photostory friday: we LOVES to dress up

if you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that we does love ourselves a good fancy dress party.

this month we've been to not ONE, but TWO fancy dress 50ths

it seems that birthday parties that end with a ZERO are the flavour of the moment (the moment being the past few years!) for us

there was a time when we went to a lot of 40ths

i don't ever remember going to any 30ths though

maye we were all busy havin' babies and chasing around after kids

or maybe we felt we hadn't lived enough to celebrate a birthday with a ZERO on the end of it yet

maybe it took until we were 40 to get comfortable enough with ourselves to embrace the idea that it's OK to celebrate YOU - at any age!

personally, i can't WAIT to turn 50 and celebrate

my friends think i'm mad - and i'm ok with that!

in the meantime however, i am MORE THAN HAPPY to help others celebrate THEIR 50thsssss

first up - chris's RED 50th birthday.  red because HIS mother had a red party when SHE was 50

me being me, i totally embraced the red

i even wrapped chris's present in red paper with red ribbon and put it in a red bag (along with a red card)

OCD much???

if you're my facebook friend and know my last name, you'll know why this picture is apt

the birthday boy

our friends and long-time neighbours

the birthday boy's niece and son and daughter

'twas a sea of red!

my friend 'chatty', had just go back from the UK

(right after the royal wedding...)

then last weekend 3 of my friends from our local community got together to celebrate THEIR 50th birthdays

the theme was

COME AS YOUR FAVOURITE 60s ICON

 because i couldn't stand the thought of another scratchy wig, i bought this 6 year old girl's school uniform from a thrift store for $1 - took it apart and put it back together

and went as MY OWN FAVOURITE 60s ICON!!!

notice anything about my scrappy's - sorry, the CRIMSON AVENGER'S outfit?

(very clever recycling i thought!)   

my friend's son leading the way with YMCA

(which yes, i realise, wasn't from the 60s, but always a party favourite!)

the birthday girls

KICKIN' SHOES!!!!!

the photo booth

these are so popular now!

this swimsuit actually belonged to HER mother in the 60s, and if i could rock it like she totally did, then i'd wear it too - wahoo ali!!!

(she went as Miss New Zealand just in case you were wondering - AND she made the sash too!)

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

wordful wednesday: "i'll just take it apart to have a look at it", he said

miss 14 forgot to charge her camera battery, so asked if she could take my point-and-shoot to school

before she had her own camera, it wasn't unusual for the kids to borrow mine and nothing untoward ever happened.

i bought my lumix in hong kong 3 years ago and it's travelled the word and taken THOUSANDS of great photos

however

on this day an accident befell my camera at school 

if you look closely you can see that the front of the lens is bent slightly downwards, so it couldn't close (or open)

my poor baby was so upset at breaking my camera that she took it to the local tech shop after school to see if she could get it fixed

they wanted to charge her $55 to take a look at it and told her it would probably cost $200 for a new lens

(the whole camera brand new was around $400 3 years ago!)

when she got home she fell apart and confessed in a flood of tears :(

i really appreciated her honesty and she was clearly distraught, and (the truth!) i had just the WEEKEND BEFORE said to mr scrappy that i thought it was time to upgrade

soooooooooo

my husband (THE ENGINEER),  said

"let me just take it apart [to see if i can fix it]"

his verdict?

"it's broken"

YA THINK!!!!!

PS: thank heavens for the upcoming queen' birthday sales!

    

photostory friday: scrapmates' high tea

so i missed a wordful wednesday AND a photostory friday - i guess i've been busy!

i've been meaning to share these photos with you since the actual event (which was back in the first week of january), but the photos have been doing the rounds, so better late than never eh?

this was our scrapmates high tea.

i've mentioned my scrapmates group before - it's an email scrapbooking group.  most of us are based here in wellington - some are a little further afield.  we answer daily questions, have online challenges, scrap together, eat together - and on this day - we donned our pearls, washed our best china, and took tea together!!!

i can't remember who made these, but they were cream-filled yumminess

i made these dainty little cucumber sandwiches

if you were clever, you could get three in your mouth at once.....

kelly's macaroons - delish and just the right amount of chewy-ness!

nat's scones.  i think they were nat's!

my cup and saucer

my mother won this as a spot prize at a dance in 1955

a SPOT PRIZE.  at a DANCE!

in 1955 - isn't it gorgeous!

our wonderful scrapmates 'leader' KRIS

natalie

our host for the day carmel - note the pearls!

kelly
  

and mandy - and more pearls!

michelle 

and then me - wearing MY pearls!

group shot - with our little pinkies extended!

then it was time for the jumpy pics

some of the girls were new to this

here's me giving a little instruction

'you want to pull your knees up like so'.....

kelly thought it was hilarious

we didn't always get the perfect shot

so we tried...

tried...

and tried again

too much fun

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli