that there are only 7-8 episodes per series if you think it sounds a bit extreme!
Well, we watched last year's christmas special tonight and will now be catching up on the current series on the tele at the moment. Serious commitment...or too much time on our hands. Whatever, it's AMAZING!
This is inbetween watching all the James Bond movies - Sam insists that we have to watch all 22 movies before Skyfall comes out at the end of October. We're currently on No.16.  *sigh*

Anyway, you all know we go to church; we also lead a smallgroup on a Thursday in our home. This week was particularly incredible. Our friend was in charge of organising it, we were given a time to meet and a restaurant to meet in. After getting a drink we were given our 'mission' to complete. Each of us were to write notes to a complete stranger and slip a bit of cash inside (whatever we felt was right to give). After sealing our envelopes we wrote on the front 'please open me'...
...now, here's the fun part! We were to go into a supermarket and drop the 'gifts' into someone's shopping basket or trolley without being seen (scary, huh?!). There were around 20 of us all armed with envelopes. We split up and each found someone to BLESS. The atmosphere was totally insane. Within minutes we could hear whispers of 'have you seen all these envelopes?', 'where are they coming from?', 'what should we do?'. Supermarket workers were gathered in groups discussing how weird it was, security guards were looking for suspects, customers were confused and there I was 'browsing' the magazine rack watching all this unfold! Adrenaline running wild!
Who knows what effect we had on people that night!? We certainly caused a stir, I know that much, and in faith I believe the gifts went to the right people.

How will you change someone's life today? I dare you to do something a little out of your comfort zone today and see what happens!

Hello Monday

...and happy October!
It's raining (again) but I've got a steak and ale pie on the go. YUM! The husbs has been after one for weeks so I finally caved and made one. Not sure how its going to taste, I only had casserole steak so hoping it won't be too tough to chew.

I like today. Mom came over and we went out for BLTs, tea and chatter. Love having her so close and available. More momma time please!

There has been a lot going on this last week or so which I'll share with you some other time but for now here is something I made a few weeks ago. There was a problem with dispatch when I ordered the frame so I had to get this done super fast and therefore Mr Poursain had to help me out!

I've got a whole lot of house and home magazines to look through and a whole lot of dreaming up ideas to do so I'll leave you with these pictures of the wall that is inside our gated area where we park our car. It just struck me yesterday with how beautiful it was, and although they are edited pictures off the iphone, the colours and true to life. Mesmerising, I'd say.

Xx