Wedding Themed Ball 2012!!!!

Well, its the time of the year to start organising next years b all.. thats right, it looks like it is becoming an annual event!!! Next year though a good friend Ellen Morgan is organising and things are in full flow!!!! You can purchase tickets at an early bird special of £35 before the end of december. It is to be held at The Aztec Hotel and spa in Bristol, dinner and disco, raffle, auction...

The prizes are already coming in!!!! Top Raffle prize is a holiday in Florida, self catering with £1000 towards flights!!! wow!!! signed football shirts are also amongst the prizes!!

Please Please consider coming.. it was a fab evening last year, and the money this year will be going towards 3 charities; The CF Trust, The CF Comfort Fund and Starlight... all 3 causes very close to my heart.. If you are not abl,e to come please please buy some raffle tickets!!!

Also if you or anyone you know can provide any prizes for the raffle please get in touch.. everything gratefully received!!!

I will leave you with a video from last years ball.. already on this blog but i will put it on to remind you again!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua4RBeAnOm4

Barnes Boys charity Ball!!!!

well its another blog about another ball!!!!! hoorah i hear you say!!!! The Barnes Boys charity Ball was held by a lovely lady called Lorraine Barnes who two sons Dan and Joe have CF. Lorraine has done a lot of fundraising since the boys were diagnosed with CF so it was a privelege to go to the ball so to speak!!!!

I actually arrived early to help Lorraine in setting up and could not believe my eyes at the amount of work that had gone in! The wonderful array of raffle and auction prizes, 90% or so was gained from tweets/ twittering!!!!

The night began with a drinks reception, during which you could choose to have your photo taken by a professional photographer who was giving £5 from the sale of each photo to CF. Poor man had to put up with my sister and I who btoh thought the first photos taken make us look fat so asked for them to be taken again!!! He did say that the record for re-takes was 5 times!!! After drinks and photos it was time to sit down to a delicious 3 course dinner (am liking these dinners at these balls!). In between the main course and the dessert was another game of heads and tails but sadly i failed miserably!

There was a video of a families experiences of CF followed by thank you speeches, auction and raffle... Sadly i did not win at the raffle either!!! i have not had much luck at these things!!! but i did bag myself a beautiful painting that will take pride of place in my bedroom.... The night carried on into the early hours with music from Samantha Fox and The Stormbreakers.

My date for this ball - my sister!!!! Quite an achievement to get her into a dress, the first time she has worn one for about seven ish years!!! Now for the photos!! Enjoy!!!!

Lorraine's son Joe was the artist, selling his drawings/ art work!!!!

Joe!!!!

My sister in a dress!!!

Joe also went round with the stickers!!!!

I managed to get the painting on the left.. simply beautiful!!!

Sam Fox!!!

The Stormbreakers!!!

The Big Breath Charity Ball!!!

The next ball was the Big Breath Charity Ball!!! This event was organised by a lovely lady called Josie Monaghan who has CF. A year ago to the date of the ball she received the great gift of a double lung transplant and her way of saying thank you and raising awareness was to organise the ball. Yes, whilst recovering from a double lung transplant she organised a charity ball for 300 people!!!!! a truly inspirational person!!! And what a fantatsic night we had!!!

A simple supper was followed by two comedians, one of whom was a free style rapper! Something i have never seen before was but was really amazing! A DJ kept everyone entertained between entertainment, a band followed but to fully relax and enjoy a team of masseurs were on standby to provide some deep shoulder and neck massages - heaven!!!!

There was an auction, raffle and even cupcakes for sale although sadly we were not quick enough for the chocolate ones!!!! Josie herself gave a tear jerking speech thanking everyone and most importantly thanking the donor and their family.

No final figures yet but money was to be split between the CF Trust and another charity called Live Life Then GIve Life, supporting organ donation.

My companion for the evening was one of my best friends Aly!!!

Sue, another lovely lady who a year ago also had a double lung transplant!!!!

Myself and the inspirational Josie!!!

Tiaras and Tashes Ball!!!!!

now just to warn you... this is the first of several 'charity ball' related blog posts!!!!

The first I went to was one held in Taunton called, as the title says, Tiaras and Tashes ball!!! As the title suggests, you should choose to wear a tiara or a tash, and as people demonstrated on the night, it was not gender specific!!!!! although many ladies did wear tiaras and the men comedy tashes, the two were combined in some cases!

The evening started with a drinks reception, A delicious 3 course dinner was served, with a game of heads and tails between courses!!! a difficult game to explain, its best to see it in action!!! There was also an inspiring speech by a young lady who has CF but very much does not let it stop her doing anything or travelling anywhere!!!!!!!! wow! the evening moved along with an auction, tombola, raffle and for the more daring a casino!!! a silent auction was also being held during everything. The night was finished with a great band who had everyone up dancing, some dancers putting us to shame!!! On our table we had an 80 year old woman who was still cattle farming and a couple whose jive dancing put us to a shame tremendously!!!!

The best bit of the night.... a fantastic £8000 + was raised for the CF Trust!!!! yay!!! To accompany me to this ball i manged to drag along my housemate and friend Fay!!! Enjoy the photos!!!!