24 Olive Street

Finally a post about Craft Weekend!!!

It's been over a month since I went to Craft Weekend. And the second I got back I had no time to work on a post telling all about it because I had to get into show mode! But I still wanted to take a moment and share some pics from the great weekend I had (and just a warning, this will probably be a very photo heavy post!)

Early Friday morning I heading off on my trip. I went by myself and did not know a single person going to Craft Weekend. So if you're thinking you want to go but don't know anyone...just do it anyway!! You'll be glad you did.

When I got to Kansas I had about 4hrs to kill in the airport so after taking a very leisurly lunch I painted my nails :)

Then it was time to head to the craft house!! And guys, it's exactly how you think it will be. I have a soft spot for old houses (the house we had in Michigan was built in 1929) so I was in heaven.

I got to stay in the sunflower room.

I didn't get any pics of the outside (cause I was too busy meeting everyone...and maybe drinking a margarita or 2 ;)

Friday night we worked on our aprons.

Always neat to see 12 women work on the same project and just how different each one turns out!

We started Saturday off with some super yummy cinnamon rolls (that I have already made twice since getting home!). Then we headed out to a barn sale and to do some antiquing.

When I used to see Meg's posts about craft weekend and pics like this with all the old quilts I really hoped to find one when I finally got to go to craft weekend...and I'm happy to say I did find one!

That E.T. glass came home with me.

Had to have it. It's one of mine and my son's favorite movies.

All I can say is that it's a good thing I didn't drive cause I would've come home with a lot more!

And we got to see a baby cow at the barn sale...although I don't think she was shopping :)

After we got back and had another yummy dinner we worked on our other crafts. We did 3 more crafts including yarn pom poms, a burlap pillow that we painted on, and a project where we cut our state out with a scroll saw.

I definitely need to get some of those pom pom makers...so fun and so easy!!

Jenny brought the state project. I've never used a scroll saw so that was pretty neat! And, of course, I promptly texted my husband and said "do you have a scroll saw??"

Yeah, he knew better not to even ask why ;)

Oh, and the swag. Awesome!

So that's it in a nutshell. A weekend filled with crafts, good food, shopping, cows, more good food, & great ladies to spend it with!

You can see Meg's post about April Craft Weekend here.

It's funny, when people I meet ask about Craft Weekend it's usually 2 questions - How was it? and Was it worth it?

Let me be honest because it is an expensive weekend, especially if you have to fly like I did. I'm a pretty craft person so I knew going into this weekend that I would probably already know how to do some of the crafts (which I did). But that didn't matter to me. I wasn't only going to learn new things (although the state craft was totally new to me!) I was going away for a fun weekend with some women who liked to craft like me (or wanted to try something new). I wanted to do something for myself. And I wanted to step out of my comfort zone a bit (flying halfway across the country by myself certainly did that!)

Also, I've seen many people say "I've been on the list forever, I'm never gonna get picked" I know it's a lottery but just as a reference I got on the waiting list in Sept 2011. So I'm proof that yes, you do eventually get picked!!

I had a lot of fun, met some great ladies, and came home a bit more relaxed and full of crafty ideas :) The weekend was exactly how I thought it would be. Meg and Kimberlee were super great hosts and Jenny & Amy (who were the helpers) were just as nice. I only wish that the weekend wasn't over so fast. Getting there on a Friday evening and leaving at noon on Sunday made the weekend go by so fast!

And as a bonus I got to see my friend Carol on my layover in Colorado!

scrapbook retreat & catching up on project life

Last weekend I headed up to Colville for a scrapbook retreat hosted by Forget Me Not. But before I could even get there my daughter's guinea pig Bugsy decided that his time with us was coming to an end.

One of my favorite layouts of Olivia & Bugsy I did back in 2010 :)

Poor guy. I had really hoped that when this day came it would happen in the night. But no, my daughter had to watch for hours while he took his last breaths. {sigh} Life with animals, right?!

So after dealing with that I headed up to the retreat. The drive up there is always so pretty.

Mountains. Pretty trees turning colors. Cows. Horses. Goats. Farms. Beautiful :)

I keep saying I need to bring my good camera on a drive up there & just stop along the way & capture the scenery. One day...

I went by myself & ended up sitting next to 2 great people who I got to know & chatted with all weekend (and managed to get an awesome cinnamon roll recipe, too!). I didn't get to spend as much time there as I'd hoped (between Bugsy & the govt shutdown my weekend was doomed from the start!). But next retreat you can bet I'm going & spending every second there that I can!

My main goal was to catch up on my 2013 Project Life album. I wasn't too far behind...caught up through June. Although, there were many pages that I needed to fill in some journaling.

And I'm happy to say that it is now almost up to date! And the only reason that's it's not is because I ran out of printer ink (and in typical "Michelle" fashion, didn't order prints in time for the retreat). So the few weeks that are missing will be finished up in no time.

I can't tell you what it feels like to look at my album & see this:

And my kids have already looked through it multiple times :)

Here's a few of my favorite pages...

A few notes:

For this album I'm using the Seafoam core kit along with other kits from Studio Calico & Noel Mignon.

I like to add journaling directly on my photos in Photoshop. I mostly do this to save time. And quite frankly, most of my photos don't need much of an explanation. I find it's much easier to just jot a few things down directly on the photos and that way I can just slip it into the page protector and bam, the journaling's done!

I also include photos from my iphone (usually edited in the Rhonna Farrer app). Again, I print those with the journaling on them to save time. And I like how they look in my album.

I use 4x6 Photo Collages No.1 by the Lilypad (in Photoshop). They're great when you have multiple photos of an event/etc but don't want to bulk up your album by adding extra photos or pocket pages. I use them all the time. I also use them when I want 2-3x4 photos to put in the smaller journal pockets. I use these spaces more often for photos than journaling cards.

I also sometimes use different page protectors based on my photos & layout. The last 2 layouts are for just 1 week (so 4 pages total). I normally don't have that may photos for a week but that week I did and wanted to include all of them. So I used design A pocket pages along with design G.