Almost there

Tomorrow afternoon Elaine, Tilley and myself will be meeting for what will be our final meeting before the Calendar goes for printing. The pictures have been taken, we decided who we need to thank on our Calendar, people who've given their time generously, Sheelagh who so magnificently made every one of us look so beautiful for our pictures, Elaine for her tireless work on our publicity and spreading the word.There are so many people that we're grateful to, Mike for his costume and prop contributions, Matt for his splendid lighting and helping to set up the theatre for us and Ken for his tea/coffee making. Most importantly we could not have done this without our wonderful Tilley, photographer extrordinaire, we cannot thank her enough for her tireless work in taking the pictures, her vision and patience and for all the work she's done since to ensure that we have the most stunning Calendar.

Tomorrow we'll check the proofs, make sure everything is in place and then we have to let our baby go to the printers. I know that we're all super excited to see the final product in its printed form. And so the next part of our adventure begins, we launch the Calendar on September 1st and our hopes for selling as many copies as we can to enable us to donate as much as we can to such a worthy cause. Now it's up to you, please support us and spread the word.
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P.S: Here we are taking a final look at the calendar page proofs on Tilley's laptop. We're so pleased with the finished result.

Almost there

Having decided on the 12 shots for the Calendar, Elaine, Tilley and myself had a get together last Friday to decide on the final layout of the Calendar. Tilley has designed the most wonderful front cover and we decided that the back cover would be "dressing gown" shots of each of us as we were preparing for our pictures to be taken. We wanted also to make sure that we thanked everyone that we needed to thank, some very wonderful and generous people have given their resources and their valuable time to make this the best it could be. Briefly, Tilley, Sheelagh and Elaine but so many more people we're very grateful to. We know that the finished Calendar will be something we will all be very proud of.

We had also decided that it would be nice if every lady had a souvenir of their own picture, so in a couple of weeks time we're all meeting at Tilley's Red Door Studios where everyone can see all the pictures taken and choose which one they'd like for posterity. We're anticipating that that will be a fun night and afterwards we shall be visiting a local hostelry to raise a glass to a job well done.

WE DID IT!!!!

Oh my goodness, where to start. 9am yesterday our ladies arrived at the Brewhouse, there was an awful lot of " what the heck are we doing?" " did we really say we'd do this?" But they all came armed with dressing gowns ( we didn't need clothes) food and drink and all with smiles and laughter.

We had a little pre-shoot chat when Tilley explained how the day would go. We decided to do our group shot in the auditorium first so that everyone could get in the mood and help lose their inhibitions a little. Sheelagh, our wonderful make up lady was on standby to start making us beautiful. So, bedecked in our dressing gowns Tilley arranged us and with only a Little Theatre Company programme to hide our modesty Tilley said those words "Ok ladies let's do it, take off your robes", without hesitation every one of us stood up and got naked, I can't begin to tell  you how unbelievably proud of everyone I was, we just did it, posed with our programmes and "Voila", shot number one done. We had decided that I would go first with Tilley, followed by Elaine, leading by example and hopefully letting the ladies know what they were in for. Everyone stayed in the auditorium the whole day and cheered each one of us on as we had our pose photographed.

The poses we had decided on, all based on a theatrical theme looked absolutely amazing, everyone of our ladies totally entered into the spirit, did what had to be done. Tilley of Red Door studios is an amazing photographer and her lighting was second to none. Whilst most of us were not allowed to look at our shots once Tilley had taken them, I did see some of them on the computer as she took them and I was totally blown away by them, her lighting of each shot made them look stunning. I know the ladies can't wait to see the shots but I know they'll be delighted with them.

There are so many people to thank, Sheelagh for giving up her day to make us all look so beautiful with her make up, that was greatly appreciated, Elaine and Caittom Publishing for providing us with Bucks Fizz and delicious wine, Bethan for her valiant efforts with Pimms and everyone else who bought goodies to make our day special. Thanks also to Matt and Ken for their lifting of heavy objects and for all the running around they did to help us. The biggest thank you and I know this comes from every one of us is for Tilley, who worked so tirelessly throughout the day, she's like the Energiser bunny, just doesn't stop and I know that the finished Calendar will be stunning, her talents are endless and we're very lucky to have her on our team.

Who'd have thought that over a year ago when Elaine and myself were having coffee one day and I said " hmmm wouldn't it be fun to a Calendar?" and Elaine say " now that's an idea" that we have actually done it and to raise, we hope, an awful lot of money for such a worthwhile cause.

There were a few little emotional moments yesterday during the shoot when I think we all realised what an amazing thing we'd just done, such a liberating and bonding thing, we're a very close group of women anyway but for us all to do this was wonderful. My huge thanks to every single one of  you who "bared" all and made yesterday such a truly special day,I am so very proud of all of you.

I'm posting this one picture, a sample of one of our shots, this was taken on Saturday when Tilley was setting up the lighting and I volunteered to stand in for the pose, of course lovely Heather was the one who did the actual pose and of course not fully dressed, but I hope you can get a feel for how wonderful Tilley's lighting was.

Now Tilley's work really begins as she has to edit the pictures and we'll make the final decision which ones goes on the Calendar, of course if you want to see how it turns out then you're going to have to buy a Calendar.

Let's get down to business

Now to organise the shooting and printing of the calendar. My very good friend Elaine, a fellow LTC member and freelance writer, approached our lovely friend Tilley Bancroft, an animator and photographer and asked if she'd be willing to do our photo shoot. Tilley is an amazingly talented lady and in true Tilley style was bubbling over with enthusiasm.

And so the three of us got together one evening to make plans. It goes without saying that there were copious amounts of tea and cake consumed.

We knew from the beginning that we wanted our theme to be a theatrical one so we talked through many poses, some inspired and some frankly too funny but we finally agreed on our 12 poses.

Elaine, being in the profession she is, had many brilliant ideas about publishing and promoting the calendar. Tilley and Elaine had already had chats with a local printing company and were to have further talks to determine the style of the calendar, how many to print and the finer details.

It was left to me to contact the Brewhouse to book the theatre auditorium for our shoot. No turning back now the date is set for Sunday 10th June 2012.

We'd decided that we wanted to be ready to launch our calendar in early September at the Little Theatre Company's bi-annual fund raising Playathon. And so, on cup of tea number three ( thanks to the expert tea brewer Ken, my other half) we had our initial plan of action. We were well on our way.