A Weekend of Scrapbooking

I guess I should issue a word of warning. This will be a long post cause I have lots to share from the weekend. I spent the weekend down on the Capricorn Coast with a great bunch of girls scrapbooking. For the last 4-5 years a group of us have met once a month to scrapbook together and then in May each year we go away for a whole weekend of scrapbooking. We had 18 stay over for the weekend, with an extra 5 joining us just for the day on Saturday. I managed to get four layouts done which was pretty good considering that there were a few girls who have just started scrapbooking and needed a little help and encouragement. I think the highlight of the weekend for me was to see the joy they experienced from creating something that they loved. Quite a few of the girls I work with came too - so we had a real blast together. They are always up for a good laugh. On the Saturday afternoon a group of the girls visited one of the local scrapbooking shops, and this year when they arrived, the owner informed them that she had sold the business and that they could have 40% off everything. There were phone calls back to everyone at the retreat to let them know. A few of the girls left took off and you can imagine the excitement and the spending that went on, with a couple of the girls even buying fixtures to set up scrapbooking rooms at home. Rob celebrated her birthday with us and Jannett even celebrated her 29th wedding anniversary with us. All good reasons to celebrate (which we did of course).

First layout I did on the Friday night was an old blurry photo that I have of Sarah. It has been sitting in my photo stash for quite a while, and I love the joy and exuberance on her face. this is so Sarah, and it was a photo I definately wanted to scrapbook. Tried something new with this one, with a bit of layering going on. Am really happy with it - in fact I as pretty happy with all my layouts this weekend.

This second layout took me all day Saturday to complete - most of that time was taken in the journalling that all need to be cut up and glued in the correct order. Painfully slow task it was too. This photo was taken of Chloe at Easter just after she had her hair coloured, and the journalling is about making the most of her life, understanding that people will let her down and she will probably let people down also, but life offers no guarantees, no second chances, so you need to live life to the fullest, let those you love know it, hold someones hand, smile till your face hurts, don't be afraid to take chances on love, live in the moment because every second you spend feeling angry or upset is a second of happiness you will never get back.

A couple of weeks ago I was deleting a heap of text messages off my mobile phone when I came across a couple of texts my daughter had sent me. I struggled to delete them, because they are special, so I thought why not photograph them and do a layout about what they mean to me. I am truely blessed to have such wonderful kids who are not afraid to let me know that they love me. I do indeed feel blessed and treasured.

The last layout was just a funky fun layout I decided to do about the mess in my youngest daughters room. You cannot see her study desk

for junk - make-up, jewellery, chocolate wrappers etc. Is it any wonder that she is always

laying on the lounge floor to do her homework. Used really bright colours for this layout - a bit different to what I would normally use, but it was fun to do.

Thought I would also share some photos from our weekend. They are really a great bunch of ladies and although I have been absolutely stuffed today - the weekend was well and truely worth it. Only trouble is it usually takes you 24 hours or so to get into your scrapbooking and then it is nearly time to pack up and come home. Have so many good ideas running through my head at the moment for layouts - need to try and find some time to scrapbook.

This photo of us all was taken around the pool just after lunch on the Saturday. The place we stayed at had this giant air cushion that everyone had a good jump on before they headed back to scrap in the afternoon so I just had to capture some of the girls having fun on this. (Mind you this was not an activity for those with a weak bladder) and a few of the girls were complaining about sore muscles a little later in the day.

Had to take some photos of the girls with some of their finished layouts too - these were a few of the girls left cleaning up just after lunch on Sunday.

The next photo is a photo of my work mates - they provided much entertainment on the weekend - they can always find something to laugh about and are good fun to be around. Loved how we all got to spend the weekend together.

Also have a photo of Jannett (in blue) and Rob cutting their anniversary and birthday cake. True scrapbookers they are. Fancy wanting to spend the weekend away with a bunch of girlfriends on these special occassions. Final photo is one of me working on one of my layouts.

It is

a pretty busy time of year in our household at the moment. Steve is flat out setting exams, and after today will be flat out marking them. Chloe starts her exams tomorrow so there will be little social life for her for the next couple of weeks. It is not quite so bad for me (except of course that the others are busy around me) but next week should see me pretty busy then until the holidays as

I will have a couple of work campaigns that need to be done before I go away. Fortunately we have a couple of short weeks coming up with next week being

show week in Rocky so we have a public holiday on the Wednesday and then the following week, a holiday on the Monday to celebrate the Queens Birthday Weekend.

Got the results back from my biospy last Wednesday but they are not conclusive so have to be sent away to Brisbane to find out exactly what is causing the problem. Seems it is some micro-organism. The good news though is it is not malignant. I am very thankful for that, but it will be good to find out what it is and how they can treat it. Should hear something this week hopefully. It is now 8 weeks since my forehead flared up.

Big thanks to everyone who drops by and reads and comments on my blog - I enjoy hearing from you all and your lovely comments are much appreciated. Well I'm off to visit the chiropractor - I will catch up again a bit later. Hoping that I will manage to get some more scrapbooking done this week whilst I am feeling so motivated.