Cropping the year away?

The possibility of going to an all day crop/meetup in Lower Manhattan was so tempting that I went along for the day. I actually left them still cropping at 9:30pm with many of them planning to keep going until 2am!
I spent part of the morning getting my photos sorted and realize I have nothing that is current or inspiring enough to create too much from. Perhaps I'm being a tad harsh..... but I do need to get some photos printed for the new class I'm doing with Debbie Hodge . But I managed to gather a heap of photos and pages and then made a trip to the supermarket. Cheryl, the meetup organizer, has over the past few months been asking members to bring along something for City Harvest - I bought some tinned food and also some contributions to the snacks for the day.
A short train journey (four stops) and I was at the venue. And I wasn't the first to arrive. Eager scrapbookers were there on the dot of 12 noon!.
Cheryl is so generous with her time and the company's office space. She had set up tables in a range of spaces (which she does on a regular basis I just can't do Friday nights!). I found a possie and set myself up and by sheer chance I was near the heater- it had begun to snow outside.






I started on my Art Journal pages and manged to get two more done . I was really pleased with the results of both pages. Sue had given me a book on Art Journaling for Christmas and I read it all the way to Melbourne on the plane (plenty of time then to peruse!) and combined with the great inspiration and instruction from Dina Walkley at Get it Scrapped I feel quite inspired and confident about what I am doing. Can't wait for the new class later in the year to add to my repertoire of ideas and processes.


The day proceeded with members coming and going so that at any one point in the day there were about 26 people scrapping and chatting. Just before dinner time the noise level did plummet and rose again once everyone had partaken of Cheryl's great Crockpot of chili and the trimmings- this is what I mean about her generosity.

Conversations drifted around a range of topics- home and family being one main one. The exploits of family conversations were derived from the photos people were using and then there were the work related conversations or the lack of work which was a bigger theme with many being affected by the downturn in the economy.

I eventually left at 9pm as I was quite tuckered out. I got four pages done and two journal pages done so an okay effort I think.