fabulous weekend

This weekend was an extra special one. It started early, for one. I left town Thursday afternoon with my roomie Michelle Gutierrez  to check into this hotel in Manhattan Beach.

Springhill Suites

We were there for Teresa Collins' event "Inspired Journey" at the Manhattan Beach Marriott on Friday and Saturday. Due to a series of unfortunate events we weren't able to stay at the actual event venue, but our substitute location was fine with us (and we were only a couple of blocks away from the Marriott).

Michelle relaxes, creates & computes --all at once!

 We had such a great time - the event was terrific! We attended four classes over the course of the two days, each about three hours long and loaded with inspiration and cool techniques.

My group (class track) was the Sea Fairies

Ginger and Teresa Collins, Hosts/Event Co-ordinators

Manhattan Beach Marriott, our lovely event venue

Teresa taught two fabulous & elegant classes

Sande and Paula from 7Gypsies brought us a fast paced, exciting class

Rebecca of Pink Paislee shows off the super cute folder project we did with her

We met a lot of other great crafters, did a lot of networking and had a lot of fun, too. (Check out both Michelle's blog and  Teresa's blog for more about the event.)

Clockwise from top: Me, Martha, Michelle & Teresa

The event ended on Saturday evening and I said goodbye to my roomie. In her place my honey came out to join me. We had planned a mini getaway (an early anniversary celebration of sorts). We kicked around the Manhattan Beach area all day. It was so nice and relaxing. We jammed in as much as we could in one less-than-24-hour day:

Late breakfast at local landmark Dinah's

The workers never stop bustling at Dinah's

Next we hit the beach

The Roundhouse in the background

A pic by the hubster

The Manhattan Beach pier

Who would turn this offer down?

After our beach stroll, we caught an early showing of "The Avengers"

The weekend ended with dinner at 
Paul Martin's American Bistro