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Much of a muchness
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Category Archives: Cool ads
I may have found my new career…
Posted by on July 9, 2009
I’ve been occupied this week with making a gift for my sister to say ‘Thanks’ for my wonderful sailing holiday in Greece. Here’s a sneak preview of what I made for her. I was going to send her a CD with copies of all the photographs I took but I decided it might be nice to make an album of the highlights which would hold the CD. So here it is.
I’m now going to make a birthday gift for a friend celebrating her 40th birthday on Saturday. She is the daughter of my very good friends, Mike and Julie, and it is very scary indeed to realise that my friends’ children are now reaching 40. How can this be? I am sure I’m not much older than that myself. Mind you I did start counting my birthdays backwards several years ago, so I might be mistaken….
As this is a return to my bookbinding posts, I want to tell you bookbinding folk of two discoveries I have made recently. One is Ratchfords who sell a full range of bookbinding materials from their web site – not the best online shopping experience but they are extremely helpful and offer prompt delivery. My other discovery is a factory shop at Pittards. Pittards is in Yeovil, where they make gloves (in fact the local football team, Yeovil Town, is nicknamed The Glovers) but the factory shop has a HUGE range of all grades and colours of leather and leather working tools you can imagine – as well as gloves and handbags etc. I visited the other day and managed to take these photographs.
Wow. Very inspiring and the prices weren’t too bad either.
I watched the epic Men’s Final at Wimbledon on Sunday. What a match! I started out rooting for Roger Federer but by the end I was so impressed with Andy Roddick’s play, I didn’t want either man to lose. Poor Andy Roddick looks shell shocked in the photo above. What a marathon, one of the best matches I have ever watched. I’ve been feeling a bit bereft this week, no more Wimbledon for a year but all is not lost. I can now move seamlessly on to watching the cricket – The Ashes series started yesterday and promises to be as exciting as ever. By the time that finishes, the football season will be starting again, hey ho.
And now, the job of a lifetime. It has come to my notice that Wookey Hole a complex of caves near Wells in Somerset and a famous tourist attraction is advertising a job vacancy. They are going to pay £50,000 a year to some one who is willing to live in the caves and be……a witch. Local legend says the original Wookey witch was turned to stone when a Catholic monk, sent by the Abbot of Glastonbury, splashed her with holy water. A large, vaguely witch-shaped stalagmite in one of the caves is said to be her petrified remains.
“Wookey Hole wants the appointee to go about her everyday business as a hag, so that people passing through the caves can get a sense of what the place was like in the Dark Ages. This was when an old woman lived in the caves with some goats and a dog, causing a variety of social ills including crop failures and disease. The job is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch, and do the things witches do.”
The ad goes on
“Wookey Hole is advertising nationally and hopes to attract a strong field of candidates, with the £50,000 salary serving as a major incentive. Ambitious witches, looking for a key career move, should turn up dressed for work and bring any essential witch accoutrements. A limited range of potion ingredients will be available. We are witchless at the moment so we need to get the role filled as soon as possible. The successful applicant will need to like dark, enclosed spaces, be good around a cauldron, enjoy the company of cats and have a good cackle. We are looking for someone who is friendly, a little mischievous and with lots of character.”
Interestingly, there is also a paper mill at Wookey Hole and they make the most beautiful handmade paper which I have bought on many occasions. Perhaps I could be the Wookey Hole bookbinding witch….
PS Please check out the Social Vibe widget in my sidebar, if you click on it, TNT will make a donation to the ‘Fill the Cup’ campaign by the World Food Program. It’s free for you and it’s a very worthy cause. Better still, if you have a WordPress blog, put your own widget on your blog! You can choose from a selection of different charities and sponsors. Every little bit helps :-)
What else?
Posted by on May 14, 2009
I know you will think this is just another excuse for a gratuitous George Clooney photo and you are probably right but hey! it’s my blog, right? And there is a reason for mentioning him – a tenuous reason I know, but read on and you will see why I mention him….
I’ve never been a big coffee drinker. I went off it big style when I was pregnant with my first son and never really rediscovered my liking for it. This all changed when I was in Los Angeles last year, the apartment I was staying in had a Nespresso machine and I was hooked. My son, also impressed, bought me one for a gift and now I drink a wonderful latte every morning – delish! Of course the fact that Nespresso use George Clooney in their advertisements has nothing to do with my sudden passion for coffee – although it is yet one more thing George and I have in common :-)
I am reminded of gorgeous George as I am off to Cannes on Saturday for the film festival. I’ve never been before but my friend Claire’s movie is being premiered so we are going to see the film and to do some partying. It will be a short visit as I am getting up at the crack of dawn on Monday to fly to Geneva to rendezvous with my friend Edwina and we are then travelling to Crans Montana to begin our epic road trip to Barcelona and then Mallorca.
It will be so good to see some warm sunshine (I hope). I love the Mediterranean but it is interesting to note that one of the places I used to go for days out when I was a child living in Manchester, is trying to attract French visitors. It’s a great many years since I last visited Blackpool – my memories are of bitterly cold winds, grey skies and a brown sea. Although they are stuck with the weather, I’m sure the town itself will have improved – here is the latest ad campaign by the Blackpool Tourist Board. In the immortal words of John McEnroe ‘You cannot be serious!’
Vodpod videos no longer available.Now then, I need your help. I’ve been invited to do a reading at my god-daughter’s wedding in October. I wouldn’t be MY first choice of people to wax lyrical on the joys of love and marriage but I will do my best. I’ve been searching for something suitable to read, it has to be a secular reading – and not too mushy (remember it’s me reading it!) I found this extract from ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ by Louis de Bernières which I think is rather nice.
“Love is a temporary madness,
it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.
And when it subsides you have to make a decision.
You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together
that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.
Because this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness,
it is not excitement,
it is not the promulgation of eternal passion.
That is just being “in love” which any fool can do.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,
and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground,
and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches,
they find that they are one tree and not two.”
Any other suggestions will be very gratefully received!
Now, I’m off to pack, it takes several packings and unpackings before I am ready to go, so I need to start early! See you in a couple of weeks.
Roverandom
Posted by on May 4, 2009
I took a break from my big project this week (still can’t really show you it!) It was a bit of a busman’s holiday as a friend’s daughter, Jemima, who is in the second year of a Visual Communication degree at a local uni, asked me to help her with her final project. She had found a little known story by J.R.R. Tolkien called ‘Roverandom’ and she has produced 31 illustrations to accompany the text and she needed help binding it into a book – which is where I came in. The illustrations are beautiful – she drew them and used monoprinting onto handmade paper to achieve the wonderful textured effect of the finished images. Here are some photographs of the book, it’s box and some of the illustrations.
The box
The open box with the book inside
The book
Inside the book
The mermaid
I thought the book looked fantastic when it was finished and the illustrations fitted the text perfectly. I’m sure that Jemima will do really well when she presents this finished project to the university for assessment and I’m sure she has a very promising future ahead of her.
Other than this, a mixed week again. My laptop died and had to be resuscitated at the Apple Store in Exeter. It was caused by a faulty graphics card and I am very pleased that NVidia are picking up the tab for the repair. I didn’t really mind having to go to Exeter, it’s a rather nice city which has very good shopping (always a bonus in my book) and I bought some new glasses – which I did need as I keep mislaying my other pair (and then I can’t find them because I need my glasses…..) – it is really annoying. I went to the supermarket ‘sans specs’ the other day and was wandering around in a blur, unable to read any labels or price tags. Luckily, I knew by heart where the keys were on the PIN machine.
I have chosen a rather nice pair of Paul Smith frames and they are going to have the sort of lenses that turn into sunglasses when it is sunny out so I won’t need to keep swapping and changing glasses all the time when summer comes (and we have been promised a good summer this year. Yeah. Right.) or on my trips to sunnier climes – which will mean one less pair of sunglasses to worry about losing (or sitting on).
I do find it very difficult choosing new glasses – mainly because of the problem everyone faces – I can’t see myself properly in the optician’s mirror when I’m trying them on. I think they should video you wearing them and then play it back to you (while you are wearing your own glasses of course :-) )
Oops, just had that problem –
Any way, back to my specs. As I was handed the bill for my varifocal, transitions lensed, (very lovely) glasses I was reminded of this ad. Maybe I should have gone to Specsavers…..
Poor pooch.
Knowing me, knowing you…
Posted by on February 26, 2008
I was tagged by Kylee over at Bijoux and Banter with this meme. It’s my punishment for not posting yesterday! Actually I reckon you are the ones who are being punished having to read even more ‘stuff’ about me :-)
It’s called ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ (with apologies to both Abba and Alan Partridge) and I have to answer all these questions so that you get to know me better. Well, I reckon you know probably as much as you would want to by now, but just in case there is anything else – here goes.
1. What is your occupation? Bookbinder/blogger/tennis player
2. What color are your socks right now? None, bare feet
3. What are you listening to right now? Gotan Project
4. What was the last thing that you ate? A hot cross bun
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes, my car is stick shift but I prefer an automatic.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Red
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? A ‘gentleman caller’ (as Jane Austen would say…..)
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Very much
9. Favorite drink? White wine – especially Condrieu or viognier. Or champagne of course…. or a Bellini….
10. What is your favorite sport to watch? Tennis
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes
12. Pets? None
13. Favorite food? Italian and Thai
14. Last movie you watched? There Will Be Blood
15. Favorite Day of the year? When the clocks change in the Spring
16. What do you do to vent anger? I rarely get angry but if I do I tend to burst into tears of rage
17. What was your favorite toy as a child? Spirograph
18. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Summer – I am a hot house flower
19. Hugs or kisses? Both please
20. What kind of pie? Apple and cinnamon
21. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes, I like hearing from them….
22. Who is most likely to respond? All of them I hope!
23. Who is least likely to respond? The one who doesn’t receive it!
24. Living arrangements? House by a river near the coast – perfect.
25. When was the last time you cried? I couldn’t possibly say….
26. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes
27. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Blog friend – Kim
28. The friend you have known the shortest amount of time that you are sending this to? Blog friend – Teresa
29. Favorite smell? Newly mown grass, the sea.
30. What inspires you? Learning new things, going to art exhibitions, reading good blogs
31. What are you afraid of? Spiders, bugs
32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? None – not fond of burgers
33. Favorite car? Audi RS8. One day…..
34. Favorite cat breed? Maine Coon – my ex-cats.
35. Number of keys on your key ring? 3
36. How many years at your current job? This is a job?
37. Favorite day of the week? They are all pretty much the same but I play tennis on Mondays
38. How many provinces have you lived in? Is that the same as counties? Seven
39. How many countries have you been to? Loads including Russia, Kuwait, Thailand, Jamaica, Barbados, USA, Morocco, Kenya and all over Europe ( too many to list)
So there you have it. I am going to tag three people I’d like to know some more about:
Kim at Laketrees
Teresa at Homestead Notes
Brenda at Drowsey Monkey
I was also rummaging through my links at Technorati, and I found this which I almost missed, so apologies if I am late in acknowledging this.
This was given to me by the Political Cat who said Much of a Muchness
‘gives me beauty that soothes my soul (confession: I do love paper)’.
So, a fellow paper-holic :-)
I am supposed to pass this onto 10 blogs that I consider to be excellent blogs. I am going to cheat here slightly. I am giving this to all the bookbinding/book arts/paper artists blogs which are listed on my ‘Links’ page. They are all beautiful, inspiring and creatively excellent, so I am leaving it to you to see if you are on that ‘Links’ page – how idle is that?
Now then, talking of being idle. Have you heard about the ‘Hawaiian Chair’? It is the latest exercise craze. You can keep fit while sitting down. How cool is that? Here is Ellen Degeneres trying one out….
I think I’ll stick to tennis….. :-)
Wii love tennis….
Posted by on January 30, 2008
I suppose this a token gesture to that dreadful day which is looming. You know the one, when greeting card companies and florists all over the world start rubbing their hands together with glee and doubling or even trebling their prices (I know, I used to have a florist business at Heathrow Airport). So in honour of the day which shall remain nameless here is my Heart book.
Now I have been looking into finding a chap for a V day date and have come up with a very cunning plan.
Unless George is getting wise to this ploy and won’t fall for it a second time….
Anyway, I’m a bit premature with this V Day talk, so I’ll change the subject. Have you got a Nintendo Wii? (OK so that was a bit of a left turn at the lights but I did say I’d change the subject…) We have just got one. I had heard that they were incredibly difficult to find over the Christmas period, so I waited until just afterwards and found one quite easily.
It was bought as a surprise for my sons but I love it so much it is ridiculous. I love Wii Sports, we play tennis, golf and bowling (haven’t tried boxing or baseball yet!) and it is almost like playing a real game. Well, without the running which was never my favourite bit anyway. It can be incredibly energetic though and far removed from sitting in front of an old style games console just exercising your thumbs! Last night, my son who is away at uni, rang to say his house mate had just brought his Wii back to the their house, so we connected them up to the internet and we were able to send messages to each other. I’m not sure if we can play games against each other as well but it would be cool if we could, I must find out. I think it’s brilliant fun for all the family. And if you were wondering why Wii consoles are so scarce…click on the thumbnail to find out.
Much of a muchness 