Monday 28 March 2011

An AMAZING weekend!

Hi there everyone.
Well it's been a chaotic monday after a fantastic weekend retreat, but more on that later! My wife was back at hospital this morning fully expecting that Dr would say all is well and the cast can come off..... that was not to be! Sent off for a CT scan and told to come back in 2 weeks. Oh well, we will have to see what happens then.

But this is MUCH more exciting! You will remember that a while ago I was lucky enough to win 2 places on the LOVIN INK  weekend retreat. (Pop over to their site and perhaps we'll meet you at the next one!)
So this weekend saw my wife and I up in beautiful North Yorkshire....
It was a fantastic weekend all round. We missed most of the first evening workshop as it was a 5 hour drive but we were made to feel very welcome when we arrived and dived straight in to begin catching up!

As you can see, the weekend was set around this box; on friday we were decorating it and on saturday and sunday we moved on to filling it!
I'll show you Susan's first as hers looks more like the sample. (I never can do what I'm told!)
 Isn't it gorgeous! Everything that is on the box has been made, inked, shaped etc etc over the course of the weekend. Don't you just love the Tin Holtz tailor dummy, and the cotton reel, and the.....well, everything!
Then of course, there was me. As expected I was the only male crafter there and decided that though I was quite happy to make all the buttons flowers etc over the weekend I wanted a more "manly" feel to my box.
Oops, just realised I have not taken a decent picture yet so I'll do a seperate post about mine! (Got to keep the suspense going!)
Over the course of the saturday we made buttons and flowers using clay, chipboard, shrink plastic, friendly plastic and material using all sorts of techniques including, triple embossing, colouring, shaping, stamping etc etc.
Our hosts, Michelle and Janet were always on hand to advise, encourage and a lot of experimentation was going on (Along with loads of chat and laughter) And Andy and Emma kept us going with amazing food all weekend! Thank you for that; your food was fantastic!

Here's me getting stuck in . Don't you love my name badge! The flower pins were made by the lovely Lynda (sorry if I spelt your name wrong!) before she knew that there would be a guy there! But I loved it; and why wait until you are old to wear purple!
After lunch on saturday I was blessed and touched when out came plates of chocolate cupcakes beautifully decorated and complete with candles and everyone sang happy birthday to me!
Thanks so much for that guys, and for the stunning card!
We also managed to pop into The Stamp Man that afternoon; it was lovely to meet Jill and have a look around and pick up some lovely goodies to play with!


Finishing off Sunday, we continued with our boxes, we altered pins and beads and I decorated my notebook which was part of the kit we got. (Still loads in there for me to play with this week!)
So there you can see some of my box and book. I'll carry on showing everything in much more detail over the week.
We had such a wonderful time, met some amazingly talented crafters; made some fantastic things and learn't so much from everyone. Fun friends and laughter, we were truly blessed to be able to be there and can't wait for the next one!
Be blessed everyone, whatever you are doing!

11 comments:

Αlex... said...

Everything sounds perfect,Neil!You are looking so happy!I'm glad that you had a wonderful weekend!
Hugs,
Alexandra

Moonie said...

Amazing, absolutely stunning creative gorgeous work Neil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!

Birgit said...

So few men seem to follow crad, box and everything else one can make. I am glad to see a Man feel comfortable in his skin and show such great artistic work. My husband loves creating too and has been itching to get to my glitter and stuff. He's making me something for my birthday and I have no idea what it is. Looks like you and your wife had a great time. I hope in 2 weeks she will be cast free

Netty said...

You obviously both had a great time and love your wife's box.......now whats this about a macho box...........mmmmmmm will wait and see how macho this box of yours is.....lol Annette x
PS By the way the purple flower is very fetching and loving the cakes.

Artyjen said...

Looks like you had a fantastic time :)
xoxo Sioux

Unknown said...

Neil, we feel very lucky to have met both you and Susan. We loved how everyone embraced the project and made it their own - experimenting with techniques and creating the most beautiful artwork. I shall treasure the box and card you gave me as I know will Michelle. Thanks for daring to join us Yorkshire lasses and for throwing yourselves into the spirit of the whole thing. I know we are a little mad and slightly off the wall at times but sharing time with special people is what we both love - thanks for helping us create special memories x Janet

Deb said...

wow, looks like an amazing weekend! both your boxes look fantastic!
Happy Crafting, Debxx

Unknown said...

It was lovely to meet you at the weekend and a pleasure to feed you although Andy did most of the work. I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and can't wait to see you and Susan in September at the next one. Emma xx

The Stamp Man said...

Oh dear, bad news to come back to about Susan's wrist, I hope it gets sorted out soon.

It was lovely to meet you both on Saturday and I'm glad to hear the rest of your weekend was just as much fun as it sounded when you visited us.

Susan's box is gorgeous! So much detail to look at. Janet and Michelle came up with a fab project, I will call back to see your more masculine project another time, although from what I can see so far it looks great!

Good on you for going along with it all, I've inflicted the same on Ian at times over the years:) There's nothing wrong with wearing a purple flower name badge!

Hope to see you both again, maybe in September.

Take care

Jill

Dee in N.H. said...

So very glad that you and your wife won this amazing retreat. It was really cool that you put up all the pictures. The things you were working on are awesome! Your wife is quite talented as well. Can't wait to see your finished project!

Helen said...

What a great time it sounds! You both look like you enjoyed it, and what lovely things you created.