Canvas Bake-Off

Our most recent Thursday night event was a bake-off at the Canvas House. Everyone got in pairs or small groups and baked a "pudding" or dessert to enter the bake-off. All the entries were so delicious! The categories were most creative, best overall, chocolatiest, and best presentation. Mike and Rob ended up winning best overall with a delicious apple crumble! Here are a few photos from the evening:

Jo and exchange student Katie with Dirt Cake - won best presentation!

Luke and Alli's oreo cupcakes

The spread.

Alli and exchange student Lauren. :)

Ashley, Gemma, and Jenny

Rob and Mike

Alli and Aaron

And this is what happens if you fall asleep at Canvas. :)

Curry Cook Off

Last week, our Thursday community night event was a Curry Cook Off. Canvas hosted a few curry cook offs a few years ago and we wanted to bring it back. Birmingham is well known for curry restaurants and many students will go out for a curry with friends for special occasions. We have eaten countless curries while living in Birmingham and really love it!

Our Canvas Curry Cook Off had three categories: 1) Most Creative 2) Spiciest and 3) Best Overall. Students, staff, and exchange students formed teams and each made a different curry to bring to Canvas. I think we had about 9 or 10 entries and they were all quite good. Here are a few photos of the night:

Lots of entries, ready to eat!

Plate of curries and a naan bread. Yum.

Playing Nertz and eating curry.

The winning team!

Mike and Matt made a tasty curry!

Quiz Night

Thursday nights at Canvas are community nights. We do different events each Thursday to build community amongst our students. Last Thursday we had a Quiz Night. We had quite a few quiz nights last term and they are quite popular. Pubs in the area offer Quiz nights on Mondays, and so we like to offer the Canvas quiz alternative. Our quiz nights always include silly games and the winning team usually gets some type of baked goods. Here a few photos from last week's quiz night!

The "ginger snap stack" game

A quiz team!

The Quiz Masters: Andrew and Mike

"Bear Hunt" - Gummi bears in whipped cream ha!

The winning team and our cake! Yum!

New Staff Bios!

Teammate Kevin made new staff bios for the Canvas website. Students can get to know the Canvas staff and learn more about our ministry by visiting our website. You can check it too! www.canvashouse.org

Here are our new staff bios!

Another New Term

Well the first week of the new term has ended and things are going great at Canvas! Students are back and eager to hang out at Canvas and to come to Tuesday Nights at TC's. The terms do pass quickly here and so we pack as much as we can into three short months. This term will include our second Spring retreat to Wales, Pancake Day, lots of Tuesday Nights at TCs, and Thursday night events at Canvas such as Quiz Nights, bake-offs, craft nights, a curry cook-off, and more. Details and photos of the events will be posted to the blog!

Cornwall

We took a short trip to the southwest of England for a few days on the coast. It was so wonderful to get away from the city and explore the English coastline. We did some hiking, saw beaches and cute English seaside towns, saw some castle ruins, and relaxed and ate a lot! It was such a wonderful trip. England is such a beautiful country to explore and we are thankful to live here! Check out some of our photos below. There are lots more on Facebook!

Mike on Fistral beach in Newquay

Hiking around the coast

It was windy!

Mike on stage at the Minack Theatre in Penzance

The harbor at low tide in St. Ives

On the coast of Tintagel

So pretty!

In the ruins of Tintagel Castle