'Christmas In July' came early with the ABCD goodie bags!!!

Ditty, Bec & Sophie

some of the girls including the fabulous Anni (in swanky red boots on the left)

arrivals adding their treats to the goodie bags!

 I mentioned in my last post, that I was about to attend the Sydney, ABCD Winter meet-up. Well, it's now been and gone, {in fact it's over a week ago already - oh WHERE oh where does the time go??!}.

...The first one for Sydney, (which I went along to), was late last year.
I was so nervous and not sure I could actually BE brave enough to go out to a pub on my own to meet strangers - no matter how much we were deemed to have in common!
It was such a lovely experience though, that this time I didn't need any 'Rescue Remedy', or "I WILL be brave!!"type mantras!!

It was a really lovely evening and I enjoyed chatting with some lovely, talented and creative ladies (and briefly to a very nice artist called Geoffrey, who loves to imbue his paintings with positive energy!).

I especially enjoyed chatting to Steph, Ditty, Bec, Roberta and Anni, and as always was thrilled to see Anastasia, whom I now count amongst my good friends, having met her through the Australian Etsy team DUST. {They all have great blogs / businesses, so do go ahead & check out the links to see for yourself}.

Anastasia and me!! :)

We were invited to bring along something for a goodie bag to help others remember us. I opted in, as it's a lovely idea. Now, I have to be honest here, one of the highlights was getting to bring home said goodie bag - bursting at the seams with lovely, fabbo things to remember the others by by!!

photo by Lisa of The Red Thread of some of her bag contents.
{my contribution is top right!}

In Australia, because Christmas is HOT, and doesn't feel like Christmas 'should' (that's kind of how I feel anyway, having grown up in the Northern hemisphere!), we sometimes kind of celebrate "Christmas in July"!
Hence my title to this post! I don't think we'll be making snowmen, cooking roast turkey, singing carols and pulling crackers, but my son's school is having a fete, and there wil be a temporary ice rink in the local park. Of course I am digressing now....

.... back to the goodies.
Take a peep here at the lovely loot I came home with!!

Please forgive me if I don't caption and link to the giver of each item, I'll NEVER get this post published if I do that.... instead for more details & pics of who gave what see Steph's post here.

THANK YOU to all the girls, and especially to Steph and Lisa for organising / hosting.
Three cheers to them, HIP HIP HOORAY!!!
                                   HIP HIP HOORAY!!!
                                   HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

Lovely ladies Lisa (left) and Steph (right).

What a great night!


Take care Lovlies, I'm off to watch a little TV with hubby before bed,


Sally x 0 x