Whirlwind Weekend

Phew! Two planes there ... one back ... nearly 10 hours of flying time ... not too much sleep (although, honestly, more than I thought) ... and a great time was had by all!  I returned yesterday from a Design House Digital retreat in Utah.  Wow, the landscape is so very different from my concrete jungle and cramped townhouse communities.  In Utah, especially in the areas surrounding Salt Lake City there's ... well ... space!  And mountains.  And mountains with snow!  Big mountains.  Lots of deer roaming around.  Stunning.  Click on the picture below to see the full size - I took these shots from my car (parked on the shoulder, of course) on my drive back to Salt Lake City, somewhere on I-80.  I say "these" photos 'cause there's actually four pictures here, merged to create the panorama shot.

The two-day retreat was a great chance to catch up with people I met last year, and also meet a few new people, like Renee Pearson (from reneepearson.com), and Chari (from Persnickety Prints).  Lots of talking, laughing, and groans of despair.  The latter mostly occurred during our Saturday night crop, right in the middle of the Super Speed Scraplift (or a speed scrap on steroids).  It's hard enough to create a page, under pressure in a couple of days (like the digi morph scraplift game), or even in two hours (like the monthly speed scrap) ... but 30 minutes?!  Yep, we went there ... and did it.  Well, some of us did our layouts in 30 minutes.  Some of us took a little longer.  I've come to the conclusion that some designers are meant to just stick to designing ... ask them to scrap a page and ... well, they're out of practice! LOL  There's one specific designer I'm thinking of - I think if someone walked past her and said "Tick tock" she'd probably almost slap them. LMAO  Hey, EC, luv ya - and thanks for being such a good sport.

Here's what I accomplished in 30 minutes.  I consider myself a pretty fast scrapper, when I have to be ... but wow, this short time limit was really pushing the envelope.  Thankfully, I had some pictures picked out, so that helped. A lot.  Actually, I must add, I can't take credit for these pictures - aren't those ducks so very cute?  The PAO guys at AAFB took these.

So, now I wait another year before the next retreat - well, hopefully I can go and there's nothing pressing here at home.  Maybe I'll take a couple of extra days next time so I can explore the mountains and small towns a bit.

Oh, and don't forget - this weekend (Saturday) is iNSD - {inter}National Scrapbook Day.  I'll be hosting a game on Saturday afternoon (I think LOL) for a gift certificate at Design House Digital.  See you there!   But, we're celebrating for a full week - hop on over to the site and celebrate with us.