Retreat + Advance

I am back from my UNWIND Retreat, July edition, and I have more things to say than I have space for, really.

We were in a spectacular setting - (we'll be back in October for the next one and registration is now open) - and we truly were isolated from the outside world, which made for a joyful and serene few days, when I know the rest of the world wasn't exactly joyful and serene, so I'm super grateful for that.

I learned some interesting things too, some of which are:

• Country dogs are the best.
• There is wine that has glitter in it. While not for everyone, it's super entertaining to watch other people drink it. I'm thinking their use of the word "natural" on the website might be a bit liberal, as I noticed that it looked EXACTLY like my bowling ball.
• Royal icing isn't as intimidating as you think it is if you have the right teacher. Making iced cookies is super fun.
• If some nearby roadway construction work should happen to sever a large portion of the entire county's water lines, 30 women CAN survive a waterless night by using leftover iced tea to flush toilets. We ARE crafters after all, and who needs tea when there's glitter wine? PS - in case you are a city slicker that has never had to survive a hurricane or I-35 construction mishaps - pour the tea in the bowl, not the tank for optimal results in an emergency. If you have ENOUGH tea, fill both. Thanks to both of our hurricane survivors for helping teach people these important life skills.
• Taking notes during crafty events is essential - I learned a ton, including things about phone apps, new products, storage ideas - you name it. The hive mind rocks. Having one place to write all your ideas down instead of grabbing random scraps of cardstock is best. Try and guess which one I did.
• Taking "art notes" is amazing too - my friend Meg brought one of her art journals, and for each of the eight classes we had, she would put leftover paint, ink etc. from each project into a page for future finishing. You can take notes on the techniques there too, which is what I use my art journal for - documenting experiments in technique and color.
• Wet felting soap is easy and fun - muchas gracias to my friend Rebecca for teaching us.
• Crafty people are the kind of people who buy raffle tickets and put other people's names on them. That actually happened. So sweet.
• You can indeed have pineapple upside-down bread pudding for breakfast. Proven fact. Do not doubt me. 
• Canadians get cold in air conditioning. Even when it's 103 outside. Bless their hearts. They are TROOPERS outside.
• Take ALL the photos :).
• I'm pretty sure Pokemon Go was released strategically to coincide with the startling number of calories consumed at this retreat - our chef Melanie is amazing. Thank you, Nintendo for recognizing we needed a little exercise after that!

It really was an incredible, peaceful, joyful experience. I can't wait to do it again in a few months.

I am now home and will unpack this week and settle back in, sadly, without my friends here. Thank goodness for the internet and texting.

I did make a card before I left though - and I really liked it - I wanted to bring the Penned & Painted stamp set with me, but ran out of time. I love the loose style of these flowers. A new online class using this set will be posted soon!

 After I stamped them (I'll have a video on how I placed them soon - that's one of the notes I took at the retreat) - onto a 3" inchie from Inchie Arts, I used the direct-to-paper technique with some new Clearsnap inks we released a Product Focus on today at Splitcoast. These ink pads are great if you are a planner addict because they have seasonal palettes on a single pad so you can ink small planner images separately with one ink pad. I'm not organized to be a planner addict so I used them for direct to paper instead! I loved the spring palette - the right combination of warm and bright and they blend beautifully. I'm LOVING playing with inchies right now. The matboard surface takes ink so beautifully - we used them at retreat for a few projects.

The Mixed Borders set is where I got the sentiment - I love that font - looks like the Ball / Mason Jar font to me.

So what have you been up to while I was gone? Any Pokemon Go fans out there? I have a private FB group for tips & tricks - if you want to be added, just message me on FB!

Hope whatever you're doing, it's fun and colorful. Here are some of my favorite photos from the retreat.

Loveyameanitbye.