Etienne de – The Art of Cobwebs

Well, looky here! It’s Friday again, and we all know what Friday means …. it means that you come to school to learn all the valuable life gems that I’ve learned this week (whether I wanted to or not) so that you don’t have to! (It’s my personal kindness to society. I learn all this stuff and just tell you about it so that you’re warned!). lol

So … what have I learned this week?

I’ve learned: That I shouldn’t eat Magnum Ice Creams . . because …

. . . . the Gods of Ice Cream and Chocolate all get together and have an absolutely bally hilarious time laughing at me as tiny bits of the chocolate covering drop off the ice cream lolly, straight onto my top; my decolletage; or, if they manage to actually get past my chest, straight onto my lap. And … sometimes all three! I end up looking like I can’t feed myself and need a carer to assist!

I’ve learned: That a silhouette isn’t just the title of an image of a person, or dog, tree, building etc., that you can only see in a solid colour – normally black, grey or brown (but I’ve seen them in other colours).

In actual fact Silhouette is the name of a French Minister of Finance, way back in the 1700’s.

Etienne de Silhouette (French Minister of Finance) put up taxes massively for the French upper classes, during the seven years war. Because of these high taxes, paintings (a favourite of the upper classes) were way too costly (and there were no cameras around during that time – surprising as that might sound), so they came up with a very cost-effective way to have ‘pictures’ of their loved ones, family, friends and pets. They had picture cut outs of them instead of paying a ludicrous amount for a painting.

Having a talented artist cut out your daughter/son, dog, mother etc, out of paper, was an exceptionally cheap way of getting around the taxes put on paintings.

So because of this ‘high tax’ time in France, anything that could be made cheaply was always linked to Etienne de Silhouette, however the little paper cut outs have retained the name Silhouette to this day and it’s known all around the world.

The final thing I’ve learned this week . . . is that when I see something (craft related) which I instantly fall in love with, but I tell myself that the set is too expensive; – and besides which: what if I don’t use them enough to get my monies worth out of them?; – and … well, surely I have enough things in my amazing craft room that I really shouldn’t be buying anymore ?. . . .

I’ve learnt that I should bally well ignore myself and my guilt conscience and purchase the very things I so desperately want when they’re available – and before they’ve sold out. The promised new supply of said things (I was notified by the craft store) would be here in … July. No .. August. No ..September … and then when the date in September rolls around and you call the company up, with your bank card clutched in your grubby little fist … the company say that “the suppliers are really messing around and only half of the stock has turned up from over-seas!” … AND THE MOST WANTED THINGS OUT OF ALL THE THINGS I WAS GOING TO BUY, ISN’T EVEN BEING MADE AT THE MOMENT BY COUTURE CREATIONS (in Australia) YES, STAND UP AND OWN THE SHAME THAT COMPANY!

And the craft store where I was going to buy them from has said that they’re actually not really very sure if the company (Couture Creations) will even put them through for making them again as they were originally out (in Aus) in the very early part of this year so to Cout.Crea., they’re kind of ‘old stock’ and they may be moving on to a new range now. (These products [dies, papers, embossing folders, chipboard decorations etc] only came to the UK around the early part of June, and then at that time they were only available from Create & Craft.)

I nearly cried when I got off the phone today. It made me cross and miserable, I think simply because I was getting so excited as the day drew nearer for me to be able to buy them. I’m now faced with either doing without; buying them from an eBay seller in Australia (at a higher price and then add the postal charges for posting to the UK); or … buying a set of these from Create and Craft at a higher price than I could have paid if I’d just have bought a whole bloomin’ lot at the beginning when they were on a Special Offer price. [sigh]

Ahh [sigh] we live and learn, we live and learn. Time for more chocolate I think.

Well … I don’t know about you, but I’ve had trouble with my days all week. I thought Tuesday was Monday – all day I kept saying that it was Monday. I’d gone back a day!

But then … I thought Wednesday was Thursday – so I went forward a day.

And yesterday I thought Thursday was today, Friday, and I began to panic that I hadn’t got various things done and had run out of time!

Something is wrong with the wiring in my brain. It’s shorting somewhere. Either that … or I’m a dope. Hmmmm … [thinks for a moment . . . .] Yes, I agree with you. I’m definitely a dope. Hang on, hang on a cotton pickin’ minute … what’s all this talk about a BRAIN? I’m getting rather ahead of myself here, aren’t I?! I don’t have ‘a brain’. I have … A BRAIN CELL. That, dear reader, is a very different thing altogether!

Ahhh, life could be so much more simple if I just listened to my brain cell. But I insist on confusing it and making it feel like I expect more from it. Poor New Ron.

Aw look … Have a wonderful weekend my friends. If trouble comes a calling, don’t answer the door. Decide to have a great day, each morning you wake up. It’s as simple as that. Two choices. Decide or have: A) a good day. – or – B) a bad day. I know which one I’m going to choose. … well, New Ron does. lol