.Thankyou for Standing Under our Pink Umbrella.

What a wonderful adventure we've been on together the last fortnight! In the wake of the devastation and loss of the floods, you have poured out your support for those affected and your support for one another. We have been touched by your generosity, your humour (some of that bidding got a little competitive!) and your creativity.

You've each shared in giving something you had a part in making, making something with your hands from scratch, with care and love. These very personal items have helped raise much needed funds and also been received with great gratitude from all those who supported by bidding and buying. You should be so proud of yourselves, from the $10 to the $2000 raised, every contribution is worthwhile and wonderful.
Apart from the money raised, just voicing our awareness of the flood victims on our blogs, websites, and in the media, has been a real emotional support to many of those affected. Sometimes, in our greatest trials, it's just nice to know people care. I know this outpouring of love has really lifted hands that hang down and hearts that are sad. In knowing we care, we ease the load, and sometimes, that is the best thing we can do. "We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love"~ Mother Teresa.
So, I know we've said it before, but we mean it with full, grateful hearts - Thank you. Thank you for making our little scratchy vision big and marvelous. Thank you for putting up with our sleep-deprived mummy memories when we forgot something. Thank you for your kind emails, you are all women (okay and like two guys!) with big hearts, deep pockets and you know that all we can really give in this life is the gift of ourselves. 
Now, onto what you're really waiting for and that's our grand total...we're scared you won't believe us - we had to double check our spread sheet 3 times!

We're not kidding!

So here we go. Altogether, you raised

$99,089

for Queensland!!  WELL DONE! That is just amazing!!  Now get back on your computer chair...don't run off the road if you are reading this on your iPhone.  How awesome are you?!!!!

(To all of you wonderful Author's for Queensland crew - we thankyou for joining us crafty chicks and sharing our pink umbrella.)

So, in return we have a little (tiny) farewell gift for you. It's just a little token of our appreciation:




<center> <a href="http://tonicoward.blogspot.com/2011/01/thankyou-for-standing-under-our-pink.html"><img border="0" src="http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o145/jaron79/QLDFloodAppealWERAISED.jpg"/></a></center>

You can put it on your blog or site to remind you that you were part of something very special. And, if you were a bidding/ticket buying supporter please take one if you want to, because you made this big effort possible too.
What a wonderful end to Australia Day this is - just an ordinary group of good, Aussie women doing what good Aussie women have always done, just lending a hand to friends in need (a tech-savvy modern-day CWA cake stall!).

Thank you again, and hopefully we'll meet again in blogland, (or maybe even in real life!),
Toni and Carli.

 (all images sourced here)