Heart Map Retreat ~ Saturday 11 May 2013

My incredibly creative and phenomenally talented friend Alison has been working really hard on putting together a creative retreat for women ... She believes (like I do) that we all need a Plan B for our lives and hers is not working in corporate but doing a creative job.

Her advert for the retreat reads ... A retreat is the act or process of withdrawing.  It means to step away from the usual stuff in your life.  Sometimes going on a retreat means going somewhere far away for an extended period of time.  Sometimes it means slipping away for just a few hours.  The Heart Map Retreat is for women only, and is designed as a space for you to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with yourself. 

Now is the time ... Come away with me for a 1 day retreat in the city.  Say yes to time out for yourself.

Leonie (one of our Scrap Addicts)

I was fortunate enough to attend her trial run in November last year and today was her first official one day retreat.  I was honoured to be able to assist her with the day.  We met at 07h20 at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens and we set up the room and had a lovely morning coffee before the other ladies arrived.  It was wonderful to do the first retreat with ladies that we know ... here they are :


Tanya ... who has scrap booked with us before

Adele (Tanya's sister)

Bridget (who is also Ali and my chiropractor)




Gisi (who is also the mother of my very first scrapbook teacher Nicole)

Once the ladies had had a morning cuppa coffee and a mini curry mince vetkoek they started with their first project which was a journalling project.

Ali provided each lady with a gorgeous journal (left) and each one found a quiet place to work on completing the project.

Next we did a body map relaxation exercise narrated by Daniel Goleman ~ he has an incredibly relaxing voice.

The second project was making a Little Book of Promises ... This is a very important project and one that you need to revisit every so often to check if you are keeping your promises to yourself. We tend to always keep promises we make to other people and forget to keep the promises we make to ourselves.

We had these GORGEOUS cupcakes with our coffee ...

The ladies hard at work on their Promise Book project.

 
We had lunch at Eagles Faire (this is our favourite New Year's Day breakfast location) inside the gardens.  Unfortunately the eagles were not in flight.  I had a bolognaise spud which was wonderful.

After lunch we worked on a Heart Card Project.  We didn't do this at the trial run so Ali included me in this project ... the results are simply stunning!!!

This card of mine is my new mantra ... I first saw it Ali Edwards newsletter which prompted my blogpost on Thursday and I was amazed to see it as part of the quotes Ali gave us to use.

The next photo is of another 2 of my cards and then some of the cards the other ladies made.

Ali gave me a gorgeous thank you gift which had a notebook, a peanut butter Kit Kat, Reeses pieces, Reeses Crispy Crunch and an orange Aero and also this gorgeous little heart which has a chime in it.

My thank you gift and the 4 cards I made.

My gorgeous friends Ali and Leonie.

This was positioned at the coffee table

And to end off a wonderful day .... a spectacular sunset!!!

When I got home Connor was on the phone with Mom who was at the casino and she said she would take us for dinner so we met her at News Cafe at the casino and had a lovely dinner.  When we got home I started my blog and could not publish as the internet was giving problems.  Hope you had a Stunning Saturday and Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there.