Just a little test

It doesn't seem easy to insert an audio clip in to Blogger without having your own webspace to upload the clip too. So am trying a "still life" video to see if it works.

Cards

Digi Paper & Digi Image by Pink Petticoat, Buttons from the Fabric shop, Thimble Embellishment from Dunhelm Mill, Magnolia DooHickey Tilda Doily Die Cut purchased at The Glitterpot.

Animal Crackers!

Blimey! It's been a fortnight since I last posted. Our whole house is in an uproar as DH has decided to decorate the stairs & hallway while I have been very busy in my own modest way running two farms and a cafe (On Facebook!) We have been to the cinema twice (The Blind Side - Very good, Happy Ever afters _ Meh!* ) And the theatre once to see Dave Gorman doing "SIT DOWN, PEDAL, PEDAL, STOP AND STAND UP (ONLY WITHOUT THE PEDAL, PEDAL BIT)" I laughed my socks off, husband somewhat more restrained. Other than that it's been the usual domestic trivia of going to work, coming back from work, making bunting, doing the bare minimum of housework to keep the house beyond the interest of Kim & Aggie. So to the Animal Crackers of the title - which will have to wait for another day or I'll never publish this post and visit anyone else's blog - I have spent a bit too much time on Farmville and too little on other stuff.

Crufts, and trivets and other stuff

I notice that Crufts is sponsored this year by DFS sofas. Also a little while ago I read that DFS are the most frequent and highest spending TV advertiser. Who the heck is buying all these sofas to warrant all this expenditure? We bought our sofas more than 10 years ago (From M&S) and they are still in pretty good nick even though the covers are a bit tatty(Nothing that a new set from Plumbs wouldn't fix) Are we a nation of sofa buying maniacs? On the topic of sponsorship I noticed that "The Vampire Diaries" on TV is sponsored by Mentos which raised a smile :)

In the category of "Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted" today I bought some pink silicon trivets from Dunhelm Mills - two for 50p, I was well pleased although I would have been more pleased if I'd bought them BEFORE burning the kitchen counter by putting a hot pan down on it. Still, pink eh?

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant hapus

It's funny how two completely different things seem to gel in your mind. Recently I mentioned to Nikki how much I was enjoying the trend for mashing two names together like Jedward. I told her that two of my daughter's housemates, a couple called James and Anne-Marie are known to one and all as Jam-Marie, which cracks me up every time I hear it. Me and my DH would be Derrkie which I'm not sure about :) Back in the day (the early sixties) when my cousin Angela got married, she and her husband Trevor followed the trend at the time and ran their names together to make their house name "Trevange" At this time my father was stationed in Chepstow (this being St.David's Day put me in mind of this) and we lived in Married Quarters in Wyvern Road which was stuck out on a piece of land within a whisker of the Severn Bridge, between where the Wye river enters the Severn estuary and the Severn estuary itself. My parents always maintained that Wyvern was a mash-up (although I doubt they used this term) of Wye and Severn to take into account its unique position. I have subsequently discovered however that Wyvern is the Welsh word for Dragon but I am still fond of the mashing theory.

Of course there is also the mashing of Christian and Surnames such as Subo. I wonder how Amanda Holden would feel about being dubbed A Man Hole (or God forbid, A Hole!)

Toothbrushes and Brides

DD came home for a fleeting visit on Thursday to attend an interview for a Summer job and forgot to bring a toothbrush with her. In her normal insouciant way she didn't announce this until gone ten o'clock at night resulting in a madcap jaunt around the local late night shops searching for one. Before we left I looked on the internet to check what time Sainsburys shut and discovered that there was a Sainsburys Local that I didn't know about marginally closer so we set off to visit that. When we got there all the lights were ablaze and staff in uniforms were scurrying about within but the door wouldn't open. A lady Sainsburian mouthed at me through the glass "We're not open, come back at 7 O'clock tomorrow morning" "Not likely" I thought, my dander well and truly up "We're here NOW, what could possibly prevent us from purchasing a toothbrush" I pointed at the sign that declared "Open 7 a.m. t0 11 p.m." "It's only half past ten" I mouthed sternly through the glass. "Yes tomorrow is our first day" she mouthed back "It's a brand new shop" I felt a bit of a fool then and started to giggle. Luckily our little part of the world, despite not being renown for its 24 hour retail experience does have a few places open so we were able to find a toothbrush for the girl!
On Friday we went out to eat at the Cock Inn, our favourite place to go for a spur of the moment meal out. Although the restaurant is a modern addition and quite spacious the actual bar in the original old building although quite charming is very small and it was full to the gunwales with people dressed to the nines. Men in tailcoats, ladies in smart dresses and as we went in I took my place at the bar next to a young lady in a full length white satin gown, her hair adorned with flowers. As I looked around there were wrapped presents and bunches of white balloons tied with satin ribbons. We placed our drinks orders and after we'd been served DH observed "I think this must be a wedding" Well, he has had a lot on his mind lately :) We all enjoyed the meal and DH went to the bar to settle up - DD and I went straight out to stand beside the car and watched as a photographer seemed to be taking candid shots of the smokers stood around outside. He then stood at the pub door and snapped a few of the inside. The wind was bitingly cold in the car park and I said to DD "I hope Dad won't be long" "You don't think he's posing for photographs do you?" She said :)

What a difference a day makes!

Things sure have changed here on Walton's Mountain. There's going to be some belt tightening on the horizon.