Ladies who lunch ... and garden

You know you're with the crafty girls when the first thing they say is, "ooh, let's see the bracelet!", and the second; "You coordinated your outfit to go with that, right?"

- 'cause they know my handmade wardrobe options pretty well by now.


Of course, there were some hellos and such beforehand, but that's the gist of it.

Lovely lunch today with Ms. Pops, tea-towel terror of the West, and her partner in placemats, TinnieGirl. Guest of honour was jet-set jewellery queen, Handmaiden. I could have sat in the beautiful restaurant all afternoon, enjoying the breeze from big windows and the beautiful art on the walls. Where? Cookie, of course. One more reason to love that place.

Sadly, it was back to work and the reality of heavy construction-work moving commas and laying a perfect line of logos, regulation-width.

Four books off to press in the morning, and for the last week I've been like a flower professional before the Royal Horticultural Society flower show. A quick prune there, a top lopped off over here. Some gentle rearranging to show the best face forward. Crisis: An APHID! Pzsssht! Whew, wiped out. Did someone pack the florists' wire? Where's the florists' wire? WHO PUT THAT DAMN COMMA DOWN OVER THERE?!
Until finally, the whole towering construction: text, images, covers, spines, logos, Gold master CD-ROMs -- and my sanity -- are ready for the lawn-mower ministrations of the printers.

This illustration is total cheese. I couldn't resist. I mean, do they really shoot such falsely-staged shots anymore?

Somehow I always thought of printers as Vulcan-like swarthy folks in dark noisy caverns full of smoke-belching ink monsters. Taming the presses with iron forks on large poles -- that sort of thing.
(Aside: My printer's called Richard. He's very dapper on the phone from Adelaide, rather more of a choreographer than a blacksmith. But that's an aside: no doubt the heat's getting to me...)

My computer's ominous grinding noises are driving me wild: time to check the dinner plans and heave the husband off the desk where my sewing machine ought to reside. I've been crafting a lot recently, and though nothing's finished, there will be a thing or two to show in photos ere long.

But tonight, for a shot of flame, one of my favourite TV shows -- have you ever noticed how Food Safari nearly always features a shot of flaring flames above a stove with something wildly sizzling?

Can't you just imagine Maeve sidling up to the cook in her too-tight t-shirt, breathing 'Oooh, go on - do that thing where you make the stove flame up for me!'

zow-ie!

B