My girlfriend, Lee, picked me up bright and early Saturday morning (we choose not to attend Friday night seeing this crop was right in our backyard) and we were at our table, ready to scrap at 8:15 a.m. I was told this was a small venue, only 65 women, the large crops host up to 185 women who are frantically designing, cutting, glueing, and shopping....... non-stop. Being a newbie, I didn't know what to expect and was nervous.
My biggest dilemma, was whether or not I'd forget some of my materials and tools I'd need to be very productive. Once a month, Lee will host a 5 hour crop at our church hall and I always have a hard time deciding what to bring, always forgetting something or wishing I had brought a particular item. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses, Lee gave me really good advice on getting organized, and I took it. She has been participating in weekend crops for some time now and knows the ropes. Lee told me it was much better to pull photos I'd want to use, pick the papers to go with them, along with all the embellishments to finish your page. I found it's kinda like going on a vacation. Vendors are set us with wears to sell, so if you forget something, you can walk over to their kiosk and purchase what you need. As long as I had a fist full on greenbacks, I had now worries. My only worry, being a paperholic, was that I knew I'd be falling off the wagon....... for the umpteenth time and I might not have brought enough money with me. My husband has always told me, "Take all you want, but spend all you take".
It didn't take long to get in the groove, so once we all completed a few pages (and it was after 12 noon) we decided to break out the champagne! One bottle of champagne doesn't go very far between 9 girls but it was just enough to keep us going until dinner was served. We figured we'd save the wine we brought for after dinner. With these weekend crops, it's like going to an all inclusive resort. The cost includes your room, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and mini workshops.
This was a vacation for me. I got to hang with a bunch of really fun girls, sit and crop without the worries of making meals for others, have conversations without being interrupted, drink alcoholic beverages and go to bed and get up when I wanted to.
Usually when I'm home working on my page layouts, I only complete 2 pages. While at the crop, without interruptions, I was able to complete 21 pages (for some, that's an entire photo album). I had chosen photos from 1999 and 2000 to work on, when my boys were 2 and 3 years old. For 14 glorious hours I was taken back to a really fun time with Michael and Patrick. There are so many small things I have forgotten about them, these photos show wonderful times that need to be documented.... that's why I meticulously crop these photos into elaborate scrapbook pages. It's something I love to do.
When Sunday came, I tried to get back into the groove but was rather tired from Saturday. I hit the hay before Lee, wimping out and calling it a night at 10 pm. She, however, went to the room, crawled into her pj's and went back down to crop until the wee hours of the morning with the other girls. My last day was not too productive, making mistakes on the Cricut, not knowing how to title my pages, etc. So, I decided to do some last minute shopping, look at other wonderful creations, exchange e-mails, pack my bags up and along with the 8 other girls, sign up for the weekend crop in November.
These crops will now be something for me to look forward to. I can now classify them as my little weekend get-a-ways. Some girls shop til they drop, and feel good about it. I however, would much rather crop til I drop, besides, I think my husband and boys need to do that male bonding thing every now and then, whatever that may be!
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| Sunday morning showed a very good day of Saturdays cropping |
Barbie
1 comment:
Love it!
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