It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, we’ve been home in Houston almost two weeks and while we’ve been keeping it relatively low-key (due to the fact that an unplanned eight week trip home has left us somewhat broke!) but we’ve done some fun things too.

This past weekend, I headed on my yearly pilgrimage to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention.  Like last year, (read here) this year’s was held in the Marriot Waterway convention centre in the Woodlands (about an hour from here) and my friend Helen and I spent from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon scrapping our little hearts out!

These weekends don’t come cheap (that’s why I only do one a year).  You’ll all be aghast to hear that, with the overnight and two days worth of classes, something like this would set you back around $800+.

Helen and I did nine classes this year, plus hotel stay (1/2) came out to around $345, we booked it in March (upside, you spread the pain of the cost).  If you’re lucky, like me, you’ll have a friend who does all of the timetabling and scheduling so you just have to show up 😉

Since you’re ‘on location’, you gotta pay for food.  This year, since I’m on Slimming World, I brought a cooler, I brought six bottles of water (which I refilled from the hotel coolers), I brought bags of sugar snap peas and carrots to snack on during classes, I brought some low-syn chocolate, crisps, cereal bars etc but you’ve still gotta pay for main meals.  For lunch, dinner and breakfast, I spent around $70, $18.40 for parking at the hotel overnight, and then there’s the ‘worst’ part, the shopping.

The classes are a double edged sword.  It’s great to learn new things and make stuff, but you also learn to use things you’ve never heard of, which of *course* means that you’ve gotta buy them.  The vendors also have many, many excellent deals, flash sales, convention specials etc that means you can get even the most basic of supplies at a steal, or, how I placed a value on things, before I invested,

“Can I get this stuff cheaper at one of the craft stores with a coupon?”

If the answer was no, I stocked up.  If yes, I walked on by.

Traditionally (this is my third convention) I spend between $200 to $300 on supplies while I’m here.  And, if you can believe it, I get the impression from the amount of spending I see, that I am on the lower end of the spending spectrum.  Last year I was on the upper end of spending, closer to $300, this year, I spent around $200 on supplies.

The classes are great, an hour to an hour and a half, you get a pack of provisions, work through some layouts, or cards, and you can win prizes – it’s the best classroom I’ve ever been in!

As always, I loved it, I’ve come home with a renewed sense of determination to get caught up on my scrapbooking (I’ve only done up to our engagement pictures from 2009).  It’s time to get caught up, before I get way too far behind!

I already can’t wait for next years!