Tusen takk Haugesund, Norway..

... I had an even more enjoyable time in Haugesund at Scrap4Fun...

I've been talking to Jorunn Elin, one of the organisers of the crop, on email for awhile and so it was nice to meet her again at the airport and travel with her to the hotel and crop.

The weekend long crop is held in a sports hall and the whole event has a really nice relaxed comfortable feel to it.  There is a kitchen in the building that people can use whenever they want - eating/drinking as a group or on their own.

The classroom doubled as a bedroom for people who wanted to stay overnight.. it really did have a nice welcoming atmosphere.

Everyone takes their shoes off at the door to keep the floor of the hall clean..

and wears indoor shoes, socks, slippers:..  (a double whammy - keeps the hall clean and adds the relaxed atmosphere..)

Inside the hall there are two shops, & everyone has their own table where they sit and craft all weekend - I thought with 50+ women in a room crafting the noise would be BIG but no, everyone was too busy crafting to be noisy - just a gentle sound of chatter.

What made me smile was the sheer amount of 'stuff' people brought with them - and the amount of Ikea trollies there were (seen above, in the centre of the photo) and one very organised person had a collapsible shelving unit!! They, like me, pack a lot of things 'just in case'.
I had packed my suitcase with all the products we needed for the workshops - can't tell you how relieved I was to open it after the two flights to find nothing had leaked or been broken! (thanks in part to lots of bubblewrap and clingfilm).

I taught two workshops - thankfully everyone spoke English for which I was very grateful and relieved! lol

Here is the first group busy at work on their 'mushroom panels'..

... and here with the finished work..

And here some of the second group painting, stenciling and stamping their 'monogram box' canvasses..

and again with their finished work..


 The classes took place on Halloween which Jorunn Elin and Berit embraced fully lol..

The language barrier was not a problem - the only confusion came because the Norwegian word for brush is pensel.... lol

Thank you to everyone who came to my classes: it was lovely to meet you and spend creative time with you; and to the organisers - especially Jorunn Elin and Berit who looked after me (and Matt) so well and made us feel so welcome...

It was a pleasure, thank you for inviting me... and I hope you all enjoy working/playing/creating with the JOFY stamps.

So while I was working Berit's husband Alf took Matt on a site seeing ramble of Haugesund & up to the Lighthouse and surrounding rocks.. he really enjoyed.. & he saw more of Haugesund than I did! lol

.. and then it was over too soon - back to the UK.. taking longer than expected due to the fog that had settled over the UK airports on sunday... but that didn't spoil a lovely trip.


NB  Before the trip everyone we spoke to warned us that Norway "is expensive", and yes we found it to be a little pricey but not eye-wateringly so.. and it certainly hasn't put us off visiting again.