Boy, I sure am tired of winter! The temps can start rising and the snow can melt at any time now. I don’t really mind winter so much, but this year we were blessed with so much more snow than in past years. I’m ready to see green grass and spring flowers!

I don’t have any new pictures to show you today, so instead I though I would tell you a bit more about deciding to build the retreat. Just in case you were wondering!

It all started last fall. A couple of friends and I went for a weekend stay at a retreat. There were a total of 18 of us! Some of them I had known before going, others I met for the first time once I was there. This was the first time I had ever gone to a crop anywhere. I had no idea what to pack, so I brought it all!! LOL Well, almost all of it.

It’s hard to describe how much fun I had! There was always someone laughing and sharing stories. Someone showing their latest creation. Others were learning new techniques or trying out a tool they hadn’t seen before. Even though I didn’t know everyone before I went, it was easy to connect because we all shared the same passion for crafting.

When I got home that Sunday I was so excited about scrapbooking again. I felt re-energized, excited and couldn’t wait to do it again. Unfortunately, the same day I returned home, my DH had to leave on a business trip for a few days. I didn’t really have time to tell him all about it and how excited I was about it before he had to leave.

While he was gone I kept thinking about the retreat I had just been to. I really thought it would be fun to have a retreat of our own! I started looking and thought “Up North” would be a great place for a retreat. It’s a beautiful area and many people already go there for vacations. By the time DH came home from his trip I had a pretty good plan laid out. We looked at a few properties and didn’t find anything that was quite right for what we had in mind. Then we started searching for a wooded lot that would work. We knew right away that the lot on Walck Road was perfect!

Then we had to go through the process of writing a business plan and figuring out how we could make it all work. Thankfully we managed to put it all together and got the business rolling. Then came the offer on the lot, many quotes, choosing a builder, breaking ground, and now dealing with the sub-contractors. There are so many things that had to fall into place to get started and now to be able to finish this spring!

It is my hope, to have groups of crafters come and stay at our retreat and go home feeling as excited as I first did. It will be a place to focus on your projects, a time to re-connect with friends, an event that your group looks forward to every year.

Please keep checking back as our site will continue to change and more details will be available. I will keep posting pictures of the progress as we go. We still plan on opening sometime in May, but it’s hard to give you a definite date right now. If you are interested in more information please send me an email to info@talloaks.com, I’ll do whatever I can to help you. We can take reservations now for dates after Memorial Day!

I hope spring is on it’s way to us all very soon!