Memos, Mail, Me on Monday - the Arundel retreat edition

It has been a lovely but tiring weekend - Wendy and I spent it with a load of other crafters at a beautiful hotel on the outskirts of Arundel.  There was plenty of lovely food, prosecco, wine, chocolates and lots of crafting going on.  I completed another three layouts from the to be finished pile and did another 6 layouts from scratch plus made four cards and decorated a bag for a challenge. It was just so lovely to chill out and not be distracted by home stuff and be able to totally focus on craft stuff.

We didn't travel very light - this was just my stuff -

The hotel -

The crop room -

Our table and my lovely tidy working space -

And as we didn't get any car shots before we left, we did them on the way home -

Hopefully soon I will get some decent light to photograph my layouts.  But in the meantime some of the week's mail.  Some of the happiest mail is managing to find two pairs of slippers online - big deal you may say - but Mum and I both have the same foot condition and have to wear orthotics, which are impossible to wear in slippers.  We both love Rohde shoes and their mules have a built in arch support, but since the factory shop closed  in the UK it is very hard to find a retailer in the UK, especially as I am a size 3.  I periodically do a little search online and was thrilled to find a stockist that not only had Mum's size but mine too - so that is a present sorted for Mother's Day (and don't worry Mum is not online so she won't see this!!)

And the mail that I will be sending out this week is sending out the annual newsletter to the Friends of Children with Cancer Fund, so I had better get back to stuffing envelopes.

Hope you have a great week, if you get a chance go and say hello to Sian over at From High in the Sky and see what the other Mondayers have been up to.

Blogtober Day 31 - Memorandum Monday or Hooray I have managed to do four blog posts per week for the last month!!!

Yay today is the last day of Blogtober and I managed to meet my goal of four blog posts per week.  I still have a backlog of stuff to blog but at least the amount is not so daunting now.

Today is also Monday, so it is time to reflect on the weekend and pay a visit to Sian over at From High in the Sky.  It was a very busy, packed crafty weekend at the A Trip Down Memory Lane retreat.  They hold two per year at the beautiful Stoke by Nayland Hotel.

Wendy was my chauffeur and we took a rather loaded car with us (PS the back seat was pretty loaded too!!!!)

The rooms are beautiful but you don't spend much time in there

The crop rooms are large and there are lots of shopping opportunities

 I was very productive, did 6 classes and got 12 layouts done and a thirteenth is almost finished.

And Monday finds me with all my crop unpacking to be done - I think I travelled quite light really!!

I have a busy crafty week ahead, WI craft class, my monthly scrap class and a crop to look forward to.  Hope you all have a great week and if you get a chance go and visit Sian and give her a wave.

Supersize Me

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend at the A Trip Down Memory Lane retreat at a beautiful hotel on the Essex/Suffolk border.  I attended five fabulous classes run by the really talented design team.

Here are the layouts that I made in Mel's class which was using really large photographs paired with papers from American Crafts Shimelle Starshine range.  Luckily I had some photos from our recent cruise that I was able to scan and then get Photobox to print for me in the big sizes.

We started off by cutting up all the individual pieces on the papers and then making piles of which ones we thought went best with each photograph plus a pile that at first look didn't fit at all.  It was certainly a great way of using those cut up sheets and I don't think I will be so daunted about using them in future.  I also punched out butterflies, hearts and stars from some of the solid patterned blocks.

I have loads of pieces leftover so will look at making some layouts with the leftovers.  Thanks Mel for a great class!!

Memorandum Monday (or Tuesday as it has been a four day weekend!!)

I'm a bit late this week but it has been a nice long weekend so I have lots of things to report for Sian's Memorandum Monday.

The weekend kicked off early with a crafting retreat that started on Friday - it was a new retreat organised by Sue at a lovely hotel on the outskirts of Arundel.

The food was divine - I didn't get photographs but they had the biggest profiteroles I have ever seen (actually I think Wendy might have got a photograph - so I will try to remember to share once she sends them to me).  We had a lovely large crop room, with large tables so plenty of room to work, there was a shop provided by Cre8tive Online and lots of make & takes and challenges to take part in.

Katie from Cre8tive Online ran an optional class on distress inks - I have always struggled with using the blending tool so decided to give the class a go. I can proudly report that I have learnt new skills and can now blend - there will be no stopping me now and I didn't realise that you could do so much with the distress inks.  Once I have finished making all my samples I will have a nice little book to refer to.

I shared a table with Wendy

and Elizabeth and Amanda

The shop was right behind me

So no shock that some new stash came home with me!!!!

It was over all too quickly but the good news is that the same weekend has been booked for next year!!

And then the weekend carried on into Monday with a trip to Brighton - we met up with these guys at the Marina for drinks, chatter and a meal, before going onto the Dome that evening to see Steven Wilson in concert - another new thing for me this weekend, we have only recently started listening to his music and this was our first time seeing him live - it was absolutely brilliant!!

I'm absolutely shattered now - it is back to reality, getting on with the laundry, shopping, house stuff and slowly unpacking my retreat stuff.  I will try and share the stuff that I made over the weekend very soon!!

If you fancy sharing about your weekend, the new things that you did or new things that you learnt then hop over to see Sian at From High in the Sky and give her a wave!!

Me on Monday

It is Monday so time to pop over and say hello to Sian at From High in the Sky and give her a wave.

It was a very exciting weekend, I went to deepest, darkest Suffolk for the A Trip Down Memory Lane Retreat.  It was a fabulous crafty weekend, Wendy was my chauffeur and companion for the weekend and Barry my Marillion mascot came along for the ride too - his very first retreat!!  I think I packed fairly lightly - that was all the craft stuff I took.

Found it funny to be in room 101

Lovely big rooms for cropping in and shopping

Barry enjoyed helping me with my work

We had fun dressing up for Halloween even 'Stick' joined in

Took advantage of the Halloween photo booth

Learnt to fly

And all too soon it was time to come home

So Monday has brought loads of unpacking, the usual weekly laundry and doing a roast dinner for Mr P as he has had to fend for himself all weekend

Now if only I could really cast a witchy spell and magic all the housework and laundry to do itself - that would be lovely!!!  Have a great week everyone!!

When Rodgie and Vern met the FBGs

Anita's April class was easily converted with the addition of some plain cardstock into a double page layout.  It was perfect for me to use with all the photographs taken of the FBGs (Fat Bottomed Girls and Guy) with Rodgie and Vern (Jessie's monkey and turtle) at our annual craft weekend in deepest, darkest Hereford.

The papers used are Scenic Route 'Charlotte' and the title was cut using Sizzix alphabet Round-a-bout and funky foam.

Here is a close up of the two sides -

Alison who couldn't join us this time round as she had returned to Australia didn't miss out on a photo op as her photo was taken on the Saturday morning when she joined us for a Skype chat.

I decorated the layout with EK Success punched butterflies, die cut butterflies (Cheery Lynn) and EK Success punched flowers.

Life doesn't have to be perfect .......

Anita's July class used papers from the Simple Stories 24/7 range.  I used some photographs from our group photo shoot at our Meadow Barn retreat back in March - these are some of the attempts at getting us all in the same place and posing nicely.

Thank you Anita for another fab class xx

The 2nd Annual Twilight Addicts Retreat

Last weekend was spent in a beautiful converted barn Meadow Barn in the beautiful Herefordshire countryside near Monmouth, with ten craft mad ladies and two gentlemen.

Last year we went to The Cotswolds but we were split between three cottages and had hardly any room to all craft together - Meadow Barn was so much better as we were able to spread out on long tables and have a die cutting station for all the machines and many dies that people brought with them.

Richard who stayed with us was hoping to do some walking over the weekend but as the weather wasn't that great he did computing work up on the mezzanine floor that overlooks the dining room and kitchen.

We managed to get outside on the Saturday afternoon for some group photographs - good job we did as the weather was dire on the Sunday.

And one last group shot on the Sunday morning before some people had to leave

Jess brought Vern with her as he loves a crafting weekend and this time he brought his friend Rodger the monkey to join in all the fun

It wasn't long before they were pinching all our crafty stash!!

And as always they wanted their photographs taken with everyone

Thank you Lisa, Heather, Ali, Tara, Jules, Fiona, Carin, Lee, Jess, Alun and Richard for a fab weekend - same time next year????

(Also thankyou Tara, Jess and Lee for taking so many lovely photographs of the weekend)