Hello! It's good to be back home and settling for Thanksgiving and the soon to come busy holiday time. I had a good time at my scrap retreat, it's been years since I've been to one and even had one myself. I wasn't sure what to bring and do for all that time, there's always some PL to do but I was hoping to scrap some too. I finally decided on some mini albums and PL and Disney, YAY! I even packed pretty light, just the stuff above, the blue bag had my clothes in it. I was happy to use my cute pink bag from my Secret Pal last year at church, it's so handy and held up to all I put in it. Are you ready to see this gorgeous place, it was really so pretty, the pictures don't show just how much it is.
Oh and let me say that being there with other scrappers, a lot of them I didn't know. It felt odd taking photos so I didn't get any of anyone and I didn't take nearly all that I wanted too. No one else was taking them and it felt weird being the only one so I did the best I could.
I got there about 3:30 on Friday and was the second person there, YAY! I liked it soon as I saw it, already looked cozy and my kind of house, windows everywhere and a porch to sit on.
There are 3 different houses here, the main house and the game room house and a one room cottage by the pond you will see soon. Above is the main house on the left and the far right is a peek of the game room. We used both of these to have enough sleeping room. I shared a room in the main house.
Soon as I took my stuff in, I walked around and got pictures before it would be dark. This place is only 20mts away from home but felt so far away from everything, peaceful and cozy. Here is the pond and the cottage off to the right, isn't this lovely. Even if I didn't scrap I would have loved just walking around and enjoying this nature, always a favorite for me.
On the other side of all this and down further is all woods like this, sigh, love it! Wish I had seen it in full fall color though but still so pretty. I'm not sure how many acres there were but had to be a lot.
Here's the long driveway, wouldn't be fun to shovel it in the winter but I sure enjoyed taking walks down it a few times each day. All that sitting made my back ache so a good walk was helpful.
Here we are back up to the house and the porch which stretches on down to the game room too. It was cold enough we kept a cooler of drinks out there and packs of our drinks sitting there too. This made more room in the fridge. Hoping to go back here in warmer months and sit out there.
When you walk in there is an entryway with laundry and bedroom to the side and then this kitchen ahead. So pretty!! We scrapped in the room behind the fireplace, so much light! I loved all the wood already, the floor and the fireplace. Yep, I could live here!
here's to the right of the kitchen, more wood and a big stove. Just past this is the dining table and stools to sit at behind this counter. Lots of room for everyone!
here's the cozy little living room area, fireplace and a tv off to the side. We made good use of those recliners, two of the ladies sat there most of the time and did digital scrapping.
to the left of living room is a chair holder, how cool is that!!
Of course, we had a snack table set up too, lots of goodies all weekend here
here was my table, right next to a window, so pretty. Plenty of space too, YAY!!
Once everyone showed up this is what it looked like, a room full of tables and creative messes going on, YAY!! Like I said no pictures of anyone, I snuck and took this Saturday morning about 6:15 when I got up. I was the first one up each day and had this quiet space to myself for almost two hours, YAY!! I got my work done most in those hours of quietness. These ladies were serious scrappers though, staying up all night. I went to bed about 12:15am each day and did ok but by Sunday I was feeling a head cold and tiredness hitting me. Some of these ladies stayed till Monday, I wend home Sunday about 2:30, just the right amount of time for me.
I took some pictures with the sunlight coming in Sunday morning, I was the only one up. This is what it looks like from the other side of the kitchen. In the back on the right is the entryway. Look at those big closet doors there in the kitchen, one is a pantry and the other has cleaning stuff. I would LOVE that kind of space in my house right now. If you go down the right there is two bedroom and a bathroom. My bedroom was all the way at the end and had it's own bathroom.
Here's the room I shared with my Sunday school friends. They took they shared the big bed and another in the single and I took the air mattress on the floor. On the other side is a patio door that lets in pretty light. A HUGE walk in closet was beside my bed and then the bathroom too.
Ok, are you ready to see my scrapping now, I'm so happy with what I got done! Here are two little mini's I worked on. I love working with mini's when I get the chance, such a cute fun size. I will share a few of my favorite pages from each one since this post is already pretty long.
First up is the mini Christmas album, this is from 1997. We lived in a different house then and had Kristin and this was Renee's first Christmas. So sweet going back this far and remembering.
here's the next page, so cute they are!
I added the ones from that day at my mom's house too. LOVE!
My mom with long hair and her beautiful table every year she does this!
LOVE these pictures!
Now here is my Halloween mine, so fun this was for me. Remember how sad I was about Halloween this year, no more trick or treating for the kids. Well, I started looking at older photos and decided to make one album with just the kids and their costumes. LOVE!! I didn't tape anything down yet, still looking for a few more photos and might have to move things around but this is a good start.
Above is a photo of me and my sisters at Halloween and the bottom one is Kristin's first Halloween.
more of Kristin's first few years
Then we skip to these ones, can't find younger ones of them but sweet having all 3 of my girls here
Skipping ahead again because I love these pages, the papers were perfect for them.
Skipping ahead again to share the last page and last time we treated with their cousins. Making it a double spread since I like these pictures and the story of us that night.
I'm going to end this here because my computer is slowing down and this is already pretty long. Will post the rest of my pages in another post. Thanks so much for reading this far if you did. I had so much to share with you. Again, so happy I got this chance to scrap older memories and do so much at one time. Everyone was so nice and I'm sure I will do this again with them.
My Big Picture
