Winter Retreat...Day One

(this is my 3rd. attempt to post here this morning...wish me luck!)


Winter Retreat is such a wonderful experience, it defies description. It is a one of a kind, have to be there, laughs never stop 3 day extravaganza of creativity, fantastic food, and companionship beyond measure. The Hilltop Memories gals (www.hilltopmemories.com) of Temple Terrace Florida: Linda, Dee, Elle and Michele, put on a scrap weekend that is so amazing! Hats off them one and all.

And now to feebly attempt to describe the weekend day by day over the next few days on this blog.

Day One: I got to Barb's (my roomie from my old convention teaching days)at around 9 and her funnier than hell daughter, Gerri-Anne picked the two of us up about ten. Poor girl had to go into a meeting at her work on one of her vacation days but she was sure ready for some fun and adventure when we hit the road. Up 75 we went...destination: St. Pete and my good friend, The Kipster! Thank God Gerri-Anne isn't affected by that nemesis of mine, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge! I got off a couple of good shots of it in it's admitted splendor.

Kip had sent us all a funny e-mail hoping we had left room for her and her belongings in the SUV or at least brought bungee cords to strap her to the top. When we got to Kip's, Gerri-Anne pulled out some bungee cords and told Kip to hop up on top of the SUV...too funny. Here we are posed in back of Gerri=Anne's (or, as Kip called her, Mary Lou)'s SUV. We were packed in tight in the back as you can see.

First stop on our way to O'Leno State Park where the retreat was being held was lunch and then on to Hobby Lobby in Ocala. None of us had been in a Hobby Lobby and boy! were we in for a treat. Several of us bought darling paper mache houses to alter, wooden letters and boxes and, of course, packs of papers. Teri had sent us each coupons and we sure put those to good use. At HL, we met up with Teri and shopped like there was no tomorrow. Then we crammed all our purchases into the back, sides and everywhere we could and headed on to the retreat.

We had our cabin from last year, Cabin 6! We love this cabin as it is close to the shower house and not too far from the lodge where we eat and crop. The cabins are "open air" with screening, for the most part, from about half way up the cabin walls. There is limited electricity and no heat. The temp dropped to 30 the first night but things like frozen toes and noses make for memories!

We organized our beds, stowed our clothes and wondered who had already arrived in our cabin as one bed was completely made up. We assumed it was our pal, Lisa Thayer, all the way from the Carolinas. Lisa arrived and now we were really worried as the bedding was not hers. We only found out when we went into the lodge, that our dear friend, Jayne had surprised us by coming to the retreat too!

We scrapped, laughed, got caught up with each other, hugged, visited with other pals at the retreat and had a wonderful evening....

STAY TUNED TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE OF ... WINTER RETREAT 07