Before I dive into this topic, can I address the elephant in the room? Hi! It’s me. I’m the elephant! LOL It has been a HOT MINUTE since I blogged here and I’ve missed it! My life circumstances kept me away from this blog, and scrapbooking in general, for ages but they have changed again and I’m looking forward to stretching my creative muscles here and in my (new and improved) Scrap Cave.
Alice has been asking me for many months to help her with the ScrapHappy community and being able to finally say “yes, I’m in” felt so good. What better way to kick off our new arrangement than with a weekend away … just the two of us … and a few of our other favourite people?
Misty has already posted about the timeline of Reunion in this post, so let’s dive into the ‘extras’ shall we?
IRL
Our last reunion was in 2019 in Calgary, Alberta Canada and the five years in between have seen a lot of changes to our community. But one thing that hasn’t changed is how good it is to be together and how much fun we have as a group. Many of us were at the reunion in Calgary, and the in-person hugs we shared were all the sweeter for the five years between them. Other faces had only been seen online but very quickly it was like we’d known each other in real life forever. All of us are now bonded by the memories we made while in Charlotte.
When in the crop room, we tended to do our own thing. And that was the intention! Personally, I put my head down and scrapbooked, as I was determined to make this weekend a jumping off point to documenting my middle daughter’s recent high school graduation. Many others did the same, and still others dabbled with their projects but really spent most of the time socializing (cough, cough, Alice!) However we chose to spend our days, being together with other like-minded scrappers, swapping tips and shopping links, sharing tools, and learning new techniques … these are the things that make Reunions worth the price of admission. (And the 26 hour marathon journey to get home – a story for another time!)
Let’s take a peek at some of the ways we cemented our bonds over Reunion Weekend.
Meal Time Mayhem
The times when we could focus on getting to know one another better were meal times. This photo was taken on the Friday night when we went to Midwood Smokehouse for dinner. For context, I’m Canadian and from the West Coast so while we love a good barbeque, we are not necessarily known for it. Excellent sushi, yes. Divine Dim Sum, absolutely. Amazing wild salmon, of course. BBQ, not so much. I was eager to learn more and try new things. Like four different barbeque sauces – South Carolina Mustard, Eastern North Carolina Vinegar, Midwood Original, and Spicy Habanero (full disclosure, I did not try that one!) My favourite? Midwood Original.
But the stories we are still talking about from that dinner have nothing to do with the food. It was Morgan’s sauce covered face and his “take a photo of me” comment to Sara. It was realizing we were all nerds who loved Star Trek and Star Wars and Dr Who. It was discussing the merits of iced tea vs sweet tea (fun fact, here in Canada you can’t get unsweetened iced tea, and any iced tea you do get is made from crystals that are dissolved in water.)
Sunday evening we went to Metro Diner for some classic Southern Comfort Food. And as you can tell from the photo above, no fun was had AT ALL! Misty made a reference to the Saravan and I’ve got to say, some of the funniest moments came from the commutes to and from our meals. Whether it was giggles in the car, or the “murder slippers” we saw on our way to and from Panera, there was always something to laugh over, learn about each other, and chat about later when we were back in the crop room.
Monday Fun Day
Our Reunion officially wrapped up at 5:00PM on the Sunday when we had to clear out of the crop room. But there was an option to stay an extra day and do some sight seeing. Everyone stayed on and I for one am so glad they did as this was a day full of getting-to-know-you moments and exploring a few lesser known places in Charlotte.
We started at the Museum of Illusion and can I just say, if you have a chance to go to one of these, DO IT! It was so much fun and truly mind bending at times. Check out this photo from the Big and Little Room.
Several of our members had fun with this illusion and Alice posted her favourite photo taken in this room in the ScrapHappyorg Instagram highlights.
We also had fun hanging off the side of a building.
There were many set ups like this where the illusion only became obvious once the photo was taken. So clever!
It took us about 90 minutes to see and do everything so this is an easy add to any sightseeing day. Fair warning though – if you get at all motion sick, avoid the Vortex tunnel! See Alice’s video in the highlights linked above.
We had a reservation in the afternoon for more fun, but first … lunch. We chose a place called Moo & Brew and they served up the tastiest burgers in record time. And the fact that they didn’t blink an eye at our large group was also amazing.
Our next stop was a Selfie Museum (officially called the Picture Project). This had many rooms decorated with different themes or colour ways. This red room was just begging for us to slip on our Reunion T-shirts and pose together.
I took WAY more photos here than I can possibly scrapbook (challenge accepted?) It was fun to pose by yourself or with various pairings and see what you got. Some worked, some didn’t and some were just fun!
Final Thoughts
I hope this post, and Misty’s post have given you an idea of what one of our ScrapHappy Family Reunions are like. It’s impossible to fully convey all the fun, all the new (and reprised) inside jokes, and all the memories made. It was an honour to be able to bring some leftover store goodies (I owned an Arts & Crafts store until very recently) to give away, and to walk everyone through making a little memory book to store some of these photos and highlights in. Yesterday we held one of our private ScrapHappy Together Zoom sessions and I think most of us were working on these little albums. I’ll post something to my YouTube channel soon so you can see how I’m using mine. Until then, enjoy your weekend.
If you’re interested in learning more about joining our crazy little family, check it out here. Want a taste of our Signature Product? Sign up for LOAD Mini 824 Cut Loose and scrapbook a layout a day for 7 days inspired by the movie Footloose. It starts on Monday August 12th and I can’t wait to two step all week with you!