Scrapbook retreat house

We go to one at Silver Spurs near Sonora (CA) twice a year.

We rent the house on the grounds. It has several bedrooms, one on the ground floor for those who have mobility/ health issues. Upstairs are 2 bedrooms, one with 5 beds the other with more. And downstairs are more bedrooms with bunks and such...with 12 we rarely use them. Each bedroom comes with its own bathroom, so that is nice.

This works really well for us, having that ground level is really nice for those that should not be going up and down stairs. We are usually assigned a room, but not bed by the crop coordinator. We just bring earplugs instead of assigning rooms by snorers or non snorers...early risers or late risers.

A larger meeting area is used for our cropping.... It looks like it may be a converted garage.

Meals are provided by the venue, which is sooooooooo nice. Not having to stop to cook. Though I have heard of people creating meal teams...so the cost/ preparation is not all on one or two people.

We have a shared snack table in the living room. Which has a couple of couches for taking breaks and visiting.

Crop room has a white board and tv. We have been known to draw the table layout and write names of croppers on the white board, so any newcomers will know who is who.

We do not do any contests or have goodie bags. Though we will bring supplies we no longer need so the gals can go through them and take what they need.



Our cost is a little over $200 per person for 12 people...and for 3 days and 2 nights.


So far no 'crop nightmares' I can speak of. Well, we do tend to not wear bras and stay in our jammies, and I guess the crop before I started was a woman who wore her nightshirt...without sweats...and more was hanging out than she probably intended.

There was a little tension over a movie once, for the most part we let things like that go. I pack my ear buds and bring a book ...just in case.

Where in Wisconsin is the house you rent located. I'm always looking for new scrapbooking locations.

Oh, boy...I wish I could! I can't wait until I am retired and can do something like this.

I haven't been to a ton of houses (more resorts or camps, which I'm not interested in anymore) but I like the one we go to because of the set-up and a lot of the other people I've talked to say it's their favorite, too.

It's an old house that has been redecorated (not fancy, but clean and well-kept) and I believe the max # is 10. The 4 bedrooms have twin beds in each. Bathroom with showers on both main and upstairs. Spacious kitchen with lots of counter space - room to store/prepare food plus put out a buffet. Dining room with space for the whole group and a small living room with a TV.

The crop space is in the converted attached garage with in-floor heat, refrigerator and big screen TV with DVD player. It's open, so you can move tables around to fit your group size. Convenient for bringing things from your car straight into the garage. Rate is a little over $100 for 10 of us Thursday-Sunday. We just set up a meal schedule so each group takes a meal plus a few on our own.

To answer some of your questions: I like this layout because crop area is separated from the house so you can stay up late or get in there early and not bother anyone. The open and moveable crop space is nice - we can cater it to our separate groups, where others I've gone to tell us where the table is and that's it. Bed situation is fine here (most bedrooms have just 2 twins, I've always been part of a bigger group and we take the 1 room with 4 beds) - I won't go back to a camp with bunks or even a resort had "family bedrooms" with lots of beds and you may have people you don't know in there. No bad experience although I prefer if we do meals on our own completely (maybe order in pizza one night and then go out together another night) as I don't care for having to take a break to eat together and one of the groups I go with plans 3 meals a day and I stick to just 2 a day generally.

Have fun! We collect the deposit and rebook for the same weekend the following year when we go (I'm up to 3x a year but I think I'll be cutting back to 2x) and whoever attends has first dibs to come again.

Keepsakes Cabin in deerwood MN IS one I've been to 11 years in a row.

I think it's perfect.

Google it to see the website. I don't know how to link.

If anyone from MI is looking for a place there are several in Chesaning. 3 are owned by the same lady, two converted old churches, one converted Victorian. We have stayed many times in the old churches and will be staying in the Victorian in month. Fantastic venues.

Www.creativepassionsllc.com

one church holds 20- I think  and an additional five in a separate "apartment" like area with its owns entrance and amenities. The other church holds 12-16. The house holds 12 with the basement holding four with its own entrance, amenities etc. Usually the one that holds 20 has several groups. The smaller venues can be rented for private crops.

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I've been to Dragonfly Dreams in Lake City also. Been it's been quite awhile ago. I've thought of trying the one in Pine City.

Our cabin is in Balsam Lake, WI which isn't very far from SCF either! Have you ever gone to Bargain Bill's in Rice Lake? That place is crazy!

I love Bargain Bill's!

I want to say it's been over a year since I've been there, but it's kind of like a treasure hunt in that place! So.Much.STUFF! It's far enough away from me that we have to have a whole day free to go just to get there, have enough time to to get through everything and then drive home again.

I have a group of friends and we re t a place 3-4 times a year. It is pretty much the only time/place I scrap. We all sign up to prepare one meal, so everyone only has to cook/clean once during the long weekend.

The place we were going to started to get a bit run down. But it was so cheap ($25 per person per night). Tons of space (1/2 a basket ball gym for cropping). We have been trying out some new places. It's hard to find one that has the right size space for cropping that isn't over the moon expensive. We have one coming up at a new place that's $175 for the weekend, which is about $100 more for most of us.

Anyway...lots of crop space with good light is key for me.

What a great idea, but I don't have any craft friends nearby who'd be interested. Hope you have a great time!