One incredible weekend.

Report cards due, entire courses to plan, a classroom to clean, 6 hours of meetings to attend - and that was just in the latter half of the week! So it was no surprise that by the time the week was out I was exhausted and in serious need of some craft therapy.

Enter Crop Away.

Crop Away is a weekend-long sleepover crop in northern Alberta that, honestly, is the best time. I have been looking forward to this weekend for months! The crop is held at a summer camp where we crop in the main lodge and sleep in the bunks. The girls who organize it do a fantastic job, and this weekend - with its "travel" theme, awesome games, cozy and relaxed atmosphere, and fun challenges - was no exception. It's so incredible to go for such a fun little getaway only 15 minutes out of town! Seriously. So. Much. Fun. I am already looking forward to the next one in April! (If you're interested in attending a fun crop in Northern Alberta, post a message and I'll send you the info!)

What blows my mind is how creative I feel when I'm there. Honestly, the best pages I've ever completed were done at a Crop Away event. There are no distractions and no responsibilities...it was so great to be able to just focus on something creative and relaxing after a hectic week preparing for the "real life" that awaited me today with the start of the new semester.

As I mentioned last week, I've been so excited to enter some great challenges that I've found posted online, and while I completed the pages I've been dying to do (Yay!) I have missed the deadlines (Boo!)! I was so inspired by the creative challenges these fantastic ladies have posted for us to join in that I'm going to share my pages anyway. That's right. I'm a rebel like that.

First, my submission for the Dirty Scraps "Pivotal Moment" challenge.

I started out with this one, which was about the pivotal moment when I decided to become a teacher, and again, when I decided to stay a teacher:
The whole point of the Dirty Scraps blog is to challenge scrappers to journal the bad along with the good, and to dig deep. And, believe me, this was a challenge! It's really not easy for me to be so honest and unguarded about my feelings about teaching...so I compromised by hiding the journaling behind a file tag, and I really like the semi-privacy it provides. Now, that being said, I think I probably could have been even more honest (in terms of being thorough), but like I said, it was a warm up. Practice, not perfection, people! :)

So, here's one that I did later on in the weekend. I've had the idea for this page floating around in my head for weeks, and finally, I got in on paper. What a relief.
This page is about the choice to release my baggage and in favour of the freedom that this decision brings. What a cathartic process it was to make this page! This one is my (too late) entry for the challenge. These photos are a little dark, and the colour in the third photo is off, but I wanted to get the detail from that fantastic Inkadinkadoo stamp! I was really proud that the other ladies voted this layout 2nd place overall of the pages we each chose as our personal faves from the weekend. (Thank you, ladies!)

Now, for my entry to the "How Do I Love Thee" poem-inspired challenge at Scrap That Poetry, I knew that combining the poem with my design-team layout for Scrapbooks Made Simple, a local scrapbooking store, would be the perfect match! Here's what I came up with:As an English teacher, I love the subtle allusion to a poem that I've always loved. Thanks for such an inspiring challenge, ladies!

Well, there you have it: the results of one incredible weekend. I'll have a few more goodies to share with you over the next week or so!

What a great start to the new semester. Now, if only I can get my scrap stuff unpacked in a timely manner, life will be sweeeeeeet. :)