Croptoberfest 2010

I've just spent two wonderful days scrapbooking with some great friends and family members!! We get together twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, for two days of cropping, talking, and laughing.  It is such a relaxing time, yet an intense time as we plan our pages, crop our pictures, add the embellishments, and journal.

We meet at the 4-H center. It's a beautiful place.  This was such a pretty view, these trees were gorgeous.  It's a peaceful and quiet place.  If I weren't so busy cropping, I would be sitting out here just simply enjoying the beautiful world God gave to us.  We are blessed!

This tree is in a small garden.  It was so unusual.  The right side of the tree is full of red berries and left side does not have a berry anywhere on it.  The garden was designed to be beautiful year round with something green or blooming.

My work area.  I worked on my pictures from my trip to Jefferson, Texas, which I've blogged about several times.  I enjoyed this trip with my sister, Judith, so very much!!  I was able to complete 23 pages. Yeah!! The most pages I've ever finished at a retreat.  And, I did a bunch of journaling, which has not been one of my favorite things.  But you know, I am finally getting comfortable with journaling!!  I counted and I wrote 862 words in two days.  Awesome!!  I'm starting to enjoy putting my thoughts and memories down one paper. 

The room was large enough that we had tables for our Cricuts and Cuttlebug and for spreading out our pages.  As the time progressed, we had to start stacking some of our pages so we had room to add the new ones.  We were able to admire every one's creations!  And let me tell you, there were some beautiful photos and gorgeous layouts.  These ladies are super talented.  I don't remember the exact number of pages finished, but I remember someone saying it averaged about 30 pages per person, so it must have been over 180-200  pages!!

These are the wonderful, wonderful ladies I crop with.  Once again I am blessed!

 From left to right is:

Aimee (my daughter-in-law) and Bev (our fearless leader and Creative Memories Consultant) They're touching up their makeup for the upcoming photo shoot.

Donna (Aimee's Mother), Allison (Aimee's sister), Judith (my sister)

They're doing a little high kicking. Were they singing Do Re Mi?

And Whitney (a new friend added to our group this year) who is wondering,

 "What did I get myself into?"

We certainly have a good time while we're together. There's lots of laughing and giggling. There is a difference between laughing and giggling, you know. The giggling starts late at night! And it does get late! Half of our group stayed up all night! I'll have to admit my sister and I crashed about 2 A.M.

Wow, what a group!! Love these ladies!!

Wow, what a weekend!! I came home tired, but relaxed, full of inspiration, and grateful for such wonderful friends and family!! And thankful that we have found a way to preserve our photos and memories in such a beautiful way!

Take a moment today to laugh out loud, giggle or maybe

sing your own rendition of "Do Re Mi" from the Sound Of Music!!