
A weekend ago I packed up some bags and to head for Mary Ann's lovely patch of the world.
In our house, we tend to pile up all the "need to go with" items on the rug by the front door. Not the most attractive system, but it is effective. Here's an instagram I took right before loading up the car:

Before my visits, we always discuss what we want to do while I'm there, so that I don't do my usual packing job for art play dates (AKA"everything but the kitchen sink"). She's a good art supply editor and I'm relieved by a plan. So, what did I bring? My purse, my ipad, my oversized smash book, art journal, "orla journal" as Mary Ann has coined them here, a bag of small handpicked just-for-her hostess treats and hand me downs (works well as barter for her paper stash and other things that fit inside my purse), cameras and a few art supplies like scissors, pens, & small bits of scrap paper.
I can't remember where we began, it usually starts with us looking through each others' things. I was loving her paper stash:

She makes even papers that I have given her look new and fresh the way she combines them. And she is soooo organized. Here's another pile after I started rifling through it:

We took some silly pictures:

And did some InstaGramming:

And then we got down to the business of playing in our little Orla books.

Our little books became fast friends:

{I brought up my Instax for some instantly useable photos.}

You can see inside Mary Ann's book on many posts on her blog, and here are some of mine:

It's full of mindless cutting and pasting.
{Don't you love her digital creation stating so? You can get your own for free here.}



And that darling Happy Day label? Hers too, part of her label line. I am crazy about them! So crazy I will have to devote a post to them one of these days.
After it started getting dark, we went inside for some PhotoShop talk and demos of how she made her awesome Chevron paper (she sure is prolific, isn't she?), a google reader introduction how to (I know, I am far behind the times!), and even some issues I was having with typepad, and then retired to the couch for some dueling ipad SketchBookPro play like hers here, and mine:

And 8 hours later, I was back in my car, heading home, where shortly after my arrival, my daughter returned home from her first year of college:

The perfect ending to a perfectly lovely day!