Friday Afternoon
Well the first day is over and it got off to a good start, even though I looked like a drowned rat at the railway station when I met Patsy and her sister Helen at about 3pm I took them to the hotel and let them relax until I returned later with Cadge.At 5.25pm I met Cadge at another station but instead of being wet I was nearly frozen to the seat on the platform, boy was it chilly !!!!!!!Everyone had a lovely 3 course evening meal with coffee or tea, then we all went to Jayne's craft shop where there was a lot of ooooing and aaaaring as they spied this and that.Got back at 10:10pm and then had to pack the car up ready for tomorrow when they start with the craft robo's at 9:30 am until 5pm.I won't tell you what I've got in store for them so you'll have to wait for the next instalment tomorrow.Needless to say I'll have to be up early so that I can get to the hotel early enough to set everything up. Must remember to wear trousers as I'll be scrambling around on the floor under the tables plugging everything in. After all I wouldn't want anyone to thinking there was a full moon
Saturday
Well up with the lark this morning, well sort of, hardly slept a wink, couldn't switch the old brain box off Was cleaning the top of the cooker at 1:15 am cos that husband of mine had cooked some pork chops and it had spit fat all over it, anyone seeing me must of thought I was bonkers!!! Don't answer that Arrived at the hotel at 8 am and proceeded to bring in all the laptops (7) and the craft robo's (6), printer (1) wireless router (1) extention cables (Belkin 4) ream of 160gsm, ream of 200gsm, ream of paper 80gsm, jar of nescafé, pkt tetley tea bags, box of biscuits (which we forgot about). Jayne brought the coffee machine, milk, sugar and cups, cos I just couldnt carry any more. This little lot took me 45 minutes to set up!!! Wore trousers instead of my normal skirt, didn't want anyone to think I was showing a full moon at them if my skirt rode up at the back while I was scrambling around on the floor under the tables putting the plugs in the extention cords Sat down to a full breakfast with the girls at 8:50 am and enjoyed every morsal, mind you so did everyone else :)9:30 am saw the lessons start where I talked them through the Itinerary. Today they used the pen, then lunch break, then vinyl cutting, coffee break (forgot the biccies) then finished off with print and cut, poor little robo's must have been worn out by then Had a lovely evening meal (3 course with coffee/tea) then away we went for a crafting session over at Jayne's shop finishing up at 10pm.Everyone has had a great time and looking forward to tomorrow. Looking forward to my breakfast again with them then class will start again at 9.30.Will be taking Patsy, Helen and Cadge to Darlington station as we don't trust Cadge to get the right train home if I just took her to Middlesbrough, gawd knows where she would end up, so I'm not taking any chances, talk about scatty But she takes it in good humour.
Sunday
Well the last day dawned sunny and at 8:30 am I set off for the hotel to have breakfast with everyone, and a very nice breakfast it was too.Started a little later than intended because of the gossiping and smokers outside the front of the hotel but we made a start on welding letters together and then did the mats to go with them. Next came monograms but before we could do the welding of letters down the side of a card a coffee and smoke break was called for. Now this was only supposed to last for 15 mins which turned out more like 35 mins, which ate into their alloted time to do some lattice work, but we finished off the welding then went into the lattice. And then the problems started .........Now everyone thinks when they get a craft robo that the first thing they want to learn is how to do lattice, and for some that is the reason they bought a craft robo in the first place, hands up those of you on here who are guilty of that????? Ladies, and gents of course, let me tell you now that for some of you this has become the holy grail. Just because you want to learn lattice it is not a 5 minute lesson, ask the girls from here who have been on the course and had problems with it.Now sometimes, and more likely than not, it is Inkscape that it is the problem, other times it is because you are not reading your tutorial correctly, you kind of skip a bit but don't realise that you are doing it. In any event it is harder to do than you realise, but even so the girls were fantastic, they laughed at the mistakes made by others in the group. In fact I was surprised that 2 of the girls managed to make lattice donuts!!!! Mind you they weren't even in the tutorial that I had given them, but there they were on the screens for everyone to see, well there was much hilarity over that I can tell you During our coffee break 2 of the hotel residents, being quite intrigued by all the laughing and work that was going on, asked me what we had been doing so I just said go into the room and the girls in there will tell you and show you what we have been doing. They were very impressed I might add.Well I must thank Mrs F, Patsy, Cadge, Helen, Pauline and Martin for making this weekend the success that I hoped it would be. I also want to thank Ettui22 (Lin) for her help on Saturday. More thanks also go to Jayne (Silver Kitt) for giving us the use of her shop for shopping and crafting. And last but not least to Stuart and Dawn of the Claxton Hotel for looking after all of us. Thank you, thank you and thank you.When I've got my wind back I will organise another. Sometime soon photo's of the weekend will start appearing and I hope you laugh at them as much as we have laughed. Me? I can't wait to see them
Well it's been a busy week so far as I start to get ready for the Craft Robo Weekend Retreat on 11th April.
I've now got all the tutorial handouts complete, as well as lesson plans and itinerary, and here's me thinking I'd given all that up when I left teaching last June some hope that was!!
Pens, notebooks and folders have been bought in readiness. Computers and Robo's set up for wireless printing, and what a nightmare that turned out to be, but it's done now and working so I'm thankful for small mercies.
Everyone that is coming for the weekend is getting excited but nervous they won't be able to keep up with everyone else, but I've given out assurances that they will do well on the course.
Well there is nothing left for me to do now, I've completed everything and packed it away in readiness so all I have to do now is sit back and wait until the event.
Mind you at this time of the morning I'm only fit for my bed, so goodnight all, see you in the morning yawwwwn
This week started with a new business venture. As from the beginning of this week I now start giving lessons in how to use the Craft Robo, which for the uninitiated is a cutter & plotter machine that cuts out card and vinyl.
For those living in the North East of England, they now have a place to go to learn how to use this fantastic machine in a dedicated card & scrapbooking shop with friendly staff. Coffee & biccies will be supplied.
For the moment, as this is a new venture, the cost of these lessons, and it's usually a 2 hr one, is £6 per hour, thereby costing you only £12 for the session. The feedback that I have received so far has been fantastic and those that attended the first session have re-booked for the following week.
I take you right from the beginning, making sure that you know the toolbars, then progressing to the pen and what you can achieve with that, to the cutting side of it.
Making your own templates is important so I will be covering that also.
If you would like to know more then please ring 01642 466957. If I am not available then please email me with your phone number so that I may get back to you.
Jan (aka Lucylogic ukscrappers)
