So, I have had this blog for a few years. And I blog whenever I think about it but I only think about it once a year or so. It's weird because I find writing to be majorly therapeutic. I'm sure I need regular therapy soooooo, I set an alarm to go off on my phone each week to remind me to write a post. So this is my first. If I think about more than once a week I will blog more than once a week. But for now I think that is realistic for me. Now that this is out of the way.... I am sooo excited about this thing called scrapbooking. It's been slow motion this year but I have this new inspiration suddenly. I am thinking it's because of all the great new ladies I have met recently through a facebook group called Scrapfest 12 (previously Scrapfest 11). It's made up of IDK about 50 ladies who all planned on attending Scrapfest 11 which was held a couple weeks ago at Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. We (my sister and I) traveled there on Friday, 9/16. I registered online for 6 classes and had planned on doing make and take when I got there. My first class was scheduled for Friday at 3pm. According to my calculations I could leave my house at 5 am and get there in plenty of time. I left home shortly after 5am, stop at the atm and got on 57 North. When I got right outside of Chicago I stopped at a gas station in Hammond, IN which is right on the other side of the IL/IN boarder. I filled up and headed to my sister's southside home. It was 8am by then. We dropped my niece off at school about 5 minutes from my sister's house. So at this point we were right on time. Of course we got caught in Chicago rush hour traffic but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. So I ask my sister to input the address to MOA into the gps. The gps takes you the way that will get you there without traffic which is fine but sometimes it takes you out of the way. So it took me way up north before heading west. I could have just headed west which is the way I was used to going. Long story short by following the gps we added 2 hours on to our trip which didn't put us at MOA until 3:30pm. My first class started at 3pm. It was a 45 minute class so I didn't even try to get there. We checked into the Best Western Plus which is literally right across from the mall. It was recently renovated and very beautiful. Because I had been driving all day and not eaten anything I had a ridiculous headache. I laid down for a while. Then my sister's friends who live in MN met us at the hotel. I had plans to meet some of the ladies from the FB SF11 group for dinner but then felt bad because I couldn't just tell my sisters friends to get lost. So we ended up going to Red Lobster for dinner. I love RL normally but that was the worst visit ever.... I should have just gone to CRAVE. When we got back from dinner we said our goodbyes to my sister's friends and did what? Got ready to scrapbook. After all that's what this weekend was all about... After pulling all of our supplies out we looked at one another and said maybe we should take a nap. After thinking it over we came to the conclusion that it was a bad idea. We were so tired that we wouldn't have gotten up again... So, after you've eaten and are sleepy what's a better idea than a nap? A walk! We went to the mall found that it was too late to pick up our badges so we shopped. First at the outpost and then in the Archivers store. That's were we bumped in Mary. I only knew that she was apart of the group because of the T-shirt she was wearing. She was super nice and even gave me a 30% off coupon. I talked to her for a few minutes before checking out and heading back to our hotel. It was almost 10pm by then. I checked FB and some of the ladies from the group who were staying there too where in the crop area and I was excited to meet them. I met Judy, Megan and Kathy that night. They showed me all the make and takes and class projects that they were working on from that day. Judy had to leave and we stay to crop for a couple hours longer. I went back to my room and finished the t-shirts I had been procrastinating about finishing. I then went to bed (3am). 6:30am rise and shine time. Quickly got dressed and downstairs for the free hot breakfast that the hotel was offering (loved those waffles)... It was great spending time just my sister and I. We made it to the mall by 7:45am. We shopped a tiny bit more, got our badges, checked to see if more classes we wanted opened up then headed to get into a make and take line. Our first class was at 10am so we figured we could get a few of them in.... We were WRONG! I think we got 2 done then it was off to our first class it was the Epiphany class with Michelle Hill. Loved it! Loved her and loved the things I learned (like how to make a hand made fabric flower). She was a great teacher (super bubbly) and then she tells us she has a 21 year old and is a grandma. Really hard to believe because I would have maybe given her 35 years at the oldest. Anyway we finished that class and got into more long lines got like 3 more make and takes done before our second class. It was the Bella blvd. Everyday life pages with Stephanie Hunt. This class was super high paced but again I was super pleased with the materials they gave and the class as a whole. I fell in love with Bellas line. I have brought a ton of Bella stuff since I been home. Anyhow, I then took a My minds eye class with Megan and KC. Again, they had great product and did a good job teaching the class... We then went to TGIFridays and had some appetizers to hold us over until dinner. We took a brief nap before heading into town with a friend of my sisters for the MN take on Chicago style pizza. It wasn't good. LOL! When we got back to the hotel we cropped with the girls until about 2am. It was fun to see all the make and takes and the projects people were working on from class. We got to meet some more ladies too. Cheryl, Sonia and her mom Susan. Great people who I really hope I get to hook up with again next year. After another short nap we made to breakfast and the mall by 10am. We got about 5 make and takes done before our first class which was another class with Bella Blvd. I felt terrible because it was a boy class. My sister took the class with me even though her child is a girl. I offered to pay for the class to make me feel better,lol. The last class we took was the ATD class with a lady named Barbara who was great! She was high energy and we worked at a decent pace. And it was the end of the day on Sunday at SF so she opted to give us all the left overs she had instead of shipping it all back to Utah... It was then time to go. The weekend went by super fast and I can't wait until next year. I learned that I will not take any extra projects with me and that I will just take what I needed for class and an empty tote. I will take at least 10 classes next year and only do make and takes if I just happen to walk past and their is no one in line. The lines where up to 2 hours and that's just not worth it to me... Overall my SF11 experience was a great one. It always helps when you have a really wonderful traveling buddy... I love my sister! Can you believe that we went to MOA and the only store we went into was Archiver's??? Yeah me neither, but it's true... I promise not to wait another year to blog and I also promise that this is the longest one I will ever write, LBVS! Until next time~
