A stolen run down of the retreat....

So I've had a few people ask me to blog about NZ but I've been home 3 days and have been working so have not had much time.

The INCREDIBLE girls over at the AE Blog, have posted this great post - I'm stealing it!

I will sort thru the 800+ photos and blog soon - I promise.....

Spring Edition Run-down

It's been a little over a week since Spring Edition finished and I'm still coming down off the high of everything.  Organising an event like this is a little like organising a wedding.  With a lot of brainstorming and help from some of the best friends on the planet, little ideas become big plans and big plans become reality.  Slowly we plan and take care of every detail we can think of.

Registration packs and welcome signs... name tags and gorgeous packaging.

A candy bar full of the most amazing treats.

Room displays, all bought together by different people .. this one put together with an intricate book gifted to me by Rae Cooper, several of my layouts, some scrabble tiles gifted to me at the last Autumn Escape and a fun fairy house, complete with little fairy made by Rachel Tucker- she was named "Pamela the Prima Fairy" by the end of the retreat.  This was one displays that came together purely from the generosity and artistic ability of people that have attended our retreats in the past.

Then there was the reading corner.  The cushions placed across the floor that said "Scrap" on one side and "Relax" on the other.  Needless to say that these cushions spelled many different words throughout the weekend.  This was only part of a display that included chairs, various books and altered items.  A place to relax when time out was needed.

Then there were the classes.  Put together by talented tutors Paula Cheney, Natalie May and myself, there was a huge range of amazing techniques and projects completed.  It's not surprising that one of our most common pieces of feedback is that everyone wants these two ladies back.  

Then of course there was all the other amazing stuff we did.   Janine from "Steeped in Beautea" ensured something totally off-the-wall for a scrapbooking retreat with a buffet of ingedients to make our own relaxing bath-bags.  It was something new to us and we were so glad we took the risk and added something different into the weekend mix.

One of our other make n takes... everyone completed a gorgeous woodland tree.  We were lucky enough to have Tim Holtz's support donating enough trees and ingredients for everyone to colour, glue and glitter to their heart's content.  We know for sure that all Spring Edition Attendees will have pretty houses this coming Christmas.

I could go on with the details but there were so many.  There were more classes, more make n takes, a whole weekend of laughing and learning.  We had one of the best games we've ever had on the Saturday night (did any of you wonder why the toothpicks were on the candy buffet all weekend?!), and the thing that made it - the 90 ladies that attended.  This retreat was the 5th for us, but bought so many new people into the mix - around a third of the attendees had never been to our retreats before.  

That's a whole lot of new friends...

And of course the whole weekend wouldn't be complete without the crew...

Rachel, Kate, Tana, Nic, Lianne, Lynda, Paula, Lucy & Natalie.  

Some of the best friends a girl could have.

Lucy & thank you, fabulous crew, for all your support before and during the weekend!

And for those that wondered... YES I guarded my room key with my life.  YES *somehow* my room still got the worst toilet papering in all of AE retreat history.  Those responsible will keep... Autumn Escape in April isn't that far away... who's coming along? (Love this place...)
(btw photos taken by Andrea of SweetP photography... thank you so much Andrea!)

So thanks Nic Howard for that great post! he he