i'm back...

from Nashville and the Scrap Etc Event. It was as great as I thought it would be! Who knew it would be so therapeutic though...? Scrapbooking is good for my soul. It was so perfect to be around all these creative women that share a common interest (or obsession!), especially during such a crazy time in my life. The instructors were not only creative, but inspirational - Heidi Swapp gave a speech that was so motivating and heartfelt. She is an amazing woman - who knows how she does it all, and with 5 kids!!! I felt guilty leaving my kids, but I had just finished packing up our house and our lives back home and I really did need a break. And being at an event like this one and hearing every one's story makes you recognize how important it is to live your life everyday the way you really want, to be present, to create... I really enjoyed meeting some great women at the event (Hi Shana if you are reading this)!!

I would love to post some photos of the projects we made but right now they are somewhere in one of the big pile of boxes I have yet to unpack at my new home. Heidi Swapp had a photo on her blog of the project we did with her - it is a mini book made with a mirror cover (not yet released anywhere, we got the first look at it). The book is made with some of her new paper, lots of ghost shapes and transparencies (the big butterfly is awesome)...but the idea behind the book is what makes it so cool. It is full of inspirational quotes and ideas to motivate women, with the title being 'to your heart be true'... I also loved the projects we made with Wilna, Angelia, Jenni Bowlin and the Creative Cafe girls (Danelle Johnson and Kristi Sikora-Blankenship)... I will post photos as soon as I can!

After getting home from Nashville on the 21st and spending the next day and night at my parents house with the kids, we flew to our new city...and we are now in the process of getting settled. I can tell right now...it is going to be a long process! Our house here is great - nicer than I thought actually (I couldn't really remember a lot about it until we got here - we bought it in all of five minutes on our last day of a house hunting trip in January)! Now I am just trying to get things unpacked, rooms set up, etc. I still don't have an email address - this is my first chance to even get on the computer - I am going to beg Kevin tonight to hook me up!!! I am in computer withdrawal!

Anyway, here are some photos from the beautiful Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Centre where the Scrap Etc Event was held. It was a beautiful hotel and I was lucky to be upgraded to a room with a balcony overlooking an inside atrium (at no extra charge). This was the view from my room...

Here are some other shots of the hotel...

Anyway, more later on projects from Nashville.

And here are some photos of the kiddies just for those of you back home that are missing them. This is from one of our last nights at Grandma's house when we had a birthday dinner for Grandma and Auntie M...

And these are from one of our last days playing at the park near Grandma's...

More later...