Five Go To Grange Farm House.

'Where've you been?'. 'You're never at home these days'. 'You treat this blog like a hotel!'.

Guilty as charged. Sorry. I know that, since creating my first online class and all the work that that entailed, things have been a touch neglected over here in Notes on Paper-land. And, as much of my free time is spent blogging for the three Design Teams I'm a part off, I've begun to add links in my sidebar >>> to those DT posts. You're welcome to drop in on me at any of my blogging homes from home.

OK then, moving on to show you another home from home in which I spent time recently:
Rather beautiful don't you think? It's the cottage where I spent last weekend with 4 crafty friends on what could grandly be referred to as a 'crafting retreat'. Here's the view from our garden: Not that we actually spent a lot of time outside. In fact we more or less hibernated. With paper.

And cake:

The very, very hospitable Jean, not only planned the weekend for us all, she fed us 3 glorious, home cooked meals each day [plus cakes!] and supplied us with two crafting projects from her shop! In short, we were terribly spoilt!

The one time we did lay down our craft knives, put on clothes fit for public consumption and cross the threshold was for a class trip to ....guess where. It's not hard to imagine.

A craft shop!

Naturally.

Hannah and I spent a great deal of time in there sifting through the half-price supplies section sharing something we subsequently referred to as 'rummage time'.

So, when you've got 5 obsessive papercrafters in one cottage, pausing only to eat, you end up with a very crowded mantelpiece / showcase for all of your work:Oh yes, I forgot to mention the log fire which we kept well fed with our paper scraps. Well, with those scraps we were allowed to throw away. Have you ever tried to throw bits of paper away with 4 sets of eyes analysing the size / quality / possible re-useability value of your scraps? Andrea did. And now she knows better!

Now then, I don't want you to get the idea that our time away was entirely blissful and uneventful. we did have a little exictement. Oh yes. For instance ...

• I found time to explore the cellar, which no one else dared to do. In which I found a chest freezer and much to Hannah's terror - I opened it. It had frost in it. Not a dead body. Although, later when everyone was feeling a little out of sorts [dehydration, lack of movement and too much crafting I reckon] I was accused of letting out the bad spirtis from the freezer. Some people [Hannah] have a far too vivid imagination!
• We also had a blown bulb which tripped all the fuses and cut the electricity ...and the torch didn't work. The matter was solved by Jean resetting the fuse box in the cellar [perhaps it was those malevolent spirits] while I hovered over her shining the light from my mobile phone onto the switches!
• And there was also the small matter of a leaky bathroom pipe which sent water through the ceiling [here's Gail on mopping duty]:

When you shout 'We've got a leak', in a house full of scrappers, don't be surprised if people run for a mop, a bucket .... and then a camera. And not necessarily in that order! No photo / scrapping opportunity is ever left unexploited! Ever!

I've already made a layout with some more of my weekend photos and will share them here later this week. And I'm already planning some more when I can get my hands on some of the photos taken my the others. I'm particularly looking forward to scrapping the 'Oh no you don't' and the Princess and the Pea moments ....you had to be there I guess!! Or just wait until I get round to explaining it, if such a thing is possible!

Until then, I had a great time ladies, thank you!