This was the first year I took part as someone with a vested interest, rather than a customer – this year I had two stalls.  I was pleased to see the variety of stalls including homebakes, wood turning, Body Shop paraphernalia, a High Spirits stall, Holy Socks, Pampered Chef demos and my own Tearcraft and spider plant sales.  To keep the children entertained, some of the youth group were doing face painting and lucky dips!

There was a steady stream of interested people and purchasers of the goods on offer.  The refreshments were expertly laid out and dealt with and were much appreciated.

I personally made £40 for Tearcraft and £20 on the spider plants (all of which I had grown from tiny shoots!), which I donated to the church.

Overall the Bazaar raised £450 for the youth group, and £75 for the church!

I enjoyed my time and special thanks go to my part-time helpers – Sam Henderson and Charmaine Thomson.

See you next year .....

WOW!  It’s been busy, busy, busy for the Kennethmont Toddlers this last few months.  We've been on major fund-raising alert.  Thanks heaps for all the hard work from our core members, we were able to raise nearly £400 at our annual Christmas Fayre.  Falling just short, Dunnydeer Veterinary Group kindly topped up the funds so that we reached the £400 target, ah being married to one of the partners does have its perks!!!!  We also kindly received raffle prizes from 'Top to Toe' hairdressers, Graeme Barber Butchers, Kellockbank Countryside Emporium, Howdens and Deans of Huntly, thanks guys!  I think that everyone had a fun afternoon, with the kids socialising in the toy room and the adults all enjoying Grannie's famous home-baking ... though this wasn't very good for our pre - holiday season diets!!!

We have also had a great turnout for our Catchlite Photography session held in October, raising £124 from commission.  Who knew that we had so many budding models in our midst, pouting for the cameras . . . and that was just John Garioch!!

With all this cash raised I excitedly asked recently, "What shall we spend it on?".  The answer was pretty disappointing. . .electricity and insurance for next year!!  With that in mind, we are also now holding a sponsored obstacle race, (this should be rather interesting as the average age of competitor is 2½ yrs!) and we are furiously selling SPPA raffle tickets to everyone we meet.  Hopefully we will raise enough money to have a fantastic fun packed Christmas party and if our chairman John starts behaving himself, Santa might even visit!!

Finally a special BIG THANK YOU to Howdens for their recent kind monetary donation.  We really hope to have a jolly good spring clean in the new year and plan to purchase some new toys in those January sales.  We are also hoping to invite in someone for music and craft sessions which the