Glittering Prizes........

Well, it was quite simple really. The brief from my youngest sister was clear. Annual Flower Show coming up, enter as many categories as you can manage and this year, make sure you get the kids to make something that they can enter into the 'Junior Section'. Ok, says I, I'm on it. So we got our collective heads together (this, by the way, is a mere 72 hours before the actual event was to take place so talk about cutting it fine!) and decided to enter the 'Miniature Garden' category and the 'Floral Arrangement in a Cup and Saucer'.   So, we started with a recycled fruit box which Nana painted blue and lined with a freezer bag then tipped some compost into the box and our idea began to take shape......          

 

....and we worked our way through the afternoon, gathering sticks and stones and pebbles, shells and sea urchins and little plastic people, paper parasols and finally some cuttings from various plants and set them on a bed of (builder's!)sand and Hey Presto, we had a 'Beach Garden' all ready to show off at the Flower Show.

 

 Then there was just the floral arrangement to take care of so I quickly ran around the Boss's garden gathering some pretty flowers and brought them home for the children to arrange for themselves in their chosen cups and saucers. So when everything was ready, we set off for the venue, the night before the actual show to register our entries and to place our exhibits in their respective positions, whereupon we trotted off home rather excitedly to have one more sleep before the Big Day. It was a bit like waiting on Christmas Day coming around. The excitement and anticipation was quite real, I can vouch for that.

So then, comes the day and we all piled into the car once more to hotfoot it to town see whether the Show Judges had been kind to us this year. Unfortunately, the 3yr.old's charming little effort didn't get placed but then, she has plenty of time to catch up when subsequent Flower Show's roll around. 

Then on to the mid-Junior Section and surprise, surprise, there was the loveliest rosette placed right in front of our 8yr. old's cup and saucer arrangement and what a hoot of surprise it caused her to emit. Excited, much!

 Well, as if that wasn't enough excitement to be going on with, she'd only gone and got herself an extra-special award in the shape of a beautiful silver trophy for her arrangement. My, oh my, there was a great deal of whooping and high-five-ing going on, I can tell you. You'd think we'd won the lottery!

Then we moved over to the miniature garden section and wouldn't you know it, there was another shiny rosette sitting waiting for us in front of the Beach Garden. Well, by this point, we were almost sticking to the ceiling (well, some of us at least!). How Happy we all were.

 Oh, and just as an aside, I won a 'first' for my crocheted baby cardi, a 'third' for my crocheted adult cardi/jacket and a 'second' for my Fair Isle hat. My youngest sister did pretty well too with all her baking and jam entries, winning a silver salver for the best-in-show for her Ginger Cake!

These aren't mine but I just loved them. They're little needle-felted fairies in glass jars and they were really well made.

Then on the way home, after enjoying a delicious celebratory pizza at our local Italian restaurant,we stopped for an ice-cream and sat by the shore to watch the gorgeous sunset.The perfect end to a perfect day.

Thanks for stopping by. I really do appreciate it.

Until next time.

xoxoxoxoxo