Summing up [Sunday] Sale!

So, this is why we haven't been consistently writing for a while...

EVERYTHING HAS BEEN HAPPENING!

(this may or may not be hyperbole)

I'll talk you through things. First, remember that crochet baby blanket that I started, er, in February or something? Z was born healthy and happy about four months ago. But I still hadn't finished the blanket. FINALLY, when I had finished they got invited over for lunch (unfortunately very brief) and I got to meet mummy for the first time, and little Z. So cute!

All the ends cut off after being sewn in - what an achievement!

Mapping out the blanket - took a long time as it was really hard to colour match properly.

                                  

                                         Doing four more lines of border

The TA-DA picture will have to wait until I can get it off A, I'm afraid, but they seemed very pleased. It was my first go, so a lot of mistakes and pretty messy, but they seemed to appreciate it. Just hope it gets used!

Okay, so big thing NUMBER TWO has been taking up A LOT of time. We (as a family) have decided to raise £1500 over the year for The Hope Project, which is a branch of The Dogs' Trust. It specifically helps dogs whose owners are in housing crises, as a lot of shelters will not accept dogs, and there isn't a lot of veterinary support for them. Dogs are vitally important to some people: a friend, protection, warmth... We'll have another post more on the fundraising in the future with lots more details, and in case anyone wants to be involved.

SO, we left it all a bit late, so by the time we'd booked our stall at a local school's PTA craft fair, we only had four weeks to make everything for it. Here's some shots of our work in progress:

Sequin ball-balls - would you believe that we spent £18 on pins alone?? We didn't know that, and certainly made no  money!

Felty decorations (there were also stockings and snowmen)

Cutting out the tops for A's 'Luxury mincemeat' and 'Christmas Apple and Cranberry Chutney.' They both sold very well.

Stall putting up in action - great way to display things between canes with sticks.

And here is our stall! I won't bore you with pictures of everything we made, but I can do a list, can't I? Mini bunting, big bunting (both sold well), hot chocolate sticks, Christmas cards, glittery baubles, reindeer baubles, mini and larger glittery stars, printed wrapping paper, a scarf, beautiful paper stars made marvellously by Alison (we had 30 or so and only FOUR left), little felt critters made by a generous woman from A's work, salt dough decorations, willow stars, willow bird feeders (all went quickly), Christmas cushion, Christmas flannel... I think that was it, but it would've been really easy to miss something out. What a great stall.

And look how much went! The top bunting was reserved already, but everything else went.  A few bits and bobs left for sale TWO (yes, I know we're mad, but it's a little stall this time).

Good idea for next year - cinnamon sticks wrapped up nicely. So easy!

I had to show these. They may be very cute, but they are made from books. As in entire books. One book = one hedgehog. I just couldn't do it.

These were our very nice next-stall neighbours. Apparently, this was a really bad selling year, but we did all right!

Few other bits and bobs - a lot of chocolates, big raffle, jewellery, nick nacks, pens, wreaths, glass work, loads of cards, clothes, scarves, accessories... A real mix. Not much time to get round, but looked like a great a sale.

So, onto other things. We had our very last family therapy session with J and S. It was hard, and heartening, and humorous and sad. We've been with them for a long time, and it seems so alien that they won't be journeying with us anymore. We will be travelling in a different way.

Our memory book - one for each of them

And not to forget Joyce's 93rd birthday! A nice evening at Sewell house with two cakes (a homemade Victoria sponge and a shop-bought chocolate cake) and alcohol! Only one person got drunk, so that's not too bad!

Joe, Susan, and Joyce

That's about all, folks! Well, a lot of other things have happened as well,  but it's a quick run-down. Hopefully, we'll get into a schedule again, but no promises.

(No Guardian Quizzes - no time!)

The Bethlem Sun Fayre

Bethlem royal hospital has an annual sun fayre where the on site gallery and  OT departments get together to put on a community event in the green and shrubby gardens. It's been a relatively low key event when I've been with E in previous years but we thought it would be a fun and positive venture to run a craft stall to raise money for charity. As everyone remarked it seemed most bizarre that E and I had never done this before despite our crafting ventures over the years.

E managed to recruit some other  contributions from  Tyson West 2 ward and with a beautifully old borrowed stripey gazebo, rickety wallpapering table covered in an old blue tablecloth and a set of camping chairs it looked like the real thing. A complex network of string allowed us to hang a pained blue sign and E's exquisite knitting. We managed to produce a range of crafty things over weekends in June - blue Haiku bowls ( paper bowls made from strips of newspaper with a special haiku written by T in Cambridge on the bottom in torn letters) , wash bags, patchwork cushions, appliqué cards, button and bead jewellery, friendship bracelets and broaches from Ay. I brought a huge bucketful of Somerset flowers to make into posies of wildness, and a tray of seedlings. 

The day was showery so it was an exciting event with us sheltering from rain in our little tent, the stage at one end of te gardens producing a range of music and ramblings, other stalls with bric and brac and tombolas, and the art collections of Terrence and his colleagues in the gallery's tents.

We were pleased to raise just over £100 for charity - all but about £18 going to BEAT ( beat eating disorders) and the remainder to the Royal Marsden hospital in London . Thank you to Bry and Ay for helping us run the stall and face painting so continuously, and to all those who supported us. 

The beautiful blanket raffle

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to this fund raising event for Studio Upstairs. Today the beautiful blanket left Coombe Cottages for our village Community Associations annual Michaelmas Fair. It is well travelled. Not only did the individual squares come together from many individuals in different places in their lives, but the blanket itself has been on tour to be with Ellle and to a friendly gathering in Lyme.

Lots of people pledged money before the fair, for which we are very grateful indeed. Prior to the event we already had many donations pledged but overall we sold £489.70  worth of tickets (some odd money collection error here as the tickets were 50p each or £2 a strip)  -  a minimum of 1275 individual tickets! Wow! Thanks must go to friends from Somerset who joined me at the fair and to all those who helped E sell tickets at Bethlem. 

The draw itself was done as the fair came to an end beside the willow ' dome ' which adjoins the Michaelmas field on the edge of the railway walk in Winscombe. The woodcraft group A E and T were involved in for so many years planted the living willow structure there in 2000 and A prunes it annually to keep it as a house like structure for the children of the village and particularly the neighbouring playgroup. One of the children playing around the dome was asked to be our independent verifier. He chose a green ticket from our old blue basket and it was unwrapped to reveal 117 and K's name and phone number. As K actually did the crocheting together of all the squares it did seem very appropriate. So now Beautiful Blanket is off down the motorway again to Wellington and its final home. It feels very good to think of it being appreciated and understood as well as having raised so much money.

So E is going to talk to Studio Upstairs and work out what the money should be dedicated too and we will report again. Meanwhile here is the unfolding of the raffle...

The raffle's home at the fair was in the Art Shed next to the photography exhibition and some great paintings.

The tickets looked rather wonderful all massed together...

The jewel colours of the blanket looked so beautiful against the grass that we decided to do the draw against a green backdrop with the help of a very kind and totally independent adjudicator (ie. a bemused random child!).

And the winning ticket was .... ( The suspense was huge..) 

Once home the kittens decided - in the night - to do the raffle themselves so first thing on Sunday this is what I discovered! They have been very discerning as I am findIng tickets they have carried (proudly as 'prey') to other rooms of the house. My cleaning isn't great so I guess I will be reminded of the raffle for some time with tickets under and in various pieces of furniture.