The Janelle Wind Collection

Stitching at the Water's Edge - Part Two...

Day one of our weekend of stitching arrived, and after a yummy hot breakfast we headed into the classroom once again. Because of the Friday night introductions, all of the ladies had had time to decide which project they wanted to start on, so everyone began stitching straight away. The room was buzzing.

I just loved walking around the room and feeling the excitement in the air, it makes me really proud to be a teacher, and share what I love.

There was LOTS of laughter, fun and lots of stitching happening too. Here is Kelley, whom I met when I taught for Kim 2 years ago. Kelley always achieved SO much in her weekend. By the first afternoon, Kelley had already finished my Cherry Lane bag and was moving on to her next project - she made something from each of us 3 tutors in two days - amazing!

We shared a yummy lunch of hot soup and wraps for lunch, then headed back to stitching. I helped lots of girls make the most beautiful fabric flowers throughout the two days. Here is lovely Judy and her gorgeous flower. Judy already has plans to make some more too.

Kate and a group of her beautiful friends travelled over from Orange to attend the retreat. Here is Kate stitching my wristy, using a special piece of fabric that was given to her by a friend. You can see some more pics of Kate's writsy here.

Here is Natalie and I with some more of the gorgeous girls from the retreat. From back left is Karen, Sylvia, me, and Kate. The front row left we have Fiona, Natalie and Shirley. All gorgeous girls who made the weekend super special.

During the weekend, we had a very special little guy who popped up all over the property. I was so very excited to get so close to him too. We nick named him fatso, after the wombat off 'A Country Practice' - a great Aussie drama that used to be a regular TV series here in Australia when I was a little girl.

While outside taking some pics of fatso, I snapped this shot of the view. If you look very closely, you can see another wombat down eating grass. I have never seen wombats in the wild so was thrilled to see these little guys for sure. Isn't the view spectacular too.

After a big day of stitching together, it was time for dinner. We headed into the dining room to see a lovely candle lit dinner all prepared for us. We shared a LOT of laughs over dinner - thanks Sandy N for your funny story telling, you kept us all in stitches.

After dinner we had the MOST amazing show and tell. I can honestly tell you I was totally blown away by all of the beautiful quilts that were shown to us. What talented stitchers we had. I will tell you all about the show and tell in another post. Back soon xx Janelle

Stitching at the Water's Edge - Part One...

This past weekend I was super excited to once again head to Nowra in NSW to teach at the 'Stitching at the Water's Edge' retreat for the lovely Kim of Jukejema Quilting Barn. I had the most wonderful time teaching alongside my lovely friends Natalie Ross and Anni Downs. I thought I might share my weekend with you too. Here goes...

Friday morning saw me up bright and early and heading down to Thelma's house (Natalie Ross) for another one of our Thelma and Louise road trips. We traveled together to teach at Nowra with Anni in 2009 so were very excited to head back together and see old and new friends alike.

We transfered all of my belongings into Natalie's car and headed on our way down the highway, arriving at the retreat at about 4pm in the afternoon. Natalie did a wonderful job of driving us through the city traffic - something I was happy to let her do, I am not a fan of city driving, call me a country gal for sure.

Upon arrival, we headed into the classroom to take a look around and see all that had been set up by Kim and her wonderful team of helpers. The room looked AMAZING!

Here are Kim and Carol (Kim on the right) - these two beautiful girls worked tirelessly all weekend, making sure everyone felt spoiled and loved too.

(photo courtesy Anni Downs)

Each attendee had a gift bag and special pink gift box at their spot on one of the round tables. The gift bags looked SO very gorgeous decorated with a handmade owl using Natalie's pattern too.

I found out later that inside EACH of these pink boxes was a handmade phone pouch, either my design or Anni's design - and each handmade by Kim's beautiful Mum. I can't believe she made over 60 phone pouches - amazing! This was just the beginning of the spoiling.

Here is one of the phone pouches that she made...

And here I am with Mum - Kim's Mum that is, although I called her Mum all weekend, she just made me feel so at home and welcome. I hope she didn't mind too much.

Kim and Carol had set a shop up at the front of the room and let me tell you, we were all drawn like magnets to the gorgeous books, patterns and fabrics that were for sale - all weekend!

I was very proud and excited to see my book in Kim's shop set up too...

After all of our oohing and ahhing over how beautiful everything in the room looked, it was time to set up our samples. This is always a fun part, working out just how we would display everything. Here is how my display looked...

I had to bring some of my 'girls' with me on my weekend away too, so chose Fawn and Bluebird to join us. The ladies didn't mind my girl coming along for the ride too.

Just before the ladies started arriving I popped outside and was greeted with the most BEAUTIFUL full rainbow. It was hard to capture it on my camera as it's beauty was brighter than you can see here, however here is the rainbow. What a beautiful way to start a very special weekend.

It wasn't long until the lovely ladies started arriving, all excitedly ready for the weekend to begin. After sharing dinner together, we headed into the classroom for introductions and a meet and greet.

Here are all of the projects that were designed especially for this retreat, by Natalie, Anni and myself. 

Natalie designed a gorgeous retreat seat with pockets on the side to hold your retreat goodies, as well as a matching block keeper. Anni designed a pair of gorgeous bags made from wool felt as well as some little Christmas cones and matching table topper. And my project was a pair of bags called 'Cherry Lane' featuring zig zag piecing and both embellished with a gorgeous fabric flower.

Here are some close up's of my projects - Cherry Lane...

The Cherry Lane bag -

The Cherry Lane wristy -

And a close up of the fabric flower -

The ladies were thrilled with all we had to share and were super keen to dive straight into stitching, so Friday night was full of excitement and lots of stitching. The stitching, chatting, and nibbling on choccies went on into the wee hours of the morning. We teachers headed off to bed around midnight, so we were ready for our big day of teaching...

I will leave part one here, on Friday evening. Pop back tomorrow to see my 'What I wore Wednesday' post as well as part two of 'Stitching at the Waters Edge' retreat too. x Janelle

Our holiday (day eight) - Inspired Stitched (day two)...

We have arrived at Day two of Inspired Stitches and Day Eight of our holiday. Thanks for sticking with me through all of these posts. I really wanted to record these memories for our family as we really did have such a lovely holiday. OK, here is Day Eight...

We woke to a more sunshiny morning than the day before and looked forward to what the day had in store for us all. The family decided they would head off to Adelaide Zoo for the day while I was teaching - I was super excited that they could have a lovely fun day together too.

While I was getting ready for the retreat, Michael and the kids headed down to the beach for a bit of a look. He took these beautiful photos while he was there.

We then headed off for the day, me to the retreat and my family for a day of fun!

I was so very excited to teach this second day at Inspired Stitches. The room soon filled up with excited stitchers, some returning from the day before and others there for the second day only. The room was soon buzzing once again.

We designers headed back to the front to introduce ourselves and our projects once again.

Then it was time to begin our day. Those returning for day two got stuck into their stitching and the new girls excitedly looked through their goody bags and decided which project they wanted to start with first.

There were so many gorgeous girls in attendance that I could have spent all day chatting. I was very excited though to see lots of birdcages being stitched and completed as well.

There was one extra special stitcher who was the very first person, from all three Inspired Stitches retreats, who actually finished one of the retreat projects on the first day. Meet Wendy...

Wendy proudly wore her flower for the day and then was even busier on the second day completing another flower with a fabric belt and a linen journal cover for her flower. As well as that, Wendy's friend Sharon was super busy too and completed the whole scarf as well as a flower and had time to start on one of the other projects as well. Thanks girls - you amazed me away with your cleverness.

I also got to meet some beautiful girls who I had 'known' for many years through my stitching and scrapbooking but had never met in real life. I was thrilled to have my photo taken with some of these girls.

Here I am with the lovely Jo Koschmann who has been making my designs for years. We have chatted through my blog as well so it was a real honour to finally meet Jo.

At the end of the day Jo's beautiful daughter Sophie popped in for a hello too. I have been working with Sophie for quite a few years through my scrapboking with Kim Archer, so it was an honour to meet Sophie too.

I was also thrilled to meet a fellow Blythe collector, Nicole Hall - who brought along her girl Gwen for the day. It was so lovely to meet both Nicole and Gwen and see Gwen dressed in some clothes from my etsy store too.

(left to right: Michelle, Nicole, me and Jo)

I met so many beautiful girls, and some cheeky ones too!! It was great to joke and laugh and have fun while stitching, sipping cups of tea and stitching too. It really was a pretty special day.

Here I am with the naughty (I mean back) table. These girls were so much fun and always ready for a bit of cheekyness too. Thanks so much girls!!

We had a lot of fun chatting about the South Australian Accent too. Most South Australians don't know what I am talking about, but it sure was fun to hear how some of them say hour, shower and flower. Here I am with the gorgeous girls from one of the front tables - some who had the best SA accents ever!

After lunch we had another show and tell. It was really special to see so many of our designs made by others. It was a highlight of my day for sure.

The first photo I want to share with you is of two very special ladies - Marie on the left who I met last time I taught at Inspired Stitches and Christine who I met for the first time this year. Marie and I have kept in contact over the last two years and Christine came all the way from QLD to attend the retreat (and meet me). Both ladies are very special to me and I am honoured to have spent a day with them both. Marie and Christine both had one of my needle keepers from my book to show - aren't they gorgeous!!

The next photo is super exciting to me - we asked those who had completed one of my flowers to come and stand together out the front - and look how many there are!! Each flower looked amazing too - well done clever girls.

Here is a close up collage of some of the finished flowers - they are all so different and all gorgeous too!

I also snapped a few shots of some of my fellow designers displays - everything looked so beautiful and so inspiring too. Here are Natalie's gorgeous samples, all looking pretty grouped together.

And the lovely Gail Pan's samples all looking gorgeous - with a little snippet of Helen's samples on the left side. I am so sorry Helen that I didn't get a full shot of your display.

At the end of the day we gathered together for some photos - and we designers felt a little like we did on our wedding days. Our cheeks were sore from so much smiling!!

The lovely Sandy N snapped this fun shot of Natalie and I together too - I love it! Thanks Sandy.

And before we knew it, the day was over and it was time to say good bye and pack away our samples. I must admit that I left it as long as I could before taking down my samples. I was sad that our special weekend was coming to an end but my heart was full with memories and fun times spent with kindred spirits too.

I want to say the BIGGEST thank you to Sarah and her beautiful family for taking such good care of us and for hosting such a wonderful retreat too. Another big thank you to my fellow designers who made teaching alongside them an absolute pleasure. And to each and every person who attended the retreat - I feel so very blessed to have met you, and take with me very special memories of our weekend together. I really did have the most special time - thank you xx

After packing our weekend away into boxes, my little family and I headed back to our cabin for our last night in Adelaide. On the way out we stopped for a few photos of the Westminster School where the event was held. It is such a beautiful place, I thought you would enjoy seeing a little of the grounds too.

The grounds had lovely sculptures scattered around too, this one was particularly lovely.

We finished our day by taking a last look at the beach near our cabin. It was so lovely to stand and look out over the ocean and soak in the last little snippets of the day.

At that brings me to the end of day Eight and the end of Inspired Stitches. We are also near the end of our holiday too. I will back soon to wrap up the last three days of our holiday... x Janelle

Our holiday (day seven) - Inspired Stitches (day one)...

Day Seven of our holiday saw our little family spending our days apart. Michael and the kids headed off for adventures together in Adelaide and I excitedly headed to the much anticipated 'Inspired Stitches' event run by Sarah of Quilt Fabric Delights.

So today I want to tell you all about 'Inspired Stitches'. Let me tell you, I had the BEST time. It was wonderful, so to share how much fun I had, I better start at the beginning.

We arrived in the morning ready to begin our day to a room looking all delicious - with our samples along one side wall, Sarah's shop at one end of the room and gorgeous table decorations made by Sarah too. Aren't these just the cutest flowers.

There was a buzz in the room as the girls started to arrive. They were greeted by the lovely Ally and shown to their table where they excitedly looked through their goodie bags.

There were lots of greetings, hello's and everyone excitedly having a look around the room. Sarah had her store set up at one end of the room and everything looked just beautiful. Let me tell you, it was so hard not to bring a little bit of every fabric home with me too!

I was very excited to share my designs with everyone there too. I heard a lot throughout the day that our samples look much better in real life than in photos, so it was lovely to have so many on display. I want to send a special thank you to Emma of Ballarat Patchwork who sent my book samples over to Sarah especially for the event. Thank you Emma.

Here are my samples on display. It was really lovely to see them all together, something that hasn't happened for quite a while.

I also brought along my Blythe girls and popped them on display too. There were several girls attending the retreat who collect Blythe dolls also, so I thought they might like to meet my girls in real life too.

After lots of chatting it was time to begin our day. Sarah did the introductions then handed the microphone over to us designers to introduce ourselves and our projects for the retreat. This year I taught alongside 3 gorgeous girls - Natalie Ross of Natalie Ross in Stitches, Gail Pan of Gail Pan Designs and Helen Stubbings of Hugs and Kisses. I really enjoyed teaching with these girls and we had a lot of fun too.

I was really excited to reveal my project to everyone attending as well. I really really love this new design and am excited to show you as well. This year I taught a trio of goodies. The first is a fabric scarf with a stitchery birdcage on one end and applique birds on the other. The scarf is also reversible with piecing on the other side and frills on the end. The second was a journal cover featuring the same stitchery birdcage and bird, a great alternative for those not wanting to make the scarf. And finally a gorgeous fabric flower that could be used for lots of different things - the girls will tell you that I showed then lots of different ways to wear and use their fabric flowers too.

After our introductions it was time to get busy stitching. Sarah had supplied everyone with a starter pack for each of our projects, so much time was spent deciding which project to start with - it was a lot of fun! The room was literally buzzing with excitement.

While the girls began stitching, I enjoyed getting to know everyone just that little bit more and sharing my hints and tips for neat stitchery and my method of applique too. Here are a few snapshots from day one and the gorgeous people that I got to spend my day with.

Here is the gorgeous Q who started my day off with such kind words - thank you Q x

And the beautiful Sandy who flew all the way from Sydney to attend the retreat. I had the pleasure of meeting Sandy a few years earlier so was thrilled to spend a weekend with her again.

Here is Bec and Danielle with their stitching - look how much of the birdcage they finished in one day too, just gorgeous and super exciting too!

I also had the pleasure of meeting so many lovely girls who I had met online or who I knew the names of but had never met in real life. Sadly I didn't get to take a photo with everyone who attended, but here are just a few to share.

Here is the gorgeous Georgette and Meredith - these two were so much fun. It was so lovely to meet them in real life. Georgette's Mum also attended with her, and let me tell you, she give the BEST hugs. Thanks girls for sharing your day with me.

It was also so lovely to meet Janelle and Sue - who both traveled a long way to attend too. Janelle lives in the same town as my swap partner Sally (who I swap Christmas gifts with each year) so it was so lovely to meet Janelle and send hello's back to Sally too.

During the afternoon it was time for 'show and tell', one of my most favourite parts of teaching retreats. You see, working from home I don't often get to see my designs made by others, so it was SUPER exciting to see some of my designs.

Here is the gorgeous Wendy who brought along her 'A Bluebirds Welcome' journal cover - from the pattern I donated to Sarah's retreat last year. I love the colours Wendy has used, just gorgeous.

The lovely Sandy brought along her 'Frilly Dilly Bag' to show us all, and was excited to tell us that she is complimented on her bag all the time. I can see why, it is gorgeous!

I was also VERY excited to see Amanda's version of 'Little Bluebirds', my block of the month. I have only ever seen one other 'Little Bluebirds' in real life and made by someone else, so I did get goosebumps when I saw this and was so excited to see it, thank you Amanda.

We shared a lovely lunch together, lots of cups of tea and chatted (oh and stitched) the day away. I just loved seeing so many birdcages come to life around the room too. I hope to see some finished scarves and journal covers popping up in blogland soon too.

I must confess that the end of the day arrived too quickly and I was sad that some of these beautiful girls wouldn't be returning for the second day but I was still super excited to meet all the new girls coming for the second day as well. We ended our day with lots of photos, hugs and goodbyes until next time. And I headed back to our cabin to hear all about the adventures of my little family too. It really was a great day!

Back soon to share all about day two of 'Inspired Stitches' including lots of photos of more gorgeous girls too... Thanks for following along our holiday with me. x Janelle

NOTE: A special thank you to Sarah for not only hosting a wonderful retreat and taking such good care of us, but for sharing her photos with me too. Sarah has blogged all about 'Inspired Stitches' too - you can see all she has to share HERE. Thank you Sarah x

pretty inspired...

This week I have been playing with these pretty fabrics.

I am working on my projects for 'Inspired Stitches' being run by the lovely Sarah of Quilt Fabric Delights. I am super excited to be teaching at 'Inspired Stitches' again this year and am having so much fun designing and stitching some brand new projects for those attending. If you are still thinking about attending, Sarah tells me there are still some spots left - I would love to meet you there.

I will share sneak peeks of my projects soon but for now I better get back to my stitching... x Janelle

I'm still here...

So sorry for my blog absence once again, it has not been intentional, sadly I have been battling an awful flu for the last two weeks. I am sure that anything I would have had to say during that time would have been a bit jumbled, so I have waited till now to return to blogging.

Here is a little run down of life at our house at the moment...

* The kids are on school holidays, so we have been enjoying lazy days at home and enjoying the break from the busy school routines.

* Before I came down with the flu I had almost completed another batch of goodies for my etsy store - so just this week I was finally able to update. I was super excited to add a new range of Blythe dresses called 'Pinnie' dresses - as they are based on a pinafore style dress. I loved adding some of my designs as applique and stitchery to these dresses.

And here they are again, this time with petticoats underneath.

* I am VERY excited to announce that I will be teaching at 'Inspired Stitches' again this year in Adelaide for Sarah of Quilt Fabric Delights. I am teaching with 3 other gorgeous tutors - Natalie Ross, Gail Pan and Helen Stubbings. I am super excited to be attending and can't wait to see old and new friends alike. If you are in Adelaide, I hope to see you there. You can see all the details and book HERE.

* At the National Blythe Meet that we attended last month, I met so many beautiful ladies. One of which offered to sell me one of her beautiful dolls. You see, my Bluebird needed a sister (and I am slightly addicted to this hobby now). So now I am the proud owner of two Blythe dolls. I am happy with my pair and love to use them as models for my store too. So here she is - Fawn. For those interested in Blythe dolls, she is a Nostalgic Pop and so very beautiful.

(Note, you may recognise this red fabric. I used the left overs from the Op shop dress that I converted into a skirt, to make a few Blythe dresses - I just love them! I love Op shopping too!)

The lovely lady that I purchased Fawn from, also spoiled me with one of her handmade dresses and a beautiful pair of boots. Thank you so much Snuffy - I adore my beautiful dress and boots.

* Jasper has joined the school choir this year, I love that my boy loves to sing. We were SO super proud to watch him perform at Church in his choir uniform. I know he can't wait to do it all again.

* I have THREE major stitching projects all due very soon, and I also have a brand new design half made as well - so I have LOTS of catching up to do and hopefully lots of show soon as well.

And I think that is about all to share today. Thank you for popping by my blog and all being well, I will be updating much more regularly now. Have a great day xx Janelle

@home retreat (last day)

So where were we?

Saturday night was such fun that we didn't want it to end, and ended up heading to bed much later than we planned - hence we were a little tired in the morning but still excited about the class we had planned.

After another yummy breakfast, we headed into the classroom where we were judging the challenge layouts. I was excited to be a sponsor for the challenge called 'Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'. For this challenge I had donated some patterns as well as a journal cover especially made for this event - it was in the colours of the weekend, aqua and lime green.

I was very excited to see so many fantastic layouts entered into my challenge (thank you girls). The gorgeous Libby won the main prize, and here she is holding her layout, name badge (that was also amazing) and her prizes, I think she was happy LOL.

There were so many other great challenges and prizes from the sponsors - it was really tough to choose the winners!

After a few more prizes were given out, we dove into our big group class - this was a tag team class  by all 5 of us tutors. As the class went along, we each moved around the room and taught our pages of the mini album to a table at a time. It was a BUSY class but I am sure the girls loved what we had to share. I couldn't wait to get home and scrap my 'home' album too. Here is a page from my section of the class...

Before we knew it, the day was almost over. We quickly got together with as many girls as possible and took photos together. It was SO sad saying goodbye and it has been really hard finding the right words to say how much we really did LOVE the retreat and each of the girls that came to spend the weekend with us. Saying goodbye was the sadest part but we all felt full of friendship and creativity too.

We ST girls and Kim raced outside to grab a photo together with our aprons on too - I think we all looked a little tired by now, so not the best photo but we had a good laugh while taking it!

And here I am with some of the girls (in no particular order). I am sorry we ran out of time and I couldn't get a photo with everyone.

With beautiful Cherie Walsh...

With the lovely Christine Rumley...

With my dear friend Jen Hall...

With the wonderful and amazingly talented Kim Archer...

With the gorgeous Leanne Love... Leanne totally spoils my kiddies all the time, and it was wonderful for us all to finally meet her IRL too. Thanks Leanne for being so lovely to our family xx

Sadly I didn't get a photo with Libby-licious - she is one stylish girl with an amazing sense of style. I have a serious crush on her bag too - so am on the hunt for one for me (thanks for the laughs Libby)

With this gorgeous little one, Lisa Pate...

With my beautiful, amazing and supportive friend Mardi, I love her to bits xxx

With the hilarious Mel, thanks for being a wonderful roomie and for keeping me laughing ALL the time...

With my inspirational new friend Samantha Pearce who has an AMAZINGLY positive attitude and proved to us all that the laws of attraction really do work with a positive outlook on life. Congratulations on all of your prize wins Samantha x

With the gorgeous Sheree Forcier...

And last but definitely NOT least, with the stunning Yvette, who is just AMAZING. I am SO glad I got to finally meet you Yvette...

Goodness, how could I miss the beautiful, gentle Moi. It was SUCH a pleasure meeting Moi after knowing her online for years too. Here I am with Moi...

Thank you to EACH and every girl who spent the weekend with me at the retreat, it was a pleasure and an honour to get to know each and every one of you. I am SO sorry I wasn't able to get a photo with each of you, hopefully next time xx 

So that brings me to the end of the retreat - it all ended too quickly, without enough hugs but we really did have a wonderful wonderful time. A HUGE thank you to Kim for EVERYTHING, your amazing talent and details of every aspect of the weekend was amazing and we will treasure the memories from this weekend for years to come.

______________________________________________________________________________

I am putting the finishing touches on a brand new design, so will be back VERY soon to share that with you too. It is called 'Stitch a little Christmas'...

 

 

 

 

@home retreat (part two)

OK so where was I - Let's pick up again on Saturday morning...

My roomie and I (Mel) woke earlier than we wanted but were super excited with what the day had in store for us. Here is our beautiful room.

And here I am taking photos of the room (on Friday). I read a blog post before I left that suggested you take photos of yourself in a mirror while on holidays so that you don't miss out on being in the shots - so I took their advice and here I am.

We headed off for another delicious BIG breakfast before beginning our day. At 8.30 am we started with Mardi's class in the classroom - those girls not doing some of the classes had the scrapping room to themselves for the day, so there was LOTS to do. I assisted in Mardi's class and had a wonderful time getting to know each of the girls as they scrapped Mardi's AMAZING layouts.

Here is Mardi with her class. all holding up one or more of the layouts they completed in the class.

I was lucky enough to purchase a kit too so upon returning home, I sat happily and scrapped three layouts with the kit. Thank you Mardi for your generous kit and gorgeous samples too.

After Mardi's class and a yummy morning tea of pastries and a cuppa, we dove into Kim's class. Her class was a beautiful mini book with lots of texture and mixed media. It is GORGEOUS and I so wished I could have made it too. Sadly we didn't get a group photo as we had to head off to lunch after Kim's class but I did manage to snap some shots of Kim teaching - here she is.

After a delicious lunch it was my turn. Now I had taught one or two local small groups some scrapbooking but this was my very first large group taught at a retreat (scrapping that is), so I admit I was quite nervous. I didn't need to be though because the girls were wonderful. I had them stitching, playing with felt and I think they all had a great time. Here I am teaching.

And here is our group shot, all the girls holding up their mini albums that they made with me. Thank you SO much girls for being such a WONDERFUL class.

Here is a little sneak peek of my project. 

After my class we had a 3 hour break, to rest and grab some dinner. I took a little time out and had a few quiet minutes in my room to recharge my batteries. Then it was time to head back to the main scrapping room ready for the Saturday night PARTY!

Kim and her family had been busy decorating the room - and it looked FANTASTIC! Kim had even handmade an aqua polka dot party hat for each of us too.

 

During the evening the girls did some make and takes, and took time to complete challenges and class samples. Here is a table of gorgeous girls having a fun time!

Kim had made a pass the parcel for each table as well, and we laughed so hard we could hardly breathe as well played together. We ST girls even had one for our table with Capri and Jamison, it was SUCH fun. There were VERY generous gifts donated for each table too. SO many gifts were given out throughout the whole weekend. It was very exciting to see whose name would be pulled out for each prize.

 

We really did have a wonderful night ending in LOTS of belly laughing till our sides hurt. It was wonderful and just what we all needed. Here we are with Kim, wearing our party hats and enjoying our night together.

 

Back soon to share all about the last day of the retreat...

x Janelle

 

The rundown on the @home|away retreat (part one)

 As mentioned in my previous post, I had the most WONDERFUL time at the @home|away retreat last weekend. I have actually been a little down this week, missing all of my friends and the wonderful girls that attended too. So today, I have been reliving the retreat by editing photos ready to share with you. So grab a cuppa and get ready for photo overload!! I can't wait to share it all with you...

Thursday morning I awake and my first thought was 'it's today!'. I was SO very excited for so many reasons. The retreat had finally arrived but I was also getting to meet Yvette and Mel for the first time AND have Mardi and the girls visit me at my house. Something I have been wishing for for a long time.

After doing my final packing, I began to get nervous, so I decided to bake some afternoon tea for the girls. I made a batch of chelsea buns and paced a little more. The time eventually arrived and the girls were here - in my home! I had to pinch myself to believe it was real. While the girls were here, we made a little tag team card for Kim (secret squirrel of course) and headed into Kim's house.

I did the quick 'tour guide' of my town and area as we drove together to Kim's house (thanks Yvette for your great driving) - and we were soon at Kim's where there were more hugs and we were on our way. Kim and I travelled together and chatted non stop - we were SO very excited.

We arrived at the BEAUTIFUL resort, checked in and found our room. It was BEAUTIFUL and huge. Just like a 3 bedroom town house with our own plunge pool. We were all so excited that we forgot to take some before shots of our rooms. Here were are together after dinner, chatting, laughing and doing some last minute preparations.

It was during our Thursday night together that Kim presented us each with a beautifully wrapped gift. I did actually know what was in these gifts as I had made part of them, but we all excitedly opening them together. Inside was an individual apron that I had made for each of us in the colours of the weekend, as well as a notebook magazine from Kim. Kim also spoiled me with a little mini kit as well as a thank you. Everything was gorgeous!

Here I am modelling Kim's apron at home...

 

Our rooms were so beautiful and the beds so comfy. So after a BIG day of travelling for the girls, we all headed to bed, super excited about the weekend to come. We were up bright and early Friday, ready to check into our new rooms for the remainder of the weekend. Here I am with my first roomie, Mardi. It was wonderful to get to have a sleepover with Mardi before the retreat began.

After a yummy BIG breakfast, our day began. Kim had worked tirelessly leading up to the retreat, so it was our job to help put all of her special touches together for the registrants. We worked together to get the scrapping room all ready. There was just SO much attention to detail, from the name tags - with a small beach bag each containing a hand painted 'lovely lady' painted by Kim and a scratchie to win a lucky dip prize too, to the table centre pieces.

 

Kim's beautiful friend Leesa came to put the final touches on the table centre pieces. They were all SO beautiful.

Each table centrepiece was slightly different - but equally as gorgeous.

 

While Leesa was tweaking the table centres, Mel was busily setting up a display of some of our layout samples and mini albums. She did a great job.

Yvette, Mardi and I put the finishing touches together for the gift bags and Friday night class kits on each persons place at the tables. Everything was coming together so beautifully.

 

  

Kim also had the wonderful idea to have a Market Stall where we each handmade items to have their for sale for the girls attending the retreat. Each of the ST girls and Kim worked so hard on handmaking such beautiful things. Sadly I didn't get to make things for sale however I was proud that some of my patterns could be part of the market stall. Kim's son Jamison and Mum Peggy did a wonderful job manning the stall on Friday night. It was a HUGE success.

And by the afternoon, the room was ready! It looked WONDERFUL and we were all SO very excited to begin welcoming the girls as they arrived.

5pm arrived and we excited waiting for the attendees to start arriving to register. It was like greeting old friends as so many have been online friends for years and it was wonderful to meet so many new friends too. Here were are waiting to enter the scrapping room - I look like I might have been doing a little jig - I was VERY excited!

 

After dinner, our weekend kicked off with a combined class run by Kim herself. I must confess that the other ST girls and I LOVED the layout so much that we secretly wished we were scrapping too, however we were really thrilled to assist in Kim's class, and get to know everyone just a little more too. Lots of fun, chatting and excitement filled the air.

During the night we also ran some make and takes too. Here is the little mini tag book that I taught alongside Mardi who taught the most GORGEOUS version too.

The girls scrapped happily till around midnight when we all headed back to our rooms for a chat (or two) and some much needed sleep before our big Saturday of classes and scrapping arrived. I for one, went to bed with a happy heart - I had a WONDERFUL day and couldn't wait until tomorrow.

Edited to add: I forgot to include a photo of the supper that we shared, it was delicious!! Beautiful mini muffins made by Kim and her family, I made mini choc chip cookies and Kim Wood made cup cakes with beautiful @home cup cake wrappers - just beautiful. Too nice to eat, so lovely to look at LOL.

Back soon with part two...

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On an unrelated note: Today the Australasian Quilt Market (trade show) started down in Melbourne. Sadly this year I had to decide not to attend due to family reasons, so have been feeling quite sad today that I am missing all of the fun. I just wanted to wish all of the Creative Abundance team the ABSOLUTE best for today and the remainder of AQM, I SO wish I could have been there too. And to any of my wonderful customers that I may have missed seeing this weekend, I look forward to seeing you there next year!

x Janelle

 

 

 

I'm back - after an AMAZING weekend...

Yes, I am back. I am recharged, refreshed and re-energised. I had the MOST AMAZING weekend with these wonderful, inspriting, supportive, accepting, amazingly beautiful girls.

And all of these amazing, inspiring, beautiful women too.

There is SO much to tell and so much to share - we had such a wonderful time together that none of us wanted it to end. I will be back soon with a BIG post, telling you all about the Kim Archer @home|Away retreat, but for now I want to say a HUGE thank you to Kim, my beautiful support team girls and each person that attended the retreat. Thank you ALL for giving me such an amazing and wonderful weekend - I will remember this weekend forever... x Janelle