BONANZA

Well I'm back from a great weekend away at Bonanza. It was my first time and so much better than I expected. In the end me and Katy made a last minute decision to go on the Thursday night so that we were only a 10 minute drive away from the NEC in the morning. Katy booked a Travelodge about 3 miles from the NEC so it was ideal. After packing everything in a rush on Thursday afternoon/evening I finally arrived just after 10pm at the Travelodge. After chilling out for a bit we both went to bed as we had a very early start in the morning.

We got up about 6am on Friday morning and got ourselves ready. We got everything down to our cars and had breakfast at McDonald's which was only next door. After going the wrong way to start with (Sat Nav's fault!) we arrived at the NEC. It was not that straight forward to find somewhere to park as the signs just seemed to stop. We found somewhere to park though and only a very short walk to where we needed to be.

Check in was very easy and we went straight to the VIP room for coffee. Our goodie bags looked great with all sorts of bits in them. We also had a tool bag which we found out we could keep as we were VIPs but we were given the wrong tool set to start with but we managed to get that changed. We then went to the cropping area and found ourselves a table and started cropping straight away. I managed to get a layout finished that morning and met Lianne and Kathy. Dani and Mary were also at our table and we had a great time with them, it was great to have people we knew there.

We went shopping and I bought a few bits including a AMM tote for my tools that I had been after for ages. I got it from Rachel at Hobbyhorsecrafts and so did a lot of other people by the looks of it! Our first class was A lotta Lil with Becks, it was a fab class with great teacher and an amazing kit. There was so much in it, travel stamps, ribbon, lots of embellishments, paper etc and I loved the double layout I created. Before the next class we met with others from our UKS team, it was lovely to meet people again and for the first time. We were able to have a quick chat and have some photos taken before going off to our next classes. The next class was Heidi Swapp, Inside the box with Kara Wylie and was fantastic. We made a little album from one of Heidi Swapps frame kits (just needs finishing) which is something I never would have though of doing-I have a travel one sat in my draw so I know what I can do with it now! Kara was lovely and made the class so relaxed and we got so much done.

The last class of the day was The X-factor by Gin-x and the only disappointing class I did. The class kit was various papers from Imagination Project so not just Gin-x as I thought. The kit did not co-ordinate - papers, embellishments and cotton art tape and I'm not sure the little album is something I would use especially as nothing matches.

Party night was good and there was enough food to go round. We had a power cut due to a lightening strike but I still managed a layout in the dark! I also did another layout that night and it was good to meet a few new people and watch some of the challenges. I also won a raffle price which I was really pleased with. After the party we made our way to the Hilton Hotel. It took longer than planned as once we had got our cars we couldn't find our way back to Dani and Mary who were looking after the bags. Once we'd checked in at the hotel we took our things to the rooms and had a drink in the bar. We finally got to bed around 1:30am.

The next day me and Katy were up and down for breakfast around 8am. We had a lovely breakfast and filled ourselves up. We then got our things and went over to the NEC and got a coffee from the VIP room. We then found ourselves a table in the cropping room and made our way to the first of today's two classes. It was Album Botox with Mandy Anderson and was a huge paper bag book. It was a very fast class and we almost completed the whole album, Mandy was a great teacher and kept us on out toes. Our next class was Prima Donna and was a card class with Prima flowers, Maya round charms and some other things from Craftwork cards. We completed 2 cards in this class and had some things left over to do some more.

We then had some more time cropping, shopping and meeting people before heading home. I was so exhausted but it was a fantastic two days and I finally made it home at 8pm.

Thanks Katy for a great weekend and for your company in cropping, classes, shopping etc. It was great to share classes with Michelle and Kathy too on the Friday - didn't we have a good moan on Friday Michelle and Katy!! Thanks to Dani and Mary too for your company whilst cropping and drinking and finding our way to the Hilton!!!

I will post photo of my layouts later when I have photographed them.