Hey there, - be prepared this is a super dooper long one!

I have been blown away from all the thoughtfulness of all the wonderful demonstrators that were at Convention and have sent me pictures, or have disc’s in the post already! See, you don’t just become a demonstrator - You join the Stampin’Up Family!

So thanks to all those special people I have some photos to share! YAY!

I am still pinching myself that Convention has come and gone…….! You plan, and get all excited, then before you know it, it is all over! It was a whirlwind, and the best 3 days ever, but I am so sad that it is over

We did so much, and I met with so many people, so I will break it down into days for you.

First off before I left my darling hubby presented me with this gorgeous gift bag, and guess what was inside?

Two mags, two choccie bars, a pack of chewys and a gorgeous card telling me to go break a leg on stage! Oh how sweet is that? That was wonderful encouragement

Day 1:

We flew out late Wednesday afternoon from Perth airport. I was getting stressed in the checking-in line because I just knew I has way too much stuff with me! I was eyeing all the desk clerks and trying to pick out one that I thought would go easy on me, and I got the one that I thought would be good……oh but Alas, I still ended up having to pay a whoppin $120 in excess! And that was with 5 kg’s of discount too. Got that sorted and it was time to board almost immediately.

We had a great time on the plane as the whole 19 of us were chatting and catching up. I was on the aisle with Lou and Vicki next to me and then Monnie was on the other side of the aisle with a guy and a baby girl to her left. Oh that poor guy was struggling with that baby. I was thinking he should take her for a walk as she was getting really stroppy, and then before you knew it, she had spewed EVERYWHERE! Monnie was freaking out (by the look of her face ) and before thinking I dived out of my seat and before I knew it, I was thick amongst the vomit. I just couldn’t leave that guy sitting there with the vomit all over his face now could i?

I ended up babysitting a good portion of the flight there, because this wee gorgeous girl kept reaching out for me. At least she settled in the end. Best thing was that the air hostess came and brought me a bottle of wine to take, as a thank you for my help……..ah can’t turn down free wine now can we?

So after arriving quite late we headed straight to the hotel which was really lovely for some rest.

Day 2:

Thursday morning I was up bright and early to get things made a prepped for my presentation. I had things that I needed to put together because they would have been crushed in transit if they were put together, like boxes and such.

We all met together as a group, and found a great Cafe in the sunshine for breakfast. It was fabulous to chat and catch up with everyone. We then ventured into the shopping centre which was rather flash. I ended up buying not one, but two pairs of shoes……..yeah I hear ya “what about that luggage excess!!) well a girls has got to have shoes now doesn’t she? Fabulous shoes at that too!

After our little shopping spree I had to leave the others to head over to the Convention centre for my rehearsal…..YIKES now that was a bit scary, and there wasn’t even people there yet! I managed to fumble my way through that, but I also got to meet with Shelli and have a lovely chat together which was special!

Thursday arvo arrived and I had a coffee date with my good friend Karen, and Jean along with Ngaire and Skip. I have been waiting in anticipation to finally get to hug Karen, oh and she is such a gorgeous darling!!! What a fabulous sense of humour too! We all had a wonderful afternoon together.

Soon after that I had to race back to the hotel to catch up with my gorgeous roomie for the weekend Yvonne Campbell! Yvonne is from Melbourne, and so we don’t get to see each other often, so it made it really special that we managed to share a hotel room together.

Soon after arriving back and enjoying a glass of wine, along came……oh about half of Australia’s demonstrators to OUR ROOM! There were so many people jammed packed from wall to wall just to do swaps it was pure craziness! I could hardly breathe in there, but it was so funny too! I had to jump up on the bed to take pictures of everyone crammed in. At one stage there was 40 people in our wee hotel room!

Here is a picture of the swapping madness:

swapping, swapping, swapping!

After we managed to shoo everyone away (lol!) Yvonne and I went out to dinner with Ngaire, and a couple of the SU American crew. I had been dying to catch up with Amanda who is a dear friend from Stampin’Up’s head office, so that was great fun.

I have to show you this daggy photo of Amanda and I which has a bit of a story…… A few months back i got a package in the post from Amanda. Inside was this lovely sparkly pink lipgloss. I was like WOW that is nice. The next day I phoned her to say a big thank you, and well she asked me if I pressed the black button. I didn’t realize that there even was a button??!! SO I find the lipgloss and the mysterious black button, and what do you think happened? The whole thing lit up like a disco ball……..I am not joking here! It flashes all different colours, and is a great party trick. (my kids love it too!) Anyway I had promised to bring it along…….

Here is a silly pic of us applying our disco ball lipgloss!

Not the most attractive picture of me, but at least is shows I am having fun hey! You can kinda see the blue glow on Amanda’s face from the lights flashing. That was a fun night.

Day 3

Well this was the first day of Convention and oh so exciting! It was a very cold morning in Canberra, and walking to the Convention centre was a bit of a challenge. We registered straight away.I was so embarrassed when at check-in they all yell out “INCENTIVE TRIP WINNER”! yikes, I didn’t see that one coming. After my mug shot, we headed up to Momento mall to see what this year of goodies would be.

Oh La La, there were so many fabulous things on offer, umbrella, aprons, drink bottles, posters, pens, calculators, shirts, jackets…….lots and lots of goodies.

After a wee bit of shopping it was SWAP TILL YA DROP! I was amazed at how fast my 75 swaps disappeared! I received some fabulous ones back too. I would like to share a couple with you which are my fave, but I have to buy a new camera first, or borrow one!

We then headed into the Main stage to have our opening address from Shelli herself.

We learnt that the current catalog will be sticking around until September 2010, and a new one will be released after that. This way we will be more in-line with the US market, and won’t have to wait so long for new product to be available to us! This is fabulous news. We will however be having 3 mini catalogs between now and then, with some new hostess sets included as well!

The rest of the day was full of different classes and events, and of course they were all fabulous! I managed to catch up with a few people from other parts of Australia, which is always fun of course!

Just to prove I was there, and not on some tropical island……..

Vicki, Lou, Monnie and Me….

With the gorgeous Amanda again…..

Ngaire, my gorgeous Upline, and the infamous Karen Thomas!

At the end of the day, the Managers of above were invited to a Managers reception with Shelli herself, and SU’s General managers from Australia (Aaron Scott) and from New Zealand (Emma Parkin-Wilson). It was a lovely time to mingle, and speak with Shelli herself. We were fed these amazing Mocktails, and had lovely nibblies. Thankfully Yvonne had her camera and took one of me with Shelli on it! as i lost mine!

Shelli is the most gorgeous, gracious and humble person I know, and Oh that hair…..OH la la. It always looks wonderful! ( I wonder if she takes a stylist with her when she travels??? kidding!)

And then I have my wonderful roomie Yvonne……to think we didn’t know each other at last years Convention, to being great friends, and even roomies a year later…..who would have thought. It was special indeed, just as Yvonne is!

That night we went out for a yummy Chinese dinner…..yummo! It was hilarious when every one was showing off their party tricks…..I still can’t get over what Lou can do with her hands!!!! creepy! LOL! I came home to go over my presentation, and try to feel organized so I didn;t have a freak out!

Day 4

Presentation day!

Well it was a good start to the day, getting to the Convention Centre to get set up for our big presentations. I was so blessed to be able to share the stage with the fabulous and very talented Marelle Taylor. And what a fabulous job she did too! We were both a little nervous, but where really happy with how it all worked out in the end. And going by the cheers, we must have done a good job too

Marelle went first, and then Shannon West from the Utah home office went second. I rounded off the presentation at the end.

Here is Marelle doing hers:

Shannon then showed us some fantatstic projects that are designed for the Workshop wizard on the Demonstrator website. Stampin’Up is so good to us demonstrators- they can even plan our workshops for us! I loved Shannon’s projects and can’t wait to try them myself!

Here is the gorgeous girl herself:

And then last of all my presentation. It was a little overwhelmng wearing a headpiece and having telepromt, but there is a first for everything right?

Here is a pic of me doing my thing:

WOW see those big screens in the background…..there was two of those! Don’t they say television makes you gain 4 kg’s? LOL! What a big head!

I wasn’t going to show you this shot that Monnie got of me, then i was, then I wasn’t, then oh stuff it….I might as well show you because I think it is rather funny, and well it is good to laugh at yourself now and then (they say it keeps you young!)

Aint that the funniest look you ever seen! I must have done something terribly wrong during my presentation to pull off a face like that……..I hope you are laughing out loud right about now (at my expense!)  Okay I confess that there is one even WORSE than this, but I am sporting the biggest triple chin you eva seen……no,no that one is definitely staying hidden (unless Monnie uploads it to her blog, as it is her piccies, but she is far too lovely for that aren’t you mon?)

I suppose you want to see what I actually demonstrated then?

I managed to get some pics before I left for Convention, but they aren’t the best as it was the wrong time of day to be taking pictures and I don’t have one of those whiz bang OTT ligths yet (on my wishlist!) And all my projects where taken by SU and taken back to the States, so I didn’t get to photograph everything I made which is a bummer

Anyway at least you will get to see some of them!

First off I demonstrated a Double slider card. It is a cute way to make something a little different. This is the card that I actually demonstrated to make:

The front of the card. I have used the Fifth Avenue stamp set, with the Urban garden papers.

Then when you pull the ribbon you get these two pieces pop up. I made two supporting samples using different stamp sets, DSP, and cardstock.

Good friend stamp set with Good morning Sunshine DSP

Pulled up…

And then my Sock monkey man, whom I have called Stan…..aint he the cutest?

Here I used the Sweet slumber specialty paper, and the On your birthday stamp set….

Next I made a cute handbag out of DSP. All my samples were taken with no photos I made it with the Raspberry tart, Urban garden, and the Sweet always DS papers and I showed how you can put gifts in like a post it note holder, a set of love notes, and some chocolates. I have another sample of one I made a little while ago so you get the idea

Following the handbag, I demonstrated a Scrapbook page of my wee kiddies. I have used a 12 x 12 sheet of Cardstock and some Good morning sunshine DSP. I have used my Big deal alphabet, and the Outline alphabet stamp sets. Also the On board So tweet chipboard, that I dressed up.

what cutie pops!

Last of all I showed a card I would use for a Make and Take at my workshops. I like to use ribbon, brads, glittler……all that bling stuff! Here I used the Crazy for cupcakes stamp set, and the Sweet always DSP with Regal rose ribbon, and Pretty in pink brads.

I also had two display boards to show full of new creations, so I have lots to share with you over the next week or so. I wanted to show what type of samples I would take to a workshop, so was busy getting them made for Convention and not sharing them with you just yet Hopefully you like them and I will make up for my lack of creative posts too!

The rest of the afternoon at Convention was a final presentation from Shelli, where she stamped for us and showed us projects from her private collection. It is always wonderful to see Shelli stamp on stage, and she is such a hoot!

OH and the Workshop WOW’s from Ngaire (my Upline), Nicki Tidbold, and Michelle Habibwere wonderful. I know Ngaire was so nervous, and I was so proud of here getting up there on stage. I think the Perth girls cheered loud enough to give her encouragement!

We had Pam Morgan present as well. Pam is definitely one of my favourite presenters. She is funny, but so genuine too. Each year she tells us to go easy on ourselves, and try to delegate….(something I am not too good at!) It is always so encouraging to hear her speak.

We then had a presentation by Derek Christenson, and boy oh boy what powerful words one little guy can speak. AMAZING. We learnt all about the brain, carrots, eggs and coffee beans……..that is a whole big story, but still very thought provoking all the same!

The end drew to a close all too fast! We were encouraged, showed new techniques, given new goals, swapped, hugged, laughed, which was all too much to take all in two days. Good thing they give you notes hey!

Here are some pics from that day:

Me with Kirsty Brown…

My gorgeous friend Monnie Moo….(monique)

And Louise and I….

We were all sent off to get ready for our Awards night dinner, and what a night it was too!

Are you still here? This is quite the post………sorry!

The awards dinner:

Stampin’Up always puts on an amazing dinner at the Convention. The musician, the flowers, the decorations always look amazing as you will see in this picture:

Isn’t this just beautiful….

I met in the foyer with all my Inkpirations team members! It was so wonderful to share the Convention experience with them this year.

Me,Charmaine, Jennifer, Monnie, Chantelle and Marion…

The entre…

the mains….

the dessert…..

The Awards ceremony was on the Main stage. I was so amazed to recieve 6 awards this year…..! I received them for earning the Incentive trip, Leadership, Recruiting, Sales over 50,000, a Milestone award for having sold 100 thousand, and last but not least Demonstrator of the year top 25.

This year I ranked in at number 15 which I am still amazed at. That is such an honour, and I truly wouldn’t be there if is wasn’t for my fabulous team, and my wonderful clients……..so THANK YOU!

Here is a little stage shot:

There I am smack bang in the middle..

Getting a hug from Shelli….

Then of course we had photos with everyone whilst we are all dolled up in our fancies!

 

 

My sweet, precious friend Louise

the FANTABULOUS, Shannon West

Gorgeous Kellie Winnell

 

My dear and very energetic friend Kristy Young (twilight fanatic!!!)

Charmaine, Monnie, and Nicola, having a blast!

Chantelle and Marion

The very lovely Debbie Pamment…

Last but not least a photo with my gorgeous friend and fabulous Upline Ngaire

Ngaire was once again awarded Demonstrator of the Year! Her dedication to her business, and genuiness is above the rest. We love you Ngaire and Congratulations!

Day 5

It was so hard to get out of bed to get packing to come home again I was really looking forward to coming home to see Rod and the kids, but I was so sad it was all over, already!

We did have a relaxing day, wandering around Canberra and having a nice lunch in the sunshine, which is all the energy we could muster up.

I did however shed a few tears (or more) that day over my camera, and having to say goodbye to my eastern states friends. Poor Yvonne! I don’t think she saw that coming, and once I started so did she!

So there you have it……I am sure your head is spinning by now - that is if you made it to the end of the post! As you can see Convention is a very special event, and Stampin’Up really knows how to make it wonderful. I LOVE being a Stampin’Up Demonstrator!!!!

Thanks to everyone who sent photos, as not one of these are mine due to my camera being stolen. You all know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart, because without you, this post wouldn’t have been possible and I wouldn’t have these special memories to share!

I also recieved some amazing gifts, but I will save that for another post…….*sigh of relief* I sense from you..LOL!

Till next time!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS