Kristie and Dave's Engagement Party

Yay for Kristie and Dave!! They are the sweetest couple!

Sunday was a scorcher, but the garden at Kristie and Dave's place was green and shady, and made for some lovely family pics. There were reunions all round as we caught up with family we hadn't seen for ages!!

My boys

My blonde sister

My brunette sister

Mum and Leonie

Aunty Lyn and my boys

Uncle Keith and Dad

Jane

Jack with Aunty Leonie and Uncle Mal

James, Mal, and Leonie

Jack and James

My stepdad, Gary and his partner, Ruth

Gary and his brothers

And their ladies

Dave's parents

Ash, Deanne and Kristie

Kristie and Sandy

Heading home

Happy Engagement!!!!

Sunset from Marmion Ave on the way home...

Visiting friends from the past

Jack and I had a great day on Friday, catching up with my friends, Teresa and Kirsteen. I used to work with them about 13 years ago! We drove to Kirsteen's place in Ocean Reef, and then we went in her car, with her 3 month old baby Chloe, to Teresa's house in Kalamunda. It is very pretty up in the hills. We're used to the bright sun coming off the sea, but in Teresa's world there are graceful, shady trees, and leafy vistas from every window.

Kirsteen's new baby is a sweetie!



And pretty, like Kirsteen!

Teresa was looking well! She entertained us with stories of her obsession with Andre Rieu, (pin-up boy for the young at heart), and with her AMAZING paintings. Teresa has such a talent for painting nature and buildings. I suggested she should sell her paintings on http://www.etsy.com/ and I hope she gives it a go.

It was so much fun to catch up with the girls after all these years! We shared lots of stories from our days working in the Public Library Service at the State Library. We shared a picnic lunch, and laughed and laughed!

Love you girls!!!

Organising heaven!

Sorry to have been AWW (Absent Without Warning) from the blog for a few days, but I have been busy shopping and organising a new work space for scrapbooking. I bought this antique desk about fifteen years ago and it has mostly been used as a glorified ornament. But I love it, and after being inspired by other people's workspaces on their blogs (Jonathon's Auntie Anne being one of them at http://www.nettiesnostalgia.blogspot.com/) I decided to fill the desk with all my scrapbooky things. Here it is with the desk closed.

Here it is with the desk down.

A close-up of the top part of the desk. The 52Q booklet is my latest scrapbooking venture. Emily Falconbridge (a well-known scrapbooker) has started an art journal challenge on her blog http://www.embers.typepad.com/. Each week she asks a question like "What are your wishes for 2009?" and you can answer it in any format you like. I've filled my book with the funky papers I bought the other day, and next I will put in all my entries for January.

Even closer, you can see, from left to right, plastic containers for small alphabet letters, little booklets, ribbons, embellishments and small borders (take-away containers are the perfect size), small square patterned papers, tools, pencils, textas, plastic sleeves for long borders, letter stickers and tags. (Gotta love those arches!)

The drawer holds big scraps of plain paper. Check out the heart-shaped handles - I love this desk!

Here are the bottom shelves.

There are boxes for big alphabet letters ($3.00 from Born to Scrap - fishermen take note!) for stickers,

for ribbons,

for small scraps of paper, a pile of scrapbooking magazines, and a scrapbooking book with stacks of borders and tags in it.

On the bottom shelf there is a set of drawers that holds tools,

a cuter-than-cute, ancient sewing box from my childhood that holds numbers,

and a box of fancy scissors.

Underneath the desk, I have put a tray (Kmart $5.00!) to hold all my big scraps of patterned papers and my guillotine.

To the side of the desk is a very heavy concertina folder with full-size scrapbooking papers organised into colours. Heaven!

I understand that this will be TOTAL OVERKILL for non-scrappers to read, but perhaps my scrapper friends will be somewhat interested in, or even inspired by my organising venture. I don't have rooms full of scrapbooking gear, but this is enough to get me by with small projects and bits and pieces for school.

I love it!!!!!!

It's all settled down now

Well, the fire appears to have been put out. Jonathon came home early from work and ran around taking photos of the FESA (Fire Emergency Services) helitanker, which took water from the lake on the golf course to help put out the fire. Noisy!

Here are before and after shots from our house:

Aaaah! Much better.

Time to evacuate??!!

Yanchep is notorious for its Christmas season fires, and yep, this year is no different. The fire engines have just raced up our street and the sky is thick with black and orange smoke. It's a worry!




By the way, this is the view from our garage door!