#scottishbloggers meet for International Women's Day

Fancy dancy - I've never been to a blogger's meet up before. Or should I say I had never been to a blogger's meet before. Last Thursday, in honour of International Women's Day, Kirsty of Forty Four Sunsets, decided to get a bunch of Scottish bloggers together to raise awareness, celebrate the ladies of this world and to make some cash for Oxfam. And, amazingly, she ended up with around 50 responses and about 30 of us getting together!

The evening kicked off with a wee "Amazingly Awesome" quiz which Kirsty's lovely mum was handing out at the door. It was for a bit of fun and to be filled out during the evening, but it was also full of some pretty sobering and important messages - things like: "more women than men are killed during natural disasters" and "70% of people living in poverty are women". International Women's Day aims to highlight issues such as these but also issues closer to home such as domestic violence and male to female wage gaps. In it's simplest form, I take from it a feeling of sisterhood and looking out for your girls! And having a big get together with so many beautiful girls who were moved to be together for such a great cause was just wonderful. Here's a bit of what we got up to...

As well as the quiz, money was raised through a raffle. And Oxfam thought of everything in their IWD packs, right down the the beer mats and bunting!

You could also have your nails Shellac-ed by Rani of Cupcake Couture for a mere fiver! That money also went into the charity pot. I went for pink glitter with a teeny heart with a strawberry in the middle on my ring fingers.

Rani also baked for the bake sale - what a lege'!

The venue, Glasgow's Hillhead bookclub was friggin awesome. It looked amazing, the barmen looked amazing (what? I don't stop 'ppreciating dudes on women's day!) and their fried whitebait was to-die-for delicious! Oh, and their strawberry gin mojito (not sure how that works when it's rumless) wasn't too shabby either.

I caught up with my awesome (see, 'ppreciating the chicks too!) buddy Carol (My Stylisms)...

And found time to strike a cheeky pose myself...

We got a lovely goodie bag with some nice bits and bobs for the hair and I was lucky enough to win a prize in the raffle: an Elemis skincare set and a massage! Wowzers!

The fab news is that, by the end of the night, the grand fundraising total was £222.50! Given that this started as a tentative 'does anyone fancy...' and progressed to girls turning up from all over Scotland, this is brilliant! It was so nice to have an evening of chilling and chatting and we must give a huge thanks to Laura from Oxfam who came and did a talk on IWD. For those fancying a bit of inspiration, you can check out this post by Kirsty. In the meantime, here's a bit about the difference that ONE girl can make...