Final De-Brief... HUGE POST!

Well ladies, thanks once again for all your support last weekend. Today I finally feel like I have recovered from last weekend's big event!

Firstly, I have a few 'house-keeping' issues to get out of the way...

* I have some lost property that someone may want to claim... a pair of navy micro fleece gloves were left on a counter in the kitchen, and one of the ladies at the table nearest the bra clothesline might find she is missing a plastic piece from her Creative Memories personal trimmer - the paper guard that the guillotine runs beside?

* I have two of the decorated bras in my possession - perhaps the owners want them back?

* During the Hot Chocolate Holder Make & Take, I left on the table for your use my own flourish clear stamps. Sometime during the Make & Take, some of them went walkies, accidentally I am sure. As I use them frequently, could you ladies please check your bags and let me know if you find any? They have been peeled off the acetate sheet and not replaced, but I would really like them back please.

I did the banking today, and thanks to some last minute sales of NZBCF product (pens, nail files etc) to RSM Law staff, I have a new total for you...

$1,707.96 !!!

Largely due to YOU ladies, thank you! Erin Boyle, Community Fundraising Co-Ordinator for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation is VERY pleased with us!

All in all I felt that the event went really well. To be honest I was that busy while it was running, I didn't have time to notice if there were too many issues, but I haven't received any complaints - nothing but compliments, so I guess that says it all. In fact, I have been asked countless times when next year's event is taking place. Seriously guys? Wow! After some serious thought, I think every other year is enough... it is hard to obtain the support of sponsors, and to be honest, not entirely fair to ask them every year to contribute in the same way. So ladies, keep an ear to the ground in 2012. NZBCF has two months of the year that they fundraise - May (to tie in with Mother's Day), and October (when they have their street appeal). So, it will either be May 2012 or October 2012. I think!

Now, of course, I am going to take this one last opportunity to thank the MANY sponsors we had that helped make the event possible. They were the people/firms/businesses that donated products and services that many of you were fortunate enough to take home with you at the end of the day. So bear with me while I cover the list, one more time...

* RSM Law - for arranging the donation from a Charitable Trust to cover the $265 venue hire, and also for providing pens and key rings for the goodie bags

* Timaru Sewing Centre - Linda Butler very generously donated a $90 jelly-roll of Basic Grey Sultry fabric, as well as substantially discounting co-ordinating fabric and thread, (and putting up with my endless questions!), in order for me to make the Friendship Bag and Autographed Tote Bag that were raffled off.

* Embellish It - Rachel Forrester not only brought her ENTIRE shop so that you could shop/browse at your leisure all day, she donated a set of 10 Distress Inks as a raffle prize, and spent several hours with Jo making the chocolate boobs on sticks that were in your goodie bags, and the 'Boobie Prize' for the Best Decorated Bra competition.

* Deb McRobie from Stampin Up! made herself available for the day, ran a Make & Take, donated stamp sets that were amongst the spot prizes given out on the day, as well as sourcing the giant $500 basket of Stampin Up! goodies as a raffle prize.

* Deb also had a hand in two other sponsors helping us out... her brother is a Goodman Fielder rep, and he arranged donation of Scone and Muffin Mix, that Pak'n Save (where Deb works) let him bake, in their bakery, into the HUGE pile of scones and muffins that we had for afternoon tea.

* Brigitte Kempf from Creative Memories, and her fellow demonstrator Jo Armstrong made themselves available for the day, ran a Make & Take, and donated a lovely Ideas Book as a raffle prize. Brigitte also arranged for Creative Memories to provide the Pink Goodie Bags that you all received.

* Tarisota - Tamar Bostock from Tarisota (in Australia) donated two raffle prizes - one month's free access to their brand new Style Studio, worth $60 Australian each, as well as $5 discount vouchers for ALL ladies who attended - these were in your goodie bags. The discount code, if you have trouble reading it, is Beck2010.

* Kaisercraft - Stephen and Carolyn Kaiser donated a set of pink alphabet stickers for every attendee (in your goodie bags), as well as a couple of wooden words to be used as spot prizes.

* Becky Fleck from Pagemaps designed and donated a sketch especially for our event, which was used for the layout competition during the day.

* Cadbury donated all the lovely Roses chocolates that were in cute little cupcake cases in your goodie bags. The cupcake cases were donated by Porters Giftware.

* Hirepool Timaru loaned us 17 extra trestle tables for the event free of charge.

* Melissa from Pink Cat Studio donated two $US10 vouchers for their digital stamp store.

* Lindsay from Cosmo Cricket donated twenty-four fabulous black chipboard boxes (blanks for you to decorate) and two paper pad sets that were given out as spot prizes.

* Michele from Memories Forever donated two fabulous raffle prizes - Imaginesce albums, papers, stickers, rub-ons and stamps, in a boy theme, and a girl theme.

* Brandlines donated the mini marshmallows, and Howard Smith from Timaru New World donated the Jarrah Chocolatte Sachets used in the Hot Chocolate Holder Make & Take.

* Acquisitions kindly donated five $10 vouchers that were used for raffle prizes.

* The Front Store donated a battery powered personal engraver as a raffle prize (great for labelling your scrapbooking tools!)

* Dowells Office Products donated a heap of goodies that were split up as used in the spot prize bags

* Keith at Paper Plus kindly let me leave a supply of tickets with them for sale.

* Whitcoulls donated two pink journals, used as spot prizes.

* Barkers donated a huge basket of goodies that lucky little Connie won on the night!

* Mars New Zealand sent me the Dark Chocolate Bounty Bars, and Nestle New Zealand supplied enough boxes of the Nescafe Cafe Menu coffees so that you all got to take a box home in your goodie bag.

* Ian Wooffindin at Copyfast very kindly printed the tickets for us for FREE.

* Couplands donated the bread for the club sandwiches.

* Ballantynes donated a figurine and fragrance samples for a raffle prize.

* Grant Lester at BOC supplied the helium for the balloons FREE.

* Scrapbook Studio kindly sent us one of their monthly kits, valued at $80, used as a raffle prize.

* Whittakers sent us chocolate bars that were included in the spot prizes.

* Triumph New Zealand generously donated a voucher for a set of lingerie to the Best Decorated Bra winner

* Spotlight sent us several prizes to be given out on the day - a beading set, a canvas, two t-shirt transfers

* JBS Mercantile (Jenni Bowlin Studio) donated a lovely pack of papers and embellishments from their new line

* Dee Street Pharmacy provided two sets of Dr Lewinns product to be raffled off.

* Theresa Cochrane from Serenity Nail Salon donated four vouchers worth a total of $195 that were raffled off.

* Eve Wallace donated a beautiful pair of lambskin gloves as a raffle prize

* Maree Winter from Headworkz Hair & Beauty donated three spot prizes and a De Lorenzo giftset as a raffle prize

* Tony from Sanzi Imports donated a Pink Cuttlebug and several embossing folders to be raffled off - this was VERY popular!

* Kathryn Fraser from Green Thistle House donated a beautiful handmade pink and silver necklace as a spot prize.

* And last, but not least, Alpine Gold donated all the tasty Benger juice that we each got a bottle of. Yum!

I have some personal thank-yous to make as well...

Nic Howard sent me down all the supplies for the Pink Paislee Make & Take, Rachel Tucker sent me a box of assorted papers that were put to use in the Make & Takes, and Trina McClune sent me a big box of Fiskars/Heidi Grace product to be used as spot prizes. None of these ladies wanted to be acknowledged in any way - tough luck!

I couldn't have made all the sandwiches the night before without the help of Mum, Gem and Nic B. And the kitchen was manned (should that be womanned?!) on the day with the help of Mum, Nan, Sally Betts and Jo List. I couldn't have done it without them. Mum, Nan and Helen also provided some of the delicious baking that you ate for morning and afternoon tea.

Thanks also to those who arrived early and left late in order to help setting up and packing down. Without YOUR help at the end of the day, I would have been there until midnight!

Right, nuff said.

Finally, I have some photos to share with you... although I am sure that there are more out there that you could email me to add to my collection?

Setting up and starting the day

The Pink Ribbon cake

Morning Tea

Crop in progress

Mum, Me and Nanny. Three generations.

Nanny's mother died of Breast Cancer in her fifties, part of the reason why I do this.

Jo and Mum in the kitchen, hard at work

Me, Janie Annear, Best Decorated Bra winner Steph Fraser, Boobie Prize (runner-up) winner Dianne. (in my haste, I omitted to grab this lovely lady's surname, sorry - can anyone help me out?)

The gorgeous table centres provided by Christina

from LaDeDa Wedding and Special Event Hire, FREE of charge.

Hot Chocolate Holder Make & Take in progress

The wonderful entries in the Best Decorated Bra competition:

The crop room, in several shots, to give you an idea of how the WHOLE room looked...

The raffles table!

Oh, and the lucky winners of the two most sought-after raffle prizes?

Daphne McBride from Temuka took home the Cuttlebug and Embossing Folders (sorry Jayne), and Lynne Hamilton from Oamaru won the Autographed Tote Bag, which was lucky, cos Nic Howard was SURE she was going to win it with the tickets she bought!

Right. Don't forget to send me your photos - email them to dazbeck@xtra.co.nz along with feedback that I can pass on to our fabulous sponsors with my thank you cards (hugs to Lelia, Gina, Michelle and Ingrid for helping me to make 44 of those).

That's it. Done deal. See you in 2012?

Becks xxx