Back on the Victoria Day weekend, I had the absolute pleasure of attending the first reFRESH Retreat organized by the amazing Lori of Farm Fresh Style.
Lori, Colleen from Curtains Are Open, Laura from My Life in the Sun, and I headed to Grand Etang, Cape Breton to spend our weekend in the most beautiful AirBNB at La Belle Brise Maison.
La Belle Brise Maison
This beautiful little turquoise gem by the sea, made for the perfect retreat house with beautiful views in every direction.
The house itself is as lovely inside as it is out with 4 separate bedrooms,
a beautiful kitchen (with a dishwasher!), family room, office and as I’m sure you will agree, the most perfect color scheme playing off the turquoise exterior.
See full house tours on Lori and Laura’s blogs:
Farm Fresh Style: House Tour of our ReFRESH Airbnb
My Life in the Sun: A House Tour of La Belle Brise Maison Airbnb
Spoiled Rotten
The idea of spending the weekend with three of my friends was enough to make me say yes to the invite, but I never imagined that Lori was going to spoil us rotten with swag bags filled with amazing products from Atlantic Canadian brands. It was just like Christmas getting to open our totes filled with goodies!
Out on the town in our Professional Beach Bum hats from the Sandy Toes Shop and
HOME shirts from My Home Apparel.
Check out all of the amazing companies that donated to our swag bags in Lori’s post:
Farm Fresh Style: Spoiled Rotten
She even arranged to have a lot of the good we enjoyed over the weekend sponsored. Talk about a rockstar!
(Yes, that is my plate with shrimp on it. I’m still scared of lobsters, haha)
The Weekend
Because this was a blogger’s writing retreat, Lori had also taken the time to put together a retreat kit filled with discussion questions, writing prompts and goals. While we spent less time working and more time talking, the discussions we had about our blogging origins, or goals for the future and digging into our analytics were so valuable.
Between laughs and talks and eating, we also had a chance to go out exploring. And the sun came out and gave us the perfect day for checking out a section of the Cabot Trail.
And hanging out on the beach.
We all agreed it was so wonderful to have a whole group of photographers hanging around taking photos so we ended up with a lot of amazing photos that I know I will be sharing for months to come!
This was truly a magical weekend. We shared lots of laughs, and tears, and conversations and had the most wonderful timing spending the weekend with one another. And the scenery really didn’t stink either. 😉
La Brise Stained Glass Studio
Paula, the owner of the Airbnb, also has a stained glass studio in Cheticamp, and before we started our trek home, Lori, Colleen and I (Laura had to leave us on Sunday) were invited to come for a tour of her studio where she made a piece right in front of our eyes!
Paula makes beautiful pieces, but hands down the one we had all been lusting for all weekend was one of her stained glass buntings like the one found hanging in the dining area of the Airbnb.
I purchased a baby bunting and Laura, Colleen and I chipped in to buy Lori one of the full sized ones as a thank you for treating us to such a wonderful weekend.
Paula has an Etsy Shop where you can see (and buy!) her awesome work – Etsy La Brise Stained Glass Studio.
Thank you so much to Lori for organizing this amazing weekend, Paula, for allowing us to stay at your beautiful property and all of the sponsors who made the #reFRESHretreatCB so amazing. I am truly thrilled to have been able to attend and the memories of that weekend will last a lifetime!
Disclosure: This retreat was a gifted experience organized by Lori from Farm Fresh Style and supported by many Atlantic Canadian companies. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.