the benefit crop (long post)

Seriously, this was such a cool thing to be a part of. I was a little nervous because as much as I like scrapbooking, twenty hours of it straight is a little intense, and I stayed up until 3am the night before, preparing for it. Not that I wasn't up for it though. It went from Friday at 6pm to Saturday at 2pm. So my friend Becky picked me up. I didn't know her very well before this (in fact, we met online through 2peas and had only met once in person) so it was really fun getting to know her better. And what better way to get to know someone than at an all-nighter when you can't be anything but yourself because you are just too tired not to? So Becky picked me up and we carpooled up to Bellingham together (about a two hour drive, but it took us longer because of traffic).

This event was amazing. It was so well planned for. It started off with an introduction and welcome and then a guy played his guitar and sang to a slide show of pictures (the pictures were of Max, the boy whose name this donation to the Children's Hospital is in. Max is the son of Elizabeth, who owns Treasury of Memories, and he has spent a lot of his life in The Children's Hospital). CDs were sold for any amount of money and all proceeds went to the charity. Then they fed us (food catered from Olive Garden and Izzy's Pizza) and after dinner Becky and I checked out the store. Then we got started on our projects. They gave each of us these totes filled with goodies (12 sheets of fun paper, 2 adorable kits, a Heidi Swapp stamp, a card/envelope pack, and a wooden book kit to make a mini book). They had felt and die cutting machines there for us to decorate our bags. Here's what I came up with:


I like how it turned out. Over the course of the night, I also made the mini book in from the kit they gave us (although I haven't decided what theme to do for it so I'm not finished with the inside, so I won't post a picture of it yet), I made the cards from the kit they gave us, I made a mini book that I'm giving someone as a gift (which I won't post pictures of b/c that someone reads this blog), and I made another card.

I guess that doesn't seem like all that much considering I had 20 hours to work with, but let me tell you, around 4 or so, I started slowing down to the point where I would make one card or do one little thing and then sit and stare at the table for a few minutes until Becky encouraged me to keep going. So I wasn't exactly being speedy. (I didn't take my camera with me, so here are some pictures from the crop that Becky took (with the exception of the first picture, which I took with my cell phone of the cute centerpiece they had on the tables)...aren't we so lovely in the middle of the night?)





(By the way, the kits they gave us are available to buy online. They are so stinkin' cute and the proceeds go to charity. Plus, if you buy both of them, you get $5 off of your order (if you're buying other things as well). Here is the mini book kit and the cards kit. Fun stuff.
I know I am going on and on about this crop, but I also have to mention the amazing food. Everything was catered and donated and there was tons of food all the time. They had a desert bar and a healthy snack bar, chips and salsa catered from a Mexican restaurant, they had a popcorn machine running with different flavorings for the popcorn, there was junk food, they handed out gum, there was a delicious breakfast catered by Designed Dinners, and a yummy lunch by a sub place. (Funny that Becky and I brought our own treats, not quite knowing what to expect. Needless to say, my chips and salsa stayed under the table by my feet all night). Also, T.O.M. provided toiletries in case we forgot anything...like toothpaste, lotion, etc. So cool of them.
They also had drawings to keep us going.

I know I've gone on and on, but it really was very fun, plus it was for a good cause, which made it even better. We even made it through the whole 20 hours (around 8 am was the hardest for me...I made it through the night but still had 6 hours to go). Becky took a 20 minute nap before driving us home (I'm so glad she was driving b/c I really wouldn't have made it). In conclusion, it was a great experience. That's all for now.