What, no picture?

Nope. No picture. By the time I decided to come over here and chat a bit, the light was gone. Actually, that sounds romantic..it's a little after 10pm and therefore the light is not natural and my photography is just not up to it and blah blah blah!) Another concise way to start!
I've been at a crop today. It's a real treat, an essential part of my social life. I love the connection through craft that I would otherwise never have made.....I contend that it is an especial skill of women - one tiny thing in common can be the foundation of a good solid friendship. Crop Saturday is a guaranteed laugh, chips for lunch and maybe even a couple of finished LOs, all in a day! (Although for the record, 5 out of 8 of the croppers were, for some reason, filled with strength and didn't have chips, and yes, Willowy Blonde and New Baby Mummy were amongst them. Sigh.)
We had a challenge (set by me, so very easy, lighthearted and almost forgotten of course). In the course of this, we discovered that we are all particularly sold on the die cut 12 x 12 sheets. Now of course, Cricut Queen was probably aghast at our excitement, but she was too polite to do what I would have done - laugh! Turns out that these sheets, although not a brand new, over promoted product are new to some people, and better still, seeing them in use has encouraged others to have a crack at them. Especially that awful bit where you have to cut them if you want them to go further than a single LO! Isn't that great - learning through play. Or is that an echo of my parenting job creeping in?!! The challenge was to make up a LO using 3 different patterned papers. Of course, wife of Mr Pineapple always scraps this way - she has an eye for patterns that makes you wanna sit next to her and absorb the skill. We did toy with the idea of reversing the challenge so that she could create a LO using only plain papers..but that didn't happen. Mr Pineapple's wife - she stayed serenely uninvolved and went about creating her 28th LO of the day. (Or so it seemed!). We all managed the challenge, but New Baby Mummy won the day - completed the challenge and really made the most of her day 'off'...had pre-kitted her LOs and was in full creative flow. A great feeling. The hot water urn leaked horribly, the hall is never as warm as we want it to be and the chip shop is probably a 4 minute walk from the hall, but what the hell, it was still a good day. Join a crop - good for your crafting health.