10 Tiny Things Beach Retreat Edition

So my FB buddies and Instagram followers all know that I was away on a four day beach retreat last weekend. Nothing better than a long weekend away with some of your favorite scrappy peeps to refresh and recharge the creativity, right? Until it's time to actually go and pack and remember everything you need to cook for a dozen or so people for four days and scrap projects and don't forget to finish order deliveries before you go and now you are two hours behind...and then you get the call that the beach house was double booked. ACK!! Where is the coffee when you need it?!

That's right folks, the beach house double booked the weekend so half my group was already at the coast, half of us were still getting going and no one had a bed to sleep in...and my car had $400 worth of yummy, mostly whole food, organic eats packed in to the brim. Can you say panic attack?

 So I headed to the coast anyways, and the amazing Cathy L. pulled off a scrapbooking miracle, procuring us a fabulous room rate at the Comfort Inn Suites in Astoria, where they not only had comfy cozy rooms with microwaves and fridges, but hooked us up with a nice conference room with lots of tables to scrap in and paid no mind to the crazy woman in Room 320 who turned the sitting area of her room into a pantry while running two crockpots pretty much nonstop all weekend. We might have consolidated a few of the microwaves into one room when setting up the baked potato bar...moved most of the furniture in the lobby to accommodate our group picture...used a hotel rolling cart in an unapproved fashion...and my roommate might have had to deal with the smell of pork products constantly cooking in our room. By the way, you can cook sausage in the crockpot, and while it could be crispier, it sure was tasty!

Anyhow, here comes my Monday Listicle, just a wee bit late this week as I get back to basics while my household recovers from the lack of Mommy for four whole days. Stasha over at Northwest Mommy has asked us to write about 10 Tiny or Secret Things that bring us joy...

10 Tiny (or Secret) Things that Brought me Joy on My Beach Retreat

1. Roses. Kasiakin got roses for Valentine's Day and they brightened the whole crop room. It's almost as good as getting flowers yourself!

2. Bacon. Nom nom nom nom.   Nom.

Hotel cooking? No problem! Just BYOCPs...bring your own crock pots!

3. Fuzzy socks. I'm not a sock wearer, but I bought fuzzy slipper socks for the retreat and wandered all about in stocking feet. Cozy!

4. Amazing GF cheesecake made by my friend Angie who owns AJs Decadent Cheesecakes - first cheesecake I've had in years. Oh my word!

5. Rolled flowers and paper pieced birds. I love tiny fussy details on my projects. These are coming to you soon, Tamra Pope!

6. Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate. I had one each day. I'm currently back on sugar detox, but it was totally worth it.

7. New ZING embossing powder. 4 bucks worth of crafty heaven.

8. Microbeads. Tiny, silver, sparkly, and fun to pour back and forth. See them in the flower centers? LOVE!

9. My perfectly adorable new tiny pink scooping spoon from my friend Linnea. Works great with #7 and #8!

10. This picture of my friend Angela. She broke her leg so I drove her to the coast and we sent her scooter in another car...but scrappers don't give up when our retreat house double booked and scrappers won't leave a friend to sit in the tiny cramped car! This will be my favorite pic for a while. I think Imma gonna make it my phone background. Or maybe not...don't want to give my dear boys any ideas...still giggling...Make it work!

Not the listicle I intended to write, but a good snapshot of the fabulous craft weekend I just spent with some of the most hilarious and amazing women I know. Next time you should come too!