Being homeless is very tough, particularly in this cold weather, particularly if you are sleeping out.

St Stephen's Soundwell, one of our supporting churches, organised a sleep out to highlight the plight of homeless people in Bristol.  A group from our Emmaus Community joined in and slept rough in freezing temperatures.  You can read all about it in the Bristol Evening Post.    A big thank you to all who organised, joined in and supported the event.

If you can help us through this difficult period we would be delighted to hear from you and you can give in a number of ways either by going to our “support us” page or through our  Local Giving or Just Giving pages.

Thank you for your support.

Our shop opening times over the next couple of weeks are:

Barton Manor

24th Dec – Closed ,  25th Dec – Closed,  26th Dec – Closed, 27th Dec – Closed,

28th Dec – Open

29th Dec – Open

30th Dec Open

31st Dec Closed, 1st Jan 2012 – Closed, 2nd Jan 2012 – Closed

REOPEN – 3rd January 2011

Barton Hill and Bedminster shops

Will be closed from Saturday 31st December 2011 to Monday 2nd December Jan 2012 REOPEN 3rd Jan 2011

Before you buy new come and see us first, we may have just what you need.

If you want to know what we have in stock from week to week do look at our wobblecam….

(if you are struggling with debt do get in contact with Bristol Debt Advice Centre)

Contributions of seeds, plants and well-rotted horse manure would be much appreciated!

Teams across the branch have responded enthusiastically to the challenge of raising money for us.

Womenswear Partners held a charity auction, which brought in a tremendous haul of over £500 and also ran a popular plant sale on the roof garden, which brought in a further £110.

Business Protection Partners held a book sale, based on Partners’ donations, while Catering sold a selection of cookery books.

Many more activities are planned for the rest of the year.

“Shabby chic” is the name of the game: taking items of low value and working on them – sanding, stripping, painting, distressing – to turn them into attractive pieces of furniture that people will want to buy.

The beauty of shabby chic is that it requires very little in the way of resources.  All our furniture is donated, and several organisations will supply free paint to charities.  Tony and Adrian were very impressed to see what interesting things South Lambeth were producing with far more limited woodworking equipment than we have here in Bristol.  “The main resource needed is ideas!  You are only limited by your imagination” says Tony – as is evidenced by the fact that one Companion is currently making a stool out of pencils!

Where value cannot be added to items in their original form, the challenge is to find a new use for them.  Our business generates a great deal of very good timber, for example from broken wardrobes and beds, which would normally go to landfill. Tony and Adrian are passionate about turning junk into useful and beautiful objects, and are creating a number of test pieces, blanket boxes and toy boxes (with Christmas in mind), to find out what works and what will sell.  They are also experimenting with wrought iron work, using old standard lamp bases as pedestals for attractive planters.  They hope to produce popular items and develop production lines and processes which are simple enough for new Companions to learn easily – although there will always be room for that spark of imagination too!

Do drop in to one of our shops or have a look at our website and see how Tony and Adrian’s ideas and products are developing.  They would very much value your comments and suggestions.