the Playful Market @ ABC

 last Saturday we held a wonderful event

the Playful Market ..... 

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!"

our Playful Market 

at Ashburton Baptist Church

was born ... its kind of my baby!

its been a massive work in progress

last year's august market brought more than 500 adults

through our doors ... the sun shone 

there was the infamous piggy

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

there were funds raised for the amazing & worthy causes

 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

for all these details please look over here

 over at our Playful Market blog

i have thanked the mass of people who helped hands on with this event

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

Full Circle project

.... 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