Girls Day In

I've never seen so much PINK! Balloons, frocks, shoes, hair, food, drink, flowers and of course, smiles!

I hosted a Pink Ribbon Day 'Girls DAY In' - what started as a vague idea eventually became a big get-together of friends and girls from around the district. Ladies turned up in pink wigs, floral dresses, carrying flowers, pink lollies and a wonderful feeling of excitement and positive energy.

I'd seen a post on Facebook a few weeks ago about Pink Ribbon Day and thought 'I should do something'. I'll get the girls together. We'll eat pink food and drink pink bubbly. We'll play some games, get together, laugh, talk and meet new faces. My second 'brainwave' was a raffle. I've never organised one before, I had no idea but to hit the main street in my little town and ask for donations. Every single business owner in the town I asked said YES! Donations were piling up in my house and people were ringing me to ask if they could donate. I couldn't believe the wonderful snowball effect of good will. As the prizes piled up I kept adding them to the list. I sat on the floor in my lounge room and sorted out hampers, vouchers, bottle of wine, food baskets and a whole heap of pink cellophane and ribbon to seal the deal!

Food was not a problem with my wonderful group of foodie gals! Between us, we made pink lamingtons, pink chocolate covered strawberries, sponge cake, fairy cakes, cherry ripe slice, pink meringues with rosewater cream and raspberries, fruity punch with cranberry and lots of pink lollies. Savoury ideas were harder but we came up with beetroot and trout dip, beetroot chips, smoked salmon toasts and the ever popular saveloy sausages dipped in tomato sauce (with a little mayonnaise added to make it pink). The table overflowed with pink joy! Bottles of mini pink bubbly were placed in a pink laundry basket surrounded by rose wine, pink moscato, cranberry juice and pink grapefruit mineral water.

We had some rules today - certain words were NOT to be spoken! Swear words were out - that was it, I was broke. The gold coin jar filled up quickly with penalties when anyone said 'pink', 'bubbles', 'girls', 'cake' and 'punch'. Everyone was being dobbed in. 

I'm not one for speeches but I said a thank you to all those that came and others that supported the fundraiser but could not make it. My utmost respect and gratitude goes out to you all. I thought about all the women affected by cancer and a quiet moment for a dear friend of mine who survived breast cancer - with a young child and supportive family by her side. We don't see each other much but she's always in my heart, we've known each other since we were 5 years old. Funnily enough it was her birthday today, so happy birthday Kirsten!

And I really don't want to see pink cream, icing, cake, jelly, punch and sugar for a long time!