Frocktober 2013 Week Two

Frocktober Week 2 was a BIG one.  A really busy work week, my birthday, a dinner out, seeing the circus/burlesque show Empire at the Spiegletent and of course, the highlight of Frocktober for me, my dance party Rock Your Frock.

We rocked our frocks last night and while the crowd was about half the size of last year due to the unfortunate coincidence of a ballroom competition in Sydney and the opening of a new salsa club in Canberra, I still manged to raise over $2,400 which I think is amazing.  I am so grateful for the support of everyone who helped, my brilliant friends Rob and Oren who provided professional quality sound and lighting to make the place look and sound amazing.  My Mum and sister who worked the door all night letting me have a few dances in between selling raffle tickets and comparing the night.  And of course the wonderful S, who helped set up, pack down and puts up with my months and months of distraction as I worked on the event.

All in all it was a wonderful night.

The rest of the week was pretty wonderful, albeit with some of those inevitable funny "frocktober" moments - such as wearing a cocktail dress with a quite short skirt and a decent amount of cleavage for Friday Cocktail Dress day, because I'd completely forgotten that it was also the day of our AGM and that the entire board would be in the office.  Needless to say I hid in my office quite a bit.  Today I'm dicing with a very short, flouncy skirt and a windy day, but as the plan is to stay home I think I will be ok.

Frocktober is once again proving to be a super fun month.

Frocktober 2013 Week One

The first week of Frocktober was a little chilly, very windy but with enough sunny patches that the ubiquitous Frocktober cardigans could be put away at times.

This Frocktober I'm upping the glamour stakes with cocktail dress Friday.  It is particularly noticeable in my office because we embrace casual Friday so with one person in satin when everyone else is in denim I think it is quite clear that I'm doing something a little different.

This week is the big one, Rock Your Frock. It is going to be a full on week which includes my birthday, a couple of dinners, a show and of course a huge charity dance. I expect it will be exhausting but fabulous.

Frock on!

Frocktober the first

Today marks the start of an emotion filled month for me.  October has always been that way.  It contains my birthday which is associated with a thousand happy memories, but it has also been a month of loss and upheaval in my life.  I enter every October with a little trepidation at what it may bring.

In the last few years October has had extra emotions associated with it, grief and gratitude being the prominent two.  This is because three years ago I lost a really important person in my life to ovarian cancer and each October I honour her life by fundraising for ovarian cancer research by participating in Frocktober.

I think of Sue every day through October.  Her loss is still huge.  Just recently I was working on a project for my parent's wedding anniversary and a dozen times I thought to myself that I must ask Sue about this or that only to remember that I can't do that anymore. It seems almost inconceivable that she won't be at the important milestones in my life, even after three years I can't picture a big family gathering without her there.

But while the grief at her loss is still a raw emotion, this month also fills me with gratitude at the support I receive.  From my family and friends who support my fundraising with frocks and funds to the businesses that donate prizes for the silent auction at my fundraising dance party Rock Your Frock, I am indebted to so many people for helping me fundraise.

In previous years I have blogged my daily frocks.  This year, if you would like to follow my frocking adventures, I've finally caved and switched over to Instagram so you can find me at http://instagram.com/lisablithemoments#

If you are in Canberra, please come along to Rock Your Frock.  You don't need to be a "dancer" but you are encouraged to frock up and it is guaranteed to be an amazing night.  Rock Your Frock is on 12 October at 7pm at the Harmonie German Club.  You can find all the details here: http://rockyourfrock.blogspot.com.au/

And finally, if you feel so inclined you are more than welcome (and hugely thanked) to make a donation at: https://frocktober.everydayhero.com/au/lisa

One of these things is not like the other

Just a quick post today - it would appear that I had an interloper in my bag of pink and white tulips. Can you spot the the intruder?

Internet Find of the Day

Every now and then the Internet does one of those little things that just makes me wonder how we all coped without it.

I have always been a recipe addict.  I have had to enforce specific rules about recipe books otherwise our entire house would be full of them, and every now and then I have to purge the house of magazines.  But the internet takes recipe collecting to a whole new level.

I read so many brilliant food blogs and my pinterest obsession has resulted in a whole collection of new things to try.  However when you have access to recipes from around the world there can be issues about finding the right ingredients and crucially, particularly when I use American recipes, I often have issues because of the different measurements. 

The one that has caused me the most grief (and some very strange results) has been how Americans measure butter.  I don’t know what it is that results in a country deciding to measure butter in sticks, let alone trying to measure a solid thing in cups or tablespoons but it was driving me batty till I found this fantastic website – The Butter Converter Calculator!

 

Oh yeah, some brilliant person recognised this problem and now I can just tap in the number of sticks / cups / tablespoons etc and have it all nicely converted to grams.

 

This combined with other calculators that turn Fahrenheit to Celsius and inches to centimetres means I’m now cooking up a storm with fab internet receipes.

Have you found something fantastic on the internet recently?

Just popping by

Hi All!  No I haven't fallen off the planet but I do seem to have lost my blogging mojo.  This year is proving to be one of those massive years where my brain is so full at all times I don't have much space left to do something creative like write.  But hang in there I will do my best to pop by every now and then and I'm sure the blogging fairies will give me back some impetus soon.

So in the meantime here are some shots of spring.  It has sprung very early this year, we are in the second week of September and already many of the blossom trees are finished but after what was a pretty miserable grey winter (where were the crystal blue skies I ask) the fresh green leaves and gorgeous blossom are a joy.

A fancy new title (for a very good cause)

It has been a big few weeks with lots on, much of it in preparation for Rock Your Frock my annual fundraiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.  Each year, I hold a charity dance where everyone (and I mean everyone) is encouraged to frock up.  I hold a silent auction, have raffles, everyone dances and it is a really fun and exciting night during which we have raised thousands of dollars.

OCRF became my charity of choice 3 years ago following the diagnosis and death of a close family friend from ovarian cancer.  It was then that I discovered that ovarian cancer kills a woman every 10 hours in Australia - not because it is particularly aggressive but because there is no early detection test and as a result it is generally found very late.  If found early, it is a very treatable so the OCRF are working on finding an early detection test.  It is really important work and I'm really happy to be able to play my tiny role in supporting the work through fundraising.

This week I received an email from OCRF.  They have noticed the work I've done over the last three years and as a result have asked me to be their ambassador in Canberra.  I will continue to do what I've been doing, spreading the message about the work they are doing by being a media representative and representing them at events etc.  It is such an honour both to know that my work has been noticed but also that I will be able to contribute in an even more meaningful way.

I'm really excited about the opportunity, and hope to bring lots more stories of the great work being done by the OCRF to you all!