Scrapbooking Camp at Lake Perserverence

Regular readers (hello!) will know that every year in June my mum and I go to a camp in the bush for the weekend for a scrapbooking retreat. Why? Because we love it!

Not only is it an escape from the busyness of everyday life, who wouldn't like a few days breathing fresh air and being surrounded by nature?

On top of that; someone else does all the cooking and cleaning, you get to share a cabin with friends just like school camp, AND you can spend as much time as you like scrapbooking. And for most of us ladies (yes, it's all female, I wish there were more guys into this hobby), that's nearly every waking moment!

Mum and I like to go for walks in the early morning. It's usually quite brisk! The lake looks different every year. This year it was quite misty. 

We had an ace time again this year, I was genuinely sad to come home on the Sunday. 

Here's a pic of mum brushing up on her photography!

Do you ever "go away" for your hobby? Where and what's it like?

Something to look forward to

Today I would like to impart some of the wisdom I've gained from my years as a cubicle-dwelling office drone. I like to think,however, that no matter whether you're a microscopic cog in a vast organisation or working for yourself or something in between, this may be of use to you!

Sometimes life gets you down. I'm not talking about depression, which is another issue altogether. I mean that the daily grind can sometimes wear thin. Positivity is harder, and you tend to focus on negative things. When this happens, it helps to have something to look forward to. 

For myself, I've always found that having some future annual leave booked helps. It gives you a sense of perspective when you're having a bad day. "Oh well," you mumble to yourself, "only X days/weeks until I'm on holidays!"

If holidays are not possible, you could also focus on an event. Like a birthday or even just the weekend if you're planning something interesting or fun. Small things can bring great joy, after all!

This last month I've been solely focused on battling through to this Friday, because I'm going on scrapbooking camp again. Regular readers know that every year my mum, my scrapping buddies and I go out to a place with cabins by a lake and just scrap the whole weekend. It's bliss. And it's a cheap holiday!

It has really helped me get through some tough days at work lately, having this to look forward to. 

What about you? What are you looking forward to soon?

Why I Like Going to Camp

Every year, Mum and I and our scrapbooking “mob” go to Camp. Well, strictly it’s cabins in the woods (minus the horrible dying) but it’s at lovely Lake Perseverance.

  

As it’s June, it’s usually cold, so we take along electric blankets, scarves and fluffy socks. The accommodation is basic (bunk beds with foam mattresses and an ensuite) and we share three to a room but it’s clean and sufficient for our needs. When we leave, we sweep and mop the floor, though this doesn’t take long.

Because we’re not there to sleep! We’re there to scrapbook. For two nights and two days. Some ladies are there to escape their families for a few days. Some are there to socialize and chat with their friends. But all of us are there to just Get Shit Done.

Because when you’re a scrapbooker, blocking out time at home to do it can be tricky – without a dedicated space, it is very hard to get motivated to get all your stuff out, then tidy it away again afterwards.

But at camp, you get an entire table to yourself, and you can leave your stuff lying around all weekend. You can borrow other people’s tools, and walk around chatting and getting inspiration by having a Nosey Parker at what they’re doing. Sometimes they run quick talks or classes, so we can learn a new technique too.

And one of the best parts? Once every few hours, someone cooks and serves us food. And then washes up everything. Paradise.

Mum and I like to walk in the mornings – she bullies me awake at dawn and out we go into the crisp (well, sometimes freezing) morning air. The bush is quiet, the air is clean and the scenery amazing. It’s so nice, even though generally I hate walking.

So, to sum up – scrapbook camp is awesome because:

• You get to do heaps of scrapbooking with people who also love it. It’s like therapy.
• You don’t have to cook or clean up afterward
•  It’s surprisingly cheap, given what you get
•  It’s a weekend in the country, with very little mobile service

Do you ever go on any “retreats”? What for?

Going away to camp

Last weekend I attended my third scrapbooking camp. (2010 and 2011 blogs here). I think I've written enough previously about how I refuse to feel ashamed/embarrassed that it's my hobby. Everybody needs a hobby. Mine involves putting memories on a page in a pleasing manner!

Camp this year was mercifully not as freezing as last time. I did still use my electric blanket though! I worked on three different projects: a wedding album (using a "quick kit", it was amazing, took me only 3.5hrs to complete), my everyday album and an album for my New Zealand trip photos from 2005. This last album is a really meaningful one for me, as it contains photos I thought were lost forever in a hard drive crash 5 years ago. A friend was recently able to retrieve them (would you believe hubby held onto the hard drive all this time? What an angel!) and I had an absolute ball starting to scrap them. So many memories came flooding back!

Here are some pics of layouts I did.

 And below is one my mum did - she is putting together a gorgeous album of our wedding of her own.

Needless to say, after 2 1/2 days of solid scrapbooking, I will not be doing any more for a little while!

Camp Crop-a-lot – Fri 3rd-Sun 5th June – Lake Perseverence

I spent last weekend at a scrapbooking camp. I have no embarrassment in admitting this, because it really is my only hobby! This was my second year, having attended last year as well.

I scrap exclusively using Creative Memories products. C calls it a “cult” but I just think they're the best product! In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I used to be a consultant.

My mother being the one who got me into it, we are quite the scrapbooking pair. We were “roomies” in our cabin and had an absolute blast just enjoying being at camp.

In the mornings we walked down to the dam, and took some amazing post-dawn photos of the mist.

The rest of the days were basically eating and scrapping intermittently.

I got a bucketload of work done – I took about 150+ photos to scrap and I think I managed to put about 110 of these on the page. I also finally completed my SE Asia holiday album which was a project that has been dragging on for 12 months, so that was very satisfying!

Thankfully, it was less cold this year, though I was still sleeping in an artic sleeping bag in my flanny PJs!

What's the best camp you've ever been on?

On camp

For the last three days I have been at camp. I haven’t been to camp for 13 years, the last time being Year 12. Ironically, it was the same darn camp! Located on a beautiful lake and nestled amoungst the surronding bushland, I felt quite cut off from civilisation. I didn’t even think about TV for the first 24hrs. It was a strange sensation, being unable to watch telly or movies; or text whenever I wanted. My mobile service provider had no coverage, but some of the other ladies had service. I noticed their mobiles were constantly ringing, and they were forever dashing out of the main hall to deal with family crises. I must admit to feeling a bit smug at these points. Unreachable exc ept by the public phone at the camp (and this number given out with strict instructions to the boyfriend: for emergency use ONLY), I was very close to being unplugged.

There’s a book I want to read, called ‘The Winter of our Disconnect’, about a family that isolated themselves from all modern communications and technology for six months. I don’t claim to want to serve that period of disconnection for myself, but for the three days I did, I was happy. There was something satisfiying to just experience the world. Not to constantly check emails, texts, tweets. Not to be constantly bombarded with advertising, and given news updates even if you don’t want them. As a side note, I have basically given up watching the news because it’s so distressing. I know it’s a head-in-the-sand attitude, but I know that if it’s important enough, the news will get through to me. You can’t avoid it, even when you’re cut off in the middle of the bush! This was demonstrated by a text to my mother by my father, referring to “that UFO”. She had intermittant service on her mobile there, but the only person bothering her was dad. Turns out he was one of many people to spot a supposed UFO at 5.45am on Saturday morning in the skies over Queensland. He was most excited, then disappointed that it turned out to be a privately-launched rocket losing orbit.

The camp itself was for scrapbooking. Yes, I am aware of scrapping’s old-lady image. It could do with a public relations overhaul, I must say! But I’m unashamed of my love for it, and am even a consultant for Creative Memories, a traditional and digital scrapbooking company. The camp was exclusively for CM consultants and their customers – and is so popular that this year they are running not one but two weekend retreats. Basically, we scrap the entire time. And eat. But mainly scrap. I got so much done, I actually ran out of photos and paper by Sunday, and truthfully will be quite happy if I do not see a scrapbook page for a week. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing after all!

So my weekend went something like this: arrive, scrap, eat, scrap, bed, sleep, morning walk, eat, scrap, eat, scrap, eat, scrap, bed, sleep, morning walk, eat, scrap, eat, scrap some more... All in all I had a wonderful time. It was a great opportunity to catch up on my projects, and basically do more scrapping than I had collectively done in the last 6 months! And I got to spend heaps of time with my mum. I will definately be going again next year. The comraderie, and happy vibe of a roomful of women all doing what they love was too, too enjoyable.