Goddess of Chocolate Swirl has her Reduation

Please click on read more to find post. Clicked on wrong button and don't know how to undo it. Shouldn't do this when I am tired.

Photographs and fun for Red Hatters

It's had work catching a tram at 7.30 in the morning.

One of the things Red Hatters find is that people love to take our photos. Often people just ask outright and we are very happy to oblige and pose readily for the camera. Sometimes they ask to be included in our photos as happened to us when the Ruby Gumnut Goddesses travelled to Bendigo to visit the Grace Kelly exhibition. As we boarded the train and walked through to our carriage we heard lots of comments; some positive, some bewildered and some who recognised what we were about. There were also lots of smiles and the occasional phone whipped out as we walked by.

In front of the famous Bendigo fountain.

As we walked up Mitchell Street to go to the Art Gallery a group of female teenage students from a local college waved to us. They called out for us to stop and quickly crossed the road to ask if they could have their photo taken with us. They told us we were “really cool”. Obviously we had made an impression and a good one at that. As we sat down and posed with the girls they were full of questions as to what we were about and where we were going. They liked our response that we dressed like we did so that we stood out. No beige clothing for us! They were laughing with us as they took turns to take our photo and one girl promptly stated that she had just posted us on Facebook.  Is that the ultimate compliment from a teenager? They walked away waving good bye and saying they couldn’t wait to tell their Mum’s what a cool bunch of old ladies they had met down the street. If only they knew that we feel as young and love to have fun as much as they do.

The older and the young in Bendigo

On that day we had our photos taken about five different times. Some people are too shy to ask and quickly pull out a camera when they think we are not looking. Often we have been stopped by tourists from all over the world. There are photos of us in Asia, Europe and America that I know of. One year at the International Flower Show in Melbourne we spent the whole day being stopped for photos. We believed that the photographers must have thought we were part of the show. That could have had something to do with the fact that we all wore hats covered with flowers. 

Ahhh Blue Heaven

Apart from going to Bendigo we have been having lots of fun. Just recently we went to have lunch at the Pancake Parlour where three of our girls told us all about their trip to the Darwin Convention. It sounds as though they had a ball.  

Looks like the five red hat dwarfs

We took the opportunity to have some delicious food and catch up with old friends. Of course we couldn't resist taking our own photo in front of the funny mirror outside the restaurant. 

A winner

In May we went to Wesburn to take part in a Biggest Morning tea run by Queen Clownabout. It is always an excellent morning full of delicious food and lots of fun. Quite a few of us came away with prizes and over $6000 was raised for Cancer research. Well done Queen Clownabout! 

In the next few weeks we are going to a few High teas. One is this coming Thursday and we will be watching High Society as a follow up to going to see the Grace Kelly exhibition. And in two weeks we will be having a High Tea to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. We are also going to a local theatre to see a production of Grease with the Pakenham Gypsy Roses. We do have a lot of fun!!

Fairy Tale Characters Mass for Party Time

Red Hatters love to dress up in the normal Red Hat attire of purple clothes and red hats. We also love to let our creative minds go crazy and dress up in costume. On Saturday we held a Fairy Tale Character party. The first reason for the party was just to have fun but as we all know a Queen needs a coronation. So this was the second reason for the party. Queen Glorianna kindly offered to do the crowning for me. She and seven of her Ballarat Ladybird members travelled down to Melbourne to join in with the fun. The event was a lunch time occasion so the table was soon loaded down with delicious food and of course there was plenty to drink. The day started out with a game of guess the fairy tale character. There was very soon a lot of laughter and cheering as the ladies worked out their secret identity. The prize for solving the puzzle was a chocolate frog. Most suitable as we love chocolate and eating a frog is pretty close to kissing one, must keep in fairy tale mode. After lunch we got down to the business of the crowing. Queen Gloriana did a wonderful job and I was soon officially known as Her Royal Shortness Queen Mini Munchkin.















It was then my task to confer titles on two members who had just joined or had missed out. We call this donging in this chapter as I use a decorated fence paling. For those not familiar with the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, which basically is about getting older while staying young- a Red Hat trait, the fence post features in the poem.
So Lady Avalon and Dames Laughs  A Lot officially received their titles.

























A few of our members decided to change their titles so they received new badges and certificates



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It was a great day with lots of new friendships established between the Ruby Gumnut Goddesses and the Ballarat Ladybirds, lots of laughter and fun had by all.

Where has the time gone?

Hello Again, I have been away on holiday and then unfortunately injured my shoulder which has put a damper on things. But I seem to be improving and can now type again, so I thought I would catch you up on what has been happening.


On March 13th some of the girls went out to dinner at a local restaurant. When the table was booked the person taking the booking thought the name of the group was the Red Hots. This caused a bit of a giggle as of course we do consider ourselves to be rather red hot! Self confidence is high in Red Hatting. The girls had a great time and enjoyed some delicious food.


On the 18th of March the Goddess of Bling held a chocolate afternoon tea at her home. There was lots of delicious chocolate treats to eat and chocolate based games to play. One of the games was eating chocolate ice cream without using your hands. The official Ruby Gumnut Royal Joker took great delight in helping one of the ladies get closer to her ice cream.


The following Sunday a group went shopping at the St Kilda Esplanade market. As usual they had to stop many times to have their photo taken. The weather may have been a little cold and miserable but that has never stopped a red hatter.



On Easter Saturday we had our annual Easter Egg hunt which is always fun. Fifteen women and two young children all appropriately dressed of course spent about ten minutes to find about eighty Easter eggs. A lot were eaten on the spot and some taken home to share with the family.



We are heading off to lunch on Thursday and then to see Putting on the Ritz next Wednesday. We do have a lot of fun.

Coffee, Cake and Walkabout

This event is usually called a coffee, cake and walkabout but as we did it in the morning this time it ended up as a coffee, brunch and walkabout. Just as much fun. We all met at Montania at 11am and settled in for a lovely time. We caused a bit of a sensation with the other people in the restaurant but they soon forgot about us. The conversation was a lot of fun and laughter, the food delicious and the coffee hot. What more can you ask? After the refreshments we decided to partake of the Red Hat national sport of shopping. Some of us made our first purchase in the first shop we went into. I think at the end of the event everyone of us had bought something and we were all very pleased with ourselves. Our next event is a dinner at a local Italian restaurant. That should be great fun. Also in March we are going to be having a Chocolate Tea Party, a visit to Sexy land and lunch and finally a visit to a local craft market on the beach.

New Beginning

On Monday 21st Feb a new Red Hat Society Chapter was created by twenty two ladies who want to have fun. The Ruby Gumnut Goddesses had their first meeting. Our aim is to enjoy life to the fullest, to have fun and to make new friends. We do not take ourselves seriously and are willing to try new adventures. In our first meeting we decided how we would run our chapter and planned our first six months of activities. After the meeting had finished there was time for drinks, nibbles and lots of laughter. Friends got together and celebrated a new beginning.
Our planned calendar includes live theatre shows, a teddy bear picnic, visit to a picnic race, an Easter egg hunt and of course the favourite activity of a red hatter, getting together for a nibble, a drink and some shopping. Her Royal Shortness Queen Mini Munchkin and her three Royal Hand Maidens look forward to fun times, lots of laughter and adventures and loads of friendship.