.........Will You Still Feed me.........When I'm Sixty-----Five!

Slight paraphrase there of The Beatles.  My DH reached the grand young age of 65 at the weekend and we had a big shindig to celebrate.  Stewart organised most of it himself as he enjoys doing it and we had a great night along with about 80 family and friends.  Entertainment was provided by Steve Carlisle, who was originally a member of Mike Pender's Searchers and by Seabirds, the group DH's son belongs to. 

Instead of accepting presents we requested donations to Alzheimer's Society and we also ran a raffle to raise funds.  In total, together with JustGiving donations online, we have raised £811.39!  I feel very proud of my hubby for all the energy he put into setting up this special evening.

Making some shapes on the dance floor. (Photo courtesy of an internet friend Tom Wigley).

A good crowd and buffet time.

I managed to keep the cake secret from my hubby until he saw it at the party.  No, I didn't become Jane Asher overnight, I had this cake made.  The photo of St Ives is one of DH's and Sharon made the figure from one of my pics of him in action.  

It was lovely to see some internet friends who we had never met in real life until now.  Tom, who lives near Manchester, had been promising to make DH a little knitted something for the last 3 years and we finally met 'Little Stewart' on Saturday night.  Isn't he fabulous?  Needless to say Little Stewart took pride of place all evening.

Funnily enough, when Mum came to spend the day with us today I had left the doll on her chair and when I came in the room Little Stewart had a new admirer!

(Pardon the state of mum's handbag, she is very attached to it and won't let me replace it).


The highlight of the evening for me, apart from seeing my lovely husband enjoying himself, was to have my stepdaughter and her husband come all the way from West Sussex for the party.  

It was wonderful to see them again and to see them both so happy together.  I was doubly delighted that they had come because they had to get up early on Sunday to go straight back home as my stepdaughter's husband had to prepare for an important exam.

My two handsome stepsons completed a great evening and it was lovely to see them both.  If you'd like to see more photos of the evening you can click here to see J's Flickr album.  

We have another birthday coming up at the weekend, Mum will be 88, but I don't think it will be quite such a hectic affair.  Phew!  I'm still recovering!

The Happy Couple

Britain has gone Royal Wedding mad this week and tomorrow Prince William and Kate Middleton will be getting married in front of a worldwide audience.  The home where my Mum is living is having a Royal Wedding party and watching the proceedings on the telly followed by a garden party lunch so I will be going along to share the party with my Mum and the lovely ladies.  I've been rooting around for something red, white and blue to wear without much success so I shall just have to content myself with waving a small flag or wearing DH's velvet Union Jack hat.

I don't like to confront politics and such like on my blog but I do think the Royal Family work very hard for this country and with all the pressures of living in the public eye I would wish the soon-to-be-newly-wed couple a long and happy life together.  Britain excels at pomp and circumstance and everyone is getting very excited so I'm sure tomorrow will be a colourful spectacle which I will enjoy on the telly (I have kept away from all the prequels airing on the tv all week).  If you're getting into the spirit and enjoying a street party or family get together, have fun!

Party and Post

Phew! That was some party! I have never been to a cyber party before so I didn't know what to expect. Actually, at times it was hilarious. Dashing around in cyberspace trying to solve clues in a scavenger hunt and be the first one to post the answer. There were an average of 65+ people on the group site at any one time all chatting away and the post rate was phenomenal! I don't know how the organisers kept up with the whole thing! I entered the quizzes and scavenger hunts but I was waaaaay to slow and didn't win any prizes (yes, there were prizes too), but I got a present just for going - just like a party bag when you leave - it was a pattern for a padfolio. (Sssh, don't tell them, I already have one from Fibre & Stitch! but thank you anyway.)

Today brought a lovely surprise in the post. I had admired this postcard on Kate's blog and today it popped through my letterbox!

This card has come through the post as you can see and it is completely unharmed in the experience. It is fabric, skeleton leaf and stitching, machined to a paper backing. The foreground leaf has been foiled. Thank you Kate.

You would have thought, wouldn't you, that I would have gone spark out once I got to bed last night, after all that "partying"? No such luck! Every time I closed my eyes my brain was still surfing, hitting the refresh button and leaping from screen to screen! *LOL* Thank goodness my FAT (that's Fibre Art Traders) friends don't party tooooooo often!