The Great Northwest Paper Chase

Sorry I've been a bit out of touch on my blogging these past few days. I have been one busy girl! My girlfriends and I signed up to participate in the Northwest Paper Chase where we visit 16 participating scrapbook stores in western WA. We bought a "passport" that we get stamped at each store we visit, and at the end of the chase, we bring our passport back to our home store to be entered in a drawing for various prizes. We have the region divided into three sections, and Monday we did the Seattle area tour. What a day! We were gone for 15 hours. We drove 245 miles and used one tank of gas. Here's what the back of my car looked like at the beginning of the trip:

Since I was the driver for the day, I made sure that we were very organized. I had one basket for each of us labeled with our names so that we could put all of our loot inside our respective basket. I also brought along a 12x12 plastic paper holder so that the corners of our beloved paper would not get bent. I even packed a bag full of snacks (on the right side of the picture) that included crackers, granola bars, bananas, and our favorite candies. One of my scrappy friends, Amy, brought along some healthy snacks as well (but the peas made my nose feel funny - ha!). Tiffany was the master trip planner having spent several hours planning our itinerary.

All in all, we visited 7 wonderful scrappy stores. With our passports and a lapel pin that we bought at our home store (all for under $10), we got 20% off our total purchases everywhere we went! We scored some rocking deals. Here's just a *small* taste of what I got:

And here's what the back of my car looked like after all was said and done:

Tomorrow and Friday, our adventure continues! I may not be blogging for a few days since I will be gone, so have a great rest of the week!