Lucy's mammoth Wedding week

What a fabulous week I had in Sydney... leading up to Lucy's wedding

Hannah organised the most amazing Kitchen Tea..

 Quick photos with the boys before they head out to Buck's do...

 Then the "spontaneous" gift giving begins..

 Hannah handmade a gorgeous 'Bride' sash for Lucy...and a little veil too.

Tea cups were the gifts we brought...

 An what an amazing spread..

 Fun with little blackboards...

 And the little man ..Jacob

 My lovely girls (and grandson)

 So wonderful to see Libby and Chris

 The evening festivities in town are about to begin...Hannah has organised a night on the town with Lucy's friends and rels..
I stay in town to babysit Ben and Jacob so Jess and Aaron can join the Hens and Bucks festivities.
It is a lovely evening for me...especially giving Jacob his 'dream feed' at 10.30pm..

Sunday morning I join the Crandons adventure to the Aquarium..
We breakfast at Darling Harbour and Ben is captivated by the boats etc..

Ben is at the delightful stage of making fish faces...and keeps it up for ages..he'll have sore cheeks..
He is so fascinated..it is such a joy to watch his reaction..

Such smiley boys...

Jess , Aaron and the boys head back to Kenthurst and I take a walk to the Quay via Barangaroo..
An incredible transformation of a fairly ordinary part of town...loved it.

Back at the 'ranch' and there is wedding cake to ice.. a wedding dress to finish final touches...and we have time to visit Kenthurst to see the Crandons..
Then we all pitched in to prepare the decorations for the big day..

                                                                   The teacups

                                                                      The cake

                                                                     The decs

                                                                  The cake again

Wednesday evening we had a lovely dinner at Stanhope Gardens...gearing up for the departure to Palm Beach on Thursday.

 Thursday morning Lucy and I meet with Jacqui and Salim at th Flower markets to buy bouquet flowers..It is freezing...but we find what we need.

Back at home, Hannah has breakie ready for us...then it's time for more deco work and Jacqui (and all her assistants ) gets to work on the flowers.. Beautiful job Jacqui and Salim.

The house rented for the bridal party is a fabulous location...the weather comes and goes..
More grey than sunny unfortunately.

                                                                 Chilling out

                                                                  Little visitors

                                                                   Finishing touches

At the Dunes (Reception venue) and it is all hands to put the table arrangements together as the rain pelts down.

John and Tom arrive in the pouring rain about 10.30pm...We are staying down the hill at Palm Beach (Pittwater side)

WEDDING DAY

We go up to the hose to have breakie..made by Narns and Jark...yummo

 Lovely atmosphere as hair and make-up prep begins...after breakie

 The boys hang out downstairs by the pool..
We all delight in taking turns with the gorgeous Crandon boys...

Breakfast over ...and more table decor is assembled

                                                               What a woman...

 Tom is determined to have a dip in the pool even though it is 'numbingly cold'

 The gorgeous girls... What a beautiful group of women

 The boys all spruced up

 My boy....

 The groom and his men  await the bridal party..

I have the infinitely memorable delight in accompanying the bride in the car to the wedding..
I will always treasure that experience.

 My beautiful Lucy Josephine...

 Narns make a stunning entrance...

 Can't stop smiling...what an honour ...to be asked to walk my girl to her Husband to be

                                                                  Mr and Mrs Goode

                                                                     My wonderful sibs..

                                     
                                         The lovely Jane and Ali...don't they look fabulous

Happy MoB

                                                         My lovely bridal party gang

                                                                        The Dunes

                                                          The decor all comes together...

                                                                   Mr and Mrs arrive...

                                                                     Speech time

Would love to be able to insert a video of the fantastic Flash Mob who joined in singing

 'You'll never walk alone' to the happy couple..

Hannah's speech was absolutely amazing...such a pity it was not recorded...

                                                                         Cake time

                                                                     Bridal waltz

                                                 Tom looks wrapt to be dancing with Kym...not

It was a truly wonderful evening..a fantastic wedding.

Congrats to Paul and Lucy...so much work went into making it such a special day

I'll just finish off with some Jacob and Ben delights!!

Old news and New news!!

Old News...

Had a lovely start to the week. An amazing Spring day...23 degrees...

Friends from Cygnet CWA asked if they could hold their Yarn Bombing morning in the shop while their premises are still undergoing renovations..

Sandra brought us some lovely daffs to say thanks..

John and I got on with orders etc while they worked chatted and laughed...really delightful.

 Peter our Scout leader did the rounds of the street promoting the Scout Garage sale

I got to work labelling and boxing up the Rose Cream

My gorgeous boys...

New news....

The garage sale was a big success...John and Tom loaded up the car with leftover books and we hope to sell them out the front of the shop.

With the slightly more stable weather...
Our dam work continues.
The large dam wall is repaired, a duck hole is dug in the far paddock in a particularly boggy spot...

 Duck hole is filling well from ground seepage..

 We now have a great turning /parking bay made out of mudstone dug out of another dam above the large dam...again a very boggy area..

The cement rendering begins...toning down the hebel white
There will be another coat with final colour...  Oyster Linen..

 Looking back to house from duck hole

 Erosion in house paddock being repaired..
A Swale has been dug along the top of the hill to divert water and hopefully reduce erosion impact.

 The duck hole in distance and new dam in foreground..the water level rises a little each day

I am keeping busy with my CWA Yarn Bombing project...the bunting triangles look great.

 Snowy...get amongst them!! Thanks to John..

I have a huge turn out for 'In Stitches ' this month...many of us are working on Yarn bomb projects

Sandra has joined some of my bunting triangles to put on display

Lisa  brings me the first Waratah from her garden...beautiful..

The mornings are just stunning...and with daylight saving I hope to get out in the evenings too..

We are working hard to smarten up the Community Garden as Costa from Gardening australia is visiting next Sunday. Sadly the new pub owners have reclaimed alot of the garden ...which technically they own..but the Community Gardeners have been looking after for the past 15 years..

Has caused some angst...but we have retained a smaller area that will no doubt be more managable.

Lots happening this week.
Tom is in town staying with Jark and Narns..a couple of nights..(school hols)
I will be attending "Lift the Lid" on Wednesday night...a workshop/evening to discuss Mental Health.
Saturday/Sunday there is a book fair up at St Marks...
Sunday is Community Garden Costa visit...

All go...