Hobbycraft, Bonfire Night and more ...

Sorry blogland for my absent, but family life has been very stressful since I got back from my Retreat, so I've not got around to blogging my final layouts from my Retreat, which will be added next week, mainly due to the fact that I've not finished them - LOL.

So my day working with Craft-u-Love at the Hobbycraft show on Saturday 5th went really well, the time went really quickly and Geoff, Paula & Tracey were really lovely and made me feel very welcome, and I hope that I get the opportunity to work with them again next time.

But by the time I got home my legs where really arching but after a shower I felt abit better and I went over to Julie's to watch the fireworks. The first few went really well, then there was one that didn't go off correctly and hit the fence, before hitting Paul, Julie's Hubby on his back, he wasn't hurt but it burnt is jacket. Well, they carried on lighting the rest and a few of us stood in the alcove when it happened again, but this time it came toward the alcove and we were trapped, to say I was scarred is an understatement, it just bounced off the walk and in between our legs, after that we watched them from the sitting room. We did laugh about at the time but it could have been so much worse.

Anyway, here are a few of the photo I took of the fireworks.

After all the excitement of the mis-firing of the fireworks, the kids ended up with some sparklers, which they did various shapes with, heres Izzy with a smile.

A few of them trying to make '2010'

After finally for today, my photos taken by Kirsty Wiseman at the GoGo Retreat, yes I did get the jumper to blend with the autumn colours.

I'm away tomorrow for a crafting weekend with friends and lovely placed called 'Toad Hall' in Shropshire, so looking forward to meeting up with them because I not seen some for quite a while and it will be great to catch up and have a laugh.

Right, better go and pack, thanks for stopping by,

3rd Day, Teabags and Stash ...

So the rest of Saturday & Sunday classes were just fab, as I came to expect. But what I've decided to do in do a separate post with all the layouts I've done over the weekend, included the ones I've already uploaded, so this one is just that I got up to on Saturday and Sunday.

Kirsty Wiseman was on hand to take our photo, my time was on Saturday afternoon, which I will add when I get them, I'm so pleased with how they have turned out, but more on this soon.

One of the great things about going on retreats is that you get to meet up with 'online' friends, people that you don't see regularly but 'chat' to often.

So meeting up with Beki was just great, we laughed, and laughed and it was just great to meet people that you 'talk to' on line regularly.

And Jackie, what can I tell you about Jackie, she so rocks and is one of the nicest, caring person I've every met, you know when people say 'they have a heart of gold' well that definiately applies to her, and its such a shame that she lives so far away because I would love to meet up with her again, and also a shame that she won't be their next year.

Jackie added this to me door at 2.30am on Sunday morning.

Basically it represent the laughs we had in our final class on Saturday evening, taught by Helen, to say that we had about 10 minutes of 'madness' is definiately an understatement.

Briefly - Sue Chip described something, I didn't understand, Helen tried to explain using football terms,

I had got the complete wrong end of the stick, and told them what I thought it was, the class was in an up roar, Beki & Claire were both crying with laughter, and said that I had described something else, which Rachel and Sarah went straight onto IPad and googled. Laugh is the best form of medicine and typing this is just making me laugh even more. I do hope that no one was affended and just enjoyed the cameradory of the class.

Then on Sunday, it was time for the 'team' photo shoot, has it was raining we decided to get some done inside, these girls are just amazing, they made the whole weekend so much better and we had such a laugh.

The lovely Barb and Sue - this is such a great photo.

I do hope that some of the other girls have taken single photos of me.

Then it was off to lunch, which was a Cravery,

Followed by a selection of desserts.

Now for my stash shopping, like I upload before the Shop was so lush I could have had one of everything,

There was meant to be new ranges of October Afternoon, but they had let them down, but they did have the newest range of Cosmo Cricket - Circa 1934 - lovely

American Craft - Dear Lizzy Thickers, Glitz Design - stamps, mini alphas, embellishments; Elles Studio

American Craft - Dear Lizzy - Christmas Range (not that I needed anymore Christmas papers but I just couldn't resist)

The new Jenni Bowlin Ink Pads

So I hope you like what I got up to over the weekend and call back and check out the layouts I did.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Day 2 - GoGo Getaway

Hi all, well last night was great we had a great welcome from Lorraine, Janice and the DT Team,

then it was time for our group photo, which was taken by Kirsty Wiseman and printed off so that this morning we could add them to our hybrid layout, another great touch from the GoGo Team,

then we were off for our evening meal before our first classes of the weekend began.

But before all this waiting on our tables were are welcome gifts,

My 1st class was designed and taught by Lorraine, and has you can see I decided to completely change the one on display and do my own version, which has worked out really well.

Lorraines - original

My version:

Then at 10.45 it was time for the shop to open, and boy the Team had really excelled themselves, with Cosmo Cricket, Sassafrass, Jenni Bowlin, Dear Lizzie, Elles Studio, Glitz Design Inc. American Crafts, to name but a few

Yes I did get a few bits which I will upload another time. But it was all just lush and something for everyone taste.

So my first class today was by Sam and assisted by Sheena - which involved a lot of cutting out, somethings that she specialises in and yes, I did moan but I just loved the class

Title - Walk this Way

Me and Beki concentrating of all the detailed cutting we had to do.

One of the layouts from the Scrapagogo October 2010 kit, have done another but will upload later.

I forgot to upload this one, which the 'lovely' view - NOT- from my hotel window.

Right will be back tomorrow to upload tonight and tomorrows classes.

Thanks for stopping by ...

My Retreat Badge and the Scrapagogo Getaway Begins ...

So today I was up at 5.30am to make my way to Cheshunt for the 5th Scrapagogo Getaway, A very early start but I hope the weekend will be worth it, these Retreats have not let me down so far so I doubt this will be any different.

After the journey down car to the local station, 3 trains changes and a taxi ride I arrived at the Hotel at 12ish, very tired but happy that my weekend of fun can begin. Obviously, I couldn't book in till 2pm so I relaxed in the bar and had lunch, then I went for a walk around the grounds, the Autumn colours are just amazing and looking forward to sharing some of my photos over the weekend.

By the time I got back to the reception people were beginning to arrive, it great to meet old and new friends, especially good to meet up with Beki and her Sister Claire, Chloe and the DT team.

So here are a few of the photos from around the grounds.

The Tree House, A great construction, but all locked up, we have in the past had classes in here, so I might be able to get some additional photos from the steps/room etc.

The lovely Manor House part of the hotel, I hope all those cars go away over the weekend, won't look good in the photos later.

My room, 717 not a good view from the window but a lovely room nevertheless.

So now I share with your my badge for the weekend.

So for my badge, has it was Halloween I decided that I would do a suitable badge along these lines. My first idea was to have a pumpkin shaped badge, but when I saw Nicki's Sizzix Haunted House Die I know I had to make one of these instead, complete with bats (grudgeboard), pumpkin & spider - sizzix.

So alot of paper piecing was involved but I think it was well worth it.

I inked and heat embossed the bats grudgeboard - which I have had for ages and ages, they are out of the Seasonal Grudgeboard pack, I didn't want them to look too smooth, so when while still hot a moved each shape to they had lumps and bumps.

Pumpkin & Spider - Sizzix

You can't really see from this photos, but I used some cloud shapes as a mask to highlight clouds going in front of the moon - IYKWIM.

Then when I was thinking about what Scrapagogo had said about the design of the badge, I realised I hadn't included 5 of something, to represent the 5th Getaway, so I added 5 tiny stars.

I would like to thank Nicki for the use of her dies, Julie for providing the goggly eyes (spider), Morag, Nicki & Julie for their comments, which I asked for, and completely ignored - LOL. Thanks girls you all rock.

I'm so happy how it worked out, I hope you like it too.

Thanks for stopping by ...