Monday, October 3, 2011

Girls Night In 2011

The total raised is $1094!!!

Yesterday saw my annual Girls Night In afternoon tea. The Girls Night In is a fundraiser for the Cancer Council. The funds raised go towards Cancer Council's ground breaking research, prevention and support strategies for ALL women's cancers. It is also about raising awareness for gynaecological cancers that sometimes get overlooked.


I have been holding an afternoon tea for the last few years (maybe five!) and I enjoy putting the afternoon together. This year promised a bumper turnout and I was hoping to beat our $600 donation total from the previous two years.


Our total so far, from online donations and raffles, is $803, with a few more pledged donations!

I had originally planned to hold it outside, but the numbers and threatened thunderstorm (I am still waiting) meant that I elected to hold everything indoors.

Mum and my sister E kindly leant me all the bits and bobs that I needed to cater for the numbers, including chairs and drink dispenser from E, and cake forks and teacups from MotherC.

A HUGE thank you to all who came and ate and also to those who were not able to make it and still donated.


This year C's cousin JR kindly donated a pamper pack of Sebastian hair products and we ran a raffle on the day. She put together a basket of some fabulous styling products and I am sure that the winner KL will be looking super extra gorgeous in future.

The menu this year was varied. Kind thanks to all who helped with the catering.
We had pink macarons and white macarons (BakingN), coconut macaroons (BakingN), carrot cake (MotherH), chocolate cake (MrsP), a selection of sandwiches (MotherC), fruit tarts (BakingN again!), fairy pikelets (KL) alongside my vanilla cupcakes, gingerbread, chai cupcakes, chocolate cake and apple and cheese tart. BakingN did a lovely job of making the beautiful pink flowers adorning my chocolate cake, as well as the pink lilies and assorted flowers on the buffet.


I also forgot to serve Mum's spinach and ricotta rolls... although maybe I forgot on purpose so that I could keep them for myself!

My sister E did a fabulous job of styling the tables and ensuring that the teapots were primed and ready to go.

Thank you to EB for being a superstar collector of donations and writer of receipts.



The Girls Night In would not be the fabulous day that it is without the support of so many wonderful friends and family. Thank you!

You can check out my fundraising page or have a look at the photos from last year.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

BUILD: The skeleton of a kitchen


It feels that the end is in sight for the completion of our house build! This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago and shows our new kitchen - sans appliances and overhead cupboards. The benchtops were also missing in this photo, with templates in their place.

The benchtops were installed last week... well, at least they managed to get the tops in for the bench under the windows - it was in two parts. The island bench is, apparently, 500kg and the installer could not get it into the house! They're going to come back again once the steps are built at the front of the house and hopefully they will be able to get it in place.

I am very excited about our new kitchen - and of course the whole house! There will be room for all of our kitchen items and shelves above the fridge for my cook books. I cannot wait.