Mother's Day Scrapbooking, Food, and Fun

I had the most wonderful time with friends this past weekend. We all traveled up to the mountain town of Big Bear, Ca for a 4-day scrapbooking retreat. The whole event is hosted and organized by my friend Melissa Papke, owner of the Scrapbook Garden and avid scrapbook teacher. The event is held at Apples Bed and Breakfast each year.  There is room for 40+ croppers to sleep, and 3 large, well lit workrooms for us in which to spread out our projects. Everyone has ample room to work, while sitting in big, comfy office chairs.

Apples from the front.

Backyard. Main house in center, one crop room and guest rooms off to the left.



Our room, Pippin 1.



My friend, Jill, and our work area.

It always takes me weeks to just figure out what to work on in order to pack. Of course I pack WAY too much stuff. But I would rather have extra things to work on and supplies to use or swap, than getting stuff up there with nothing to do. ...On second thought, "stuck" in the mountains, surrounded by pine trees, birds and warm sunshine and nothing to do sounds kind of nice. (Maybe next year I should forget to pack something...)

I arrived Thursday afternoon and after unpacking and settling in, I managed to get 20+ pages done, minus the journaling, that night. I have a hard time journaling on the spot. I wanted to consult my journal from the trip I was scapping and have time to think about it.

The folks at Apple's are the best! We were spoiled with more GREAT food than one could possibly eat, created and served by our wonderful hosts. Here are just a few of the yummy breakfasts, snacks and desserts we were served each day.



Apples' famous Apple shaped cheese balls. Yummy!



Breakfasts are always extraordinary. Homemade biscuits, muffins, granola...along with great egg dishes, yogurt, apple sausage, and maple brown sugar glazed bacon, aka "Bacon Crack" as Jill would say, are just a few of the wonderful treats greeting us in the morning.

We had the pleasure of the company of a sweet little cat who had taken up residence at the B & B a few weeks earlier. He was a friendly little guy, who loved to come see what we were doing.



Not sure why he won't stay rotated the right way....hmmmm.

 The first morning, I got up early to enjoy the trees, birds, and quiet...only to find it wasn't as quiet as I had hoped for. Why? It seems a pair of Stellar's Jays and the cat have a ritual of playing tag through the backyard. The jays were squawking away, to the angst of many of the other scrapbookers trying to sleep in. But they were funny.

All in all, I finished 89 pages, almost the whole 15 day cruise through the Panama Canal. Yeah! Now I am ready to take the next cruise we have booked. I cannot wait until next May. For our next adventure. In the meantime, I will keep working on the journaling. I promise to share finished pages as I get them done.