Bead Barmy

Mad hatters, alternative jewellery, flag waving and no end of baking! It’s all gone into the mix with your wonderful Sea and Cake parties

Thank you

At the beginning of 2011, we asked if any of you would like to hold Sea and Cakes parties to help us with our RNLI fundraising. We were delighted by how many of you agreed to give up your time and help us with this fantastic cause.

To those of you who opened up your houses and those of you who plied your work mates with cake in offices across the land, we would like to say a very big thank you! Your response was truly fantastic and parties stretched as far as the west of Ireland! The money raised from these jolly dos has contributed a huge amount towards our fundraising. We would also like to express our gratitude to all of you who came along to our various cake and jewellery parties held at The Brighton Bead Shop.

Many of you added an extra dimension to your events by selling jewellery and giving a donation from the profits to the RNLI. Quite a few of you shared your lovely days with us by sending photos in of your events. We loved looking at these, even though they made us hungry! Here’s a small round up of some of your parties.

The great beadish bake off

On February 3rd 2011, Tracey Mallaby from Darlington kicked off the Sea and cake parties with a bang. Tracey very kindly shared some of her recipes with us and even divulged her own secret pumpkin cake recipe!

In May, Linda Peace held a hugely successful event raising a fantastic £205! Linda managed to borrow some ‘props’ from the RNLI. An RNLI flag was used as a table cloth and the ladies sported life jackets for the event. Linda sold a range of jewellery at her party to raise extra funds.

Mad as a hatter

Laura Jones held her event in a tea shop in Faringdon. She designed her own fantastic poster for the do based on The Mad Hatters Tea Party.  

We have been bowled over by our supporters creativity and different ideas, that have gone to make each and every Sea and Cakes parties unique.    

Bringing the party to us

Thame Safari (Self Advocacy for Adults Requiring Independence), an organisation from Oxfordshire, were keen to see where the money they raised was going, so they came for a great day out at Brighton Lifeboat Station. The group enjoyed a fish and chips lunch followed by a visit to the station where they enjoyed trying on the uniform and were treated to a talk on the history of the RNLI. Beads Unlimited big chief Geoff went along to join in the fun and handed out some beady goodie bags to the members.

Even some of the beading mags joined in. The lovely people at Making Jewellery and GMC Publications took time off from their busy schedule and brought cakes to the workplace to help us out.

Alternative jewellery

Al Loveday in the West of Ireland held our farthest flung party. Her eldest son agreed to pose for this picture to show alternative ways to wear your RNLI badge! 

It’s never too late

There were so many of you who helped us out we can’t show them all but do be assured that we are extremely grateful for every penny raised.

If you are interested in holding an event, there’s still time. Our fundraising will go on until the end of our Silver Jubilee when we officially turn 26 years old on the 1st March 2012. If you would like to hold a party please send an email entitled ‘Sea and Cakes’ to creative@beadsunlimited.co.uk and let us know. Please include your postal address so that we can send you an information pack.

Grab a pin up

If you’ve already helped us out and would like to shout about it on your website, we have some special RNLI badges for you to copy and paste. Please visit our badges page and scroll down to the bottom to choose your RNLI badge.

If you would like to find out more about our RNLI news, please visit our fundraising page.

Posted by: BeadsUnlimited