Creative Juice Retreat - Fabulous Finds

I attend a weekly artist/freelancer group called Creative Juice and last weekend I, along with three other intrepid "juicers," retreated to an adorable house in Adams County.  The plan was to have a women's weekend chock full of crafting, collecting, creating, and conversation.  And the weekend did not disappoint! 

The group was composed of myself and three incredibly talented artists: Lisa Ballard, Margot Madison and Christina Wald.  It is an amazing thing to be around a group of creative women.  Each person brought something to the table and as we crafted and conversed it felt like I was a young girl again having the time of my life at a slumber party. 

And I loved the walks we took each day.  Normally when I go for a walk with friends I am the one always stopping and slowing down to look at something.  But in this group every few minutes we would hear a squeal of joy from someone who had found a treasure that had to be admired, collected and photographed.  To be around others who have such attention and an eye for beauty is exhilarating and indescribably fun!  Lisa (above) was particularly excited when her snail "Fred" made an appearance and came out of his shell. 

Margot found the above turtle shell and Lisa immediately fell in love with it.  When we got back to the house she found the perfect spot to photograph it in an old tray sitting outside the front door.  She played around with different items and positioning and in the end decided it was also  incredibly beautiful all by itself.

In addition to our walks we also spent our time crafting.  Below is a sneak preview of one of our projects.  Margot did a more complete post of our weekend's handiwork on the Creative Juice blog here.

The photo above shows Margot with a hard-won bouquet of sumac.  Lisa and Margot had to brave many a thorn to collect them.  Even the stray dog we hiked with us thought they were crazy for venturing into that thorny patch. 

We had so many fab finds that I had to divide my photos into two posts so check back soon for more juicy gems.  Although I loved the creating, crafting and collecting, in the end my favorite part of the weekend was spending time and connecting with three extraordinary women.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!    

(click photos to enlarge)