Go-Nanza!!

Okay, so I admit it - Bonanza was a blast! I have to say I was more than pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it seemed to be running. The first hint of success was at registration ... last year we had to queue for half an hour to register, but on Friday we just wandered straight up to the desk, where we were very quickly registered by the lovely Rosie and Lorraine (Fairysparkle on UKS).

I dropped Irene off at her first class (beginner's scrapbooking), which was guarded by Alibri with her list of names ... I laughed at the thought that there were only eight people booked into the class, and then took myself off upstairs to my first class - Bookworm with PaperArtsy, taught by the lovely Leandra. I could not believe it! I WAS THE ONLY PERSON BOOKED IN TO THE CLASS!!!!!!! Gobsmacked! I have to say it was the highlight of my day - personal tuition from Leandra, with classroom assistants Sue C and another lady (whose name I don't know) as my fellow students - what an awesome class! I absolutely love the project we made, using gesso and gel medium, acrylic paints and inks - and baby wipes!

I took three other classes - the Arctic Frog class taught by Anna Bowkis - two 12 x 12 layouts, which were droolable (but my enjoyment slightly marred by the as-crap-as-last-year trimmer which does not cut straight); the Making Memories Vintage Hip class (which Irene also took), where we were given an extra kit each, and then the Sassafras Lass class taught by Becks Fagg, which was slightly disappointing in that it was advertised as using papers from the Sew Fine range when in fact it was the Dreamy papers (and I have oodles of them in the shop) - I'd been looking forward to playing with the new unseen papers, but the class was great regardless of my disappointment.

It was overwhelmingly obvious that Friday was quiet, judging by the numbers of people booked into the classes - I wonder how many people were there on Saturday and whether it really was as manic as people were saying it would be.

The shopping hall was better this year - I could have spent a fortune, but was very restrained and only spent £16. Oh, and I thought the class kits were 200% better this time around - they were packed with far more products than last year's were.

I was surprised and delighted to discover that despite only ordering one lot of make and take tickets, my envelope contained two lots (and I certainly wasn't complaining), so we indulged ourselves in two make and takes and took kits away for the rest as we were out of time. The kits that we took away were fabulous, and worth far more than the price of an individual make and take ticket. I came away with a Making Memories photo frame kit, and two kits with American Craft paper (I think) and a full sheet of alphabet stickers in each (one set is SEI, which I saw on sale in the shopping hall for £3.99).

Overall, I had a fabulous day, as did Irene (who I think is now hooked) ... it was about 8.00 pm when we left the NEC (while it was absolutely peeing down), and we were absolutely knackered!

Another highlight of the day was seeing so many familiar faces and meeting some new ones - Rosie, Sue, Jill, Lisa, Angie, Liz, Elizabeth (all Moxley croppers), Sue C, Lily My Lovely, Lemon, Alibri, Mary Anne, Scrappy Bunny, Jackie, Anna, Kirsty, Danielle, Eileen and no doubt many more that I've forgotten ...

Will I be going next year? Absolutely!