Just returned from a weekend stamping and scrapping down at Tootgaroot with my stamping buddies. Claire's Grandad owns a place near the beach and four of us plus enough stash and tools to open our own shop decamped there for a long weekend of scrapping and card making. Day one, started with me arriving late, waylaid by a husband with a malfunctioning nailgun that just had to be taken to repairers before I embarked on my trip, thus delaying me enough to get caught up in all the traffic around schools out and going home time. The upside of this, is that the sun was setting as I headed down the beach road and it was simply beautiful and made a great start to the break. On arrival my three lovely friends came out to help me unload the car of a not insubstantial collection of sizzix dies, being my tool input for the weekend, Claire was supposed ( supposed being the operative word) to bring the Cuttlebug stuff and nesties, but I forgive her!! She did after all bring some very tasty Thai sweet potato and pumpkin soup, which incidently I meant to ask for the recipe of. and made a very tasty pizza. My other contribution to the weekend was chocolate ( of course), some wine and cheese, plus scones my gorgeous daughter Lauren made, along with homemade cherry and raspberry jam ( not mine unfortunately but a lady who comes into where I work - I now have orders for more from my stamping buddies). The others had a head start on creating as they had all got there in the afternoon, my little stamping space was waiting for me next to Claire, who surprisingly had not encroached on my area, she made up for that omission during the rest of the weekend though! Love you really Claire.
Leanne had thoughtfully decided to treat us all to a Christmas in July gift of a scented candle and saucer, in a decorated gift bag with card to boot and also baked some lovely cookies and a Christmas cake. Thank you. She was also my room buddy for the weekend, poor thing, I do snore quite loudly but she very politely said it hadn't been a problem, my husband reckons it keeps him awake at night. It must be a family trait as my brother is similarly affected but with a much higher decibel rating than mine, his poor wife is very long suffering.
A trip was arranged to Paper Squared, a very large scrapbooking store for those not in the know, Judy and Leanne had never been there before but were very impressed with the size and range of supplies. I had to leave after half an hour to set off for a previous engagement in Melbourne with my family to see French and Saunders. (returning in the early evening), the rest stayed on a for a mammouth two hours, bank balances suffering in the process.
Judy with much prompting from the rest of us, attempted her first scrapbook page, a perfectionist with her card making, this was a tortuous and unexpected departure for the weekend but we were determined to break her duck and forced her in a friendly but confronting way to face her demons and stick something to the page. It was an arduous journey with Claire at one point saying through gritted teeth " just stop overthinking and stick it down", the two pikers, Claire and Leanne couldn't keep up any longer and went to bed at midnight, leaving Judy with me, I was determined not to hit the hay until we had cracked it, it took till 2am but finally it was all but assembled.
Christine you will be amused by this, but Claire conveniently had the corner seat again, so I was on tea making duty, I did tell her I would mention this on the blog, so she can't complain. This morning she even got a bit precious and insisted on a cup and not a mug for her mid morning cuppa.
The only downside of the weekend was an uninvited guest of the four legged furry variety who snuck in in the dead of night and chewed our fruit and pizza base and the ants who invaded the worktops and any available food at every opportunity.
Thank you Claire for organising it all and to you, Leanne and Judy for being such great companions for the weekend. We will have to do it again.
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