Retreat Rehash! Picture Heavy Part 1

I'm back from retreat and I lived to tell the tale...oh wait, I was told what happens at retreat stays at retreat so some things I will have to keep to myself.  Sorry.    BUT, as a consolation prize I have lots of pictures to share, I hope that helps take the sting of my editing away! 

We'll begin our story at, well, the beginning!  I was up and packed and ready to go in plenty of time, even managed to get to the shop before Mary Ann.  We discussed some last minute things, packed the cars with some last minute items and were just about to head out the door when a customer came in.  It was a good thing she came when she did, 2 minutes later and we would have been gone and she would have been S.O.L. because she needed a color conversion and fabric chosen for a project and Jim, Mary Ann's significant other and owner of the shop just isn't up to speed with color conversions and fabric choosing.  As those of you who have done a color conversion before know, it is not always an easy process but I got her done as quickly as possible, but unfortunately, the customer was in a chatty mood and it was an hour later before she finally left.  Putting us an hour behind schedule.  Connie had no idea we had been delayed and she headed out from her house at 10 as agreed, consequently, she hit the unexpected road mess first and luckily for me she called me to tell me to be careful.  The road she said was an absolute @#*&@#& mess with road graders and large trucks tearing it up and since it was a gravel road, and it had rained all day on Thursday she was not exaggerating as I found out when I got to that point.  My car barely made it through and I was instantly worried about all the retreaters getting through it.  Not that there was anything we could do about it at that point.  Putting that worry aside we pulled up to Calvin Crest.  NOTE:  All pictures are clickable to enlarge them.

It was kinda cool to see our event up on the sign!

Unloading the vehicles as quickly as possible we got to work getting everything set up, deciding how to put the tables, running the extension cords, hanging the Plum Street Sampler models,  putting the little packets on their pillows...all the little things that needed to be done before everyone arrived and due to our being late, we didn't get finished until 20 minutes before the first retreater was scheduled to arrive!

Stitching Room waiting for stitcher's

Plum Street Sampler Models

Small friendship bag was placed on each person's pillow

Contents of the above friendship bag

Connie and I were on luggage and room duty while Mary Ann manned the desk and got everyone checked in. 

 
At check in the ladies were given a Friendship box, a goodie bag, and their name tag.

The box contained an exclusive chart designed by Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers, the fabric and the fibers to stitch it and a special card with a Stitcher's Recipe for Friendship on it.  My friend Eloise and I spent a week of long nights working on the boxes to get them just right.  She's a Stampin Up rep and has all the tools and such that were needed. 

The finished model

 I finished the model by mounting it on this pedestal made by the hubby.  He made 30 of them and by the time he was finished he was sick to death of them!  The pedestals were offered to the retreaters for a special price during vendor night.


Abbie was the first to arrive.  She is such a brave lady, she didn't know us from Adam and yet she drove by herself for 6 hours to attend the retreat, her very first retreat.  I would never have had the nerve to do that.  Connie took care of getting Abbie settled into her chosen stitching spot while I stayed  on duty at the door to help the next attendee that arrived.  For a while it was a steady stream of cars and a few panicked phone calls from ladies afraid they were on the wrong road or worried about getting stuck in the mud.  Happily, everyone made it through okay and the last retreaters arrived around 5:30p.m.  

Supper was served at 6:30 and after supper we set up the stash swap and let the ladies in to swap to their hearts content.  There was a lot of stash!  Tons of it in fact.

Stash for the swap

More Stash

Chairs with fabric

Another view

Swapping for Stash!

The rest of the evening was spent stitching and talking and getting to know all the new people we didn't know.  I can't tell you how much fun we had and the laughter was out of control at times!

 

Stacy and Linda

Carole and I

I called it a night around midnight.  Breakfast is served at 8a.m. at Calvin Crest.  Too early if you ask me!!

And so ends the first day of our Recipe for Friendship Retreat. 

I'll stop here for now.  It's almost 10:30p.m. and I have ignored the puppers all evening. 

Stay tuned for part two!

As always, thanks for stopping by and take care till next time!

 
Julie