Lunch at 'Tiffany's"...I mean the Topp's!

 I had a nice afternoon celebrating our friend Lindsey's upcoming wedding. Her wedding will be on February 23rd..(.aka Megan's birthday and Brittany Roy's due date!) Today was a shower hosted by her sister Laura and her other  bridesmaids.

 This same time last year we were having tea with Laura...and like Laura...Lindsey had a picture perfect day for her party. We were outside under the trees. The theme was "Tiffany's"...with the black and silver and blue...and "diamonds" and "pearls". It was pretty...simple but elegant and very fresh looking.

 These were just about the only people I knew...haha...not really...but I don't know many of Lindsey's friends.The lady on the end next to Gayle...was wearing the same dress as me...haha

Aunt Nancy and Lindsey-check out her perfectly blue champagne cocktail!

Lindsey's friend made the cute cake!

invitation and favors

 Cute balloon someone brought. Lindsey likes purple....the colors of the shower were not the colors the bridesmaids will wear.

smiling for all the photographers...

cute cake.....I didn't realize it was the cake at first....thought it was a decoration. It was good...but I'll take butter cream over fondant anytime...haha

 Aunt Nancy (always fun to talk to...and dance with....) with Laura...(sister of the bride and bride herself last March)
 It was a nice afternoon. Lindsey was happy to have everyone there. she got some nice gifts and was very gracious when she thanked us all for the party. I enjoyed talking to Gayle and Lindsey...getting tips on where they found things..(.decorations, etc). Many of the young women there were recently married or  are engaged to be married.... so there will be lots of celebrations for all of them soon. Found out that the groom to be is a relative of someone I knew from our Holy Trinity days. The mother of one of Brenna's  classmates  back in grade school recognized me. It was fun to hear about her daughter Brittany...who got married in the last year or two. It truly is a small world!

Preparations continue

 I have been keeping myself busy with odds and ends...getting ready for the wedding in May. And as you can see from the photo above...stockpiling assorted items.( I may be driving up in a U-haul if I keep this up. haha) (not ALL of that is going...but a lot of it is)
 We have been trying out different colors to decide which green is the right one. I think we have decided. Once I hung all of them up...I was able to see which one I liked...then sent a picture to Megan for her decision.

 I had to hang the banner to see how the paper lanterns looked next to it. That's the other thing we are still working on. How do we want to hang the lanterns...in a bundle...in a row (alternate lengths)...they WON"T look like they do above...that was just an experiment....Once we meet with the Mackey House staff again in February...we can look around the area where the reception is going to take place and kind of imagine what will look good in the space....and shelve the rest. (for another party of course...haha)

 I am making some photo collages to put on display. Played around with different backgrounds...but settled on the three boards above...they should hold all the pictures I have in mind...and be easy to hang/or place in a nice grouping. The background is just white and black...the ribbon is white.( Most of the background will be covered up by the pictures...once I have them all.)
 While looking at the pictures I had to laugh...check out our feet in the picture below. They are positioned just like my grandmother Eileen's feet in her wedding picture. My Mom always had us position our feet that way...Now I know why! hahah

Anne, Martha, Ellen

Grandma and Grandpa Welch

one of my boxes

I have been buying champagne a bottle at a time and storing it away...I figure one bottle at a time is a little less "painful" when it comes to cost. I do that with a lot of things...buy a little here and there until I have what I need/want. I'm sure it doesn't save me money...I may even end up spending more.....but I don't mind. It's a mental thing for me. John has told me NOT to buy any wine...he doesn't want to haul it all up there...when we can buy it there....which of course makes sense...we are going to have a well packed car as it is.  :)
 I ordered some " glasses" for the toast.....and was trying to come up with a way to designate the ones for non-alcohol drinkers. Charms ?. ...ribbon?...and then came up with the idea to paint some polka dots on the bases with the paint leftover from my other projects. I think they look cute...and the non drinkers will be able to easily spot (no pun intended...haha) their glasses. And...the kids might like the polka dots!

When the moon is in the seventh house....or something

I don't know what was in the air...but we had one strange patron after another yesterday! They were either asking for really strange "favors" or being unreasonable (as far as I was concerned anyway)...so allow me to rant a little.
The first lady (?) of the day was giving my co-worker an earful about her fine that was due. "There's no way...how can that be!"...etc etc for what seemed like 2 minutes. I glanced over to see how much she owed and to see if I could give J a hand. Well... turns out the patron owed .20cents! Sometimes people are so obnoxious...I don't say anything...I just pay it myself...or take it out of the money other patrons  give us when they say keep the change. But...sometimes (like yesterday) people are just so annoying that I decide I am getting that 20c if it kills me! Turns out the fine was from Dec 2009...When people are going on and on ...in my head I am saying what I can't say out loud
Her- "No one told me I owed this money...how did it suddenly get on there?" (there's no way to back date when a fine was assessed)
in my head -  It's from 3 years ago...that's why you don't remember...and no one said anything because they didn't want to hear you complaining about paying 20c when you are checking out a pile of books worth hundreds of dollars!
After all her ranting and raving...she finally paid up and left.
Moving on.....the director notified us to be on the look-out for someone who was supposed to be coming in. A part time resident who had a $50.00 or something fine on her card. She had been in and paid $30.00 towards the total...but I guess after she got home she started thinking about it and came back and complained to the director about how we treat "Canadians" and she's sick of it...and on and on...thankfully I missed that episode!

We  had a lady call..(.poor J again)...and said she owed $7.60 on a book...but she was pretty sure she had donated to us in the first place so she wanted us to cancel the fine. That's the first time anyone asked for that....

One regular patron... friendly but kind of annoyingly so...patron noticed a book he had requested, checked out then reconsidered and returned...was still on his card. He is also the type who will obsess over it until it is resolved...which unfortunately won't be until the book gets back to Port St. John by way of the courier. No courier on Sat/Sun and Monday is a holiday which gives Mr. D plenty of time to get worked up about it. I was happy (can't help it) to hear it was actually the director who waited on him...so not only does he know that we made a mistake...he knows WHO made it! I tried to reassure him that it would get resolved...don't worry...but he just kept saying "It better not get lost!" "I better not get charged" ...etc etc...
I tried to stay calm and to myself I just said "Go home!...It will be fine!" "How often do you come in here...have we ever given you a hard time about mistakes YOU"VE made!"

There was an assortment of other minor incidents...missing items, misplaced items...etc...and I was so glad when the day ended and I could go home!!!

Roll Tide!

 Had to use my Alabama mug this morning...to celebrate another victory for Brenna's team! Quite a game last night...they sure looked good. I felt bad for Notre Dame...they were not looking up to par...kind of like the Gators last week. It must stink to get to the National Championship and not play as well as you "normally" do. But then again...ND didn't have the competition that Alabama got all year in the SEC....I think there is no doubt that we have the strongest division in college football. Next year will be interesting...the Gators will have to face Texas A&M and Alabama...(maybe...depending on schedule next year)...it will be fun to watch!

The tree is coming down today. Last night during the game I packed up the ornaments...started with one group and just kept going...till everything was packed up and put away. Had to do something to keep awake to watch the game...I'm too old for these games that start at 8:30! Ha...seriously...I enjoy them so much more when they come on in the afternoon!

My dog is also officially "Old". This is Kiena on New Year's Eve....sleeping through most of the fireworks. Thank goodness! She's usually pacing around all upset...this year she didn't wake up until  at least halfway through the neighbors "display". One loud boom...woke her up...she kind of looked around like she was thinking "what was that?" But stayed pretty calm.

 Last week at work we got busy fast...apparently all the snow birds are back! We were extremely slow the two weeks before/during Christmas break...then BOOM December 31st we were busy all day. It's like a bus unloaded. and they all got out and came to the library..(.or they dropped out of a hole in the sky...like the cloud above...haha) Lots of card updates, etc...and increased volume. That's good...keeps us in business. I will be going in later this morning and expect to be busy.  The New Year is off to a quiet start......