hey you,

 I am so excited to share with you my adventures from Convention! I love to tell stories, so rather than being brief I want to share it all with you…..so hopefully I won’t bore you, but rather make you want to be there with me next year!

Getting all ready for Convention was a mammoth task this year. I had been so flat out with the Sale-a-bration months, then not to mention the Retirement workshops for March, that the time for Convention had rolled around so fast I could hardly believe it!

 I was flying out Wednesday evening, but there was a hitch….. when I was flying back into Perth on the Monday morning, we (family) we heading for 2 weeks family holiday about an hour later. It was going to be our very first Camping adventure as a family. So before I left for Convention, I had to have all my family’s clothes, food and accessories all packed and ready to go! It was a huge task, so by the time I finally got the airport I was so pumped, and emotional, I was nearly a blithering mess of tears. Luckliy all my gorgeous friends gave me hugs and their excitment for Convention helped me hang in there!

I had my gorgeous friend Monique coming along this year, so that also made it extra exciting. Ngaire, Skip, and Monique and myself all got seats next to each other on the plane, so we managed to have a blast on the way over. I think some of the people on the plane thought we were nutcases from some of the stares we were getting!

 On Thursday we all piled into a Mini Van that we hired and headed down the Coast to Tambourine Mountain. We passed Nicki Tidbold’s place in Logan Holme….so glad I spotted that! It was a windy trip up the Mountain, but it was such beautiful scenery. Rod and I went there 2 1/2 years ago, so it was nice to be back again. The weather was pretty fresh and it rained a little. We found this cute little restaurant for lunch and most of us had a yummy bowl of pumpkin soup……….

After the yummy lunch we all went for a wonder around at the shops. I bought a gaudy teapot with matching milk jug and sugar bowl. Ngaire said she didn’t like it, then managed to talk me into buying it…..no wonder she made Demonstrator of the Year! hehe!

Here is some of the view we saw. It was pretty stunning up the top.

We then used the wonderful TomTom that Kerry brought from home to navigate ourselves to the wonderful Pacific Fair Shopping Centre!!! This place is amazing. Whilst I would love one of them in Perth, it is probably a good thing for hubby that there isn’t! I was actually knackered so didn’t find anything as I wasn’t in the shopping mood, much to everyone’s suprise as I was the one begging to go to there. Everyone else though managed to load the van full of  shopping bags.

We then ventured back down the Motorway to Movie World where they now have the “Autralia Outback Spectacular”

Now to be really honest, I am sooooooo not into the country thing.  Unlike my best friend who is on the hunt for some real cowboy boots!!!I hate Country music (except for “the Waifs”) Worse still when you get there, you get a not so gorgeous straw cowboy hat……yep we all had to wear them. Some proudly, me not so proud! We all had to pose for photos, which is great to have them now, but at the time was a little painful. It included a meal with the show, so we were all hanging out to get into the arena as we were hungry!

Lou and I lookin like cowgals

YEE-HA!!

Me Helen, & Mon….”Howdy Partner!”

 I can not mention enough how awesome the show and food was!! If you have never been, DO…it is so worth the money and it was great entertainment. Funny thing is that as much as I HATE country, they had you stompin your feet and cheering,  not to mention COOO–EEE-ing and swinging those cowboy hats around in no time! Yep I could hardly believe it myself. I was a rocking and shouting, like all the others! Good thing it was in the dark as I am sure I was a sight to be seen!

 Skip did a wonderful job getting us home to the hotel again… I really appreciated her driving as she was cautious. I really hate reliquishing driving control to other people…I like to be in the driver’s seat, but Skip was a fab driver….so thanks Skip!

The next day was the start of Convention……had to be there at the crack of dawn to get to Momento Mall! As last year stocks dissapeared pretty quick so we really didn’t want to miss out.

After getting our bags full of new goodies, we got to mingle before the show began. I learnt so many fantastic new techniques, and projects at Convention, I really can’t wait to share them with you. We had some fantastic WOW’s by Alisa Tilsner and Teresa Debrowski, and of course some from the American team also.

That night we all went out to a great Italian restaurant for dinner. Those of us who have teams under us, were intvited to at a special class called, “Your leading role”. I found it to be really inspirational. We got spoilt with a free, Garden Whimsy stamp set and dessert with coffee and tea.

 Saturday at Convention was just as inspiring. Time to create as well with the make and takes. I have taken a little photo of the projects we made, along with our Convention bag.

After a jam packed day, we all got to leave and prepare for the Awards Dinner. This is a very exciting part of Convention, where some amazing Demonstrators get rewarded for all their amazing hard work over the past year.

I do have lots of photos from this night, but I don’t want to bore you. It certainly was hard to cull them So here they are

Here I am being totally goofy before we got to enter the Dinner Hall.

A quick photo with the gorgeous Monni Moo…(what we called Monique all weekend!)

This is my gorgeous friend from Brisbane Robyn Lawton and her hubby Vern, who I was so happy to meet in person for the first time….hope he doesn’t kill me for putting this photo up here of him!

This is the ever WONDERFUL…Bernadette!! She is the magic behind the preparations for Convention! Way to go BB, you did a fab job putting this event together and should be so proud of yourself!

Here is a group photo of the 25 ladies who earned the Incentive trip to Palm Cove later this year….I still can’t believe that I am one of them!!! What is so special about earning this trip is that whilst hubby and I are there, it will be our 10 year Wedding Anniversary, oh and my birthday too. I can’t think of a nicer way to celebrate!

As for the other awards, they reward the achievers in Sales, and recruiting, which I recieved, but they also announced the top 25 Demonstrators.

We were all so excited to have our very own Upline Ngaire, get Demonstrator of the YEAR!!! WOO HOO!! Way to go Ngaire. Certainly well deserved as she is not only a beautiful stamper, she is a beautiful person and we feel so lucky to be a part of her team.

This year I ranked in at number 22 in the top 25! I am still amazed with that as I really wasn’t expecting to be a part of the top 25 considering how much Stampin’Up has grown in the past 12 months. I of course couldn’t have got there without your support in the past year!

Here some of us are all having a cheer. Ngaire is at the far right and I am second in on the left with the whole armpit showing and my mouth wide open…..good one hey

Here is a very special photo of me with Louise who is a wonderful friend and my roomie for the weekend. She totally teased me all weekend about all my lotions and potions I brought along, not to mention my spotty shower cap, which she had been dying to try on all weekend, I got it on camera, but I think she would have my head if I put it on here!

This year Stampin’Up decided to add another special award called the “Heart of Stampin’Up” award. Demonstrators were given the opportunity to nominate a fellow demonstrator who they thought eminated Stampin’Up’s Statement of the Heart. Much to my suprise, some of my crew (thanks Chantelle and Jen) and Louise nominated me.

To my total amazement, I was chosen to be this years recipient of the Award! I just remember feeling so heavy in that seat and wondering how I was going to get up on that stage! After a big hug from Lou and many tears later, I managed to get up there. I recieved a beautiful gold heart neclace,  from Shelli,which I will cherish forever.

 Whilst it has been really special to recieve this award for the Stamp-a-thon that I put together last year to rasie funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, I would really like to emphasize that I by no means am a hero. The real Hero’s are the people and families that have to endure the devastation that this disease brings into their lives.

 I have been so encouraged this  past year by Louise’s ability to remain positive, encouraging, and to keep that gorgeous smile of hers! She has really taught me that in all things that life brings you, you can look to the positive. She even has a joke about her “Bikie Chick” hairstyle she has now that her hair is growing in after all the Chemo! I think she is so very brave and I feel so honoured to have her in my life. I am so proud of you Lou!!!

Receiving my beautiful neclace from Shelli

And a photo together.

After all the buzz of the evening, I still managed a couple more photos with friends.

This is my gorgeous friend Stephanie Pike (in the middle) She blew us all away by getting 4th place this year! Well done Steph. Then on the right is Nicki Tidbold, who is also pretty amazing herself. She was 3rd place! Both Brissie gals. I really look forward to catching up with them in August at Palm Cove.

Here are the two jokers of the weekend. Ngaire and Skip, who both managed to keep us in high spirits, and not to mention making us laugh till we wet ourselves. (won’t mention why will we…hmmm) Thanks guys!

Last but not least a beautiful photo with Shelli Gardner CEO of Stampin’Up

So that was the Awards Night! All very amazing.

Then we went out to Celebrate!

So once Convention officially ended we had a beautiful Day in Brisbane to relax and catch our breaths. Monique, Louise and I went out for a lovely brunch together. The rest of the Day Monique and I slept, and had a wander around Southbank which is just gorgeous. Here we are enjoying the Sunshine

Monnie Moo

Last of all me….

I hope I haven’t bored you all silly here with my Convention Adventures! But at least I did warn you to make yourself a cuppa first!  It has been fun to share this with you, as as soon as I arrived back in Perth we headed directly to Esperence for 2 weeks which was jsut what I needed! Convention though then felt like months ago!

Convention is such an amazing event and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend. I really have to give all thanks to my wonderful hubby who firstly let me go, but who also held the fort here whilst I was gone. For a guy to look after 4 young kids totally on his own is pretty amazing! (well I think so)

Convention will be in Canberra next year 1-2 May. So if you would like to be apart of the fun keep the dates in mind!

Love Keesh x

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