Wednesday 2 December 2009

Australian Scrapbooking Cruise

The land legs are slowly coming back into action but the head is still spinning. Some may say that is normal but I don’t think so….
For those of you who debated coming on the cruise – you really should have come. It was a fantastic experience. The group of girls all got along well with each other and what made the trip more special was how they made my girls feel so very special and included. Little Caitlin spent just as much time in the scrapping room as I did at times. Lorelle did a great job facilitating and getting us all aboard and arranging everything like she did. Big Congrats too Lorelle as she just found out she was pregnant just before the trip so she did an awesome job considering how much that can take out of you.
One of the highlights and probably one of the best from a scrappers point of view was how we had the conference room to ourselves. They were able to bring as much stuff as they liked and trust me some of them did, and leave it set up 24/7. The only times they cleared their tables was before one of my classes which soon meant it was covered again. They were totally spoilt with product from Kaisercraft, Prima and American Crafts and the classes seemed to be well accepted even if I do say so myself..LOL. From the amount of girls who are eager for the next one I guess that is true.
Most of my classes were in the morning which left the afternoon to do not a whole heap but a lot of lazing around the pool deck area. With the excewption of the first day where YES I admit it, I was a little sea sick, enough to call maintenance cause I blocked our sink….. ewhhh yuck… yep but it happened – I was then OK after that.
The only tour we went on was to the Great Barrier Reef and when you have 5 of you that is about all we could afford but it was well worth the $$$ to see the girls enjoy it so much, and an experience that you don’t get to do everyday if at al, especially out to the outer reef. So glad they are competent swimmers and we taught them how to snorkel last year. . With the exception of the little pink piranhas, well not really but these pink fish kept chasing us and if we crossed into their territory they actually bit you – It freaks Jess out a bit everytime she saw one and we reversed up and went the other direction pretty quickly – thank goodness for flippers. And believe me the little nip you got from them actually hurt – one got me on the leg. Little mongrels.
As always out there the fish are absolutely gorgeous and very very colourful. The reef itself, well you can certainly tell it is damaged but still pretty in spots.
Food on board was unbelievable – I really don’t need to look at food for a week to wear off the effects of how I feel and how much I ate the past 10 days. Food 24/7 whenever you want it. OMGosh – and I don’t think I actually want anymore seafood for awhile. Blood is overloaded with fish oil. It was great.
Have to love Ellie’s quote – “TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE EVERYTHING WHITE” – the main dining room is like 5 star service with white table cloths etc and when you have three kids – that is not as you can guess the most appropriate colour. Quite amusing and even Ellie wished it was another colour when things just wouldn’t stay on her plate.
Classes

We had women of all of different scrapping styles and abilities but it was great because if they didn’t finish something in class there was no pressure as they knew they had the whole rest of the day and trip to catch up on anything they wanted to.
Anyway I can finally share the classes we did. By far the biggest hit I would say was the Cruise ship album I designed.








The girls seemed to love the idea of filling it in each day. We put the basics together on the first day and then with little xiary tags made available for the rest of thet rip they kept updating it each day. By the end of the trip many had a fantastic keepsake of their cruise and time away. Definately will have to make it become a kit for future cruises.
Other classes I took were the following
Just Walk Beside Me - Kaisercraft Duchess Range. Its a little hard to pick up this pic but it has pearl strips running around the Victorian border shape.
Just Me - Prima Double Page Layout
This layout was inspired by one Tracie Hudson taught at the recent SA Scrapbooking Conference which I just adored. We couldn't get hold of all the papers she used so had to recreate by making and painting frames but the girls had lots of fun.
All I Want for Christmas -Kaisercraft Belle Range

A Box Full of Friendship - American Crafts It really was a fantastic experience. Yes another one of them. This year has certainly been full of them and I will post up some photos of the cruise shortly. Seriously someone should do something about limiting the number of photos one can take on a holiday as you have to go through them all when you return and work out which ones we actually want to keep. Also camera should not be allowed to take more than one photo at a time....lol....

11 comments:

Elizna said...

What a stunning album! Should have had one of these to complete for the previous scrapping cruises we had in SA......! Just gorgeous! What a beautiful memory.

Lyndal said...

Looks like you had a fantastic time Lis :) :) :)

Dorothy Clee said...

Pam Kaye and I (Dorothy) from Tumut were on this wonderful cruise. I wish to thank Melissa for all the wonderful classes that she gave us. I know that we learnt a lot at the workshops. Thanks also for the wonderful goodies that we came home with and for making the new friends. Thanks also go to Lorelle for organising the cruise for us all to enjoy.

Wendy Smith said...

so glad you had a great trip. pity about the sea sickness. know all about that as I used to work on cruise ship as a nurse...LOL

great creating too

Lorelle said...

Great post Melissa, I'm sure everyone will be keen to go on the next one! You did a fantastic job and yes, the cruise album was just the icing on the cake.
Look forward to our next cruise together.

Dorothy Clee said...

I added a story of the cruise to my blog. Dorothy

Al said...

Lis, you did an AMAZING amount of work for the cruise, and of course - it paid off like it always does. I just LOVE your ship album - you made it look awesome! And I love your layouts and your little box with cards - would really love one of my own hehe.
Glad you had such a great time! But great to have you back at work and home safely xx

Liz said...

Wow! What fun! Might have to consider going on one of those... Have a blessed Christmas and we'll chat in the New Year.

Kathie said...

LOVE your ship cruise album Melissa, that is so stunningly amazing!!! Fantastic......glad to see that you enjoyed the cruise and has so much fun....one day I'll get to some of these things... but husbands who work shifts are not so easy to work around especially when you have 2 little girls to consider as well! Glad that you are back safe and sound!!
Kathie
xoxo

Unknown said...

What a dream job Melissa-I'm available anytime...LOL!!

Christine said...

Wow Mel, sounds like a fantastic cruise! Love the cruise album, what a great idea!