Sisterhood of Crafts with Vices

I had a crafty retreat this past weekend with a few girlfriends. No structure. Just lots of food, movies, girly chatter, and sangria fueling our inspiration. I rearranged my basement workshop and absolutely loved having people over using the space. I normally spend my weekends working on some project or another, so it was awesome having these quirky gals over for the company. I was joined on Friday night by blogless Heather, Inge, Sue and blogless Laura.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera out fast enough to capture Friday night's orgy of crafting and eating. I was too excited. From what I recall, I was speaking in exclamation points all night and it was one giant Show 'N Tell. As I was laying out the smorgasboard of food, Inge made sangria. Hello! I think it needs to become a dietary staple around here.

For the most part, I just fluttered around checking things out. There were scrapbooking magazines to flip through, cool gadgets and doo-dads to inspect and lots of catching up with people. It was therapeutic just being able to share, trade ideas, laugh and talk. The girls discovered my 1" button press early on and it got a steady workout during the night. About the only thing I really accomplished was turning a heel on a sock and part of this secret project for later. I almost squeezed my brains through my ears trying to get these blown up:



Nori had no idea why I was doing this, or really, WHAT I was doing... and it kept freaking her out. Balloons are evidently yet another thing on her black list of "EXTREME DANGER. FIGHT OR FLIGHT".



On Saturday, the group dwindled down to just me, Inge and Heather. I was completely overstimulated, as Heather pointed out, and didn't get much sleep...but WHO CARES? I didn't get out of my pajamas until it was time for dinner. After a monster breakfast, I decided my brains could handle additional trauma and spent the rest of the weekend staining my new toy. Inge and Heather would periodically call out to ensure that I hadn't passed out from inhaling all the toxic fumes. (Sneak peek!! I'm almost done!!!)



Inge was a power house scrapbooking ninja and was really close to accomplishing her goal of 20 scrapbook pages. Here she is working on a starbucks travel mug insert. Super cute! Besides the importance of sangria and bellinis in our daily life, Inge also imparted this bit of wisdom: "Everything looks better with a little glitter." Very key. In turn, Inge discovered hot water bottles at 3am.



Heather finished a whack of cards which were her goal for the weekend. (Sorry, H! I didn't get a picture of them!) We finally got ourselves mobilized on Saturday night and headed to the mall for some dinner. The shopping got thrown in at the last minute while we waited for our table at Milestones. The girls tried on some clothes and shoes while I embraced my inner "crotchety old lady" and tried to restrain myself from laying the smack down on some teenagers. In cahoots with Heather, Inge's hubby, discovered where we were going for dinner and ordered us a bottle of wine to celebrate Inge's birthday. We also ordered a round of bellinis to start us off which almost finished me off for the rest of the evening due to the overwhelming brain freeze I suffered after my first enthusiastic slurp.

And as for R...he was a saint as usual. After everybody left, we had this enlightening conversation:

R: Do you know what the most expensive thing is about having a bunch of girls over?

N: No, what?

R: Toilet paper.

When I first moved in with R, he once tactfully asked me how many squares of toilet paper I used because he couldn't believe how fast we were (read: I was) going through his TP stash. Up until that point, it never occurred to me to count. I think I said "4".

As R has also pointed out many times now... I lied.