And breathe

Finally a week after the retreat I feel like I'm almost back to been human again.

The retreat was amazing, hard hard work, but so worth it, we had the most amazing classes, and yes I know I promised I would take pics of mine but honestly I've not had a minute to spare and the lighting is poo pants at the moment, however Kirsty did manage to take pics of her take on the class and if you pop over to her blog (link on the right hand side) you can see it there.

We got to the hotel on Thursday night and started the long task of unpacking, I have no idea how many car loads we had, but I'm telling you, it took us a hell of a long time to do it all. We put everything into a storage room till later in the evening, and then me and Janet moved it once our room became available (it was booked for a dinner function) We lugged the lot of it to the classroom and I got up far far to early in the morning to move it to the actual shop area.

The girls started to arrive from midday and where very patient with us, as we where still running around like headless chickens. But the idea of opening the day at midday was to allow the girls to settle into there cropping area and relax and meet new friends, the activities did not kick off till after dinner.

The first class was meant to be taught by Suzanne, but the poor darling was not feeling great so a quick swap round of the schedule and into the breach stepped Kirsty who taught the most adorable class using Artic Frog papers and then a cute mini project using the scraps, Kirsty also taught her make and take of the weekend and that was us for the night. Well we wanted to break the girls in gently. We spent the rest of the evening with challenges (mini bags) and chatting, drinking, etc, only thing that did not seem to be happening was lots of scrapping, hee hee.

Saturday we had three master classes, three mini classes and one make and take project, and one challenge to do, so absolutely no time to come up for air. The girls loved the classes and the day delegates got right into the swing of it as well.

Sunday was Suzanne's day, she had a class first thing in the morning and a make and take to do.

The only down side to the whole weekend was that I had asked Cal to come along as a surprise guest to show the girls some Techniques with inks, etc, but we ran out of time, I seriously need the days to be at least 30 hours long when we do these weekends.

We crammed in tons and tons of stuff, the girls went home with bags bursting at the seams from all the class kits and goodies on offer, and a few pounds lighter in the purse thanks the amazing shop that Sarah from Sarah's cards brought along. I swear to god I have never seen so much stash in one place, I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw her collection of Thickers, that girl carries the whole range, the only person in the UK to do so.

It was my first retreat since Angela left the business at the end of March this year, and I have to admit to having some butterflies before the actual weekend, but you know what, I did it, it was a massive success and I'm gonna keep doing it.

In fact, I've already booked the hotels for March in Scotland next year and October in Crewe, so watch this space, I'll be announcing dates next week, once I've had time to catch up on everything else.

Joke of the day for you all now, I got this one today from Jane, one of my friends, and it had me tittering away at my desk.

Enjoy

A man was sitting in the bar in departures at Manchester airport.
A beautiful woman walks in and sits down at the table next to him.
So he decides because she's got a uniform on, she's probably an off-duty flight attendant.
So he decides to have a go at picking her up by identifying the airline she flies for, thereby impressing her greatly.
He leans across to her and says the Delta Airlines motto 'We love to fly and it shows'.
The woman looks at him blankly.
He sits back and thinks up another line.He leans forward again and delivers the Air France motto 'Winning the hearts of the world'.
Again she just stares at him with a slightly puzzled look on her face.
Undeterred, he tries again, this time saying the Malaysian Airlines motto 'Going beyond expectations'.
The woman looks at him sternly and says 'What the f*** do you want?''
Ah!' he says, sitting back with a smile on his face........
' Ryanair' .