How many Peas still attend regular crops?

I go to some two hours away, I will go to one three hours away in the mountains for a long weekend and to my LSS that is 25 minutes away every other month. I have a great room with a ton of supplies, but I find I get a lot done at a crop where that is my purpose for that time frame. I love the chit chat with the ladies too.

The crops that are long weekends are generally up in the mountains and there is a fair amount of looking at wildlife mixed in with cropping.

A friend hosts one once a month. I try to go when Im not working.

And justjac is kind enough to offer me a bed for the crop weekends, so then it is just 5 minutes away for me, too!

I have attended crops as far away as Calgary and Saskatoon which are each 5+ hours of driving.  If I have a place to stay or if there is a special event, I don't mind driving that distance for a weekend crop.  Once my stuff is packed and in the car, I could really go anywhere...

I scrap at home a lot, but it is nice to spend a crafty weekend with like minded people.  I sometimes have one or two ladies over to the house to craft for a day or two as well.  It's great to see what other people are creating and the techniques they are using.  

@ihavetoomuchstuff introduced me to her scrapping friends a year or so ago, and since then I've joined her for a local Saturday crop that happens almost monthly. I *need* it. It's this coming weekend, and I can't wait!

A lot of the girls do a 3 day crop twice a year, but I haven't been able to join them for one of those yet. Some day ...

I do still attend crops, but I don't I attend as regularly as I'd like.  The last semi-local-to-me LSS was about 40 miles away and I tried to attend their 12-hour crop at least every other month.   After they closed it got tough for me to do regular scrapping. (even though I have a craft room, I don't seem to get much done at home-- too many distractions.)

Weekend hotel retreat:   I try to attend a 4-day weekend retreat hosted by a somewhat-local CM rep (she lives about 35 miles from me) at least once a year; twice a year if we can comfortably work it out (hotel costs, scheduling issues like the need for dog sitting, etc.).  This crop is 10 am Thurs. - 3 pm Sun which is GREAT...  having that extra 1 1/2 days is soooo much nicer than just a Friday afternoon - Sunday afternoon weekend crop.  Since I live about an hour away and take a LOT of crap with me, a longer crop is worth a lot more to me.  It's also worth it because her crops always have 6 feet of table space.

The same CM rep hosts monthly 12-hour crops in her home; she calls them a 'no frills' crop and charges $15.  I try to go to those once every couple months with my scrappy friend Vickie.   The low cost makes it worth it to me to haul my stuff there for the socializing and inspiration.


we need to do more of this, too-  I had my scrappy friend over for a crafting weekend a year or so ago, and we've talked about doing it again, but we haven't gotten around to planning another one.  

I don't do crops, but I do go to regular monthly ATC swaps ... irregularly.

I stamp/make cards... My CTMH demo hosts one about every month, and a lot of scrappers go. Most are Saturdays for 14 hours (10-midnight). She also does some weekend long retreats that are Friday-Sunday or Thursday-Sunday. I go to some, but not all-- I often go if I am working on card swaps, but I sometimes pass if I don't have anything I really feel like working on.

It's up to $20 per crop (more for the retreats) but it's at a newer, friendlier hotel that doesn't double book on her. The downside is that it is further from where I live and there's not a lot of places to eat around it yet (and it's very far from Michael's or Joann's), but it's a nice spot.

Still? Back in the day when crops were plentiful I was not ‘allowed’ to go. Nor would I have been “allowed” to spend money on it. Now that I can do what I damn well please there aren’t many near enough to bother.

I've lost my croppin' crowd & most of my favorite crops over the years for various reasons. I still have one over spring break, but not sure how long that will last with dwindling numbers among my friends and for the crop overall. I want to go to more, but I also don't want to go through the hassle of packing up my gear for a "short" crop (a couple of days).

we used to have 17 lss in our city & now we are down to 1

I am so happy that you join us....it really is *needed*.  Nice group of ladies and there is NO DRAMA which is a bonus!

I don’t know of any that are close enough for me to want to go, but my experience with crops was more negative than positive, so I stopped going even when I had crops near me.

What worked as an alternative for me was to invite a few others that I knew from my church, neighborhood, etc., to join me at the local library. We were able to reserve a small room, although we met on a weekday during the day, not at night or on a weekend, so it wasn’t that difficult to reserve a room. It was also free. We met twice a month.

Advantages of that alternative:

1. Quieter. A large room of women gets really noisy, which is distracting to me, making it harder for me to be productive.

2. We had no table hogs, loud mouthed, rude, or unfriendly crafters among our group. Everyone was courteous and kind. Sometimes at a crop you can end up with someone at or near your table that can make the crop a less enjoyable experience. Two Peas had a running thread about crop horror stories.

3. Because it cost us nothing, it allowed us to spend our money on craft tools and supplies rather than paying for a crop. Money was a bit tight for most of us. I have more than one electronic cutter. I could not afford what I have if I had been paying for crops. I could choose to pay to go to crops, or I could use the money for something that would last me a lot longer.

Most of our group eventually all moved to different states, but we still keep in touch.

^^^ it seems like in recent years, the Phoenix area has expanded to have an active retreat 'scene' too.  Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 5 different groups or consultants who all host weekend hotel retreats at different places in the Valley-- and I'm sure there's lots more that I just don't know about.   A couple of them are just groups of scrappers who have started hosting / scheduling them and open them up for public attendance, and the other ones are consultants from different companies-  a CM consultant, a CTMH consultant, and a Kiwi Lane consultant are the ones I know about.

I started finding out about a lot of these things once I finally started to use Facebook for the 'groups' function.

I've never been to one! I would love to some day but they're almost always so far away. There's a group that occasionally holds 12 hour crops at a hotel which is about 30 minutes away from me by bus, but I feel funny spending $45 just to have a chair. We're responsible for bringing or ordering our own meals, I don't think even water is provided. I don't make a ton of money so it's a big gamble for me, because if I didn't have a great experience I'd feel like I threw away $45. I don't know. Maybe some day I'll make the plunge... I was going to go in September but backed out because I've been saving for a trip instead!