People and Gardens Fashion Show At The Eden Project With Santander UK.

It's a week. A week since it all happened and every night since I've sat and started to write. Every night since, I've choked up when I've tried to form the words eloquently and ended up rambling on as usual. This time I wanted to tell you, and more-so show you, just what last weekend meant to a group of extraordinary people.

You all have heard me talk about nothing but People and Gardens for a little while now (go on, catch up here if you've missed it) and you're all totally aware that for the last few months I've been organising (alongside some lovely ladies) a fashion show and craft fayre to raise money for them.

Something that I don't know if I mentioned before is that I work for Santander UK.  I've always been nervous to talk about 'work stuff' online but I really can't contain my pride at working for a company that not only supports local charities and community interests but encourages their employees to get involved by matching how much an event, arranged by an employee, raises. How amazing is that?

This is how the day started...

Months and months of preparation had come to the actual day, we were all feeling pretty nervous. We knew we had an an amazing show planned with wonderful (and local!) designers and we knew that the ladies and gents at P&G would love it. But could we pull it off? Out of the four of us, Helen from P&G, Jess from Eden and towards the end I roped in my mum, not one of us had ever organised a fashion show of any kind. As more and more people started to flood through the doors, I ended up talking with a microphone to manoeuvre people!

Jess & Stacie before the show.

Before I start thanking people and reveal just how much we raised (Eeekk!), I just want to go back to why I've been choking up when I've tried to write this. Really I can only talk from my life with Bimble, and of course he's one of the reasons that I'm a bit teary. I'd been incredibly stressed all day, was feeling nervous about the success of the show and worried that it wouldn't raise as much as I'd hoped. 

Just as it started...

As I took his hand and we walked onto the catwalk, I watched him (worst model ever I know!) I couldn't help it, seeing his face light up at the 12 strong photographers and videographers at the end of the catwalk, made my heart just burst. Actually burst with happiness. Holding my hand tight, he strutted his stuff with a beaming smile, confidence oozing. (I definitely cried when we got offstage!)  It leads me on to my main reason for being so proud of last weekend; it wasn't just Bimble that gained something that night. I truly believe that every single person that stepped onto that stage from P&G gained the best gift they've had in a while. Confidence. To any of us, getting glammed up and people appreciating how great you look is just awesome, but imagine that on a much bigger scale. Huger scale in fact. On that note, take a look for yourselves...

Image sourced via Facebook David Presswell

Image sourced via Facebook Kristian Vanviere

Image sourced via Facebook David Presswell

Image sourced via Facebook David Presswell

Image sourced via Facebook Karen Nolan. 

Image sourced Via Facebook David Presswell (Bimble showing his
embarrassed by me face)

Beautiful isn't it?

Very quickly my face went from all the above to this >>(embracing the inner Spice Girl that I am, singing "When Two Become One"- Bimble must have been rubbing off on me.)

There really are so many people that helped us pull this off- I'll be damned if I remember them all. I'm so very sorry if I miss you out, please know that I'm eternally grateful for the hard work that everyone put in.

St Austell College arrived to do hair and makeup for us, they stayed and did an amazing hair presentation which was WILD but I can't seem to find a photo yet, there'll be plenty more added over the next couple of weeks!

Our fashion show was split into two parts; established Cornwall and Devon designers and Plymouth College of Art's second year fashion students showcasing their garments themed around Cornish heritage- a brilliant line up wouldn't you agree? Our interval also included a breathtaking performance from Cornwall Rock Choir! If you're looking for quality fashion that showcases some of the best talent in design that the south west has to offer, take a look at any of the designers below! 

Blossom Clothing Cornwall has the most beautiful knitwear and scarves!

Tamsin Poley Design is a fashion graduate with brilliant style.

Wednesday March has the most amazing retro dresses

Stacie Clark Knitwear is not only my best friend but also an innovative knitwear designer.

Denise Stracey has the most beautiful way of presenting clothes and accessories.

Earth Kind Originals made me fall in utter love with all of their earth friendly, sheek clothes.

Corinne Carr Designer Knitwear put together her looks like no other. Everything looked amazing.

Via Facebook Stacie Clark Designs

The evening was a total success, that when I woke from my coma the next morning, I was greeted with such wonderful messages from so many of you that the support for P&G has continually thrived throughout the last week. Including a very generous, charitable and snugly offer from Stacie Clark Knitwear for all of the proceeds from the sale of her delightful snoods going to People and Gardens! Perfect with Christmas coming up and as someone who wore one just last week (see below) I can highly recommend their quality and cosiness! 

I honestly could carry on telling you all about the evening with such depth that we'd be here all day! As I said, there will most certainly be a catch up post when we've received more images and the wonderful documentary by Tribe Magazine. Until then I leave you with two things;

1) In total that night, we raised £2541.69 and when this is matched by Santander, will be an outstanding total of £5083.38! I couldn't be prouder of the hard work and amazing support from everyone involved, it leaves me welling up all over again.

2) This smile on Bimble's face. Worth every moment.

Image sourced via Facebook David Presswell

Love Sophie Xx

There is Nothing Quite Like a Bimble Birthday.

Birthday Cake Deliciousness                                  Holding my nose...ya know, so I can't breathe and all. 

Another year, another year older. On Sunday, Bimble (learn a little here) turned 39! That's right! That splendid, extra chromosomed champion of my family is becoming a bit of an oldie! As you'll all know from reading my intro post, Bimble is the shining beacon of our little family. Always there to make a fart impression at inappropriate times, hide your possessions just to make himself laugh, and general other tomfoolery. He is BIG on birthdays, it pretty much becomes the countdown in June and we all spend months telling him 'It's ages away!' In fact, at any other birthday throughout the year, he mentions 'HIS birthday is coming up' even if it's January. Usually when we ask him what the birthday plans are, he replies with "Party." Which inevitably means in real terms- a bunch of us sitting around a buffet whilst Bimble mingles around the room. The ever social butterfly. 

This year, however, he decided that he wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant near to us. So the quieter and more intimate party brigade that we all were, went to The Watermargin in St Austell. His birthday fell on the 'All You Can Eat For £15' day so I was pretty excited. Starving myself all day definitely paid off. The decor of the restaurant needed updating a good 30 years, but the food was delicious! So delicious, that I forgot to take photos of any of it. Just showed off my SECOND time ever at sussing chopsticks and wolfed it down. The staff knew when my mum booked the table, that it was his birthday and made a real fuss. They got banners and balloons and were especially attentive to him throughout our time there. I think he stood a pretty damn good chance of pulling one of the waitresses too! Smooth mover. (I kept on telling him to go and wait in the toilets for her and making him blush and slap me saying "Stop it Sophie!")

Whilst waiting between courses, we started (as a table) playing tiddlywinks with the confetti they'd put out. Bimble took it very seriously in-between playing the drums with his chopsticks and demanding that I take more photos with him. I gave Bimble his gift, the newest muppets film of course, Muppets Most Wanted, which I believe he has spent the ENTIRE Monday watching. Seriously, you'll never meet a more dedicated fan.

Just as we were leaving Bimble uttered the words....'Christmas?'

Here we go again...

Love Sophie Xx

P.S.

This was taken a few days prior when Bimble took a little
snooze in the car like a little nodding dog.

Guess Who's Back? And Adventures With Bimble...

Sozages to tell you that it ain't Shady, it's me! Hello wonderful blogging and non blogging friends! It's been almost three whole weeks since I just seemed to abandon you all and this little page. If you checked my twitter (@SophieHasNoName) in that time, you would have learnt that at very short notice, my best friend Stacie needed to borrow my macbook in order to finish literally the last week of university! I say last week, it turned into three. But hey guys, this ain't no party. This was serious stuff. So that is the story of my absence! Not as exciting as you'd hoped, I know. In the mean time, I've been having quite the ball because IT'S MY HOLIDAY! Not that it's been remotely sunny or warm AT ALL. I don't need no sunshine to have funsies! I've been up to so so much and I can't wait to catch you all up with my mega interesting time!

I've also been popping my thinking cap on. Having time away from my little corner of the web has made me realise a few things.

1) I want to/ need to include more art on my blog. More designers, artists and creative types that inspire me. Stay tuned for some very exciting posts next week!

2) I need to take my camera with me more. Pretty much all of my photos taken here are on my phone.  Not the best quality.

3) I wanted this to be a space for me to talk about things that I maybe wouldn't have the balls to talk about on Facebook, or would worry about offending someone. But if I'm not going to use this page as a way of expression on these sorts of things, what's the point? So buckle up chickens, it's gonna be a rollercoaster ride.

A couple (but certainly not the limits) of fabulous adventures on my time off, have included spending time with this extra chromosomed piece of hunk. Well maybe not hunk Bimble, but you're pretty fancy in my books. He came for a sleepover last week and the three of us (Harps inc of course) went to see X-Men Days of Future Past in 3D. Bimble loves the cinema, especially a 3D film. And let us all be a little open and honest here. Hugh Jackman in almost but not quite real life is RIGHT UP MY STREET. And Harps came along for the ride... It was such a great film, I'd thoroughly recommend it (who'm I kidding, I'd recommend a poster of Hugh Jackman.) I'm sure 3D films have got muchos better since I last saw one? Then I took a lovely just woken up selfie with Bimble. We're awesome.

Have any of you been to the cinema recently? If so, throw recommendations at me, I want to go again before we go back to work!

Missed you all!

Love Sophie Xx

An insight to Bimble, down syndrome and our little family.

So this evening I sat down after a crappy day and Bimble's Christmas present had arrived. (He's going to bloody love it!) I really wanted to tell you all about it, but then I thought..."Nobody has a clue who 'Bimble' is!?"....So here, for you my friends, is a post dedicated, in honour of, and for the love of...BIMBLE! 

So...from the very beginning! Who is Bimble? Bimble is my uncle Tim. He's called either Tim, Timmy, Bimble (because he always bimbles around, you can't hurry him to do anything!) or Wimby (A shortened version of Bimble). He lives with my parents on the other side of town, and before they passed away, with my Grandparents in the same house. He loves Duran Duran, The Muppets, The Spice Girls (I think that one may be my fault!), Radio Times, ANY programme that's British and made before 1990 (Thank my Grandpa for that) and scary movies (Thank my mum for that!). 

Bimble and I practically grew up together. You see, he has downsyndrome and when he was born, things were different. It was hard for families to cope. As my mum's brother she got bullied because nobody really understood what it meant. Children can be really cruel. 

Me on the other hand, as you can see here one Christmas when I was younger, had no idea he was different in any way until about the age of 6 or 7. To me he was just always my fun Uncle who liked really old fashioned things, but was really ticklish like me. Gold star in my book! My Grandparents kept him wrapped in bubble wrap. I remember once when he was winding me up at the age of 8 or 9 and I called him stupid. My Nanny went MENTAL! I've never seen her so angry since that day. I didn't understand?! You can't blame her, she was right to do so, and I didn't mean any harm, I just didn't want to watch Dads Army!

We moved to Cornwall about 10 years ago. It was because my Grandparents had a lot of health problems. My parents wanted a better upbringing for me in a safer part of the country, and we wanted to be there for when the inevitable happened. Bimble was never even considered to go into a home. He would always be with us, he's our family! And when my Grandparents passed away in 2011, that's just what happened. My mum gave up any work, my parents moved into my Grandparents house, she became his carer full time, and everything stayed exactly the same for Bimble...with one difference...

He blossomed. 

First he wanted a new haircut. No more bowl cut my Grandparents had settled for. He went to the Hairdressers, had the whole caboodle! He started walking more, happy to go along the beach or walk in the woods. He got cheekier. Forever playing pranks on my Dad, chasing him around the kitchen, or otherwise taunting him. His speech improved tenfold. My parents have and continue, to refuse to mollycoddle him. Bimble loves independence now. From cutting up his own food, to cleaning up after himself. Some days my mum comes upstairs on a Sunday and he'll have made her  a cup of coffee and bowl of cereal.
 
 He started developing a sense of style. Demanding that my mum and dad redecorate his room into bright colours. He became more confident in himself. By no longer being scared by all dogs (my parents have 2, it'd be pretty hard to stay scared), to watching scary movies without his eyes closed the entire time! He's blossomed in a way that none of us knew he would. We go to the cinema now, although he nearly always starts choking on the popcorn! He speaks to me on the phone some mornings on my walk to work, whilst my poor mum is trying to get him ready and him and I are shouting at her together. 




My mum has sacrificed a large amount of herself to make this work, and should anything happen to her and my dad; it'd be me doing exactly the same. I remember sitting down with Harps after we'd been together a few years and said "You know, if anything, he's part of me. I'd be there for him." Thankfully Harps and Bimble love eachother and Harps accepts and embraces that eventually, he will outlive my parents. He will become my responsibility and that suits me just fine. We are all here for him, and he's more than there for us.  Just think for a minute about that love between a brother and sister. Mum is Bimble's world. As much as he tells her to "pack her clothes and move to London", the love between them is so special and pure that I find it beautiful. Then there are the little moments, like when he comes and sits with you, holds your hand and tells you he loves you. Or when he comes home from work (I'll post all about that in my next post) with something he made. It's worth it isn't it? 


So the thing is, Bimble is who keeps everything together. He makes us laugh when we least expect it. If he pops into work with my mum and gives me a cuddle, it's sure to brighten my day. If I'm on the phone to my mum and he's repeating literally every word she's saying. It makes me laugh! If he goes into town with ANY of us, he's sure to see at LEAST 10 people he knows, and stop, and talk to every single one of them! If he sees a pretty girl in a shop, he will literally tear your arm off if it means going in there to flirt with her. And never go into WHSmiths (or any other perfectly good newsagents...infact most are better, it's just all St Austell has) with him, because IT WILL embarrass you being dragged towards the sex magazines and trying to inconspicuously drag him back in the opposite direction!

And we wouldn't change him for the world. 

Love Sophie xx