eat dessert first

Wow, Friday & Saturday were SO busy here at Creative Escape that I'm just now getting around to blogging about all the exciting things that happened. It was non-stop fun, fun, fun!

On Friday, we attended the first 4 workshops, an album by Laurie Stamas, a frame project by Tim Holtz, an album by Janet Hopkins (featuring Heidi Swapp's new "Dream Dining Room" collection, I loved the gorgeous grays and blues!), and a mini-album by Jenni Bowlin. The projects were all very creative, although I'm not really a fan of the vintage-inspired products of Jenni's line. But the workshops are more about learning new techniques, not focusing on the artistic tastes and choices of the teachers. Then came the "Friday Night Extravaganza", where we all stayed up late making some beautiful greeting cards. They sent us off to bed with a "sweet dreams" giveaway of goodies from Luxe Designs, a company that makes some very chic scrapbooking products! Another special CE touch!

Have I mentioned CE's "RAK Attacks"?.....a "RAK" is a Random Act of Kindness, and during workshops, CE staff will suddenly enter a classroom, rolling in a big cart of scrapbooking goodies (wrapped in pretty Creative Escape ribbon, a nice touch). They start calling names, and hand out packages --- WOO HOO, that was so much fun! Mine contained some glue (you'd have to be a scrapbooker to understand why that's actually exciting) and some giant jeweled brads from Heidi Swapp's line. Gotta love bling!

And Saturday's workshops were even more fabulous! We did several page layouts with Kelly Goree (love her style and sense of color!), an acrylic album with Jessica Guthrie, a mini-album with Kolette Hall, and my favorite workshop of all.....with Heidi Swapp, my absolute favorite scrapbook designer and founder of the CE event. Her project concept was an interactive calendar/wall hanging/photo display/inspiration board, and geez it was so clever & creative! That workshop alone was worth the price of admission.

Tonight at dinner, I was introduced to the CE tradition of eating dessert first. How fun is that? Yes, they really bring dessert out first, and it had a twist. Since the theme of CE this year had to do with "treasuring" people and things, there was a mini treasure chest and key on our plates. They told us that someone's treasure chest contained a prize --- 2 tickets to CE '09 (WOW!). Needless to say, the winner was ecstatic! They also did 60+ raffles during the evening with some great prizes, including 2 tickets for a scrapbooking cruise (WOW again!)........I didn't win anything, but it sure was fun to watch the excitement of it all!

Since we received so much great stuff during the event, not to mention some of us did just a little shopping {wink}, we all have way too much to bring home in our suitcases. So, CE set up a shipping station right here at the hotel, where we could FedEx our stuff home. They provided the boxes, tape, etc., and we paid only their discounted corporate shipping rate. Perfect! It'll be nice to get my CE goodies (all over again) at my doorstep soon. Because Sal reads my blog, I won't say here how many boxes I shipped home. {chuckle}

Another CE tradition is to collect pins and attach them all over your tote bag, craft apron, etc. I now have about 16 of them, and they say fun and funny things like "i got in" (referring to being chosen in the CE registration lottery), "it's a dry heat: escape", "relax", "enjoy the escape", "eat dessert first", "creative bliss", etc. Mine are attached all over the front of my new CE craft apron (see either pic, above or below), which I loved wearing while I scrapped! And I had all the CE teachers sign it, and now it looks so stinkin' cute!

One of the event staff told me that CE '09 will be held here at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa again, which is fine with me because it's a gorgeous property! The '09 event will be a little earlier, in August, and lottery entries will begin in February. They'll begin drawing names in March. Wish me luck !!!

On Sunday morning, I have one more fun (non-CE) activity planned here at the resort before I leave (hint: I'll be horsing around). I'll let it be a surprise and will have it on my blog early next week.

CE has been a great escape, a really fun and memorable time. It's a super event! I loved making so many new friends, and I send out a special thanks again to all the gals who brought RAKs for me! Please keep in touch and let me know if you're ever coming to south Florida. (Barbara --- it was so great to share CE with you! I'm glad you contacted me when you found me on the CE message board!)

So thanks everyone for sharing in the fun with me here! I hope you've enjoyed hearing and seeing some of the details of CE. Stay tuned to see Where In The World? I'm off to next.

Time to get back to reality, which hopefully doesn't include Hurricane Ike. It makes me sick to think that Haiti, Cuba, and/or the northern Gulf Coast will get hit again. Some gals from New Orleans had to miss CE because of Hurricane Gustav. {sad} Take a hike, Ike!

I'll be so glad to get home to Sal, Buddy & Aruba. I miss you guys! XOXOXO

Signing off now. Time to finish packing.