Do you ever have one of those days that doesn’t go to plan – I expect everyone does.Ā It wasn’t that yesterday turned out to be a bad day just different to what I had intended.Ā Last night I should have been sitting down pleased with myself for cleaning the freezer or making all the selection bags, but in the end I did neither – instead we had a trip to the Trafford centre to John Lewis to pick up a present for my daughter.
We were going to order this gift on-line but then changed our minds as we preferred to see what we were buying.Ā I am told that the 10th anniversary is tin so we have bought her a lovely handmade dragon-fly picture frame by Lancaster and Gibbings that is made of hammered or pressed pewter (which is a metal alloy of up to 99% tin).Ā We will put her a temporary picture in of Little L and Sweetie until we can take one that fits the space properly.
After we had purchased the photo frame we of course had to have a browse around the store looking at all the beautiful things on display.Ā I could easily have indulged myself and one or two things might just go on my Not so Secret Santa wish list.
Tonight DH is out at one of his music concerts, a new piece of work by contemporary composer Rebecca Saunders.Ā This kind of music is really not to my taste it often pushes the boundaries of music and can be creative to the extent that it is very strange.Ā But he enjoys it and Huddersfield is the UK’s largest international festival of new and experimental music.
I actually like having the house to myself for a few hours – I might even watch a Christmas film on the True Christmas channel – something light-hearted and funny.Ā I might even give myself a home pedicure after all that tramping up and down the shopping mall.
Today we head off again for North Yorkshire our second home at the moment!
Incidentally, in respect of my daughter’s wedding day (that I wrote about in my last but one post see here) which was on a Friday ten years ago in Masham town hall;Ā we heard that Any Questions was broadcast from there on Friday night so lucky for us the venue was not double booked all those years ago – it was strange enough having the play rehearsal going on at the time we were setting up the hall!!
Have a lovely weekend. x
PS Just a note about the John Lewis staff who are always so on the ball and helpful – they really try hard with their customer service, so thank you John Lewis.
The Cyclamens are now planted in the front border by the footpath providing a splash of colour, although there is still quite a bit here and there in the garden.
Meanwhile DH spent time on the new shed.Ā It is has now been slotted into the space at the side of our house and waiting a fit out inside – a few tool hooks and some shelving.Ā We are reusing some white melamine that was once part of the wardrobe in my eldest daughter’s room, it is still in good condition so a shame to waste it and it will create a bit more space in the garage.
Once the shed is finished DH will be concentrating on painting the front door.Ā We have plans to get a new one but to make it look more presentable for the time being we are going to paint the present one.
I tried out a couple of prototypes (apologies for the colour – flash light is never great) using the wrapping paper and some old cut up Christmas cards as tags.Ā I will probably go with the one on the left with the string tie though each tag will be different.Ā I have made a note of the paper size I used on the trial one so I can cut them out and make them up all at once and have a bit of a production line going…putting 5 assorted fun sized chocolate bars into each bag will make 8 bags.
To save on costs we added in a few bunches of our own courtesy of the cheap bouquets sold at the local Co-op the day before, together with a bunch of Hypericum and eucalyptus from our local market stall!Ā These were used to fill the jars we hung on the railings and Shepherd’s hooks in the Church grounds.
Luckily my daughter wanted a home-made country look for her wedding so we were able to work to quite a tight budget.
We used a professional photographer that was both fun and willing to take a mix of formal and more informal shots.Ā He certainly kept all our guests entertained with his humour and he took us all for a wander around Masham capturing some very unusual scenes – these are two of my favourite – in the telephone box on the left and outside the Bah Humbugs shop.
The reception was held in the local town hall and once the formal pictures had been taken outside the church we all walked round in procession to the venue led by the bride and groom – no need to hire any cars.Ā Local friends, neighbours and shopkeepers from Masham came out to cheer the happy couple.
As the town hall is not considered a normal wedding venue these days we had to hire in tables and white linen cloths from a local caterers and we added the plain orange napkins.Ā The chairs were supplied with the room but were rather shabby so one of biggest expenses was the hire of the Lycra chair covers and organza bows but this made all the difference to the room and the locals said they had never seen the town hall looking so good!
The favours were in plain calico bags decorated with pine cones and dried ferns with hand written craft labels.
For the pew ends we bought rustic twig hearts and added a natural raffia bow.
We had a wonderful and fun day finishing with a rousing Ceilidh with music by The Applejacks.
DH went out in the garden to rake up the last of the leaves and move the bags of rubble created from the pebble cleaning from the front to the side of the house out of sight.Ā Our local tip refuse to take rubble now they advise getting a skip (really for 3 bags of rubble?).Ā No doubt this is the reason for the rise in fly tipping around this area.Ā We are waiting for our daughter to order a skip to take away her old fireplace and will add our rubble to hers.
where the journey takes me 2 