hard work ?

On Friday I packed my little car to within an inch of its life and headed to Daylesford.

I visited the Garage sale to end all garage sales at Lark, ran into Deborah, met Peta and maintained my sugar levels with coffee and cake.

After cake I hung out at Merrilyn's shop, trying to helpful but mostly getting increasingly excited. In the afternoon we headed off to Peppers and began setting up the room for the 100 or so women who were arriving the next day.

There was hugging and kissing at the arrival of Anette and Melly and we set up our displays and ogled each others lovely bits and pieces. The projects for the weekend were gorgeous, there was something for everyone. Eventually, Melly and I headed off for dinner. As you can imagine dinner was a very serious affair as we discussed the state of the world and everything else. The discussions continued as we headed for the bar on our return to peppers. Our conversation was so interesting the waiting staff came to stand at the door to listen (or maybe they wanted us to finally shut-up and leave.)

Saturday was awesome, lots of amazing women, lots of craft, hours of laughter, gorgeous food and it all passed in a blur. I met Michelle, one of my gorgeous Senior Management Team (aka-pattern testers) and saw some truly amazing things during show and tell . I also seemed to spend a lot of time with only one shoe on! I really had so much fun. I don't think I drew breath all day.

(that's not all that unusual)

When the last people had gone, we were off again for a quick visit to Daylesford Makers Market, a glass of champagne at Lark and a bit more shopping at Threadneedle and Purl's Palace.

We all returned to Peppers to fall into the leather couches by the fire whereupon a young man politely offered us some drinks (what a nice fellow).

Anette entertained us with stories of her amazing life, her different roles within craft and fashion and her extensive travelling while we recuperated and then we were whisked off to the private dining room for a truly magnificent dinner.

(I really really hope that room was sound proofed. Six hysterical women all laughing and talking at once - we could have powered a small nation on noise alone).

On Sunday , once again I got to hang out with amazing crafty women. I caught up with some bloggy friends and met some new ones. I made some great new friends that I really hope to keep in contact with. I ate apple crumble, and Thai fish cakes, and fresh crispy salads and warm scones.

I saw a huge array of craft at show-and-tell time and I got to show off Mr Gocco to people too!

All too soon it was time for everyone to pack up and go home. I took a very inelegant lady-tumble in the car park while packing my car, that could have, if caught on video probably won me a prize.

So again it was hugs all round and promises to keep in touch and a lot of congratulations to Zoe and Merrilyn and their amazing team (Jodie spunk-bubble Abel, Joy, Amy, Michelle, Rahnee and many more I have no doubt) and it was time to hop back in the little car and come home.

At home I began regaling the family with stories of the weekend and the new friends and the hysterical snorting laughter. Master 15 was a bit confused, "I thought you said you were working this weekend, that doesn't sound like work".

you know what ? ................ just between us, it didn't feel like it either.