It's that time of year......

Springtime is such a busy, but enjoyable, time of year for most of us. We're opening up the windows again, cleaning out the closets, getting rid of the old - all the stuff that goes with sprucing up the inside and outside of our homes after a long winter. But for me, Spring also means RETREAT! For the last couple of years, a group of us have gotten together every April for an extended weekend of scrappin' and pampering!

This year was a bit different though. I went with a different group of ladies to a totally different retreat location. Aside from the fact that I missed out on over 30 hours of prime scrappin' time due to an unexpected illness, I still managed to salvage about 24 hours of the retreat.

I love retreats! If you can find a good-sized, friendly group to go with, retreats can be affordable, relaxing, inspiring and a ton of fun! We each volunteer to take on a meal (which keeps the cost of food down) and then bring our own beverages to drink and smaller snack items to share. I don't generally travel far from home (45 minutes to an hour) and I carpool, which keeps the cost of gas down as well.

I've never been to a retreat that offered this, but have heard of personal massages offered for a fee (doesn't that sound wonderful?). We even discussed how nice it would be to have someone available to do pedicures. One of the ladies mentioned a retreat that had a personal chef come in and cook gourmet meals for them. Now that's being pampered! At all of the retreats I've been to, there seems to be a bit of a contest on who can get the most pages done. Sadly, I'm never in contention there, but I'm sure many of you TSR gals would snag that top spot! At last years' retreat, we had a "mascot" of sorts, a singing/dancing little alien troll doll, that we pressed everytime a layout was completed. By the early morning hours, we were all getting a bit roudy with that one. But it's all good, clean fun!

So that's my little PSA about scrapbook retreats. If you've ever wondered about them, see if you can find one in your area, gather up your girlfriends, and make the phone call. It's a great Springtime tradition! An added bonus is that Tammy has done half the prep work for you! Bring a few months worth of TSR kits along, some photos, and you are guaranteed to turn out a ton of stunning pages!

Jenny