Party!

Sometimes, life decides to pile on the events. July 21 was one of those days. Not only was it the release date for Harry Potter 7 (yes, I'm a fan), it was also the date set for a couple of other events.
Garden party! Not like the ones HRH Queen Elizabeth throws, where hats and flowered dresses are the order of the day; this one was a housewarming party for Anne. You can read her take on her big move on her blog; and you can see more pictures from the party by clicking on my Flickr badge over there on the right. They're in a set called Anne's Party.
The setting was right out of one of those glossy home magazines--a lovely garden behind a charming Craftsman house.

Roses and all manner of flowering plants, a big tree with enormous puffs of yellow flowers, and lots of good company. And good food.
Anne got lots of neat things to help her start fresh in her new place.

Of course I had to include this pic of her talking to my Grandcarrot, his mom and auntie.

Yes, the color theme for the party was orange, purple, and lime green. With all the green grass and greenery, it looked festive and summery.

I followed that party up with another gathering, of folks who used to work together at That Internet Company. When we were all laid off, we started a Yahoo group for the "orphans" and have used that to keep in touch over the years. Saturday night we met at a Local Watering Hole not too far from our former employer, and got caught up and reminisced a bit. As George put it in his email to the group today: So many times people hug on the last day of work and say, "Let's keep in touch, let's get together" and then they never do. Not the case here, which is a testament to why E*** was such a great place to work at: a sense of family (not E*** the entity, but E*** the family -- each of us.)

I'm looking forward to more Orphans gatherings! And the next time I will bring my camera.

Then I went home and read the first three chapters of HP7. No comments here--except to say that it starts off in the middle of the action and gets better every page.

Today there's another party, this one a knitty kind of gathering, which I'm totally up for. I need me some fibery calm and good talk! Besides, knitting sessions tend to make good blog fodder.
Speaking of which, has anyone besides me noticed that blog posts have dropped drastically since people are spending so much time on Ravelry? It's given me a whole new incentive to photograph my yarn and projects and then upload them to Flickr and to Ravelry. Now, if I were actually to use the site to catalogue all my yarn, I'd probably crash it. No, I'd certainly crash it. Sigh. Guess that means I'll be thinning the stash as I go, which is a good thing. I haven't forgotten that this is The Year of Organization. (I haven't forgotten, I've just gotten lazy or heat-stroked...)