WOW, It doesn't get any better!!! Last week was just fabulous. Old friends, new friends, friends from near and far. Laughter til tears poured down our faces, warm hugs and happy faces. Memories to hold close and revisit often. I've come to understand Renee's enthusiasm for traveling the country's scrap events....the event itself was wonderful, some of my favorite teachers and the classes were terrific BUT the true joy was having the opportunity to spend time with some pretty amazing women. We've learned that you have to go to these events a couple of days early to get in some playtime before the serious scrappin' begins and geez we had some playtime. The shopping tour was beyond hysterical, only catch is , when you're running with scrapbookers, everybody has a camera and every moment of insanity is captured, LOL, maybe not always a good thing. Shopping the SIS TV "warehouse" was great and Jeanette

and her family are just the cutest (that was kinda evident with their "informercial" from last year), so sweet of them to welcome us into their home. The Nash Trash tour was a hit but think the Jugg sisters were a tad taken aback at the level of trashiness that scrappers can achieve. LMAO, yep, good thing ole Bubba didn't have false teeth, he'da lost'em for sure with his mouth hangin' open like that. All that fun and the event still awaited. An absolute highlight was getting to spend some time with Brenda. Ubertalented, scrap accolades beaucoup, a wordsmith that can make weeding her garden a delight in verse but best of all is just Brenda herself, warmth and grace just shine from her. And then there were the classes... old favorites like Heidi Swapp, Angelia Wiggington and Jenni Bowlin. New discoveries for me... Vanessa Hudson, Gretchen McElveen, Monique McLean and the gal who has to be the cutest stinkin' scrapper evah, Wilna Furstenberg. I do have to admit that halfway through Monique's class, my phone vibrated, snuck out of the class and burst into tears when I answered it cause it was my precious Samantha singing "Everything She Wants" at the top of her lungs. Little did she know that I had been in a class that was pulling the raw mother emotion out of all of us and here she was singing a song that brought back memories of her at 6, modeling for Penney's, smacking me upside the head that I haven't seen her in months and how quickly the last 22 years have flown by. Thankfully the emotional rollercoaster quickly veered around the bend and I was riding the scrap high again. The mountain of scrap goodies growing in our room helped. Before I left, I swore I wouldn't be buying much but paper and stamps have a way of sucking me in, add to that the class kits, prizes, gift bags, swaps, happies and raks left me fighting to lift my carry-on bags, not to mention the 100 lbs of luggage I checked.

classes

happies

shopping
I am so not going to touch what awaited my arrival at home, that's for my "other" blog, suffice to say that I'm more than ready to hit the scrap trail again. LOL, we're already starting to compare calendars and try to figure out where to hold our reunion crop, think we're all just about needing a retreat from the retreats. Did have a seriously wonderful time and rediscovered paper's allure but feeling a bit overwhelmed. The piles of unfinished projects, unopened kits and product overflowing baskets everywhere just seem to mock me at the moment, I just need to step away from the classes and buying, actually put some energy towards scrapping my kids pictures... geez, novel idea, scrapbooking to organize, document and preserve pictures... damn, haven't thought of it that way in years. LMAO, now pass along my mojito, crank up the music, don't get in the way of my atg gun and let's scrap (btw, leave some room next to my chair... fat girls like to dance to).

"I haven't had this much fun in such a long long time" Yeehaa, sure took long enough but it finally kicked in...the excitement of heading out for the Scrap Etc event, anticipation abounds!!! We'll be heading into Nashville a couple of days before the event and have a few little "activities" planned....Tuesday will bring a dear friend back into the fold, haven't seen her in eons and we have so much to catch up on. Wednesday is Megan's infamous shopping tour, 12-9, a limo bus with fully stocked bar and 27 women, hitting all the lss and specialty boutiques. LOL, really a dangerous combination but now that my 26 happies are made (everybody brings small gifts for each other), think I might be looking forward to this the most. Fingers crossed that the Chicago dynamic duo will be able to meet us for dinner that night. Thursday brings The Nash Trash tour (think Peg Bundy goes country), this was Heather's project so we all know that she had to make it over the top, a page swap, prize baskets that she had donated from several of the manufacturers and a couple of hours at the market when the "official" tour is over. Then back to the hotel for the event registration. From registration through 10pm Saturday night they have us fully booked, we're gonna be totally whipped by the time we get home Sunday. And I do have to say, while I wasn't really keen on doing the page swap for the Trash tour, I just finished up my pages and enjoyed the process more than I can believe. While the layout doesn't look like much, it has a few techniques, either new or some that I haven't used in

awhile. The light teal is actually sheer mist fabric , LOL, dug way

back to the days of padded picture frames on that. Then used the

silver paint pen for a clean edge around the black cardstock,

using the ink pad just didn't give me a look I was happy with

and since the pen was already out on the table, used that sucker

to color in the back of the acetate beneath the stamped title. The

rhinestone flowers were off of a sweet little headband that I bought Kylie and she refused to let me anywhere close to her with it. BTW, I was so pleased with my title, thought that was the best

part of the layout, but screwed up the last 2 layouts and just spelled "trashy", guess that's what I get for scrapping at 3am. Need to get to bed, in just a few hours I have to drag Jim and the boys to be fitted for their tuxedos, then get my laundry and ironing done so I can start packing. As Cori would say, "3 more sleeps".