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Much of a muchness
Things that make you go 'hmm'…
Tag Archives: Shopping
Saturday shopping
Posted by on February 16, 2008
The paper on the outside is an Italian paper I bought from Paper Mojo and the inside one is actually one of Paper Source’s holiday papers but although it is probably meant to be Christmassy it compliments the poppies quite nicely.
Since I had my lovely letter from Falkiners thanking me for mentioning them so often, I hope you don’t think I am just mentioning my suppliers gratuitously, in the hopes of getting more free goodies from them. I only mention them in the interests of my fellow bookbinders and papercrafts people who might find the information useful. Honest. ;-) I must also at this point mention another blog I discovered which is full of wonderful links. It’s called Paper Crave and I spent ages following links to wonderful paper crafts people, stationery and all round yumminess I hadn’t heard of before (check out Tinkering Ink) and it led me to tutorials and free downloads from a wide range of fascinating web sites and blogs. Well worth checking out.
Along with half of Dorset seemingly, I had to go shopping at my local supermarket. Along with the food I bought, there were a couple of bottles of wine and some beers. The young girl on the checkout called a supervisor over who asked me if I was over 21. I said, ‘You have to be joking! My son is 25’. She said that she had to ask anyone who was buying alcohol if they were over 21 – ‘I need your verbal confirmation’.
What a load of nonsense! With the best will in the world, there is no way anyone would think I was under 21. If I was under 21 and I lied, would she then sell it to me? What if I had said I was under 21? Would she have said ‘Don’t be ridiculous, you are obviously over 21!’ What was the point of the whole stupid episode? The guy at the next checkout said ‘Take it as a compliment!’ I just think it is a colossal waste of time and besides, the legal age for alcohol consumption in the UK is 18, so what on earth was that all about?
But the best news of the day, is that Manchester United have just beaten the league leaders and arch rivals, Arsenal, 4 -0 in the 5th round of the FA Cup. Hurrah!
And here’s my ‘and finally’ item. How silly is this? Made me laugh :-D
Festive greetings!
Posted by on December 22, 2007
Because I know he won’t read my blog before Christmas Day, here is a sneak preview of the photograph album I made today as a gift for our Christmas visitor. It has really turned out well and I am using my favourite combinations of papers, combined with a beautiful aqua coloured bookcloth, so if you are thinking you have seen these papers before – well, you have!
I saw this cartoon earlier and it made me laugh so here it is for you to enjoy.
Talking of supermarkets (notice the smooth segue) I have just returned from doing the big Christmas food shop. I was there just before 9am – and all the trolleys had gone and the queues for the checkouts stretched down the length of each aisle. Everyone was surprisingly stoic about it and we were all chatting away very nicely, unfortunately we ended up queuing along the chocolate/sweets/cake aisle so it was very tempting and we probably ended up with a few too many chocolate treats – particularly as one of our quartet is diabetic and one is vegan, so only Number 2 son and I can eat them…… :-)
We are having goose this year for the first time – we usually have turkey so that should be interesting. The biggest challenge has been cramming the food in the fridge – and I have a big fridge! My tree is up finally – of course one of the two sets of lights didn’t work and I couldn’t find the spare bulbs so I had to go and buy new ones and I bought the wrong ones, so I bought more and changed them and they still don’t work, so I am about to go through them checking every each individual bulb. Every year….same thing.
Happy Christmas!
The Italian Job
Posted by on December 15, 2007
This paper is an Italian design – a traditional pattern called a Florentine pattern (although the inner paper has a design of ‘Fleur du Lys’ which are French). Whenever I have visited Italy, (which is often, as it is my favourite country in the world) I have visited a chain of shops called ‘Il Papiro‘. They sell the most marvellous marbled paper made using traditional Tuscan methods, Murano glass pens, inks, notebooks, decorative papers, sealing wax, leather goods, stationery and cards. The shops themselves are small, dark old fashioned places but full to bursting with gorgeousness. There are branches all over Italy – in Florence, Rome, Venice, Siena, Orvieto, Pisa and I notice from their web site they now have branches in the USA and Australia!
Over the years, I have spent many happy times in these treasure troves and this is a photograph of the goodies I have bought. You will notice that they are all mostly in pristine condition. I can’t bear to use them so they sit in my workroom amongst my other treasures – I did try to use the seal and sealing wax once but it was very messy so the experiment was not repeated.
And to finish, I have modestly left this to last ;-) I was contacted by Justin at Pushapixel (a lovely blog which highlights artists’ web sites from around the world) and he told me that he has featured me! He has written a very kind review so I suggest you all dash over there immediately to check his blog out (well, when you have finished here!)
Bowing to the inevitable…
Posted by on December 4, 2007
I’ve finally given in and accepted Christmas is coming and I am going to have to face up to it. So, a festive book. And I’ve ordered my Christmas tree and festive wreath for the front door online from Crocus, uploaded a photograph to be made into a personalized Christmas card from Moo.com (also ordered stickers and mini cards as I love them – they are such a handy size for a little business card) These are mine – I uploaded some images, cropped them and chose the colour and text for the reverse and within a few days a little box full of adorable mini cards arrived.
I also went to a site called ‘Elf Yourself’ which was recommended by Peteej and turned my sons and me into elves – you can see the result by clicking on this link. I think it is hilarious.
So that is as far as I have got with Christmas preparations. I am off to Nice for a couple of days tomorrow – back on Friday. I have a 30th wedding anniversary party to go to on Saturday night and I haven’t even thought about what I am going to wear so I hope I find something chic in Nice. The perfect boot hunt might just be resolved too….
Butterflies and butterfingers
Posted by on November 26, 2007
This is a book made with one of the Italian graphic papers (bought from the States) with a Japanese paper (bought in the UK) inside. A veritable United Nations of a book! I’m not entirely sure I like it – I think the Italian papers make the books look too ‘manufactured’ (although as that translated from the Latin means ‘made by hand’ it is actually appropriate) I probably mean ‘machine made’. Anyway I expect you get my drift. They don’t look as homemade as the others somehow.
I think I am getting RSI or something. My right wrist is very achey and tingly . I notice it hurts when I am cutting the board for the covers with a knife, using my mouse and horror of horrors, when I am playing tennis. I have bought a mouse mat which has a wrist support which seems to help a bit, but I think it’s cutting the board which causes the problem.
It’s not my tennis racquet as I have been using my faithful old Head TiS6 for about 6 years now and I still love it as much as I ever did (which for me is quite something, I am usually very fickle and prone to leaping onto the next trend). I just looked it up on the Tennis Company web site and it says that it is America’s # 1 best selling tennis racquet and I notice they are selling it for $76.95 or two for $71.95 each, which as the original price is $249.95 is quite a bargain! It is very good for tennis elbow sufferers and has a huge ‘sweet spot’.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure it can’t be my racquet that is causing the problem. I shall have to look into other ways of cutting the greyboard. Madame La Guillotine anyone?
Much of a muchness 