A friend of mine is a huge crafter type, mostly scrapbook stuff and card stuff and stamping stuff. She invited me to join her and another coworker at a scrap book retreat (coming up this weekend). I decided to go because I’d like to make Anya’s 1 year scrap book before she’s 10, and I’m running out of time. I signed up for this retreat a couple of months ago, and suddenly it’s now only two days away and I’m scrambling to get ready. What is so retreatful about this, I wonder? I’ve been spending all this time preparing…finding photos, making sure I know what month they are from, compiling entries from this blog to write on the pages. I still need to send a bunch of photos to walmart to get printed. This is work!

I’m a little nervous about the retreat. There will be about two dozen folks there, and I can pretty much guarantee that all of them will be craftier than I am. I’m okay with that, but I’m still a little concerned about the looks I’m going to get when I show up with my plastic grocery bag full of scrap book tools from 1993 (the last time I did any scrap book stuff). Have you seen all the STUFF you can buy to make scrap books? Holy canoli. I’m trying to keep it simple (and cheap) by sticking with a few basic stamps, one pack of colored paper, and (yes) my stuff from 15 years ago.

What is a scrap book retreat, you may ask? Most of these folks will show up at the retreat place Thursday and stay until Sunday and sleep there and eat there and bathe (I hope!) there. They will spend hours and days and eons sitting in metal folding chairs, pouring over (probably) meticulously organized photos and doodads and thingamabobs to make a billionity million scrap book pages. It sounds kinda cool, like a giant sleep over, but I won’t be diving in all the way. My friends and I will only be there Friday and Saturday, and I’ll be at the mercy of Andy’s driving services.

Oh, I have to make a snack to share. Does bringing the popcorn popper and kernels count ya think?