Sarah's Cards Retreat

Despite the fact that it's held in Warrington ( no disrespect to Warringtonians ... just the fact that it costs an arm and a leg, takes half a day and about 500 underground station steps with an overweight suitcase to get there ) it is well worth the trip and that's an understatement.

I missed my train buddy Emma en route this time , especially as she'd had the foresight to bring some tinnies ( G&T ) with her last time but this was more than compensated by the fact that she and Kate were both there on arrival for a celebratory bounce on the bed, a quick room search for the minibar ( sadly none) and a forage in the shop within minutes of hitting the crop room.

Several bottles of red wine later we were underway with the first of 6 superb classes, all of which are accompanied by class kits full to the brim with luscious new scrap goodies . You have to pass by the Rhubarb and Custard sweet shop en route to the classroom and it was here that I discovered blackcurrant and liquorice toffees. A love affair at first bite.

A game of bingo and a raffle later we were sat around our enormous tablecothed crop room table armed with fabulous new cocktails courtesy of Emma - that girl is a master at ferreting out tinned alcohol. Note to self for next time .... bring Wine Box as well - an inspiration.

The weekend continued in much the same vein - food , scrapbook shopping, coffee, pecan pastries, a class or two, more shopping , chocolate brownies , and armful of those lethal toffees something new and alcoholic in a tin ( or bottle ) , more food , more scrapping , you get my drift.

The icing on the cake was that we got to spend the Sunday night there too. A great to way to relax after a wonderful time .. with the inevitable bottle or two of red wine with which to reminisce about the weekend's events and count the days until the next one.

Thank you to Lianne and Sarah and the Design team for your exhaustive pursuit of the perfect retreat, seemingly achieved with such ease and yet I can only begin to guess at the amount of hard work you put into the weekend.

Here's my layout from the challenge kit ....
Before They Fly the Nest .... Make Sure they Know How.