World's Biggest Coffee Morning

A Crafty Coffee met as usual and clever Crafty remembered that it was the Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee morning and made Macmillan mugs for people to put donations in. We raised £33 which was great as it was an improptu fundraiser. Well done people!

The other big news of the morning was something that Crafty, P (the manager of Trago) and I have had up our sleeves for a little while. As those of you who are regular readers of the blog and/or regulars at ACC will know, my oldest son is currently having treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. He has his treatment at the Piam Brown children's cancer ward at Southampton General Hospital.

Well, drum roll please...... A Crafty Coffee and Trago Lounge would like to announce that on Friday 5th November 2010 between 10am and 1pm we will be holding A Crafty Sale in aid of the Piam Brown ward and CLIC Sargent (the children's cancer and leukaemia charity). So, everyone, please getting knitting, crocheting, sewing, making and crafting in order for us to have loads of beautiful items to sell for these two charities. And if you can't craft anything, come and buy. And invite everyone you know!

From a personal point of view, the money raised for the ward and for CLIC makes such a difference to the children and the families on the ward. The money that the ward makes pays for extra equipment that the ward needs as well as treats for the children, which is vital for creating 'happy' memories for the families at a terrible time in their lives. And CLIC do so much for families of children diagnosed with cancer. One thing they do locally is provide a house for families to live in while the children are being treated on the ward. Many of the families come from miles and miles away to receive this specialist treatment and families would be separated if CLIC didn't provide this house. One family I can think of in particular on the ward, where the mum is on her own, would be in a terrible situation if they didn't have this option, with the child with cancer having to be left on her own on the ward while the mum took care of her other child. This way they can all be together.

I am not going to apologise for trying to pull on your heart strings in this post. Having a child with cancer, not knowing what the outcome is going to be for your beautiful child or all the other wonderful, brave children on the ward is heartbreaking. And if I can do anything to get people to part with their cash, in order to make things a tiny bit better for the other families who will have to go through this, I will.

So, get crafting. And come and buy!

Lots of love, Coffee xxx

PS A huge 'thank you' to Crafty (Dee) who is making this event happen, and who has been the most enormous source of comfort and strength to me in the past few months. E xxx

PPS I (Crafty) am fully behind Emma in this project and agree that we should make no apology for pulling on heart strings in this post. We have been going through this together like sisters, the pain is enormous but I am thrilled to be able to contribute something, no matter how small, to make difference to these children and their families. Fundraising is a particular forté of mine so let's hope we pull off a massive event.

We're Back!

Now that even the Reception children are back in school, we are watching our numbers replenish and it's not a moment too soon.

There is a buzz about the group again as we share stories of summer and of our trickier parenting moments as well as more positive tales of the fun we've had and future plans.

Somewhat excitingly, we have had two new members join us on the strength of a feature we placed in the local parish publication. We shall definitely have to use the same medium to publicise an event we are planning. I can't share too much at this stage, but we are in cahoots with the manager of Trago Lounge and we will be needing all hands on deck for this extravaganza. There, did that whet the appetite?

"News from the group?" I hear you cry.
Okay, so we have new members, the same old life struggles and joys. Big news is that Coffee (Emma) and family are on their second break from the hospital scene and awaiting their return for round three of the chemo. I always want to say, "ding ding" when I say that. I guess, in it's simplest form, chemo is a lot like a boxing scenario. It's a fight, it's fought in rounds with short breaks in between, it's heavy going, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't, there are invariably 'injuries' along the way ... In this particular ring, the chemo is doing its job and W is not suffering too many ill effects so is able to enjoy his time both in hospital (good old x box) and out of it.
In other news, well ... Celia finally has both small peeps in school, Jilly is getting inspired in the studio, Sarah is in the middle of a spell of ill health (get well soon Sarah, we miss you), there is talk that I need to start considering school options for my eldest (WHAT???), Isobel and Karen keep 'shopping' on my behalf in the local charity shops, we have two big events coming up, rumblings of a pop up business in time for Christmas ... That's all I can remember for now.

If you've been away, COME BACK! A Crafty Coffee will certainly need you in the coming weeks. Not to mention, Trago Lounge has been extremely quiet without us at full capacity.

See you Friday.
That's all folks.
C&C
xxx