RE-CYCLE-ART does eggbox flowers

Last Tuesday, it was cold and rainy outside, but the RE-CYCLE-ART workshop (run by the lovely Simone, our Evening and Weekend Activities Facilitator) was abuzz with activity! CTCers Christine, Karin, Violet, Lucia, Kumud, Sally and John gathered in the ACC kitchen to beat the January blues and unleash their creativity by making some innovative frames from recycled cardboard.

Taken with Lumia Selfie

Taken with Lumia Selfie

The frames are circular and can be used for photos, pictures or mirrors. We started by drawing two circles using plates to create the outline of the frame and cutting this out. Each frame uses three layers of cardboard to ensure they remain robust.

Now for the best bit – decoration! There’s no limit to what you can do with different fabrics, ribbons, mosaics, organic materials, textures and colours… this time we went for a floral design, fashioning roses out of egg boxes.

Taken with Lumia Selfie

Taken with Lumia Selfie

To make a rose, cut out the cups from the egg boxes and cut these into the shape of four petals. Each rose needs four layers of these petal cut-outs arranged and stuck inside the outer cup. Close the petals of the central later to create the rosebud in the middle.

Sally got carried away chatting while cutting the petals and ended up with a cute baby flower!

Taken with Lumia Selfie

Taken with Lumia Selfie

When the glue has dried, shape the petals to create a realistic flower. The whole process is fiddly and requires patience, but is actually very relaxing. We managed to make 20 roses in 2 hours! (with a break for tea, coffee and cake of course) Next, glue these onto your frame.

The beautiful results:

Taken with Lumia Selfie

Created with Nokia Smart Cam

RE-CYCLE-ART restarted in January and we’ve been thinking about ways cardboard boxes in particular can be re-used to make decorative arts. The range of useful things that can be made from a simple cardboard box is incredible – from children’s toys to sculptures, decorations and even furniture (cardboard can be very strong when layered up)!

Inspired by the sessions, RE-CYCLE-ART members Kumud and Lucia got together during the Christmas break to produce an amazing mirror made from a recycled tray and flowers. Kumud is also using some placemats she no longer needs to make a wall decoration with the eggbox flowers.

Why not try your own ideas at home? You’ll never be ‘board’ again…

Get your electrical items fixed! Restart Party at the Abbey!

The brilliant community repair pop-up, Restart, is back at the Abbey Community Centre. If you have any small electrical items that have broken over Christmas and you’re feeling a bit strapped for cash, then pop down and see the fab Restart volunteers who are on hand to help you fix anything from a hairdryer to a TV and everything in between! It’s all for free and there will be tea and biscuits!

Monday January 25th, 6pm-9pm at the Abbey Community Centre, 222c Belsize Road, Kilburn, NW6 4DJ. The event operates a first come first served policy so we recommend you get here as early as you can 🙂

More info here: https://therestartproject.org/events/ or call Laura at the Abbey Community Centre on 07447 932 564. No booking required. Just turn up!

Get ready for 2016 – spending and earning CTC Time Credits

The 2016 Community Time Camden (CTC) calendar is bursting with things to do and projects to get involved with- and it is amazing that around 75% of CTC activities and life at the centre is ‘delivered’ by YOU, our over 50’s ladies and gents, by sharing your skills, interests and that most valuable commodity of all – your time!

Community Time Camden at the Abbey Community Centre is nothing if it is not a community of give and take. What is on offer at the centre reflects the wonderful rainbow of interests and personalities that you bring and for every hour you give to the community you ‘earn’ one Time Credit to ‘spend’ on yourself on CTC courses, trips or social events.

You can receive from a cornucopia of activities; creative, practical, social, in the kitchen trying out a new recipe- whatever takes your fancy, and you can give back along similar lines! Perhaps you would love to learn Spanish; try creative writing or dance your heart out at our dance classes. You can do as much or as little as you like; dip in and dip out. Simply find ways to give back to your fellow CTCers as you are able… You may wish to give your time to help a CTC neighbour out at home, or lead a CTC away-day to a place of interest. You may even have a new skill you would like to share or be able to offer some IT advice or a listening hear!

The great thing about CTC is that there are as many ways to ‘earn’ Time Credits as there are ways to ‘spend’ them, and our community flourishes through arning and spending Time Credits in equal measure. When there is lots on that you might like to try out you can even spend ‘credits’ that you have not yet earned – before you have had a chance to ‘earn’ or give back.

Because we think that spending time with your community is valuable in itself, we count many of our activities as neutral. For example by coming along to our Friday Coffee Mornings and having a natter over a cup of tea, we consider that you spend and earn ‘Time Credits’ in equal measure and so the Time Credit balance remains neutral…. To find out more ways that you can ‘earn’ and ‘spend’ Time Credits ask to see our ‘Get Ready for 2016’ leaflet which will give you even more ideas. We hope you have liked the Time Credit spirit that we run the centre on and we look forward to seeing familiar faces, returning faces and new faces in 2016.

2015 – a year in review and happy New Year to you!

It is hard to believe that another year is over. And what a year it has been. Every one of you who has come along has made the life of the centre vibrant, inviting and a special place to be. You are a marvellous friendly bunch who are open to trying new things, enjoying life’s simple pleasures – like relaxing together over tea and biscuits and having a good chat – and welcoming new faces into the fold!

As we look back we can see that this year has been a year of many “firsts”. For the first time CTC’ers put on their very own pantomime production: Aladdin! They wrote, rehearsed, and created their own costumes, sound effects and scenery for a production which ended the CTC year with plenty of laughter and in imitable style! For the first time 2015 launched our Growing Buddies project which brought together arts and crafts activity in the back yard, itself a new space transformed by Simone’s amazing wall mural and our gardeners hard work. And for the first time Irene introduced fun brain-training games at our lively coffee mornings, helping you all to get those grey cells active.

The year has also been driven by the rhythm of regular CTC features. Our garden is flourishing thanks to all those of you who help to tend the space and who have made it abundant with crops as well as pretty splashes of colourful flowers. Over the year you have harvested your very own CTC grown’ runner beans, green tomatoes, spinach, edible flowers, new potatoes, garlic and carrots to name just some of the garden’s produce. And the taste has proved that food really does taste best when it is ‘home’ or ‘community’ grown!

Many of you have been along to the regular IT drop-in classes on Monday’s and Wednesday’s. You have grown in confidence as our helpful volunteers have helped you experiment with going online and using email and the internet! Our ladies crochet group has gone from strength to strength and you have used your expertise to gift crocheted snowflakes to decorate the CTC garden room and make it feel ever so xmassy.

The ever popular Saturday Club has proved that there is nothing like preparing and sharing a meal together, and CTC ladies and gents have tried out delicious recipes and developed culinary skills that they would not have tried without the friendly guidance of our volunteer chefs. Many of the dishes they have created have used the wonderful produce from the garden too so we can talk in food inches not miles!

Our gents have enjoyed ‘manning’ the kitchen in their men only ‘CHAPS’ cooking group and have also enjoyed fixing dud electrical goods throughout the year – saving numberless gadgets from the skip!

There has been so much to do and we are sure each of you will have your own fondest memories as we wave goodbye to the year! Merry Christmas and we look forward to more of that community spirit in 2016…

CTC culture vultures!

In the lead up to Christmas our CTCers gathered together to go on festive trips galore. Freedom Passes in hand the intrepid bunch set out from the centre to explore some of the cultural events going on in the city. Here, they share their experiences of their trips so it’s almost like you were there too!

The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House 17th December

A group of nine CTCers made a memorable trip to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see the season’s ballet favourite ‘The Nutcracker’, set to the sparkling and transformative music of Tchaikovsky. The music and dance tells the magical story of the toymaker – Drosselmeyer- who crafts Clara his god-daughter a nutcracker doll as a gift for xmas – which comes to life to lead an army against the evil Mouse King.

Connie, one of our CTC’ers who saw the matinee production on Thursday with her fellow CTC friends said the production was “out of this world” and the set “picture-perfect”, like an oldie-worldy Christmas card as the curtain went back revealing a light glowing in the distance – in the little house of the toymaker – as the audience look on. The costumes were wonderful, sumptuous and colourful from delicate ballerina snowflakes, the costumes for the mice army, the pillar-box red of the small soldiers and the delights of wondrous characters that Clara encounters when the Nutcracker Prince takes her to the Land of Sweets, where she famously meets the Sugar Plum fairy.

If you have never been to the Royal Opera House, the venue is a treat in itself with sumptuous red and gold auditorium but on top of this you have the joys of a live orchestra, and choreography and scenery which truly transports you to another world. Keep an eye out for similar trips if this tickles your fancy!

New Diorama Theatre – 18th December

The very next day 10 more CTCers set out together to see a 5 star sold out play at the New Diorama Theatre near Regents Park. We had no idea we had such a lovely theatre so close to our doorsteps. A short hop on the bus and they were there! And what a show! All about the codebreakers at Bletchley Park during WWII, it was a beautiful and engrossing look into the past and an introduction to some of the lesser known characters that helped win the war. The show was put on by Theatre Company, Idle Motion, who are one of the countries leading visual theatre companies who tour nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. Integrating creative and playful stagecraft with innovative video projection and beautiful physicality, their productions are humorous, evocative and sensitive pieces of theatre which leave a lasting impression on their audiences. After the show we were even treated to tea and cake and chat with the cast. Very glam!

Pictures to follow soon

We’re putting on a panto! Oh no we aren’t! Oh yes we are!

Our CTCers have been getting into character, ad-libbing, improvising and learning the lines they have written, all in preparation for our first ever community run pantomime – Aladdin! Expect original CTC set design, CTC–created bright and bold costumes from materials that bring a near-east flavour, CTC sound effects and the inimitable humour that sums up the fun and spirit of the CTC community which they have injected into the script, with original jokes, dancing and song!

Amongst our CTC ranks we have so many skills and so much experience to help make it happen;  already we have found former sound engineers, a foley artist, a set designer and a model maker. Not to mention lots of budding actors and stage hands all lending a helping hand to make the dream a reality!

It will be staged at the Winter Warmer Saturday Club on Saturday 19 December, our last Saturday club of the year! There will be ample opportunity for you to get involved as a member of the audience, adding your boos, hisses and encouragement to spur on our actors who will transport you to the land of magic lamps and magic carpets! It should be a real hoot to spot familiar faces transformed in their roles and disguised behind their stage make-up!

If you would like to get involved, let Laura or Simone know. And if you would like to come along and watch you will need to book your place at our next CTC Saturday Club (2 time credits).

So come along and see our Aladdin, Genie, Princess Jasmine, Wishy-Washy, Widow Twankie, ‘Av A Banana!, The Emperor, and the evil sorcerer, Jafar, battle it out in this heart-warming and funny tale and end the year with a sparkle!

Wedding scene dress rehearsal!

Rehearsing hard!

Around the world in 80 dishes!

CTC member, Chanda, led a yummy recipe share with eight fellow CTCers, all eager to try out new flavours and to make a new dish. Under her easy to follow guidance, Chanda made recreating the complex flavours of India achievable. The vegetable Kachori is a popular Mumbai street food that mixes spiced vegetables with deep fried pastry. Chanda has been a star bringing the tastes of India to the centre’s groups, who make the meal as a team and then sit down and share their food. If this tingles your taste-buds then perhaps sign-up for one of our cookery groups in the new year! Thank you Chanda for sharing your skills!

Pictures to follow soon