Glenrose Retreat

Wow!!! What a fun time we had.

A retreat is always a great time - no domestic chores to distract you - nothing to do except sew or maybe some shopping & eating out.  There is always a lot of chatting and usually some fun along the way.   BUT this time beat all that.

This retreat is organised by the Tuesday Girls and I have been lucky enough to be included in the "Guest List".
We arrived Monday morning ready for tea and scones, 

then got set up and into the sewing.  Most of what I did this time was "secret" stuff so there are no sewing pictures.  
Tuesday morning we arrived back in the sewing room to find a Christmas elf had been busy - in fact Mrs Elf had risen early - dressed - snuck out of the cabin and set up all this - then went back to the cabin changed back into PJs and went back to bed...very sneaky!

During the day we had lucky dips to open a box from the Advent box Mrs Elf had supplied - originally a commercial collection of 24 boxes but each box and the container were "Christmased" as only Mrs Elf could!.  Each box contained little sewing treasures. We got 4 each and this is my collection.

We were given a challenge:  - Mrs Elf provided felt, laces, ribbons and beads and we had to make a Christmas Decoration.   We added them to the tree.

Mrs Elf also had a Christmas bag for each of us -- filled with more goodies - a couple of little pouches, note pads and bits & pieces:

We also had some games - threading popcorn onto string

Sucking up M&Ms using a straw (that was quite tricky!)

Tuesday was also Melbourne Cup day so we had a Christmas race

That was hilarious as none of those little wind up toys wanted to go in a straight line.

I didn't win any of the games but still got a prize (just like any kid's party!!!):

Mrs Elf justified all this by saying that she was just getting rid of excess stuff at her place...but a lot of work went into this and everyone had a fantastic time.

Each group at Glenrose get some food to share for a "Happy Hour" - cheese, biscuits etc.  This year we added Baked Camembert and Cauliflower muffins and Mrs Elf brought along a tub of Weiss Mango & Coconut sorbet and a bottle of moscato - slushed up the sorbet - added the moscato and we all enjoyed a drink - Oh My Gosh!!! - just lovely.

It was hard to say enough "Thank yous" to Mrs Elf to cover all the extra work and effort she put in.

Sometime during my 3 days, I did manage some sewing - but it is all for Christmas swaps or gifts so no pictures now.    

It's going to be a long time until next November when we do it all again.