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
We’re so thankful for all of you who support our music ministry at Salt Of The Sound (and more recently as Narrow Skies) – we never thought our music would grow to the extent it has over the last 4 and a half years and God continues to stir in our hearts. We are so thankful for when you can like, share and tell others about our music, and especially to those of you who support us financially through subscribing on Bandcamp, buying our music on iTunes, streaming on Spotify, etc.
This journey hasn’t been easy (but when is anything ever) and we have made many significant life changes and sacrifices to follow this path we feel called to.
Currently, we are trying to discern where God wants us next and would appreciate your prayers as to whether He is guiding us back into church music ministry alongside our music, or whether He wants us to make a change and fully focus on our music.
We have lots of questions and not so many answers and would appreciate your prayers for guidance, peace, wisdom and spiritual discernment.
I can’t believe we’re in August already. The long Nordic days are beginning to fade and today’s wind and rain even had a little Autumnal feel (as an Autumn lover I don’t mind saying this). Summer in Stockholm has been warm but we haven’t seen as many hot days as the last few years. But sadly, in this global-warming world, anything can happen…
Ben’s Birthday
Since my last post, we celebrated Ben’s 30th 155 metres underground! Due to other commitments, we couldn’t fit in a longer break so, determined to celebrate in style, we headed to the world’s deepest suite in Sala Silver Mine (about 1.5 hours North-West of Stockholm).
After a guided tour of the vast caves and dinner in nearby Sala, we headed underground for the night. While our surroundings were a little creepy, it really was a remarkable place to be – amongst the historic and vast network of tunnels and caves, with only a walkie-talkie to communicate with our guide above ground (in case of emergency).
We survived the night (although admittedly it neither of our best night’s sleep ever) and decided to head to a Moose Park (Älgpark) which happened to be only about half an hour from the Silver Mine. Since moving here, I have been really entranced by the Scandinavian wildlife. That said, so far I have only seen a moose in the wild at quite a distance. (They can be pretty dangerous so maybe that’s a good thing…!) Anyway, this moose park turned out to be great and really was a fun way to spend the morning…
Music News
We’ve also been using the summer to continue writing new music (as usual) and have released one new track from our new project as Narrow Skies – which has been getting some great traction which is exciting! The complete 3 track EP is released on 25th August.
As for Salt Of The Sound, we also have a Prayer EP releasing on 29th September… and we’ve been exploring new ways of doing Monday Morning Meditations alongside other things so lot’s going on.
Looking forward to a few day’s in the UK next week, not least to celebrate my brother’s wedding! More on that to come…
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!
