Me on Monday

Sian at From High in the Sky is on a little blog break but I am still going to share my weekend and Monday plans as it has become a blog habit now.

The weekend started off with a lovely meal out with my parents to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

Saturday was a quiet day watching the British Open and despairing at the cricket!! 

Sunday was a beautiful day, the charity that I volunteer with Children with Cancer Fund (CWCF), had earlier this year been awarded The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.  This is the highest award that can be given to voluntary groups in the UK.  The official presentation of the award was made on Sunday at Herstmonceux Castle and it was a lovely surprise to be presented with a badge by the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex along with other volunteers.  Both Richard and I will wear our badges with pride.  After the presentations and speeches, there was a lovely afternoon tea - oops I forgot to get photographs of the beautiful sandwiches, cakes and scones!!  Then to finish the afternoon there was an outdoor production of Wind in the Willows in the courtyard of the castle.  Certainly a Sunday that we won't forget in a hurry!!

And Monday finds me making my monthly visit to the hairdresser,

And getting my favourite parcels in the post - lovely things come in pizza packaging LOL!!

I have been asked about the scissors that I use to do my fussy cutting - they are Fiskars Softgrip with microtips.  I love them as I can't use small decoupage scissors as my hands tend to lock up trying to use them, these scissors have lovely large handles but nice microtip blades so perfect for very fussy cutting.  I have found them on Amazon, good to know that you can still get them as I would be devastated if I ever lost them.

Fundraising for Children with Cancer Fund - Blogtoberfest #2

Yesterday saw me doing the first of the two fundraisers that I do every year.  I do some secretarial work for a local charity Children with Cancer Fund where I am secretary to the Friends of CWCF, so I like to raise some money each year for them by selling the cards that I make.

My parents live in a private sheltered housing complex and the residents kindly let me come to one of their weekly coffee mornings to sell my cards and other things in aid of CWCF.  We always run a raffle and my Mum makes lots of lovely knitted baby clothes and toys to sell.  We also sell second hand books and bric-a-brac too.  This year I also had my earrings and bracelets to sell as well.

Mr P waiting to start selling raffle tickets

After the doors had opened we didn't get a chance to take a photograph until much later when the rush had died down

As always the residents were very generous and we made £195 from the stall and raffle.  We were also given over £100 in donations -so it was a brilliant day.  I now have 30 days until my next fundraiser so need to get busy making more Christmas cards and jewellery.

Tree of Light

Hopefully I have started the new year as I mean to go on as I did the weekly challenge and my first ever house challenge at the crop this last weekend.

The criteria for the weekly challenge was to use old stash (no problems there as I am drowning under a huge pile of old patterned papers), to doodle and feature circles.  I used a page maps sketch and some Basic Grey from the Oh Baby, Sultry and Lily Kate ranges.

The circles were punched using a CM double circle punch and were then doodled around.  The photograph is from 2007, so from my been waiting forever to be scrapped pile LOL!!  I volunteer with a local charity Children with Cancer Fund and when our local Co-operative had us as their Christmas charity I was asked to go along to represent the charity at the official light turning on ceremony by the Mayor of Polegate.  That's me in the purple top and just sheer coincidence that my top colour matched the baubles on the tree.

Second fundraiser of the year

My second fundraiser for Children with Cancer Fund was held at home - I sold my cards, soft toys, baby knits, Avon products and bric a brac & books.  It was fairly well attended and I also had the current Avon books for people to order from and will donate my commission once the orders arrive and everyone has paid for their orders.

I made sure I had a large stock of handmade cards and post it note pads as they have always been very popular in the past.

Mum has been busy knitting soft toys and baby knits, but I get the job of stitching them up and putting their faces on.

Thankyou to all those who came and supported the day.  I don't know the full amount of what I have raised until all the Avon orders are in and been paid for but early indications are that I have raised over £100.

Fundraising

One of the reasons I haven't had a lot of time for my own crafting recently is that it is the time of year that I do a little bit of fundraising for Children with Cancer Fund.  Yesterday I had a stall at the weekly coffee morning at the sheltered housing complex where my parents live.  We did a raffle, sold books, bric-a-brac, hand knits and handmade cards & gift tags.  There was a really good turn out as the residents are very supportive of this local charity and with the money donated from the sale of teas and coffees we raised £140.  I can't remember what I raised last year but it was nowhere near this amount so I am thrilled to bits with this year's total.

The handknitted toys sold very well - Mum and I have the perfect system - she knits them as I can no longer do much knitting as it causes me so much pain in my hands and wrists and I stitch them up and put their faces on as that is the bit that she hates doing.

We didn't make the teddies - they were kindly donated to us by my sister's MIL.

Mum setting up the stall

I didn't get any photographs once we started as it gets so busy I don't get a chance to come out from behind the tables.

A big thankyou to Mum, Dad, Lucinda, Melissa and Carol for all the help that they gave me with the stall - I couldn't have done it without them.

I now need to finish more soft toys and make more post it note books and cards ready for my next fundraiser at the end of October which I will do at home.