Join me on Facebook…
Flickr Photos
Visitors to this site
Just visiting
You can also find me at….
Much of a muchness
Things that make you go 'hmm'…
A brief pause…
Posted by on October 11, 2009
Ladies Who Lunch - Beryl Cook
Another hectic week. It amuses me that occasionally I get called ‘a lady who lunches’ because I don’t go out to work every day, whereas in reality, some days I am so busy I forget to have lunch. This week was one of those weeks.
It was my god daughter’s wedding on Friday 2nd, so I had to drive up to Tetbury in the morning. Just before I set off, #2 son rang me from Heathrow airport – he was going to a wedding in Santa Barbara. He told me that he had just put a CD of photographs in the mail to me – they were the photographs of his 4 month long trip to South East Asia earlier in the year and he needed them sorting and binding into an album to give as a ‘thank you’ gift. He needed them if possible by Friday 9th, bit of a tall order but I said I would do my best.
The wedding was lovely. The venue – a converted barn in the middle of the countryside was gorgeous and my god daughter looked divine. I had been asked to do a reading – that seemed to go well. All in all, a great day and a good chance to catch up with some old friends I hadn’t seen for a long time.
I came home the next day and found the CD of photographs waiting for me. There were 412 photographs (selected from thousands that my son and his three friends had taken on the trip) and I then spent the next 5 days sorting, tweaking, arranging, cutting, glueing, printing and binding (and screaming and swearing at) the album. I worked late into the night and got up early each day, determined to meet the deadline. I was using QuarkXpress to layout the images – and it kept crashing and freezing and at one point I lost 5 hours work when it crashed and I found it hadn’t been autosaving (hence the cussing and screaming) but I eventually finished – but missed the deadline to post it to London in time by two hours. So frustrating. To make matters worse, as I had now missed the deadline, annoyingly it meant that I actually now had 2 weeks before the next opportunty to give it to the people it was a gift for, so all my rushing had been for nothing. On the positive side, it turned out really well and I am very pleased with it.
It is covered with black leather which is embossed with a snakeskin effect. The paper inside the cover is a handmade paper that my son brought back from Laos and I made a box for it covered with black silk bookcloth. It’s larger than other albums I have made – A3 sized but it looks fab – even if I do say so myself.
Yesterday, I put the finishing touches to another wedding album I have been working on – three times. The album was made and I was happy with that but I ended up covering the box with three different coloured book cloths. The first two times, I wasn’t happy with it so I tore the bookcloth off and started again. The third time I got it right. Can’t show you that one yet as I don’t want to spoil the surprise for the bride and groom who will not be seeing it until next week so that will have to wait for my next post.
Last night, I went to a diamond wedding anniversary party – the couple were celebrating 60 years of marriage. We had thought it might be a quiet affair after all, the couple were in their 80s but not a bit of it. We partied until 3am (and were not the last people to leave) I just hope I have that much stamina if I make it to 80 years old. You will excuse me if I am a little fragile today…
So I am having a day away from bookbinding, I am watching Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ and putting my feet up. I have a cup of tea and a stem ginger shortbread biscuit and I’m working my way through the Sunday Times. It all begins again tomorrow….
Much of a muchness 
Doris Day is always fun to unwind to. :)
You should win Mother Of the Year Award for what you did for son #2! I should show my kids this post and tell them, “if you ever want a favor like that, you’d better Diane to adopt you because no freakin’ way are you going to get that kind of treatment from me.” LOL!
Your god-daughter did look divine! The setting is beautiful too.
Now don’t forget to eat lunch this week! ;)
I love Doris Day. In fact I love all those old musicals, such fun.
My son realises he owes me – big style, as I sent him an email asking him something or other at 1am one night. He rang me the next day and was very apologetic – told me not to flog myself to death trying to get it done, but it was so close to being finished, I thought it was worth the extra push for the finish line! It occurs to me now that if QuarkXpress hadn’t been such a pain, I would have got it done in time. Rats!
The wedding was lovely – and not taking anything away from my god-daughter, brides always look radiant, don’t they?
I can afford to cut a few meals now and again…I have been piling on the pounds recently. I think I am preparing to hibernate :-)
Heh heh…as long as he realizes he owes you big time. As if giving birth to him wasn’t enough. ;D
I love old musicals too, but my boys don’t, so I guess I won’t be watching them again until they move out.
There’s something about being in love and wearing poufy white dresses that always does something amazing for a woman, so, yes, brides always look radiant!
It’s natural in the winter to pile on the pounds…our ancestors had to do that to survive the winter and we’ve not, alas, evolved away from that yet. :}
Just saying hello stranger :)
The book looks nice and the party sounds lovely. Partying until 3 at 80+ years old sounds like a plan to me. Not that I totally remember what partying is, but I am no stranger to 3AM!
Hello back! I hope by now you are seeing less and less 3ams. Is the young man sleeping through yet?
It’s funny that the very young and the very old need less sleep and us folk in the middle can’t get enough :-)
He usually wakes up once or twice a night. I can live with that. The weird thing is he wakes up at 5:20 AM Every Day! Never fails. I don’t know what’s so special about that time. Maybe I have a neighbor that makes a lot of noise then.
Doris Day is such a cool gal .. love Calamity Jane what a classic film to watch on a winters Saturday afternoon curled up on the settee :-)
The wedding photos are beautiful. You have been such a busy gal you deserve a feet up moment or two with a gingernut and a cuppa ….
I love watching old musicals – I indulge myself over the weekend – there is usually a spot of Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire to watch (or even just have on in the background while I work) Failing that I always have DVDs….
I HAVE been busy! Trouble is, I reckon if I take a break I will never get going again – upwards and onwards!
Thanks for sharing this wedding happiness with us – great pics, capturing the spirit.
The book: Another piece of art from you!
Thank you, Renny – and thank you for organising the Blog Gathering in Oslo next year. What a great idea. I shall be blogging about it next week for sure!
absolutely stunning bride Diane and the dress is breathtaking!!
you are doing a wonderful job with the wedding albums and that blue guest book is sensational…
poor Milo does look forlorn with his coat shorn.. :(
I hope your travelling son shouts you a holiday for all your time and effort :) ;)
What a good mum you are. I enjoyed reading your post and your daughter made a beautiful bride.
Hanne
Your blog is simply great. But I want to suggest you to install a shout box so that people or your blog readers can communicate with you while you are online. It can attract some traffic to your blog too while at the same time keeping your visitors spending a longer time at your blog.
On how to install it, you can read it in my blog. I just posted it a few hours ago.
I love the site. You have a lot of good posts here. I have a site as well that provides inspiration and guidance to people around the world. I was wondering if we could do a link exchange, so we can tell our visitors about both of our sites. Let me know.
Jason
TheWISDOMWALL.com
OMG! This is solely why I luv this blog it’s wonderfully FABULOUS! I am sooo happy to be back in the blogosphere because I missed your posts!:))
xoxox,
Gerri