Scrapanalia Retreat

Last weekend was the weekend I had been looking forward to for 6 long months. Scrapanalia Retreat at The Country Place in Kalorama. It's only about an hour away but it seemed like I was in the middle of nowhere. Nestled in a mountain, the place was just beautiful.

Friday
Checked in about 7pm and stashed both scrap bags in the Crop room downstairs and then Mich took me upstairs to our room. Omg...the Crop room was just fabulous!! The bedroom was very comfortable....two single beds, wall mounted tv, desk, cupboard, air conditioning (very important to me) and all the amenities I needed including tea/coffee making facilities which didn't get used at all.
Back at the crop room, Jess decided to get us to mingle with other people so we were each handed out a name of an animal and I then had to walk around the room making that animal sound - neigh neigh until I found the other horses whom I was dining with. It was great as I got to meet a bunch of other ladies over a fabulous dinner of a huge eye fillet steak meal finished with a triple layer cheesecake with a mixed berry sauce.
By the time we finished dinner it was about 9pm and I immediately got stuck into chit chat with the other girls. I was on a huge table sitting with Wendy, Carolyne, Megan, Sofi, Katie, Shirley, Mich, Felicity, Jen, Ange, Trish, Anne Marie, Jen and Jacqui. With Mich & Shirley on one side, Felicity& Jen on the other and Trish, Anne Marie & Jacqui in front of me, I was never short of people to talk to or conversation to listen in on and funny stories shared.

I did a double layout that night and even did machine stitching!!!! Enjoyed it so much and told myself to take advantage of the machine during the weekend but sadly....I forgot all about it and didn't do anymore!


By the time I was done with that double...it was bedtime....it was about 2am...and mojo had deserted me ...so it was off to bed and I was soo restless that night....even with bringing my own pillow....I found that it wasn't only mojo that had deserted me....sleep & mojo were both away galavanting in the mountains!! So I tossed and turned and kept poor Mich awake for most of the night. I think I got about 3 hours sleep only.

Saturday
8am Breakfast - absolutely spoilt for choice...should I have bircher muesli, 4 other breakfast cereals, fruit compote, fresh fruit, toast with spreads, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, bacon or muffin for breakfast??? Such a hard choice....I had peanut butter on toast and a poached egg and some bacon....yummo

Back at the scrapping room, I did this layout with the yummy products I had been hoarding for a couple of months which I bought from the USBefore too long it was time for Katie Toland's class....my first proper class and it was lots of fun. Being me, I strayed a bit from the original design and added a chipboard swirlie

Lunch was lovely.....lol.....I think of lunch and I can see Mich's face when she saw it was a cold lunch....if you haven't read her blog about lunch....then you won't understand. We still wolfed down the divine sandwiches and fresh fruit. Then it was back to scrapping and I very quickly did this layout which I had been meaning to do since Valentine's day...hope you can read the journalling. I tied for first place in the journalling category with this layout.

+Dinner was oh absolutely divine!!! I had lamb cutlets over a bed of roast pumpkin mash with a chilli jam and oven roasted tomatoes. Dessert was passionfruit pannecotta on a layer of grilled pineapple topped with a delightful bunch of persian fairy floss

While dinner was finishing up....Jess came up and was whispering to Mich and we were informed about a small water spill at our work table....aaarrrggghhh.....it wasn't small at all.....it was pretty big. Mich's layout got warped with the water....there was water everywhere....I was very upset when I found that the water had damaged my altered scrapping essentials tin and the sealer had started to dissolve, chipboard was peeling off in layers, ....there was spillage on the altered smiggle diary that I was working on....the whole roll of double sided tape that I had borrowed from Mich was totally soaked to the core and had to be binned.....we swore a lot but after half an hour after we finished mopping up....it was forgotten. Mistakes do happen and asides from a damaged altered tin.....it was ok....even Mich's layout was ok which was a relief as she had spent at least an hour HAND STITCHING all around a piece of SCALLOPPED BAZZILL!!

That night, it was announced that I won a prize for my 'conversations with you' layout and tied for first place with the 'he touched my heart' layout. Absolutely thrilled to win. Fired with my win, I felt motivated enough to scrap scrap & scrap.By the time I did the MOD layout....I was kind of feeling a bit delirious from the lack of sleep....but mojo had other ideas for me...so I scrapped. I hopped on the internet to look for a title and nearly chose this one....I still laugh when I think of it....'Laugh alone and the whole world thinks you're an idiot'. Thanks Trish for the L!!

Sleep claimed me quickly Saturday night and I slept for a straight 6 hours till about 8.25am before rushing to shower....breakfast was at 9am and check out had to be done by 9.30am!! Breakfast was pretty much the same except we had mushrooms which were....oh....average....but never the less....it was a hot cooked breakfast that I didn't have to prepare.

Sunday was my chatty day....I was tired....I was delirious.....I was a bit over scrapping....so I did an easy layout...a simple layout....large photo...minimal embellishments....and cut flowers out mindlessly, painted my chipboard swirlie in green first..then in chocolate and then sanded some of the chocolate back.....I kind of like the effect of the whole layout....one of my favs...
Before we knew....it was lunchtime...Quiche lorraine and salad.....and then time for Renata Watt's class with the sugar cubes with 3 cute little books inside. I haven't finished this so I will post it later on. It was sad saying bye to everyone, but I am sure we will meet again at the next scrapanalia retreat.

It was a hoot and a half getting to know some new friends:

Jen kept accusing me of scraplifting layouts in her head which was very amusing.

Felicity who is a great scrapper....you will find your style soon and it will all come to you very quickly. You're a natural at it and this girl won the prize for the best overall design!!!

Wendy...thanks for the hug and 'I can love u long time' too!!

Megan......you're a total crack up my girl.....can never ever forget the conversation about the pink heart getting bigger and the arrow pointing the way!

Anne Marie - She spent all weekend on the most gorgeous scrapware bag and album and it is just divine. She won the otp category as well as Scrapanalia Idol!!

Trish - absolutely cute and funny girlie who kept me down to earth and told me a few times that my work was crap and pointed out that I was procrastinating again. Love u girlie!!

Mich for being a very supportive friend and understanding roomie...sorry I kept you up Friday night. She did some fabulous layouts for her FK DT position (Congrats!!)...so there are a few she won't share yet.

Jacqui & Ange for their hilarious stories that kept my mood up!

Sofi and Shirley for their quiet inspiration....it was great getting to know u both better on the weekend!! Both girls did amazing layouts over the weekend!!! Oh, congrats to Shirley too for a tied first place for best single layout!!!