07 July 2010

Daylesford Craft Experience

What a weekend! What amazing people! What a lot of fun!

Last Friday, we were desperately trying to finish last minute preparations before our helpers and designers arrived. 

Jodie Carleton of Vintage Ric Rac arrived first, then Jody Abel. We then got our priorities right by starting with a coffee & fantastic toblerone cake at one of Daylesford's local cafes, Bocconcini.

Amazingly, after that we seemed to have an increased energy to get things done!

That afternoon, we set up the venue at Peppers Springs Retreat with huge numbers of goodies, kits, bags, patterns, fabric, books etc, etc ...

As you can see, the room looked absolutely lovely in no time!


Melanie Hurlston Anette Eriksson then arrived & the level of excitement reached a new high.  The designers set up their beautiful displays which left us in complete awe of their amazing talents.


Here is a photo of all the fabulous designs:


Here is the one & only photo of Zoe & I (centre) together for the whole weekend - we seemed to just keep bouncing around & talking - generally having a great time!


An exciting feature of the retreat was the postcard swap & the results were absolutely amazing ...


As were all the participants ...


Zoe & I would like to acknowledge some of the lovely people that made this event so much fun.

First, thank you to our gorgeous designers - Melanie Hurlston of Melly & me, Jodie Carleton of Vintage Ric Rac & Anette Eriksson of Anette Eriksson Design

These ladies made the weekend spectacular for us, with their gorgeous designs & joy of creating.  These ladies also donated some of the lovely prizes during the weekend.

Our fabulous assistants, Jody, Jill, Michelle, AmyRani who worked like crazy all weekend (plus more) & kept the weekend going.

We would also like to acknowledge the following local businesses who contributed to the retreat:

Lark - fabric backed mirrors
Sweet Decadence - yummy chocolates
Jules Soaps - aromatic soaps
Hepburn General Store - fantastic giant Smarties
Portal 108 - discount vouchers that you all received

Daylesford Makers' Market - for staying open late.

We were also supported by the following industry sponsors:

SSS - thread snips
Birch - tape measure wrist band
Victorian Textiles - transfer pens & templates
Charles Parsons - Art Gallery fat quarters

Peppers Springs Retreat & Spa were wonderful with their support & amazing food & service all weekend as well as providing some lovely vouchers for prizes.

The biggest thank you goes to all of you who came to our very first Daylesford Craft Experience. Without you all this would never have happened & we are very appreciative.

Regards
Merrilyn & Zoe

PSSSSST - I'll let you in on a little secret ... we had so much fun we are going to do it again next year !!!!