First of all, welcome to the new and improved Frostygoth! I spent a good deal of time learning how to use WordPress to convert my static, 1997-hand-coded-HTML website to a hipster blog. Now it supports scalability for mobile devices. Sorry it took me so long to join the 21st century interwebs, but I hope you enjoy it and that it’s now easier to read up on our crazy adventures!
So–I last wrote about October and our Hallowversary trip, so it’s on to November!
The big thing I did in November was another new experience. I subscribe to a Canadian scrapbooking magazine called Scrapbook & Cards Today and the company that makes the magazine also offers scrapbooking and card-making kits as well as events across Canada called Crop & Create. Well of course I had to check these oot! (Canadian for ‘out’) And when I looked at the schedule, the one in Saskatoon in November worked for a couple of different reasons:
- I didn’t have any leftover vacation time prior to our Hallowversary trip, so if I went to one of these events, it had to be after October.
- My Goals List contains not only going to all 50 US states, but also to all Canadian provinces and territories, and I had not yet had a reason to go to Saskatchewan. This was PERFECT.
So, I registered to attend on the day registration opened and booked a hotel room. I didn’t have anyone to go with, but you know that doesn’t stop me. 🙂 However, after attending the Scrapbook Expo in Denver, and meeting sisters Margaret and Marcie, and talking to Margaret about Saskatoon, in October she surprised me with the news that she was going to join me!
And thus, our Canadian adventure. It was by far the BEST scrapbooking event I’ve ever attended. It was unbelievably well-organized. The owner of the company was even there to make sure things ran smoothly. We stayed in the same hotel as the event and it was extremely comfortable. What I didn’t know ahead of time was that I could’ve reserved a “themed room” which included outer space, racing, under the sea and HOCKEY! Guess that leaves something for next time! 😉
We met a lot of awesome ladies there, including our new friend Tara who graciously ate with us and drove us to Tim Horton’s every morning. Here she is with her Knight in her medieval-castle-themed room.
The conference room held over 100 of us happily working away on our projects, and the other half of the room was dedicated to the amazing classes we had.
The instructors were well-known designers in the industry so it was like hanging out with celebrities! Margaret and I even flew in with one of them from Minneapolis!
Plus, the food was superb both at the event and at the two on-site restaurants, we got TONS of free stuff plus amazing prizes that I did not win and two local scrapbooking stores packed up their wares and drove to Saskatoon from Winnipeg and Moosejaw to set up mini stores for us!
The best part was that word got around quickly that we traveled “from very far away” to come to this event and that blew everyone away. Ladies we had never chatted with came up to us to make sure we were being treated well and having a good time. OMG. I love Canadians. I’ve never been with a nicer group of people or at a nicer event!
So, the event was Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Since we weren’t flying back until Monday afternoon (or so we thought!), we took the opportunity on Monday to go into downtown Saskatoon to see the sights. It’s a cute city centre with the main attraction being the “Castle” or hotel designed to look like a fairytale castle from Germany.
We then walked along the river and across the bridge in the sideways snow to get pretty photos of downtown and the bridges that Sask is famous for.
Lastly, we walked back into town and to the mall, but not without taking some more fun shots!
We then headed to the airport where we sat for over 4 hours in a delay. Missing our connecting flight out of Minneapolis, we booked the first flight the next morning and got a hotel room close to the airport. We landed in Minneapolis at 9pm, had dinner in the hotel at 10pm, slept 3.5 hours, and had a lovely flight back home Tuesday morning. I was so exhausted from a busy weekend with not enough sleep, but I had the BEST time!
OK, what else happened in November?
- 1 Avs game
- 1 musical–Come From Away about the small town in Canada that took in over twice their own population in travelers on 9/11 when the FAA grounded all planes over the US. It was INCREDIBLE, a must-see, and I just FLIPPIN’ love Canadians.
- An assortment of lunches and dinners with lots of friends
- Thanksgiving lunch at a restaurant followed by our traditional non-traditional movie. This time it was “Zorro The Gay Blade” from the early 80s. Pretty funny.
- A weekend scrapbooking retreat at a local hotel near the airport. It’s my time to do Christmas cards! Not only did I get them all done halfway through the weekend, I worked on other card kits too.
- Black Friday was spent making 193 lotion soaps with a friend. We have a tendency to make too much, but it’s quite fun!
- Oh and after Thanksgiving I both got braces and dyed my hair. The braces are a necessary evil, brought on by over a decade of teeth clenching and grinding while I sleep. Which is ironic because out here in Colorado, I have negative stress. I even ground through my thick plastic nightguard! Anyhoo, my dentist was worried about me cracking teeth so off I went for $5,500 worth of flimsy plastic Invialign trays that I replace every two weeks for the next YEAR AND A MISERABLE HALF. The first two days of a new set of trays are the worst as I have this constant dull pain in my mouth, but then it gets better. The hair was just something fun to do!
