Time for an Update...

Hi-de-hi campers - how are we all?

Oh, while I think about it, apologies to Rach and Heidi for not getting your CDs in the mail yet, but I promise I WILL do it this week! Really, I will! Honest :)

So, I have just come back (and am still recovering tbh) from SENZ in Auckland last weekend. It rocked! I decided that I really wanted to go, so bit the bullet and went on my own. I did FOUR classes, AND the charity crop, AND the SHOPPING (of course!). Nicely timed to almost coincide with my birthday, I also had a bit of spending money to take with me, thanks to Mum and Dad, sister Sarah and lovely hubby :)

Anyhoo - SENZ.... Friday:

First class was Nic Howard's Card Buffet, definitely a firm favourite. Not only do you get to make 6 awesome cards, you get to 'play' a bit, deviate from the rules, and get creative. Gotta love that. Not to mention that it's always cool to hang out in a Nic class - one seriously cool chick. AND it turned out her lovely assistant was Lucy van der Loos... Nic's co-conspirator for Autumn Escape (which I have registered for). Me thinks that AE is going to be GOOD! Ha ha ha.

Second class was a Hero Arts Card Class run by Hastings Rubber Stamps. After the joviality, freedom and creativity of the Nic class, this one was a little flat. We made 3 cards in two hours. To be fair, I think that they should have promoted that one as a beginners class. If I hadn't already had a good ol' play on my own in the past and made a card or twenty of my own before going to SENZ, I may have learnt something, but I didn't really get to take a lot out of that one. Good class, but a little disappointing.

And then to the shopping... Three Day Pass-Holders like myself were allowed into the arena for shopping from 5pm on the Friday night, rather than 10am Saturday morning like the general public. Bring. It. On. Ha ha ha! I had a small wish list, which I set about fulfilling first, then I went around the stalls again to see what else was around. Lots and lots and lots and lots and... you get the picture! My two coolest purchases were a Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, and a Crop-a-Dile Corner Chomper. AND I won a raffle prize which included Blossom Nesties, some Hero Arts stamps, some microglitters, and a couple of ink pads. Wahoo!

After all that, it was time to retreat to my sister's flat to chill for the evening.

Saturday:

I (amazingly) slept until 9.30am, and still felt tired! After brekkie and a shower it was time for SENZ round two! I was supposed to meet up with Kath when she arrived up from Christchurch, but unfortunately for her, Christchurch Airport was closed by fog and she didn't manage to make it. How disappointing would THAT be?

I did another round of 'browsing' the stalls, did a make and take, then tried to co-ordinate catching up with a computer-email-blogging-RAK friend of mine, Trina, in person. Between us we managed a grand total of 10 minutes face-to-face in the cafe. Just enough time for a photo:

Awww, isn't that nice?! No matter how short the time, it was nice to meet in the flesh - we have emailed often enough! Then it was time to head off to class....

My third class was one run by Beth Barnes for Create - Messy Play with Inks. We were supposed to end up with a completed 'recipe book' of inking techniques at the end of our two hour class. NOT SO. I have to confess to being incredibly disappointed with this class. The idea was brilliant, really. I mean, who doesn't like to have fun making a giant mess?! But the application fell short. A long way short. Beth seems like a lovely person. To be honest I think the problem was a combination of trying to squeeze too much messy play into too little time, and leaving a lot of the prep work to class participants, some of whom struggled. A lot. So consequently I came home with a large jumble of incomplete, mis-matched pieces of paper. And the chances of them ever becoming the pretty little recipe book we were shown at the beginning of class? NIL. To be fair, in hindsight, there was no way that the book we were shown was going to be made from start to finish in two hours. Not even on a good day. BUT, if some of the paper cutting and folding had been prepared before class, and if time slots of say 15 minutes were used per technique, we might have gotten a lot closer to the finished article - like maybe a book minus the cover and finishing off/stamping etc. Anyway, enough about that. Too disappointing to bother ranting about any more!

My fourth and final class was another Nic one - her Gift Card Class. A nice, relaxed pace class, decorating a journal cover and making some kraft gift cards. Got to christen my corner chomper and butterfly punch! Not as much fun as the card buffet, but a nice way to end my classes :)

After class finished Sarah picked me up and we had Indian takeout for tea, then I went back for the charity crop night. Other than two South African ladies who were at the crop with their Auckland rellies, I was from the furthest-away place! Cool! I sat at a table with two ladies from Rotorua, and three from Whangarei. We were provided with choccy biccies and lollies, and tea/coffee etc. We used donated product to make 8"x8" mini pages for the Kids First Hospital, then joined them all together to make New Zealand's largest card, which was going to be put up in a corridor at the Hospital once SENZ was over. I did a 'cow jumped over the moon' theme with mine. There's a photo around here somewhere, I'll load it if I get the chance. Anyway, I got back to Sarah's about half eleven, and that was it, SENZ, done and dusted.

Sunday was spent trying to fit my scrap stuff into my bags (a lot of which you can't take on a plane!) , and travelling home. My flight out of Aucks was delayed, and then I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for the two hour drive to Timmers. Grrrr. Sometimes I can SO understand road rage! People are stupid - who knew? Ha ha ha!

Well peeps, that's about it from me tonight, I'm blogged out. I have more to tell you about our surprise trip to the West Coast, but that'll have to keep for another night.

Toodles! B x