Help Me Celebrate!

First things first...

I have been such a creative bunny recently. Joining in on challenges, making cards, scrapping lots, catching up with missed assignments from past classes. And of course there is the reading. That could be considered creative if you stretch the meaning a bit :-)

And last week I ventured out into the world of other crafty people, to my local craft trade fair Creativa. I don't have a very local LSS so once a year, I brave the crowds to this fair and when I say crowds, I mean it. I am always surprised by just how many people are there even on workday afternoons.

It's a huge fair covering everything from scrapbooking to card making, from serviette technique (!?) to painting, from patchwork to doll making, and everything in between. The good, the bad and the downright bizarre!

Quilting seemed to be a main topic this year and a patchwork quilt in the colours of a local, rather passionate football club caught my eye (for good or bad, I'm not quite sure!):

Then there was the artistic display made entirely of paper (I think these were made of some sort of mushed up paper pulp):

Don't ask me what these insect looking wall things were supposed to be - I suspect they might have had lights inside but I don't think I will be rushing to get them on my wall. They remind me too much of some creepy crawly horror movie!

Mmmm? Really not sure about this.  Environmentally friendly, it might be. But it's a bit creepy!

And Easter was definitely in the air with so many bunnies and eggs and everything you need to make your own Easter decorations:

Even though the show itself seemed to be bigger than last year and there seemed to be more people there, I was a bit disappointed at the scrapbooking stands. Not as many real scrapbook stores represented and then the range of products was quite limited. Lots of really old products mainly reduced, much of which I already had and have even been purging from my supplies recently, and the new stuff was mostly Prima and Tim Holtz. No BG Luscious, no Echo Park, not even much American Crafts.

I was a bit disappointed. Not disappointed enough to have saved my money mind you!

I still managed to come home with a bad chock full of scrumptious supplies that cost waaaay toooo much!

I concentrated on embellishments as I have so much paper already and stocked up on lots and lots of Prima flowers, some bling and then other interesting bits and pieces I saw along the way. Of course, I got home and thought that I should have taken the plunge and got X or Y or why didn't I get two Z. But on the whole, I am really pleased with what I got. I picked up just a few sheets of paper (MME Stella & Rose) and a few alphas including 4 packs of Thickers but the rest is all embellishments. Pretty stuff!

Every year I come home vowing not to go again next year but with the lack of a good local shop, I find myself drawn to it each year again! And it's always fun to see some of the "interesting" hobbies that are out there.


Anyway, onto the celebrate mentioned in my blog post title.

This blog post is my 300th!!!!

I first started the blog back in 2006 so that means I'm obviously not posting often enough, but 300 sounds like quite a big number to me!

And it so happens that this weekend is the weekend of a retreat that I should have been at but which I needed to cancel. So I'm sitting here, nursing an icky cold but needing to do something to cheer me up.

So, in celebration of 300 blog posts, I'm going to do a little giveaway.

I have a little pile of goodies here (some Graphic 45 Le' Romantique papers and some La Blanche fairy rub ons) which I will be adding to with some bits and pieces that I round up from my room and I would love to share them with one of you.

To be entered into my first ever draw, just leave me a comment telling me something that cheers you up!

I'll pick a winner next weekend.