Hi all! Especially Mandy, who has been pestering me to update … are you happy hon? lol
So, what have I been up to? LOTS!! School holidays ended with a totally full-on, but totally awesome, weekend. Saturday, Anzac day, saw us in the city. We went Jet Boating on the harbour – very fast, very sharp sudden stops, very VERY wet, and most of all, lots of fun! Kelsey almost cut off the circulation in my hand, and went VERY white, but she couldn’t stop talking about it when we got off – total thrill seeker, that girl. Of course, well prepared mother that I am, had dry clothes for the kids, but for me? Nada. Thank goodness for the modicum of protection provided by the purple monk robes we wore, otherwise I may have been even more drenched than I was! We went in and back from the city on the Rivercat, which is well worth the trip, let me tell you! Lovely views, unhurried pace, a nice and relaxing way to get to Circular Quay. I’m going that way more often!
Sunday meant it was time for our house to be taken over by 9year old girls. Kelsey wanted a scrapping birthday party, and it was 4 hours of girly mayhem. Lots of fun though, both for the girls and for me. The made a wonderful little mini album each, painted a gift bag, played a few games, and made mini-pizzas for lunch. Kelsey has such lovely friends!!

After a very busy week back at work, during which I was acting head teacher (sheesh – full on!!!) I got to friday again. I had a yr12 excursion planned, to take my class to see a performance of Richard III by the Siren Theatre Company. OMG. I’ve never been so on the edge of my seat, holding my breath captivated by a performance of a Shakespeare play. Totally wonderful!! The only downside was that I had to lug my slightly under 23kilo suitcase there. The upside to that was, I WAS ON MY WAY TO CAIRNS!! ScrapTherapy retreat. Holiday Inn, overlooking the Esplanade. Water views from our room. The bestest room buddy a girl could ask for. Adjoining room with 2 wonderful chicks I hadn’t met in real life before, but who felt like long lost friends. Three days of scrapping. More wonderful friends – some I’ve known for years in real life, some I was meeting for the first time, but all of whom are just wonderful beautiful ladies!! Lots of laughter. Lots of scrapping. Lots of shopping, eating wonderful food, and just enjoying some me-time. I was in heaven … especially when I got to go and take some pics of the cute jellybean guys holding their privates!! lol

So, because Mandy told me to … here are some pics of the weekend, both people and scrapping.

Nat and I with the little perverted jelly-bean men … LOL
This layout has a story behind it – when I opened my suitcase at the hotel, I discovered my brads and buttons all through my clothes. It took me about 40 minutes to completely pick them out, and I was VERY careful putting my undies on for the rest of the weekend! The next morning, I got downstairs to the scrapping room to discover someone (cough*RACHAEL*cough) had spilt buttons all over the layout I was working on. They weren’t the right colour, but it inspired me, and two hours later this layout was finished – man, it took a long time to do all these buttons and brads! Yes, I know there is purple ink on the photo – I need to reprint it. That’s what happens when you try to recolour foam alphas … tip of the day, just use sharpies!!

How cool are these light-up skipping ropes? I’ve had this BG paper to use for ages, but it just didn’t do it for me, so I was soooo going to use it before I came home!!

Room mates – Lisa, Natalie, Me and Rachael. What a top group of girls!!

And finally, the DT group, minus Julie who couldn’t join us. Mandy, who is just too sweet for words (even when she IS harrassing me to blog!!), me, Narelle, and Leeanne, our Therapy mum.

Ok … The sad news. (Hidden at the bottom of a post about things that made me happy for very good reason!! Lol) I have made the decision to step down from the Scrap Therapy Design Team, as have the other girls. It’s been a wonderful experience, and I really thank Natalie and Leeanne for the opportunity. It’s been wonderful working with such a wonderful group of girls, and this is not a decision I took lightly. It was announced on the forums this morning, and I thought I’d be ok with that … I’ve been at peace with the decision for a while now. But to see it in print, and to make it public … well, it just seems so real, and I’ve spent a few moments today in tears. I’m really looking forward to being able to scrap with the girls more, and to scrap without commitments to anyone else but me, and that’s a really liberating feeling. I had wanted to be on a DT for a while before this opportunity came up, and I’m so thankful that this came along when it did – I can’t imagine a better place to be a Design Team Member for, and a more wonderful group of women, both DT and forum members, to have shared this experience with. I know that after the end of this month, when my status officially changes, and I’m no longer able to do all that extra stuff that I do as an administrator, I’ll probably have a few more tears, but mostly I’m very excited about seeing who the next lot of inspiring Design Therapists will be, and enjoying my role as Therapy Locum.
Leeanne has chosen a Guest DT for June, from some wonderful girls who were at the retreat, and will be looking for another group for July, before the new DT takes over. I can’t wait to see what everyone does, it’s going to be great!

So, off for some icecream, and some celebratory scrapping. I’ll share some more layouts from the retreat soon – there are heaps!!