40. Beautiful neighbourhood

I do love our neighbourhood. Though I was accused yesterday of pushing up the prices of houses by being part of the middle class hipsters moving in. Yay - don't think I've ever been called a hipster before! I had to point out to my friends thAt when we first bought a house in Hackney they were probably still in nappies!! They are angry though - and rightly so - having just had their first baby and wanting to move to a flat bigger than their current one bed they are realising that even with the help of her parents they can't afford a 2 bed place anywhere around here. It makes me sad. They will almost certainly move out - just a few miles further out east they would be able to afford something appropriate.

And though I hate that the house prices are stupidly high I do like some if the 'hipster' stuff that has come along in the last few years. Not that cool stuff wasn't happening before but it's more mainstream and in yer face now. And not that I access much of it, to be honest. Not even being in the same decade as most of the hipsters I am always miles too old to fit in. But anyway, the last sticker is up on the old sign for the funky new Dentist aka 33 Chatsworth Road http://m.facebook.com/33ChatsworthRd?id=206190439450713&_rdr

Until tomorrow morning when there'll be the culmination of the You are beautiful Lent sticker project. Can't wait!! (Though no doubt it will contribute to the stupid increasing house prices.)

39. Beautiful but crazy

Good Friday. Such a crazy story. Rach and I made an Easter garden with the kids at church while the adults sat mostly in silence pondering the cross. They got so into it and were fixated by the different aspects of the story. Especially those bit which are rife with the injustice of it all. The fleeing of all the friends; Peter's denial; the crowd asking for a criminal to be released instead if Jesus; the other guy on the cross giving Jesus a hard time for not saving him. It's all very unfair.

I did make my very first hot cross buns which I feel pretty happy about. Apart from I didn't quite remember to out he crosses on until they were cooked!! Mind you N just announced "They're the best hot cross buns I've ever tasted". So not bad for a first attempt.

And I stuck a few stickers on Chatsworth Road too so it's all good. (Though this pic is from Median Road in my recent habit of mad extra stickering!). Just got a shed load of knitting to see together tonight for the yarn bomb.

38. Beautiful city

Oh yes! The sun came out finally and I went down to the marshes to get some twigs for my Easter tree. What a great place Hackney marshes is. To make up for yesterday I went sticker and photograph crazy.

And then I put my crocheted eggs on my Easter tree and felt very happy with life. Made a lamb stew for the Maundy Thursday meal and when the kids came home from school we even made some chocolate Easter eggs with my new Lakeland moulds. All very exciting. I remember making them once with my mum. I took a load of photos of the process in case it's the only time I ever do it with mine.

I also did a little scout of the yarn bomb site to see if I could figure out how and where I could put a 'you are beautiful' banner. It's all coming together. I had a brain wave. It's gonna be fab. Yay!

37. Another day of no pics

You see, the problem is, though I carry my purse around at work (and therefore a plentiful supply of stickers) I never carry my phone around. So I did do a sticker at work yesterday - honest! But you'll just have to take my word for it. If you must know its in another toilet. Sorry to be so predictable. I did at least choose the toilet on the second floor which all sorts of organisations and companies rent for one day conferences etc. So it will more than the regular Quaker staff who see it. They all know they're beautiful already! And I heard on the grapevine that a friend's daughter, who saw a sticker in a toilet (I am reckoning it was at the swimming pool), has got all excited and printed her own stickers with a message on them to change the world. Yippee! Spreading the lurve. . .

Also a colleague who's enjoyed the blog asked for her own pile of stickers so look out Brixton! Not bad for a day's Lent even if there are no pics!

36. Beautiful crafting

 Ye-hay! Another one in school. I feel like it's open warfare between me and Darren, the effecient school keeper. The third one I put in the school has gone leaving only the one in the staff room still. Maybe he never ventures in there? I have been stickering them when I'm hanging around for my weekly one to one reading slot with a boy in Yr 3. He's so great. So up for stuff. I decided as it was the end of term and he's been working so hard that I would read to him - but he's so keen he kept butting in and reading bits here and there anyway. I dunno, fluent Turkish, fluent English, being raised in a family where no one speaks English, ever, I think he's amazing.

And then I got a couple more in @ChatsworthRoad. Didn't even take a picture of the one at the Zebra. Must be getting a bit blasé. Maybe I should do a special doubling up count down to Good Friday? So, yesterday I did two, today I did 3, tomorrow will have to be 4 and Thursday 5. Yikes. I don't seem to be very good at doing them at work. I'll really have to go for it...

And tonight I really should have left one at @HackneyAttic too. I love that venue. So great that big old Hackney building is so full of life. Thank you Picture House! Tonight was the themakeescape Easter Eggstravaganza with all sorts of workshops and thangs going on. Anne and I got stuck in and made crocheted eggs!! My Easter tree will never be the same again! Not sure the beer and the tunes helped my concentration (a wonderful trip down memory lane thanks to the 'spinning yarns' DJ) and it was quite alarming to realise that 90% of people there were at least half my age, but a great evening none the less.

Even returned to Travelling Tuesdays today as well. This week up to Scotland with sword dancing and 'heather' water thrown in for good measure. Phew - need to fall exhuasted into bed.. but more blogging is required.

35. Beautiful the second time around

Done a little bit of covering my tracks today. Or maybe I should say belt and braces stickering? Just stickering proper bone fide stickers where the fake home made ones are looking tired and faded. Or sticking replacements where they've been removed. Feels a little bit like gardening.

Delighted to find the one in the swimming pool toilets is still there. Did another in the change rooms to replace one that's gone. And the Parking meter one on Chatsworth Road is still there. Probably should put a few more down there this week. Disappointed to have to put a third on the post box on the way to school. Maybe the postie's got a problem with it?

Getting a bit more free and easy with them. I even have a stash in my pocket just for when the mood takes me. I think this is generally not what the Lenten discipline thing is all about. Oh well. Am trying to figure out whether I could get a you are beautiful message in the yarn bomb somewhere. Don't want it to distract of take away from the overall look. But can't quite get away from the fact it's such a brilliant culmination of my Lenten sticker journey. Need to think more.

Oh, this is on a random piece of street furniture on the way to school. What is in these black boxes anyway?

34. Beautiful bombing!

Oh yes to make up for the lack of picture yesterday here we have a feast for your eyes thanks to the lovely but super mysterious Cambridge Yarnbomber. Great to get some time with those guys and do some serious study of a Master. Look out Clapton... Spreading out the knitting and crochet done between me and E tonight in the kitchen and there suddenly looks like a whole tree's worth !! Yippee!

33. Beautiful but not very brave

I am running along on the late side, it's true. But I did at least get another done at work yesterday. Ye hay! But (shock horror) no picture.

I didn't have my phone on me to take a picture but I am sure that even if I had I wouldn't have been brave enough to take on as I left it on the glass at the entrance to the restaurant.

To be fair I did return later on my way home but the door down to the ground floor was locked. It'll have to wait til next week to see if its still there and whether I am brave enough then. Somehow slipping a sticker on something is all very well but whipping out your phone to photograph it too seems a little more indiscreet!

32. Kids are beautiful

When you have run out of steam during Lent, what better than to get your kids involved? They've been sticking here and there when they've been with me when the moment's come upon me, but this week I gave them all a handful of stickers to mark our last Lent Adventure.

Suddenly they're all round our house, which is nice if a little beside the point. And a little bit all over our street. This is the one E left on her way home from the Lent Adventure. She had to shinny up the post, which she did with remarkable ease. I love the fact it sort of looks like it's pointing up there - to Him Upstairs. You are beautiful. Indeed.

31. Are we nearly there yet?

I am sure the losing track of lent days and general lack of blogging means we must be nearly there and that I would definitely be rubbish at any sort if real Lent challenge.

A colleague at work has given up meat for lent and though he nearly wavered today at the beef stew and dumplings on offer in the canteen he also admitted that he realised it was small fry in comparison to the challenges some face all the time. Quite.

This ones on the swing doors at The Elderfield. Feels appropriate.

30. Busy beautiful

It's interesting how much you can fit into a day if you really try. Tonight was the last of our Lent Adventures and though they're fun to do its tricky fitting it all in. Play dates and choir club and using up World Book Tokens and remembering to lay the sand trail and getting cheap wool from the second hand shop for a yarn bomb and getting ready for the second crazy Musical Theatre dance class. No time to eat!

Last week we did some smoochy Bob Fosse moves to All That Jazz which was pretty much right up our street. This week was a little more taxing using I Love Rock n'Roll by Joan Jet. I don't think I've ever been that good at being a Rock Goddess but it was definitely taking its toll tonight. Thank goodness for the raspberry cocktail afterwards!

Here's a sticker on a bit of Hackney street furniture. Bit disappointed to find the one in the change rooms of the Frame studio already gone. I think there must be some rather over zealous caretakers knocking around.

29. Body beautiful Part 2

I went back to the physio today. All results in. Conclusive evidence that I am falling apart. No, actually he was at pains to point out that it was all very normal and the degeneration in my thumb joint is perfectly normal in someone of my age etc etc. It's just that it doesn't seem to be hurting any of my contemporaries!

Ho Hum.

Stickered in 3 places as though to reiterate, to myself as must as to anyone, that I am still beautiful! As are all those other broken bodies going in and out of that place.  That broken building. Shame St Leonard's didn't get a piece of the structural investment action that Labour ensured for falling down schools up and down the road.

I think I am also feeling that Lent is slipping away, as ever leaving me feeling like I could have done more, that too many other places/people need a little reminder that they are beautiful, that even if you stickered up the whole world there would still be people who would find it hard to believe.

So there's a pic of a different sticker today. For the wonderful Mrs T who is running the London Marathon to raise money for a charity working with street kids in Africa. 

28. Post office beautiful Part 2

There's a post office trolley parked near permanently to a lamppost on our street. Once I didn't see it moved in months and months. When I asked a passing Postie he said 'Yeah, they lost the keys'.

And last night in the dark and rain it looked particularly abandoned.

27. Bus beautiful

N was working all day today so last night I devised a bit of a treat for the kids to keep me sane and after lunch we trooped down to the Picture House for a movie. I had watched the trailer of 'Oz - the Empire' or what ever the prequel to the Wizard of Oz is called but it looked bloomin' scary to me so The Croods it was. When M found out it was also in 3D he threw his arms around my neck, hugged me and declared 'Oh thanks mum!' (We don't get out much!).

Anyway it was good rainy Saturday afternoon fodder and half of K's class were there too. The sticker was left (with much arguing over who was going to stick it) on the No 38 bus. But not one if the new gazillion pound Routemasters I am afraid to say. I have only ever seen about one of them in the 4? years since they were introduced. I wonder if they are only a figment of Boris's imagination or whether Dave's persuaded him to sell them off to fill the welfare budget hole.

26. Forget-me-beautiful

Oops. Again. The end of the week really foxes me. I hurry off to work, tear round all day then zoom back so the kids don't have to go to the Late Room of Shame at school. Then I cook tea whilst trying to help with baking/crochet/Lego projects, homework and/or instrument practice, try to engage my children in polite dinner time conversation then pack 'em off to bed without even thinking about those shiny silver stickers.

This was hastily stuck on a door at the rather decrepit (on the outside) but seemingly thriving (on the inside) St John's church: the hall of which is where E has her piano lesson. But that was Thursday. And because this is my standard post midnight blogging time and I didn't sticker today at work it now looks rather bad.

Should do better.

Listened to a few TED talks tonight in N's absence. One of which was that guy recommending people try something every day for a month. I think maybe that's where the Lent thing breaks down. 40 days is obviously just a bit too long. Typical Jesus - always a bit late.

The tulips are to make up for the crap sticker pic. Mother's Day flowers from lovely husband. Erm. Children.

25. Beautiful bodies

OK so we survived the crazy Musical Theatre dance class at the impossibly trendy exercise Mecca in Shoreditch called Frame http://www.moveyourframe.com/shoreditch/home. We can even both walk today. Which is despite a fairly heavy going, overly extended ballet warm up which seemed unrelated to the mini routine we finally got to about 15 mins before the end of the class. Been singing All That Jazz all day though I suspect I have already forgotten the routine. Mo suggested it might have been the medicinal cocktail afterwards that got us through it. I couldn't agree more.

24. Schools are beautiful!

Ya hay!! I got another one in at school. AND the one from last week is still in the fridge in the Staff room. I have no idea why that makes me feel all sun shiny!

I think I more than usually a little bit hyper today. A friend (she may yet become an ex-friend) has persuaded me to join her for a 'musical theatre' exercise class. Basically you learn a routine from a different West End musical each week. I thought it would be such a laugh when I agreed but I am realising that the last time I did anything similar was circa 1995. And I wasn't even a child then. Oh heck. Emergency fitness attire bought in Primark. But I don't even know whether it is fitness attire or just what everyone's wearing these days. That, my friends, is how bad it's got. Maybe I'll do a sneaky sticker for tomorrow?? That may almost make it worthwhile!

23. Another day another swim pool

It's far too cold for swimming. Especially at the smelly, cold Kings Hall. But I had brokered a deal with the youngest gaining agreement from him to attend his swimming lesson as long as The Lovely Suki was going too. Aha! A rival for Ashleigh's place in his heart??! Anyway despite it being at least 6 below zero and a wind chill factor of minus 24C I bundled both the boys off for a swim with the edge taken off only very slightly by the administering of hot chocolate and brioche. Thought that allowing the Biggest Best Boy to place the sticker only fair! The Smallest Best Boy came out shivering and saying "I forgot last time I went swimming that I don't like this bit. I am all shivery and wrinkly". Quite.

22. More bus stop beautiful

Another walk another bus stop. I figure that many people use bus stops and therefore many people will see this message. I am beginning to feel that one per day just isn't enough. Unless the neighbourhood is plastered how will anyone notice them?

At church this morning we thought about the things/people that have nurtured our faith and then what things we ourselves brought to the community. It felt like an extension of being reminded that you're beautiful.

21. Parking beautiful

Fridays and Saturdays seem to be getting the better of me. It seems that I either I find it difficult to place a sticker or I find it hard to find time to blog about but. Or both. So this is a bit randomly on a parking meter on Chatsworth Road. At least I will be able to see how long it stays. I am disappointed to realise that the one at church has already gone. I think our new caretaker is a bit keen!

20. Late night beautiful

Mmm. Sometimes it seems to get really late before I have left my sticker. I thought I might try to leave it in the lovely Chats Palace tonight at Lindy Hop. But it's always tricky to be unobtrusive. So it's on a no entry sign inside our house. Bit lame. But at heady the first one, at work, is still there in the lift. Yippee!

19. Beautiful street art

There's a bollard on the way to school. It's got a round bit at the top which ages ago someone made into a face by adding a pencilled in mouth and eyes. On our way passed yesterday we noticed that an abandoned bobble hat had been placed on top making it even more like a little person. The addition of a sticker seemed a no brainer.

18. Educating Beautiful

Aha! I got another one in at school :-)

Feel a bit guilty about it because I lead a student astray. I spend half an hour each week doing one to one reading help with a lovely Turkish boy. I am amazed how he, who spends all his life speaking and reading in another language and another alphebetic script, can even speak English, let alone read it. But of course it's a bit of a struggle for him and hopefully an extra half hour a week with someone who thinks he's brilliant and can make some fun out of those annoyingly difficult English words will give him the boost he needs to keep up with his classmates.

We meet in the staff room. And when we came across the word 'beautiful' today in our book I couldn't resist the urge to show him my stickers. 'You are beautifull' I told him. 'Shall we leave that message here for your teachers to find?' He didn't question my sanity nor the legality of such an act. We just found an appropriate place together to stick the sticker and then we got back to Duck in the Truck. Magic.

17. Not so beautiful Westfield

Went to Westfield rather guiltily with R for a coffee. She had to get her rubbish Blackberry fixed (again) whilst I (unusually) extolled the virtues of the rival iPhone. But it was nice to sticker together - otherwise Lent feels a bit lonelier than Advent. But maybe that's OK. I guess it's meant to be.

16. Beautiful daughter

Our eldest turned 11. She wanted a swimming party. After years of the noise and chaos of treasure hunts inhabited by pink, glittery, screaming girls this is a whole new deal for us. Several girls arrived (and left) without their parents. When she realised that the one friend who wasn't such a strong swimmer had an ear infection and was not coming she said to me 'Now you don't even have to come Mum!' They were calm, quiet and perfectly civilised. And so kind. When they realised that one of the group wasn't so keen on going on the slide, or in the deep end, they quietly (and without conferring) rearranged themselves so that one of the others would always be around to hang out with her. They shared, waited for each other, encouraged each other and bigged each other up. It was an absolute pleasure to hang out with them.

We talked about the sort of birthday cake she wanted. She realised several of them had given up various things for Lent - chocolate, pepperoni and cocoa being among them. So, she reasoned, she couldn't have a chocolate birthday cake. That would be unfair to those 'fasting'. She hit upon rice krispie marshmallow cake (though her own credentials as a vegetarian are more than compromised when it comes to marshmallows!) which seemed like a winner all round. But of course both of us had forgotten the party was going to be on a Sunday which as the traditional 'feast' day of the week has not usually been counted in the 40 days of Lent. Pepperoni was back on the pizzas, chocolate party favours were not refused and the hot chocolate on the bus went down a treat!


(The pic is rather randomly placed on a baby change unit at Britannia Leisure Centre. But it's quite a nice reminder that once my 11 year old was a baby who I didn't strap into such things. Does anyboday do this??! And it won't last long if last week's one at Kings Hall is anything to go by. It's a bit depressing when I find out that a sticker has been removed...)

15. Beautiful community

We had a spring clean yesterday at church. The Round Chapel is used by so many people over the week. This is great but it does mean it gets rather trashed. We were few in numbers but keen in spirit and though N & I had to dash off twice to deliver and pick up K to/from two different parties we both did a bit of window cleaning which is always do good for the effort:result ratio!!

There were a few hairy moments - one when I spotted N up the top of the longest ladder I have ever seen and one when I felt a bit stranded on the outside window ledge as I wondered if anyone would hear that I had finished and wanted to get back in!! But it was lovely to walk into a much cleaner and brighter church today. Probably should do a spring clean more than once in a blue moon!