Back from Spring Training . . .

when i explained to ds#2 where I was going this past weekend - to a crop where a bunch of women get together and scrapbook - this baseball lovin' kid said, "It's like the spring training of scrapbooking . . . "

I guess it is!

One of the greatest things about going to a crop is meeting other like-minded women, hearing their stories, and getting inspired by their involvement in this hobby.

I didn't take many pictures.  but here's some some people I met and the some of the stuff that I'll remember from the weekend:

Beth and Linda: daughter and mother team from Scraptacular who ran the event. What a team, what a family, what energy!

Donna: look at the amazing binding on this album!  the insides are so detailed and intricate.  she found the directions for this from Kathy on youtube.  Donna does a lot of her computer scrapbooking stuff using EXCEL!  Yes . . . I said EXCEL! A.mazing!

Judi: takes such beautiful photos and makes beautiful layouts and we were exploring photoshop together that weekend.  As we were trying to make some things work on Judi's new Mac, a little voice from behind us gave us the answer to one of our questions.

"Do you know photoshop?" we asked of this voice from behind.  "I'm a graphic designer" she said.  And then poor Morgaine, the graphic designer, was like a piece of fresh meat thrown into the lions den and we all pounced on her and asked her questions.

I was soooo relieved and psyched when Morgaine told me that at her own design office their Mac cannot print directly from Photoshop.  they have to save the jpg and print directly from the printer or another program.  I've had to do this with my new Mac and PSE and thought I was going crazy.  Thank you Morgaine!!!

Ann was making an incredible wedding album for her daughter.  Simple - matted photos on black and white patterned paper. but beautiful. stunning.  the photos were mostly from friends - and gor.geous.  none of the photos looked staged - they all looked to be candids.  her daughter was probably the most radiant and beautiful bride I've ever seen.  the groom . .. . a.dor.able.  and the love and emotion between the two was sooooooo evident in the photos.  looking at them, i started to cry.

yep - there i was at a crop crying at a stranger's wedding photos.

Ann's friend Sherri was making an album for her daughter in such a unique way.  every layout was a 2 page spread with a theme and contained photos from all different years of her life.  such a fun way to document your child's life.

there's lots more . . . like Amy, who i went to the event with, who introduced me to the Slice (i've fallen in love with a machine) and who won the Jenni Bowlin raffle of new releases.  so funny because that prize had a ga.zillion tickets in it and Amy, a true JBS fan, just put a few tickets in, and she won!

Because of my lovely life challenge, crops like this are far and few between.  But I took a deep breath, said a couple prayers, embraced my you-can-do-it attitude, and . . . . quite frankly . . . . packed light!  I worked on a Teresa Collins 6x12 Sports album for ds#1 that should have been finished almost a year ago.  I took the album and instead of following the instructions exactly, added Jenni Bowlin embellies and Slice images.  And now I am so very close to finishing ds#1's baseball album, just in time to start ds#2's!

and when I got home?  the first thing ds#2 asks is: "Did anyone get pulled up into the majors?"

ya' Matt, I think we all did!

thanks so much for visiting!