I was a table hostess for the Saturday lunchtime buffet lunch. The US based Sasha festival crew, who have organised many festivals, knew how to combat the issue of people picking a particular table hostess whom they guessed would give wonderful gifts and it worked as follows: the table hostesses met in the foyer while everyone else went into the conference room, found a numbered table to sit at and settled down. In the meantime each table hostess was assigned a number and exchanged gifts (we didn't open them). Once everyone had settled, the table hostesses entered the room with their gifts and found their numbered table, so it was a complete surprise about who was hosting each table. My daughter had fortunately managed to avoid being at my table, so she received a gift from a different table hostess.
I had provided 3 table hostess gifts for each person (we had to provide enough gifts for 10 people), two of which I had made myself and one which I commissioned from a friend. I made little Scottish tweed handbags which had plaited Shetland wool handles and lavender bags containing dried lavender from my English garden. My friend had knitted little toys for Sasha/Gregor - there were mermaids, monkeys and teddies in different colours.
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| Scottish Tweed handbags I made |
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| Tweed handbags with the knitted toys made by my friend Sue |
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| Add the lavender bags with lavender from my garden |
I was pleased with how the gifts turned out and was even more pleased when those I was hosting seemed happy with them. It is always hard to know what to make as hostess gifts, this was the second time I had hosted (the first time was at the 2017 festival).
In the table hostess gift exchange I was delighted to receive a gift from Monica J (a pair of her beautifully crafted shoes). At the table hosted by Tricia, my daughter was very pleased to receive a fully reversible shorts and top outfit made of Liberty lawn for a Sasha baby, with a miniature floral elephant toy).
We were also given our second Festival souvenir - each of us received a reinforced envelope in which we found beautifully designed and printed paper dolls based on Sasha and outfits - these were designed by artist Janet Myhill-Dabbs. I don't think any of us can bear to cut them out!
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Trudi relaxes with JoAnn's soft body baby on her lap,
with JoAnn's dolls in matching dresses and Florence looking over her shoulder |
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| The lovely people at the table I hosted |
The helper raffle draws happened on the Friday and on the Saturday, they needed to be cleared by Saturday lunchtime, to allow the long tables to be reused for the Sales tables, so the final draws took place before lunch had finished. We had placed tickets in several items (sometimes more than one ticket) but didn't win anything in the helper raffle.
The winners for the Dress a Sasha were announced. My daughter and I tied for 2nd place in our category! We took final photos of the first, second and third placed entries, then carefully dismantled our entries back into the plastic crates on the trolley and took ours back to our room.
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| The Fairy won for the Teenaged entrant! |
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| 1st placed English Garden crafted by Adult |
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| 2nd placed English Garden crafted by Adult |
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| 2nd placed English Garden crafted by Adult |
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| 3rd placed English Garden crafted by Adult |
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| 3rd placed English Garden crafted by Adult |
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| 3rd placed English Garden crafted by Adult |
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| 1st placed English Garden assembled by Adult |
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| 2nd placed English Garden assembled by Adult |
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| 1st placed Afternoon Tea crafted by Adult |
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| 2nd placed Afternoon Tea crafted by Adult |
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| 3rd placed Afternoon Tea crafted by Adult |
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| 1st placed Afternoon Tea assembled by Adult |
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| DollMum with our joint 2nd placed Dress a Sasha entries |
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DollMum's daughter with our joint 2nd placed Dress a Sasha entries
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While the conference room was being reconfigured for the Sales tables, I had a quick trip into the shopping centre to the cash machine while my daughter found some items she needed at the shops.
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