As you may have seen a few weeks back, I have already alluded to the fact that Ben and I are going to be moving away from Sweden in January… and yes, in just a few short weeks we will be!
This year has been a huge journey for us in our faith: we’ve been exploring various directions and one thing has become abundantly clear – working and serving in church ministry is where we feel called to next. It is something we have both missed deeply since we left our roles at Immanuel Church and we are really excited to be taking up the position(s) of the new worship / technical directors at Community Church Hong Kong!
Hong Kong is a place that has been on our hearts since we first visited there in 2009 (as seen in the photo below) and over the past few months, we’ve had the privilege of exploring this possibility in more depth. Two visits in recent months later and a series of somewhat remarkable events have led us here… where we have been busily getting things sorted in Sweden, alongside a much needed Christmas break in the US!
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Hong Kong visit 2009!
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One thing that we love is getting to work together and, as we have done in the past, Ben and I are going to be sharing the role in the church – with me working as worship director (70%) and Ben as technical director (30%). The rest of the time we will be working on our own music, which has seen incredible growth over the past 12 months and we are excited to continue to develop over the coming months and years.
We truly appreciate all your prayers and encouragements as we prepare for this next adventure! Hope to see you in HK!
Today is a new day.
For us it is the start of a new chapter. One that requires faith from us on a deeper level than perhaps ever before.
If you read my previous blog post you’ll know that for the last few months we have been pushing on various doors, trying to discern where God is calling us to be. For a while we thought that maybe we were being led back into music ministry in a church setting?
And I don’t write that possibility off. At some point, I think we may well be called to serve in a church again. In fact, I now know that we will always work in music ministry… sometimes that will be in a church setting… perhaps sometimes in several churches… and always with our own music. Our own music ministry.
Yesterday was my last day of teaching…
And as of today, we are now fully reliant on income from our our own music and freelance work.
This still sounds a little scary to me but here is what I know…
Our music as Salt Of The Sound and Narrow Skies continues to grow.
God continues to open doors with our music in small ways.
Ben has worked on this full-time for the past year and we have seen considerable growth, and if I can give everything I have too, we hope and trust that our efforts will be multiplied.
I like plans. I like comfort and security. But I am having to let go and trust. So it goes without saying that this is not a decision we have taken lightly. It has required a huge leap of faith – one which we will need to cling to ongoing.
But through taking this leap and trusting fully I have found a peace.
We may not have it all completely worked out but I know it’s going to be good.
We’ve recently launched a Kickstarter – we’d love for you to partner with us if you feel able and help spread the message carried in our music further than we can alone!
All content (including photos) © Copyright Anita & Benjamin Tatlow 2018
May has become a great time for us to take vacation. Two years ago we spent two glorious weeks in the Austrian mountains at the start of May and last year we embarked on an epic five week adventure in South-East Asia during the spring. This year, we were drawn to the Scottish whisky-making island of Islay (pronounced I-la), which lies just off the West Coast of Scotland.
Through travelling to so many contrasting places together (over 30 different countries to date), we have gradually discovered the type of holiday we need for restoration (and luckily for us, we have similar tastes when it comes to this): remoteness, nature, and a few adventures.
Getting to Islay was an adventure in itself as we opted to take a direct flight to Edinburgh and then drive to the ferry port at Kennacraig, where you then take a two-hour ferry ride across to Islay. To break up the journey, we spent the first night at a Bed and Breakfast not far from the port before continuing on our journey.
The scenic drive through Scotland was just breathtaking – we were too in awe to take many pictures of the route and the ones I took on the way back just don’t do justice to the panoramic views.
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The road though mainland Scotland
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Stunning scenery
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Out on deck during the ferry crossing to Islay
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View of Jura from the ferry
I loved the journey – being in a car ferry reminded me of childhood trips we would take to France – and we even caught glimpse of a dolphin from the deck.
After disembarking, we stopped off at Coal Ila distillery on spec and were pleasantly surprised that they had availability on their next tour and so our whisky journey began. Caol Ila seemed more mass production focussed with much of their whisky being produced to create blended whiskies rather than single malts. Still, it was a great place to stop and learn about the distilling process for the first time.
Our drive to our accommodation took us from the very north of the island to the very southern tip and took around 40 minutes to drive (which gives you a sense of Islay’s size). Always ones for adventure, we had planned to stay in a highly-recommended Stormpod (a renovated large caravan built into the hill behind it and covered with turf for protection from said storms). Our view overlooking the bay packed with wildlife was enviable – and as it turns out, not a dull moment can go by when you are seal spotting…
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View across the bay
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Seal-spotting
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This one wasn’t at all camera shy
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Stormclouds in the distance
The weather was particularly good for the first few days (a rarity for Islay we were told) before a storm set in (and the Stormpod’s protective design came into its own) but this just added to the adventure…
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This adventure walk was cut a little short due to lack of visibility
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Jura in the clouds
With us both having developed a taste for whisky in recent years, we were intrigued by the several distilleries on Islay which are renowned for their peaty (smoky) taste. We loved learning more about the whisky-making process and in total visited 7 of the 8 distilleries on Islay, as well as visiting the distillery on the neighbouring island of Jura (the terrain here was possibly some of the most spectacular I have ever seen – again the pictures don’t do it justice).
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Iconic shots of these distilleries on Islay
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Whisky barrels
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This yellow flower on thorny bristles coloured the landscape
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Beautiful Jura
Stunning views and wildlife was everywhere and Islay may not be a destination everyone thinks of, I would definitely recommend it – whether you are a walker, nature-appreciator, whisky drinker or general Scotland lover… this really is an island paradise.
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Oyster catchers on the beach
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View through the window of a castle ruin
April- September is considered as the touristy season on Islay and we had booked the rest of our distillery tours in advance, which was a good idea as they often only operate in small numbers and sometimes tour buses can come and book out an entire tour. If you plan to go to Islay, you may also want to avoid the Islay Festival of Music and Malt at the end of May as prices can be high, and accommodation hard to come by.
All in all, it was a great vacation – made even better by the fact that we were able to visit two sets of friends on the way home in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Oh… and enjoy this on a casual Tuesday night…
It’s no secret that many people were happy to see the back of 2016… and yes… I agree it was not the best year on record. Many things happened which made us all think about the state of the world in which we liveMany would also consider the word ‘meh’ as an appropriate adjective when it comes to describing 2016… I hear you too!
But when I was challenged to find what was good or even (dare I say it) awesome about 2016, I was able to reflect on some pretty wonderful things.
It was another in which to experience, learn and grow – and while I hope that these are aspects of life which I will always embrace – here are some more concrete examples of what made the last year great:
In 2016…
…we travelled to Asia for 5 weeks (as well as smaller trips to Belgium, Norway, The UK and Germany)…
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Great Wall Of China
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Ben’s dislike of the Durian Fruit in Singapore
…we moved and completely renovated our new apartment here in Stockholm…
… and our music went from strength to strength… 
Life adventures happened – and for the most part, it was because we made them happen.
We planned. We decided. We booked.
We wrote. We composed. We recorded.
We put ourselves out there.
We may only be able to play our teeny, tiny part when it comes to political referendums and elections and it may not go down as we feel it should have done. We have no control over the losses and tragedies that passed us by in 2016. And don’t get me wrong, these are not small things – especially where grief is involved.
2016 is done.
…but we are not.
I will continue to put myself out there and push all the opportunity doors that 2017 brings my way.
2017 is before us my friends and I, for one, intend to embrace the whirlwind that it will no doubt end up being.
Happy New Year friends – here’s to an adventurous 2017!
We officially got the keys to our new apartment in Stockholm, back in May – two days after we returned from our big Asia trip. The apartment needed a lot of work (including a complete new kitchen) but, as ever, I didn’t think much about taking ‘before’ pictures so the dramatic change may be a little lost here. Either way… a lot of hard work and love has gone into making this home of ours so here is the big reveal with a few ‘after’ shots…
The living room
This room needed cosmetic attention and so we re-painted, creating a feature wall with a natural theme – we used wall stickers for the tree outlines and they turned out really well:
(The curtain pole was created using a broom-handle and branches from my in-laws’ garden which we cut and painted to blend in with the tree theme.)
And in a moment of madness ‘environmentally-friendly thinking’… we decided to take on the task of completely re-upholstering our old sofa in a bid to reuse and recycle (rather than buy more ‘stuff’ when really what we had was more than sufficient). And for this… we do have a before and after photo:
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Before (in the old apartment)
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After (in our new apartment)
It probably took three days in total to finish the sofa – with some parts, such as the re-upholstery of the main frame, definitely being a two-person job. I have to say… I’m super happy with the colour and overall finish so this is a definite win!
Our bedroom
Inspired by our travels, we have gone for a clean room, inspired (in part) by Japanese culture. The window covering on the smaller window is actually a wall-hanging we brought back from Japan (and fitted perfectly in this new space) and our scratch map helps us to plan our future adventures! As this room is a cozy kind of size, the lack of wardrobes meant that we had to think more creatively about hanging space, so when we bought our new bed from IKEA (where else!), we decided to turn it round and use the taller end of the bed frame as a clothes rail.
The Studio Room
Part of the reason for the smaller bedroom size is that the room was originally one large room which was made into two smaller rooms… perfect for us as we now have our home studio set-up in the other room. This is where the Salt Of The Sound magic happens (complete with homemade soundproofing)…
The Guest Room… aka Anita’s work space / yoga / sewing / project room
Yes… this room gets called many things… and has many uses. Now complete with futon… it is a fully functioning guest room and is also my space where I like to blog, sew, write and just be creative…
The Kitchen
Ahh yes… the kitchen! While we did most of the renovations ourselves, we drew the line at fitting a new kitchen and used Kvik to get a good kitchen for a reasonable price. It did mean that we had to move out over the summer for a couple of weeks but we are so pleased with the finished result:
We have enjoyed adding our own finishing touches to this room too – including reupholstering these mismatched chairs that we bought second-hand from friends who were leaving Sweden. The fabric we bought from Japan – the concept behind the fabric patterns is a fusion of both modern Japanese and Scandinavian design.
Balcony
While we had a balcony in our last place, our new balcony is much bigger (more than two people can sit out there at once!) and has glass windows which can be moved across in the summer but also provide shelter in the winter, making this a real indoor-outdoor space. We relished having this space over the summer months and now, thanks to the invention of the outdoor heater, we can continue to enjoy our balcony throughout the winter months too. Oh.. and we may have even started to dabble in a spot of gardening too…
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Looking out onto the balcony from the living room
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The balcony
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Winter plants in out overhanging baskets
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Gardening corner
So there you have it… friends and family… we look forward to welcoming you into our new home in the near future. Our guest room is ready for you – all you need to do is to book your tickets to Sweden!
