Parish Magazine - do you know a good one?!

So, I have offered to help 'revamp' the parish magazine.... It's been years since I played with Publisher and I thought it would be fun... (No comments please) but now I realise that I need help.

I'm wondering,  IS there such a thing as an exciting, informative, well laid out and actually welcome parish magazine? Have you ever seen one? Could you email me a copy??

I have a few ideas of things to avoid, mostly from rather lame church publications I have seen in my time:

A random scattering of articles making it almost impossible to find the info you are looking for.
Font so small that the half of the congregation who actually want to read it can't
Articles framed in heavy black boxes so that even the mum's an tots group looks like s funeral notice.
Photographs so grainy that you could run a competition to try to identify the subject

But I need some positive ideas... Like

How do you limit the no. Of pages ( to keep printing/photocopying costs down) without either making the font too small or having too much text bunched up on a page?

How do you differentiate clearly between the start of of item and the end of the previous one without the morbid black boxes or a schizophrenic change of font?

Is it worth distinguishing between ads for regular events and one-offs?

How much to rely on articles sent in and whether to actively seek out or commission articles you think would be beneficial

Anything else you can recommend???

I feel sure that there must be an excellent website out there with too tips for layouts etc but I don't know it. Anyone else know?

After all, why do a job on your own when you can get your friends to help?

wonderland

It took us a long time to walk to school this morning. The world was a wonderland. A quiet mist blanketed the streets, and we added to it with our breath. The white light filtering through caught hold of a million delicately spun pieces of lace, etched in diamonds. Christmas tree decorations everywhere!

Rather too much excitement

I leant something very helpful from the local vicar this morning. The way to A&E. The plan had been to attend the harvest festival service and carry on to the harvest brunch but we attended the service and carried on to the minor injuries clinic after the mancub threw himself headlong at some piece of decorative Norman masonry during coffee time.

Mr B, conveniently, was in the process of descending towards Kilimanjaro International Airport at the time, so ithrew my cup of coffee at a random parishioner, picked up my dripping child and realised that I had no idea where the nearest hospital was. Churches, thank God, are wonderful places when you need help. The first aid kit appearered, the vicar went to fetch his car and his 4 year old's car seat and his wife took Kitty off to the harvest brunch and then home to play with her three boys while the vicar drove us to A&E.

While we settled ourselves in for a long wait, he went to find a cashpoint (I found I had £1.50 on me) and returned with a cash loan, snacks, an activity book and a pack of coloured pencils.

The mancub, fortunately, didn't need stitches. Some superglue and a handful of steristrip sufficed and he now has a small spider's web adorning one cheek. 

By the time we got home mid afternoon we had some left over cottage pie and two types of dessert awaiting us, in addition to a bunch of flowers rescued from the brunch tables. 

Isn't community wonderful.

Lodgers

We've had two young female lodgers living with us for just over a week now, which has changed our lives somewhat. They are sisters, from a Mongolian family but born and raised in the UK. Unfortunately the family they were staying with before couldn't cope with them and they were urgently looking for another home so we took them in last tuesday. I can't imagine what problem the previous family had, as they are lovely girls.  They are friendly, in a quiet way, very clean and tidy, undemanding and don't even eat very much. They have the most beautiful colouring and gorgeous hair. I'm really enjoying having their company while the kids are out at school. And the children love them too. They love to play with them, and Kitty even got Mr B to help her make them some home-made wooden toys.

 Meet Molly

and Ginger