Bloomfiled Retreat - Wesley Acres - Scrapbooks & Smiles (Trenton)

OMG!!! a HUGE thank you goes out to Paula at Scrapbooks & Smiles in Trenton! She hosts THE most amazing retreats in Bloomfield at a place called Wesley Acres.

We arrived a bit late on Friday and got set up and started in on the fun, frolic and cropping! I went with a couple of friends i crop with at Scrapalicious and met up with a few old friend there. (and don't worry, we made LOTS of new friends!)

We cropped Friday night til 2 am (unfortunately the crop room closes at 2am so Paula's DH can get some sleep) but we were right back at'er but 8:30am. There was lots of space to spread out and Paula had a very full tool station for us to dabble with. She even included a Computer and printer to get that dreaded journaling done. This is the first time in history that i got all my layouts complete with journaling - some were even printed STRAIGHT ON TO the patterned paper! I am VERY inspired to use my space at home now...isn't it amazing how a little change of scenery can drop-kick me back into action!

The accommodations were extremely adequate - ok, its NOT the Hilton but it's damn close! I got my own bed (thanx Rach for sleeping with your mum!)... there were showers with hot water and no long waits. The food was all prepared on site by the kitchen staff and believe me, we DID NOT starve! Breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday with a great ice cream bar snack in the afternoon and a late night nibbly of spinach dip and rye bread and chips and salsa. Coffee and tea were always available. Sunday saw a great early morning snack of pastries and then brunch around 11 to get us thru the day! The food was tasty and the portions were very generous.

Paula had lots of prizes and goody bags. with every completed layout/project, you got the crown to wear. She randomly gave out prizes to the wearer of the crown so it was fun to try to get lots done. In the afternoon there was a garage sale of items from her store garage sale last week... it think everyone pick out a few new bits and bobs - i got a practically new corner rounder and also a special prize for the crop for a cure!!

One of the croppers is a counsellor for the North York Women's Shelter and she organised a silent auction on Saturday night of new toys that where donated. THANX everyone for helping to raise over $700 for the North York Women's Shelter! WOOHOO!!!!!

I will try to post some pics. tomorrow but SERIOUSLY, if you get a chance, try to get to one of these retreats - she ran 3 this year - fall, winter and spring!

k, i am really tired so i am going to bed and i will post pics later!
xoxod

Good Friday

boy, did i get up late today! M and i were cropping LATE last night and we totally lost track of time. she made a bunch of amazing zipper tags for her hockey team and some other cool tags for her GF's. shrink paper is a fabulous product for adding very cool embellies to pages or simply keeping a 9yr old busy for 7 hours! And kudos to her BFF CM for all the great instruction - **snaps**!

i started (and almost finished - **snaps** for me too) an accordion album for my nephew. I am using the awesome new paper pack COGSMO from Cosmo Cricket ... its so fabulous!!! i picked up a FANCY PANTS accordian album (i think its the SCHOOL DAYS kit) and used a really great navy blue craft paint to cover the edges and binding .

now, my nephew is 18 months so i am not using many of the chipboard embellies that came with it for his album but worry not, i have lots of other school projects they will come in handy for! the cosmo cricket paper pack comes with some great journalling tags and phrases and punch outs that i am going to use plus i have a lots of other great "boyish" things to add!

its a little project i came up with on wednesday and by thursday night, its almost done! (i am a S-L-O-W finisher, so this is almost unheard of for me!). i will post pictures of it when its finished and also the shrink paper zipper tags.

happy good friday to you all and may all your late night scrapbooking projects also keep you up this weekend!
xo D