I got flowers!

At the school Christmas concert last week, *I* got presented with a big bunch of flowers (as a thanks for being P&C president for two years). It was a good presidential year, we got our fundraising total to over $12,000, in a small school with very few stay at home mums (not even me, now!).

AND I got to make an impromptu speech. Into a microphone. With a big audience. Just as well I've had a little practice now.

Here's my gorgeous flowers!









The lilliums are opening up over the course of the week - I love that!














And do you see, florists are keen on putting a little non-perishable goody in with your flowers, so you have something to keep. Aww.

Why don't we have a pizza oven?

And when I say "we", I of course mean the local primary school I help out at.

Jeff and I went to the Collingwood College school fete today - it was just about the best school fete you can imagine. This school is home to the first of the Kitchen Gardens (read about Stephanie Alexander's project here), so the food was particularly good. Immediately on entering, there was AWESOME pizza. It had just come out of the oven. That'd be the wood fired oven in the school yard, that the grade 5s made this year! I had pumpkin and rosemary, and Jeff had potato pizza.

Jeff munched on a sausage in bread, and I had a cup of hot chai (oh, yum).

There was trash and treasure (got a Lego base board, a Playmobil person, a Malaysian Airlines keyring, a Chinese dictionary ... you know, stuff you need).

On the way out, we stopped at the cake stall. We got school made dukkha (to go with bread and dips tonight). And also, Honey Wafers with Chocolate and Macadamias.

Now THIS is why we shop at cake stalls - to try somebody else's specialty. And how is it? Droooool! Baker number 19, we salute you!

Fathers Day Treats

Last week I had a fun time getting organised for the Fathers Day Stall at school. An easy fundraiser, we help the kids get a small gift for Dad, at a pocket money price. Obviously, we use every shopping trick we can think of to get value for money. And by buying in bulk, we actually do raise funds for the school too. Nice, eh?

I was wanting to show off our cleverness, but I couldn't show any photos til after the big day - of course!

So this is what 96 Choo-Choo train cards looks like. I stamped them all myself, because I realised that job involved a lot of drying time (I was of course using odd bits of recycled card, so the ink wasn't drying as beautifully as it does on proper stamping cardstock).

My helpers from the P&C came over for an evening, and finished them all off with me. We punched with a square punch and added a square chocolate - which exactly fitted the 1-and-3/8 inch square! Then we clipped on a pen (that's the actual gift), and a quick staple held it shut. Could have been more glamorous, for sure, but we were making 96! So that was our $1 gift.

The chocolates come from Wallies Lollies in Box Hill - they did a great job of getting the right chocolates in for me, so I've got to thank them with a free plug. And at $10 for a kilo - whoa, that's great!









Here's me running my little shop - actually, I had so much help on the day, I just jollied it all along. That's supervising!

And it would be remiss of me not to mention that you can buy these pretty stamps, the inks, and that handy punch, from your local Stampin' Up dealer (who might just be me).

Trivial matters

I ran a Trivia night for the school. It all came together on Saturday night, when over 100 people came to laugh and play.

Nicholas was helping us set up (with Mum and Dad of course) and I encouraged him to write a message on the table for his teacher. All the tables were set with white paper, and a cup of crayons. Nice clean table setting, and good fun too! Not sure if any adults got the idea of writing on the table, but I drew a cat. Like you do.








Elke and Anne-Maree hung 99 balloons from an umbrella, each with a lucky number inside. Each balloon won a prize, and we happily popped all 99 of them. Elke was delighted with the number of balloons - 'neun und neunzig Luftballons'. But for some reason she wasn't keen to sing that into the microphone.







There's the crowd - see how happy they look? See how much they want to open their wallets and hand over most of the cash, if only someone can make it worth their while!










Earning bonus points - gentlemen dressing up as ladies... awwww.

It was a lot of work, but people keep saying we should run another one next year. And every year. Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha as if.

Scout Hall Garage Sale - There's a Citybug scooter!

The Lions club is having a Garage Sale at our scout hall (corner of Canterbury Rd and Mitcham Rd, in Vermont). Starts at 8am, 16th May 2009.


I was helping set up, and they were investigating one of the items : it's a Citybug electric scooter, really posh!

So go an buy it, and give a decent price - it's supporting a charity!

Smoke over Melbourne

We've been having the worst bushfires Victoria's ever seen. Overseas relatives have been asking if we're alright. Yes, we are, we live well into the suburbs and away from the fire, but that doesn't mean we aren't affected.

This was the view out my front door yesterday late afternoon. A red sunset from all the smoke.

There's smoke haze in the air all the time now - I don't want to go walking outside, because I don't want to breath it. The extreme heat has killed lots of the plants in the garden - everything is looking brown. Leaves have fallen off trees everywhere, even though it's still summer.

And everyone's collecting for bushfire relief. We've contributed through the kids' schools; we shopped at the supermarket that was donating their profits yesterday; we're extra motivated to save water.

And tomorrow I'm off to a stamping fundraiser. Gail is running a "Stamp-a-Stack" - a stamping class where everyone makes lots of cards to take home - and she's donating all the proceeds. She's running several of them over the next week or so - look at her blog and book in for one! She's hoping to donate hundreds of dollars, so I'm happy to support her.

A little Christmas Miracle

Yesterday was our final fundraiser at the kids' primary school. It was Pizza Day, and of course, I was organising. Much delegating, but in the end, when you are the one who DOES the delegating, you end up worrying about everything. I had delegated the order tallying and pizza ordering to very smart people, so instead I worried about the things I couldn't control. Would the pizza shop guy lose the order? Would it pour with rain just as we were collecting the pizzas? Would we get a parking spot near the pizza shop?

That last one is a real issue - the pizza shop is part of a big shopping center, and it's Christmas shopping time. Just the day before I'd TRIED to get a park at the same center, and had to leave! The basic plan was to double park, keep a driver in the car, and drive off if a parking dude comes. That's not a plan I can relax about though.

So I did what all smart managers do - I asked my whole committee to think good thoughts for me at 12.30 that day. Good car-park-opening thoughts.

One lovely lady replied by email that she would be praying for us.

We arrived at the shops, found the car park full as usual, but drove one lap around the nearest set of parking spots. AND - a car pulled out, just as we approached! About 10 metres from the pizza shop! Lots of cars coming the other way wanted it, but I had that determined look to my indicators, and that scared them off.

So, I'd say that's this year's Christmas Miracle. Must ask Nicole who she was praying to - it could get them a sainthood!

Hail to the Chief!

I'm president of the P&C (that's the parents group at school, the people who do the fundraising). Today's task was pretty simply, cook up some sausages outside the local grocers (they were donating all the food), spruik for donations, and keep all we can earn. On a late spring day there's nothing easier than cooking out of doors and serving it all up to hungry Vermontians.

Would have been great if it hadn't HAILED! We got as far as setting up the BBQ (which was quite an effort - it had to travel by trailer). But the wind and rain were blowing right in and onto us, and it wasn't a good idea to continue.

And my house smells of onions now.

For no good reason

... here's something I made a while back. Chris and Gail and Lizzie came over for a cuppa, and we had a punch party. It was unintentional; Chris was just returning some borrowed stuff to Gail, and of course I had cardstock handy. I made this girl - she was pretty successful, and a nice use of the Stampin' Up tab punch.

You know all my hand made journals for the school fete? Yep, they all came home unsold. Anybody want one? We had a very reasonable $12 price tag on them. I'd send the proceeds to the school.

Strawberry Cake

Mmm, scrumptious. Thanks France for the recipe. I made a tray of eight little loaves, ate one, and bagged up seven for the fete cake stall. And made a big loaf, which we ate at Stamp Club. The little loaf was fantastic on baking day - it has a nice crust, like the best muffins. Quite possibly as nice as my official favourite, the raspberry muffin.

It's all gone now. Sigh. The kids are making more gingerbread men. Naturally, these ones are going the be wacky ones (cyclops, monster, alien, you know).

What a great Fete!

We had a great time, thanks for asking! Here's Jeff serving drinks and snacks at the window.
And Catriona's sign for Frogs in the Fridge (we were offering chilled chocolate frogs). I commissioned the artwork specially, and she proudly told me she did it in Science class. ARGH! NO!

We sold around 500 drinks (I know, I was in charge of the fridge) and a few icy poles, and four big bags of popcorn (that's lots of portions). And tons of chocolate. And snakes. Nobody got the gag about the frogs in the fridge, we had to bring them out and sell them from a bowl of ice.

We has absolutely awesome fireworks from Geelong Fireworks, (and I think that's worth a shameless plug, cos they made sure we got great value for our limited budget). Didn't look limited. I'll bet you saw them from your place!

I was tired half way through the fete, and wondered if I'd have to camp at home for an hour, but a chilled bottle of wine with Jeff at the Wine and Beer area was all I needed. Now, next time , lets make sure someone is selling cheesy nibbles.

The cake stall sold out, so all our stuff has new homes now. In total, we made : 40 gingerbread men, 20 bags of Black & Whites, 3 bags of Choc Chip cookies, 4 bags of ANZACs, and 7 strawberry cakes. I guess that's not too bad.

On Monday I'll get to find out how much we made, and I'll take home my unsold journals. Which I'll bet is all of them.

It's all in the packing

I learned long ago that packing your cake stall stuff well makes it easier to transport and handle, and people buy more. And are ready to pay more. Well, everyone loves a bargain, but it IS fundraising, you know.

So here's how I do it. Pack things in long bags (I buy them by the 100 from party supply shops), fold the top over twice, and staple on a pretty paper label you've just printed up on your printer (8 or so to a page). Looks cool.

Local regulations mean that the baker needs to be identified by a number (and the convener of the stall records the name and address). I always contact the convener and get my number early, and print it on. Saves handling on the day. If I can't get a number early, as here, I make up a number nobody else will be using. I doubt we are going to get 98 other contributions before I arrive.

Gingerbread Boys

Well, it was a tiring day making lots of gingerbread men. When the last one was decorated, I heaved a sigh and turned to leave the kitchen. Then I saw - the box containing the OTHER HALF of the batch, not yet decorated. Argh!

Too many other things to do to even think about another decorating session, I left that job until after the kids came home. Well, I should have thought ahead. The boys saw the decorated men, and said "Awww, we wanted to do them!". I revealed the great treat - 20 more men still to do. Hooray!

I supervised them making another batch of royal icing (pale blue this time), and after a tiny bit of coaching, left them to it.

Here's a boy-decorated man. Really not too bad, is it? They got better as they went on too.

Yes, they washed their hands, the whole bit.

Fete preview

Here's one of the gingerbread men I made for the school fete. I turned out 40 of them, but I had help (that story comes in a later post).

I was nearly thrown when I saw that the recipe called for mixed spice. I didn't have that! Had to look up what spices are in mixed spice. I had them all, so I mixed them by hand. Now that's worth paying extra for, isn't it?

Where to get a really cool blank journal

Well, obviously, the Weeden Heights Primary School Twilight Market Bazaar, of course. Known locally as "the Fete". October 24th, in the evening. I've given myself the project of making some blank journals using only junk or recycled materials - that is, little or no cost to anyone, and more or less headed for the scrapheap if I didn't catch them. Because I'm using the glorious Zutter binding machine, I did, of course, have to buy coils from Christina's at the usual price, but that didn't add up to much.

So here's a rundown of materials :
Pages : crumpled brown paper, used as packing materials by Stampin' Up, sourced from my friend and SU seller, Chris
Board for covers : from Reverse Art Truck in Ringwood
Green decorative paper for covers : a car boot sale buy from someone who had way too much of one design - it's pretty Cristina Re paper
Metal Corners : Reverse Art Truck again
Glue : yes, I think even that came from a trash and treasure. But I have been known to buy new glue from time to time
Stamps : for extra points, I think I earned some of the stamps in exchange for craft show work. That great half-face stamp is by Studio Astarte, which is not trading any more, but whose presence is still felt in my stamp collection
Embossing Powder : well, I have certainly bought some new, but I'm pretty sure this lot was from a garage sale.
Shimmery cream coloured paper : is the back of the green paper. Duh. Took me a while to work that one out.

So, these journals will be on sale at the craft stall for a very reasonable price of - whatever Kerryn decides. Do pop by and buy one. Then buy a drink, have something to eat (Gul is making her potato pastries again), and stay for the fireworks.

Come to the fete!

My kids' primary school is having a fete - strictly, the "Twilight Market Bazaar" - it'll be fun - good things to eat, trash and treasure to buy, and a cake stall (thats my main interests covered). Oh, and there's FIREWORKS too! A first for our school. We've warned the neighbours.

I'll be baking for the cake stall, heaps and heaps I hope. And I'm making some stuff for the craft stall. And running the cold drinks vending. And donating heaps of trash & treasure. Oh, and I organised two other stalls from outside vendors. And I'm wringing my hands about "not doing enough". Hah!

Hey, what should I bake? Gingerbread men were fun last time, and I always do chocolate chip cookies. I bought a small loaf tin - that is, eight small loaves - to make little healthy bar cakes, which I think people appreciate. I never do big cakes. It's hard to get people to buy them for more that a few dollars - you get more profit from small things. Yes, this is the time of year when my eyes get replaced with dollar signs pretty much all day. Put your baking votes in, and I'll let you know what I end up making.

See ya there!

Gingerbread Candidates

I made these for the last Federal Election (November 2007). The school had a cake stall, and so did the scout hall - great fundraisers - and I did a my usual bit of baking. Well, quite a bit actually. I delivered everything in a laundry basket.

One of my favourite things was the Gingerbread Candidates. Packed individually with a blurb about each candidate, they represent John Howard (grey hair, made of coconut and a little black food colour)(he lost); Kevin Rudd (blonde hair and the Kevin 07 t-shirt)(he won); a Democrat; a Green; and (of course) an independent. They sold out at $1.50 each, so my batch of gingerbread got turned into quite a lot of income for the school and scout hall. Love cake stalls!