I heart Vicki Boutin...

Ok I have to say it. After this weekend I'm a HUGE Vicki Boutin fan. Such a big fan in fact, I kept calling her "Heidi" accidentally on Saturday evening. Now that's a compliment - she reminds me of "my" Heidi.

I don't even know where to begin...it was such an amazing weekend...

I'll start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...

I got an early start on Friday morning so I could head down to Perth and pay Grandmaman Turpin a visit in her "new" home. I had a few errands to run first and got a bit of a late start. I popped into Merrickville on the way to get her and Uncle Gil some delicious fudge. Unfortunately the flower shop was closed so I couldn't pick her up any blooms.

I made my way to Perth, got lost (not my fault, the address wasn't on the GPS) and finally found her new nursing home only a half hour late. By that point the family was in a meeting to discuss how she is adjusting to her new surroundings so my fudge and I waited in the hallway until the first part of the meeting was over.

I then snuck in and Grandmaman's face lit up when she saw me. It was so great to see her that happy. She cracks me up. I adore her. After her meeting I got in a short visit with her and Uncle Gil and D's Uncle Marcel and Aunt Jane. You would have sworn Grandmaman heard Brad Pitt was waiting downstairs the way she went flying down the hallway with her walker!!! She was thrilled to be going home for the weekend.

I'm SO GLAD I took the time for a visit and can't wait to go back!

I jumped into the Jeep and then made my way to Smiths Falls to meet Lynn and Janet for lunch. Once again I got lost! Ha ha. Not my fault I didn't have an "official" restaurant name. After mistaking a witch store or something like that for the restaurant Janet came out to rescue me!

We had a delish lunch and an even better desert. Our afternoon was busy with a stop at the scrapbooking store to drop off our stuff then off to the Hershey Factory. I picked up some chocolate and some really cool Hershey Kisses cookie cutters in different sizes! Next we got settled at the hotel and I picked up a few bevvies of an alcoholic type and even a package of jell-o shooters!

After a quick catch-up we made our way back to the store for some supper and some scrapping. Supper was AMAZING. Debbie made us homemade tacos with some wine and fancy chocolatey treats!

SO YUM

Oh, I almost forgot. We also went shopping to this great little consignment/boutique. I picked up some funky jewellery. SO COOL.

I tried to work on some of my Deisgn Your Life class but let's be honest - all I wanted to do was shop and talk. I finished one page.

Vicki kick started our creativity by getting us to make *insert fancy work here* necklace charm thingies.

I'm going to be honest. I was apprehensive. They didn't seem to be my "style" and we all know how particular I can be. Vicki proved me wrong and I LOVE what I made. We had been talking about Paris earlier in the evening so she even put aside the little Paris sticker for me. I heart Vicki.

Here it is - it doesn't look great in the picture but you get the idea...

I TOTALLY LOVE IT!

We didn't make it too late of a night Friday knowing that we had a big day ahead of us on Saturday. We did however take time for a drink and MANY LAUGHS before bed. Dorrie and Melinda joined us for a drink. They knew Lynn and Janet from the last Vicki weekend. Dorrie is TOO HILARIOUS FOR WORDS and it turns out she's a friend of Stephs! Crazy.

I offered to sleep on the hide-a-bed on Friday night. BIG MISTAKE and totally my own fault. Both Lynn and Janet said they would but I had to be the "hero." I messed up my back really good. It's STILL SORE. I got very little sleep.

We had a quick breakfast at Timmies and then headed over to the store for our crazy day. It just occured to me I didn't take any pictures of the project. I will have to do that at a later date. I was not too keen on the dirty part. I don't generally ink or distress or do any of that "dirty" stuff. Vicki's class was all about dirty and she had fun torturing me.

I think her mom Sheila had even more fun torturing me! She would keep an eye out to see if I was dirty yet. Can I just take a minute here to say what an absolute sweetie Sheila is? She was such a big help to Vicki and oh so fun. I had a great time with her and can't wait to see her again in February.

Oh, I must say it was rather freaky because Vicki looks, acts and sounds EXACTLY like Whitney's sister Mel. It seriously freaked me out at first. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it wasn't Mel. And when I finally did, I ended up calling Vicki, Heidi (as in Swapp). What a dork I am.

I have to say I had a great buddy/neighbour to help me through the project. Katie got me through the many blond moments I had - I was in good hands. And she was a total sweetheart to boot! She's coming back in February too - yahoo!

Here are some pictures of me working on the "dirtiest" parts of the project. I tried getting out of it but nobody would hear of it so I got Janet and Dorrie to snap some pictures as "proof."

Laughing through the pain...

The new inking technique Vicki taught us with Tim Holtz product -

Pros - I didn't get dirty with this little tool

Cons - I killed the inside of my palm with it! I would love to claim worker's comp or something!

Then again, looking at this picture I'm gripping the little thingy so hard it's no wonder I hurt!!!

I'm proud to say I think I mastered the technique...

Some sort of pearly perfectly white technique or I dunno what it's called...

Proudly displaying my work.

I don't generally like pictures of myself but I really like this one -

it captures just how much fun I was having...

Using the heat gun and trying not to burn the place down...

Doctor I smell burnt toast!

When D saw this picture he thought the heat gun was a purple vibrator and couldn't figure out why we'd be playing with one of those at a scrapbooking event!

Are we having fun yet?

More inking - she worked us to the bone...

Funny story - I lost my word "love" and looked EVERYWHERE for it. I finally gave up, did "blessings instead" and did one kick ass job on blessings if I do say so myself. Wouldn't you know, as soon as I was done I found love again!

Me with momma Sheila. I heart her...

She is such a proud mom and grandma...

Now on to my faves...

Vicki is one talented girl but I do believe she needs to work on her one armed picture taking...

First attempt

Second attempt...
We gave up and gave it to Dorrie...remember - take the picture FROM ABOVE!

Jazz hands!

Check out how filthy Vicki's hands are. I was traumatized!!!

Did I mention she was sick too? Such a trooper.

Taught the ENTIRE DAY with virtually no voice and a cough!

I can't say enough good things about the weekend. I learned so much from Vicki, made some new friends and Angie and Debbie at Tomorrow's Treasures did an amazing job of the entire weekend. I've already signed up for the next VB weekend at the end of February...

After a very long day creating our 6x6 album (which I totally LOVE), we headed back to the hotel for more drinks with Dorrie, Melinda, Karen, Vicki and her mom (of course Lynn and Janet were there too - it was in our room).

Dorrie is too much for words. She literally had all of us in tears. I will NEVER look at pepperoni pizza in the same way - or eggplant for that matter! We had some fun and jell-o shots before calling it a night.

Sunday was breakfast at the Roostenagusgenitoinglsugisnglsy Hause with Lynn, Janet, Melinda, Karen, Dorrie, Sheila and Vicki (I swear I nearly typed Heidi)...what is with my brain and calling V H???

The plan was to spend some time cropping on Sunday but the truth was I may have had a wee bit too much Rockstar/Cosmo/Jell-o on Saturday night and decided to pack it in and make my way home. It was the right decision because I was EXHAUSTED. I took a nice long nap and my back was feeling HORRIBLE.

I missed D so much and it was nice to come home and see him. When I asked Vicki how in the heck I would remove all the ink from my hands she suggested going home and bleaching some toilets. I joked that "that's what husbands are for." Would you believe I came home to a clean house - clean sheets and all! D rocks!

So there you have it my friends. My Vicki weekend. Let the countdown being. Only 121 more sleeps!