Fear the Frog part II

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!  We're just putzing around the house today, doing odd jobs like replacing the front door lock as our keys are no longer working right.  Took Amy 15 minutes the other day to get in the house.  I don't want to be the one that can't get in at all!  I hope you all are having a wonderful day!  And now...

Part II of Fear the Frog

If you don't have your speakers on, turn them on for the full retreat experience!

First thing Saturday morning I looked out the sliding glass doors in our room and saw this beautiful sight.

What an awesome way to start the day!  Breakfast was again at 8:00,  followed by the History of Adam and Eve Samplers presentation given by Darlene Andersen.  I completely forgot to take pictures so you will just have to use your imagination.  I learned some interesting things about the history of the samplers and enjoyed seeing the pictures of all the designs in Darlene's collection.  Once the presentation was done we set to work putting out all the goodies for the swap table and when that was done it was time for lunch.

I need to back up a bit now and tell you about the goodie bags the ladies were given.  They included several charts, a little notebook, a microfiber cleaning cloth, sunglasses, a quilted coaster, a pin cushion and several other small items.  All but one of the gals received a pin cushion that looked something like this...

But one lucky lady received a pin cushion that looked like this...

Everyone was told that they could steal or swap the frog pin cushion.  The person that had the pin cushion at the appointed time (9:00p.m. Saturday night) would then have a decision to make.  They could keep the frog cushion or they could choose to pick the mystery box.  The mystery box could contain something better...something worse...Fear the Frog!...or the same thing.

So during everything else that was going on there was a game taking place in the background.  It was fun to watch where the frog would go and how long he would stay before being swiped by someone else.

One other activity that we had at retreat was a display of Little House and Country Cottage Needleworks pieces stitched by our customers.  It's amazing to see them all hanging together in one place and it was amazing that there were not more duplicates amongst the many pieces there.  We've brought them all back to the shop and they will be on display for the entire month of May.  Stop in and take a look if you're in the area! These are just a few of the many that are now on display.

After lunch on Saturday we opened up the swap table and I think everyone that was interested was able to find a treasure or two.  We also provided a masseuse  for the afternoon and those that signed up were in and out  getting their massages.  I have to say it was wonderful!!  Wish I could afford one every day!

Paulette arrived at the tail end of lunch on Saturday and hung out with us until supper.  She signed charts, and the spools for those that wanted them signed and even stitched for a little while.  Everyone was pleased to see her and as usual she was very gracious to everyone.  Thanks again Paulette!

Saturday night after supper we had shop night.  Jim and Mary Ann brought everything out from the shop except for floss and the large cuts of fabric.

The ladies were able to shop for a couple of hours before we closed down for the night at 9:00 and called a halt to the game of pin cushion, pin cushion, who has the pin cushion.  It got a bit aggressive in the last couple of minutes of the game but in the end Deb had the pin cushion in her possession when we yelled GAME OVER!  I wish I had been able to watch the scramble in the last couple of minutes because judging by the laughing going on it must have been hilarious but I was busy watching the clock and missed it.  After consulting with her sisters in crime, she decided to take her chances with the mystery box.

Everyone laughed when she pulled out the pin cushion!  But wait...could there be more??

I didn't remember (do you see a theme here?  I think my brain has turned to mush.) to take a picture of the prize up close so I had to have Deb send me a pic.  She said she loves it and it goes perfectly in her home.

After the game was over we drew numbers and gave out the door prizes and then people started to drift off to bed.  It was probably midnight or so when Connie and  I called it a night.

Sunday morning we had breakfast and then opened up the shop again for an hour or so.  After that people started to pack up and head on down the road.  Some like Shay and Diane had a 3 hour drive ahead of them before one of them hopped a plane back to Chicago, Mary (who came to retreat in spite of having pneumonia) decided to head home and get some much needed rest and Doreen's husband had purchased tickets to Bill Cosby for that day so she left too.  But there were many that stuck around to the bitter end and didn't leave until 3:00.  Thankfully the rain held off that day until about 2 seconds after we were done loading all the cars and were pulling out of the parking lot!  Now that is good timing!!

The group

And that my friends is the end of another fantastic retreat!  At least I think it went well, I can't speak for anyone else.  Our no frills retreat is the last weekend in October if anyone is interested.  Registration will begin in June.  And it looks like our Spring Retreat for 2013 will be the first weekend of May but I'm not 100% sure of that yet.

I've had a couple of folks inquire about the spools and where I found them.  They were not found.  My husband and I made them using this spool table by Ballard Designs as the inspiration.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our retreat.  We, meaning Mary Ann, Connie and I enjoyed it and I hope all the ladies that came to the retreat also had a good time.  And I apologize for the lousy pics.  My camera just does not take good indoor pictures.  I'll blame the camera rather than my poor picture taking skills!  LOL!

Take care till next time!

Julie