last Saturday we held a wonderful event
the story behind it ....
14 months ago I stood behind my own handmade stall
at another market ... chatting with a great friend, Aretha ...
i waved my arm across the room ....
"we can do this ..... ABC style!"
at Ashburton Baptist Church
was born ... its kind of my baby!
its been a massive work in progress
through our doors ... the sun shone
we had stalls galore
the baristas were sensational
& more ....
from there the question was repeated
it echoed .... ok lets do it again in 2012
..... twice
one just gone & one to plan
so excited about all the involvement of the people in our
ABC community
we make an amazing team
my cup runneth over
i know i've mentioned it here once or twice
making no apologies for that
i love it
theres barely anything to do with the PM
that I have not had anything to do with
i have an amazing duo who have my back
thanks to Aretha & Christine
we complement each other v nicely!
i adore the process ... its the journey
i'm always on about enJOYing the journey ....
from dreaming up the ideas both
large & small
to the actual implementation
where so many people join in the create the fun
i love it when people 'own' the process
take on the idea & make it their own
as part of our Playful Market
i had spotted the idea about blogland
of a treasure hunt using
egg cartons ... with painted colour blotches
all i needed to make this happen was an amazing
bunch of enthusiastic
creative
energetic
engaging
funny & caring
young women
thankyou to
kate & bonnie & marie & carolyn & miriam & katrina
they hopped, skipped & jumped in puddles
all day long
leading all the little children & their families
along the garden path
past the orange flowers
around the green frog pond
catching aqua fishys
un-pegging cute red lady bugs
spotting little grey rock friends
climbing through the deep dark black of the spiders web
walking the tight rope to find the pink hearts
catching falling snow balls
flitting past the purple butterflies
digging like pirates for gold
chasing blue balloons
planting sunflower seeds
.... & so the Rainbow Treasure Hunt
grew .... just like the magic beanstalk
it was a huge hit
was lots of fun
was all about the experience
seriously ... it was so much fun
& i managed half an hour to go & be 'mum'
& have the priveldge of enJOYing this little journey
ladies you made my heart swell with pride & thanks
its taken me days & days to process
some of these thoughts
i put so much of myself into every aspect
physically & emotionally
but i would & will do it all again
the 'ripple affect' of an event like this
expands wider than we will know
we the people of ABC worked together across the generations towards a common goal
& lastly we welcomed many many people in through our doors to have a look at what we are about ...
the outcomes of all of this is almost immeasurable
but in my book it was all an abounding success
there was face painting & fairy floss & a patchwork demonstration
& the ABC Cafe & the Sausage Sizzle & 2nd Hand Books
& the Lob-a-Choc game & Gingerbread Decoration
.... & our amazing resident clown Marcella
all fabulous .... & really the weather barely stopped us!
&
then of course there were all our stalls
all Handmade or Fair Trade
over at our Playful Market blog
right here i'd like to thank the people
who helped me personally
who cared for Oscar in some way
who asked how they could help
& particuallry those who jumped on in the join in the
.... which is a whole other blog post
(coming soon!)
.... i must on a personal note
say a really really big Thank You
to my husband Craig & my little boy
without their support
& forever entertaining
the well used phrase
"I had an idea!!!"
it simply would not be .... xxxx
