What a Weekend!!!

I am thrilled to report that my first ever retreat went far better

than I had ever imagined.

Don't get me wrong, I've been on organised retreats before but I had organised this one

from start to finish.

After Sarah's Cards retreats finished last year I felt at a bit of a loose end so when Gillian said

"why don't you organise one"

it didn't take long before I was looking at venues and booking the dates!

I have shared so many laughs over the weekend with some fabulous friends, old and new, that my sides hurt. I have been honoured with the most beautiful "thankyou" bouquet 

and I've had tears in my eyes reading the fabulous comments on my feedback forms.

These girls have been amazing...

Spot the difference...

The fancy dress costumes were awesome...

The challenge entries were spectacular...

The food was delicious...

and the pannacotta, well, say no more ;)

A truly brilliant weekend, thank you ALL for coming and I'm so glad that you all want to do it all again,

let the preparations commence... 

She IS Rockin'

This Friday I am dedicationg my

Rocking Your World Friday post to this girl...

At 1634 on Tuesday the 11th of March,

she got the call.

Remember my post last week about how she's had an interview to go to

Nepal with Fire Cadets next year?

She's going!!!

(Thank you to all of you who sent her good luck and kept your fingers crossed for her)

I am so proud of her, if not a little scared, and now the fundraising starts...

As my post goes live this morning, I will be getting ready to leave home to spend a 

(hopefully) great weekend with some fabulous ladies.

I have organised my first ever retreat!

Have a great weekend and week to come.

We're on cloud 9 here.

Do You Look...

...for inspiration?

If so

Challenge #2: Let's get inspired by JENNIFER! 

is up over at the Counterfeit Kit Blog 
and maybe just what you're looking for To be honest, I really don't really go looking for inspiration 
from other people because my scrapbooking is mine 
and I really want it to stay that way.
Of course I will join in with Sketch Challenges and scraplifts 
but I still like to make things my own.
When I saw this challenge it really didn't fill with much gusto 
as I didn't want to just copy somebody else's work. 
On looking through Jennifer's blog, I saw one of her layouts 
using the MME frames (of which I have a few in my kit).

Don't forget to link up if you join in with our challenge

or email  counterfeitkitchallenge@yahoo.com

if you care to join in with our end of the month hop

using any of the 3 monthly challenges

Proud Mummy Layout

Another beautiful morning here in sunny Cheshire.

Isn't it lovely when the sun shines, people smile and say hello

instead of looking at you as though you've gone mad.

I would also like to welcome Jess as my 51st follower,

Only three sleeps until I go off to set up for

my very first retreat.

I am so excited and yet quite nervous but looking forward to seeing

all the lovely ladies who are joining me for a weekend of fun, chatting,

eating, drinking, relaxing and maybe a bit of paper sticking!

Today I'm sharing a proud Mummy moment.

I was delighted when DD was chosen to represent her Fire Cadet unit and

lay the wreath for Remembrance last year.

Being ex-forces, these things are dear to my heart

and I've always brought her up to "remember" and understand.

I had been on the search for this paper for a while and Wearcrafts Jen came up trumps

by sending her two last sheets for me to play with.

Behind You!

The March challenge is up over at Punky Scraps Blog.
This month we have been asked to use a Kraft background
and in honour of our Alpha Leader's birthday
the mood board has a little alcohol to inspire you!

 This mood board just shouts Spring doesn't it?
With this beautiful sunshine showing its face (at last)
here in the UK I got sunshine inspired...

You can't really see from my photo but sitting on a wall in
the Florida sunshine last year, DD posed for a photo
well aware that an alligator had its beady eyes upon her.
The things she does for a scrappable photo!

1P&20W

I love the 9th of the month when Abi posts her meme over at

 Creating Paper Dreams

I love to see and read how her followers interpret their own pictures

Recently discovered on Sky.

What have I been missing?

Can't get enough of Mr McDreamy!

Had to have the boxset.

Not Really...

...tutorials as such but today I thought I would share

the printables that I came up with for my March Counterfeit Kit.

All these were created just by playing around in Craft Artist

apart from the tags which I don't think need much explaining!

I really don't do needle and thread but loved the look of

PL style cards so decided to try to recreate a printable or two.

 I quite liked the little tags too...

 Now I think this would be hard to print but I may just use this as a digi

background at some point.

The "love" stamp was next and I just couldn't resist recreating it

to print at my leisure

Please feel free to right click, save and print any of these 

but please leave me some love if you do.

I enjoy creating and it is nice to know if/when people use them.