From Banking to Blogging, Beading and Beyond!

A while back I was asked by a friend to speak about my jewellery business and how I got started, having previously working in banking, to a group of ladies.  The title of my blog post was the "working title" she suggested for my talk!


I was incredibly nervous setting up to speak to the ladies last Wednesday night, and had brought along a display of my jewellery and also a selection of beads so those who wished to could create a bracelet after the presentation.

The title I used was the title of my blog "Welcome to my world - faith, family, jewellery, blogging, digital scrapbooking and photography".  I covered all these topics and more, including social media, iphone photography and my journey through post natal depression.

Apparently I hid my nerves well - and the ladies were a lovely audience. The ages ranged from twenties to eighties I would imagine, and seemed to enjoy the range of topics - there was something for everyone.

I encouraged them to seek out blogs on topics there were interested in - crafts, cooking, photography.... there are blogs on so many topics.

After my talk there was definitely some interest in blogging, a one of the more senior ladies wants me to help her create her own blog!

One of the funniest parts of the whole experience was having seen some publicity about the meeting, and that I was speaking, a lady approached my husband at the gym and asked if HE was Janine Mayes' husband  (jewellery designer and guest speaker)!!

As I have gone through most of my life know as the "wife of ... ", "the mum of ....." etc, it is quite funny to now have my own identity, and my husband now known as "the husband of...."  When I shared this with my audience there was a round of applause!!

Here is a collage of pics taken with my iphone that evening

 

I was presented with some beautiful flowers, which I assured the ladies would be my "iPhone photo of the day" for the next day - and it was! Aren't they beautiful?

 

So there you have it, my evening with the Old Girls Association of a local grammer school here in Lisburn. 

Quite an experience, and a more enjoyable one than I expected!

(Now awavilable throughout Northern Ireland to speak at Women's Groups!)

I would love you to share your thoughts - either here, on facebook or by email - how do you define your role/identity? I hadn't really thought about it before this, but I too tended to definte myself in terms of others - not myself!

Five Minute Friday - Song

 Five Minute Friday is when bloggers write for 5 minutes on a specified topic - this is my take on SONG:

My earliest memory of a song is my mum singing to me as a child. If I couldn't get to sleep, or had a nightmare, my mum would stroke my forehead and gently sing Psalm 23 "The Lord's My Shepherd". 

She would stay by me for the first verse, then leave slowly and quietly, continuing to sing. As she went down the stairs she would continue to sing, getting quieter and quieter - finishing the final verse at the bottom of the stairs.

The combination of the comforting words and beautiful tune helped me settle back to sleep.

I managed to find a clip of it HERE

Growing up as part of the Reformed Presyterian Church, we had a split-leaf Psalter (hymn book of just Psalms which we sung in church - unaccompanied). So as well as announcing which Psalm we were about to sing, the tune we were going to sing would be announced too. So with Psalm 23 my Mum used to sing it to the tune of Crimmond.  Hearing it again immediately takes me back to my childhood.

This is a picture of an older Psalter I own, dating back to 1880, so it doesn't actually have Crimond in it!

And here is a little about the composer of the tune Crimond, and the origin of it's name. (You can read the article in full HERE

In the Church of Scotland, there is a strong tradition for worship songs to be sung without musical accompaniment. This is still in eveidence today, particularly in the Free Church of Scotland and some Reformed Presbyterian Churches. In 1650, the Church of Scotland published it's metrical psalter - a collection of 150 psalms for unaccompanied singing. Originally, psalm 23 was sung to the "Wiltshire" melody. However, by the 1930's, the "Crimond" tune had become the most popular setting to this Psalm. 

 The Crimond melody was originally composed by Jessie Seymour Irvine, from Scotland. It is said that she originally wrote the melody as an exercise for her organ lessons. Initially, a David Grant was credited with writing the work. However, it later emerged that Grant only devised a piano accompaniment for the Crimond melody. In 1929, the Scottish Psalter corrects cites Jessie Seymour as writer of this famous hymn. Irvine was the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister. For a period of time, the family lived in Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, hence the title of this famous hymn tune.

My other song memory from my childhood is my Dad singing "Some Enchanted Evening" from the musical South Pacific.....but only under certain situations - when my brothers and I were squabbling! Whatever the reason for our fighting, it was all forgotten as we united in pleading with Dad to stop singing ..... worked every time.

So ...... do you have a song or two from your childhood which brings back particular memories?

Do share - either below in comments, on my Facebook page, or even by email - all welcome!

Finally, to see what other bloggers have written on the topic of "Song" visit the lovely Lisa-Jo and tell her I said "hi"!

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are.

A Family Celebration

I was glad I took the photo of the sunny warm day with the blue sky last week, as there has been very little blue sky since, and even less sun! Mostly rain and even hail this week.

However the weather didn't spoil our weekend, when my parents, my brothers, their wives and kids (all but 1) and my own husband and 3 kids all headed to Burrendale Hotel in Newcastle, Co Down for a night away to celebrate my Mum's birthday. There were 15 of us in total.

We headed into Newcastle for coffee and ice creams at Mauds, dodging the showers, and managed to get a few photos.   I took my DSLR with me, but only took photos with my iphone! So here are a few pics from the weekend:

The kids enjoyed the pool before we had a delicious meal in the hotel restaurant.  There was some reluctant posing for photos!
 

There was a lot of reminiscing and my daughters enjoyed learning a bit more about how we were as teens.

The next morning we had breakfast and farewells.......but no more sun - this was the view on Sunday morning

Thanks Mum and Dad for a lovely time away.