This past Christmas, Chucklebutt surprised me with a wonderful gift — a decadent weekend full of amazing crafts, yummy food and fantastic shopping.

The ever-so-talented Kim Caldwell really outdid herself.  She put on a spread like no other and made all us ladies feel exceptionally special.

Chuck and I left on Friday morning (later than we wanted) and hit L.A. about 1:00pm.  Talk about traffic!!  It makes Phoenix look like a one horse town.  They were just starting the tea party when we arrived at the hotel.

The room was decorated unbelievably.  It was certainly a wonderland.  I swiped the following photos from Kim’s blog.  I was too in awe to take any shots.

We got to keep the chair covers and the tea cups.

We had tea sandwiches, scones, clotted cream and all these amazing treats!  Aren’t they gorgeous?!

After our tea, we had a class with Candace Carpenter.  I actually finished the book but have yet to take pics of it.  Here is her sample:

It is a precious project.   I can’t wait to fill it with pics from the weekend.

It’s just a cornucopia of color!

After class, I headed up to our room to meet Chuck.

It was beautiful and we even had a porch!  The entire hotel was done in craftsman style.

These were the lamps in the hallways.  I love them!

Even the room numbers were done in the craftsman style.

This was the picture above the couch.  All the rooms had old Disney animation prints.  Even though I’m not a huge Disney fan, this was pretty neat.

The Do Not Disturb sign is super cute too!

Look at this miniature Mad Hatter hat!  Val (Kim’s assistant) made one for each of us.

Friday night, we all headed over to the movie theatre to see Alice in Wonderland.  We each got a bag of pink popcorn, homemade taffy and our tickets were presented beautifully.

I think I might have been too beat to fully appreciate the movie, but the scenic and costume design were brilliant.  Johnny Depp was incredible despite the fact that Chucklebutt snored through about 1/4 of it.  I figured he wouldn’t enjoy it, but I’m glad that he came with me.

The following day started early.  It was like I was going off to my first day of school.

This is Jamie and she makes amazing jewelry.  She taught our fun bottle class.

The rabbit is a Folkmanis puppet that the company has since discontinued.

This is Susan and she was my table mate.  I had met her at a previous event and I really enjoyed sitting with her.  We talked about everything from aging mothers to aging dogs, kids and lack thereof.  She was great company.

The salad was delicious!  We also had some super tender chicken with asparagus.  My favorite, of course, was dessert.

It’s almost too pretty to eat. . . almost.  😀

The final class was with the awesome Christine Rose Elle.  We made that tres chic hat that Susan is sporting.  I’m still working on mine.

Tomorrow I’ll share all my swap photos and late night in Disneyland.