Luncheon Place Cards

I had a sort of dry spell for projects over the summer. In a way this was a good thing, as my laptop was stolen and I wouldn't have been able to blog about them anyway! Shortly before The Great Laptop Heist of 2013, I was asked to make place cards for a luncheon, which was being held to celebrate one of our parishioner's 50 years of membership in the Altar Guild (and her birthday). The request was almost as charming and adorable as the guest of honor herself; to paraphrase, "Could you make some cards featuring pictures of what the guests will be eating? So, a fish, a pasta, a chicken, and a…beef." I was more than happy to oblige:

If you're ever asked to do a similar project, click and print the above image on card stock, and all you'll need to do is cut them out. I was inspired, as I often am, to use handmade-looking images in mostly black and white, printed on cream-colored card stock. I'm pretty sure the guests liked them, as I saw a few make their way into various purses and not a lot were left on the table at the end of the lunch. Here's the one at my place…

…and the meal it summoned. I'm not big on taking photos of food, but I really couldn't help myself; gorgeous skirt steak with Béarnaise sauce!

Lastly, here is Lois, the guest of honor, with The Rev. Susan Parsons. Many happy returns! 

Church of Small Change

For some time, I'd been wanting to make something for folks to put their spare change in to fund various church activities. I'd initially imagined a wishing well or something of that ilk staged in a prominent location during coffee hour; I knew I'd know it when I saw it. When I spotted this unfinished wooden bird house at Michael's, I knew my search was over:

For one thing, the price was right; if memory serves, it was under $5.00. It also passed the test of having a hole large enough for a quarter to pass through easily; I tested this while I was still in the store. When I got it home, the first thing I did was paint it flat white with a glossy black base. 

Then, I came up with a way to "side" it: in the church office is a sack of old-school coin rolls made of paper (newer ones are made of plastic). Between the church's supply and a few my husband had, there were enough to cover the side walls with red penny rolls, the back with blue nickel rolls…

…and the roof with half-dollar rolls. 

 The peak of the roof was made with a roll that had been folded in half and cut to fit around the steeple.

 My husband also had two green dime rolls that fit perfectly on either side of the doors, which I painted glossy red with black knobs. I painted "Small Change Helps in a BIG WAY" under the coin hole…

…and stuck 4 felt feet on the underside so it wouldn't scratch the surfaces it's placed on. 

Lastly, I painted a couple of arrows pointing at the hole. I didn't want folks to think they were supposed to open the doors to "make a deposit." The doors are held closed by a tiny, clear silicone band, but we'll probably use those orthodontic rubber bands eventually. The coins collected during its first few weeks of service will go toward funding an ice cream social for Pentecost. I hope to be able to report that the Church of Small Change has a high attendance! 

Our Newsletter's Latest issuu (er, Issue)

One of my favorite monthly projects is doing the layout for St. Peter's newsletter, The Keys. Both the newsletter's editor (named Peter, appropriately) and I have backgrounds in journalism and mass communications; I think this contributes in a big way to our enthusiasm for producing the newsletter. There's no other way to explain our eagerness to knock out an issue the day after Holy Week ended! 

A few months ago, I thought I'd look at other churches' newsletters for inspiration, and decided I'd start at the top with Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. One thing that stood out to me was the method they use for displaying issues of their newsletter: the digital publishing service issuu.com. Within a few minutes I set up a free account for St. Peter's and started filling a "shelf." We still have a page with the last year's worth of The Keys in pdf form, but I must admit to preferring the e-book format over pdf's. I guess I'm easily amused; I still find "flipping" the pages an almost hypnotic experience.

I hope you'll give this month's fool-themed "issuu" a look! Last month's theme was wind. I'm looking forward to hearing from Peter what next month's theme will be! Stay tuned…

Please check in…

For a year, I wrote about my hobby; now I'm going to take a crack at writing about my work. I am the Parish Administrator at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Redwood City (in Silicon Valley), California. None of the folks I work with know I've started this blog, and I'm not sure what they'd think about it. My intent isn't to use "Publish or Parish" as an outlet to whine about my job; I'm going to rigidly adhere to the somewhat crass phrase "Don't sh!t where you eat." My purpose is to tell you about solutions I've found to challenges that have mostly been the result of my coming into being a Parish Administrator knowing next-to-nothing about the Episcopal Church, and to spread the word about any little hints and tricks I've found that have helped me on the job.

One of the first things I decided I wanted to take on that wasn't in my job description was maintenance of the church's Facebook wall. It hadn't been updated in months, and I know firsthand what a great tool Facebook is for getting the word out on the cheap (I've produced a few plays for community theater). I started by putting this sign together:

It lives in a matching blue-stained wood frame and is one of the first things you see when you walk in the door at St. Peter's. I can't honestly say it's made a huge difference in our number of check-in's, but we've gained a few more "Likes" since it's been on display. 

The above graphic has also served as filler in our monthly newsletter, The Keys of St. Peter (it renders well in black and white). I may redo the layout to include a QR code one of these days. I'd be curious to hear what you've done to encourage people to "Like" your Facebook page; comments are welcome and appreciated (and moderated; after doing a daily blog for a year I know what sort of spam to expect)!