Enjoy My Stampin Up Grand Vacation Journey

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since this wonderful vacation but I have been very busy at home with the Canberra Craft Fair and then a visit to Darwin. But finally I've sorted some photos to give you a glimpse of some of the fun and adventures that my friend and fellow demonstrator, Lorraine and I enjoyed. 

We left a couple of days early before the North American Stampin' Up! Convention - we were worried about jet lag, but need not have been, as neither of us suffered any at all. Our Qantas plane was half empty so there was plenty of room to spread out and enjoy our flight.

Photos are worth a thousand words so I'll use lots of them in this first installment. 

 

My new 2 week old grandson came (with mummy and dad) to farewell me very early in the morning at the airport.  It was wonderful to have a final cuddle before I left on the first leg from Canberra to Sydney. Next leg was Sydney - LAX, then LAX - Salt Lake City.

My US sister Joyce met us at the airport and took us straight to the Marriott where we unpacked and enjoyed our room. Then we headed to City Creek Shopping Centre that was right next door - Oh I love shopping in the USA! Ran into Vanessa Webb and friends who told us about the Pandora bargains, so as neither of us had a bracelet yet we thought it would be a wonderful memento of our trip.

 

 Next day Joyce was our guide and we started off with a visit to Thanksgiving Point where we visited the wonderful dinosaur museum. It is a fabulous hands on exhibit, beautifully displayed and suitable for adults and children

 

There is a very special place at Thanksgiving Point - built by our wonderful co-founder and CEO, Shelli. We were thrilled to visit and even more delighted to be treated to a 1 hour massage each. A million thanks to Melissa and Olivia for their expertise and soothing massages, and to Jeffy for organising such a thoughtful treat after our long flight. 

Of course we were hungry after all that pampering, so lunch at the healthy cafe in the Brick Canvas complex was a must.

 Here we are enjoying lunch.

The afternoon we spent strolling Temple Square, enjoying the beautiful gardens and buildings in Salt Lake City and becoming more excited  for the days to come. 

The USA Convention did not disappoint, in fact it was awesome. So many demonstrators who make so much noise!! but it  was a buzz of excitement audible from the moment we entered the Salt Lake Palace Convention Center - that buzz grew to almost a roar as we neared the area where demonstrators were queued waiting to go into the first General Session. The next 2 photos show the crowds looking from the middle to both ends. I think more than 6000.

So that is where I will leave it today. A little bit of suspense until I manage to sort some more photos and tell you about the next few days of fun.

Convention 2011- Melbourne

Hi readers,

I've just had the most fantastic  few days in Melbourne at my 5th Stampin' Up!® Convention. 

Yes I'm a desperate stamper and avid SU demonstrator who has attended every SU Convention in Australia and I have to say number 5 was the best so far. Can't wait for next year when Convention will be held in my home town of Canberra.

Melbourne was not so very kind to us with it's weather, but you know what? We didn't care as a little rain and cold could not dampen the enthusiasm of some 500 stampers/demonstrators/guests who attended this year.

View from the Convention Centre along the mighty Yarra

 See what I mean about the weather, but it really didn't matter and I only had to wade through shin high water once!!!

Our sincere thanks go to Shelli, Rich and the amazing team from the USA as well as Aaron, Emma and the gang from Australia and NZ. So much fun. so many prizes and gifts and so much fantastic inspiration from fellow demos, and the creative team from the USA. 

I mentioned fun - this Convention - that lasted 3 days - was filled with laughter from Aaron break-dancing on stage to Emma misusing the iron and then both of them riding camels on stage. Shelli and her teeny little faux pas and Bonnie's hat - what delightful humorous people, so natural and so sharing. Yes I know, these are in-house jokes, but you'll just have to attend next year if you want so much fun. 

It was terrific to share this convention with 2 of my team who were attending for the first time.

I know Sharon and Jenny enjoyed the experience and have gone home full of enthusiasm to both enjoy and extend their paper-crafting, but also to attend again next year. 

We had the opportunity to witness many other demonstrators talents through the Workshop Wows. These included demonstrations from Shelli, Shannon, Pam, Bonnie, Emma, Vanessa, and a host of very talented Australian and New Zealand demonstrators, and they certainly were wows. Every presentation was filled with brilliant creativity and I learned so many new and exciting techniques to extend the use of my Stampin' Up! products. Thank you to all the presenters in both the Wows and the Business Seminars. 

So much thought and preparation went into the entire Convention.

It was great to catch up with some old friends that I usually only see at Convention, and wonderful to meet new friends - some as far away as Perth. (Look forward to seeing you girls next year)

I was lucky enough to achieve some awards this year as well as being a first time winner in Prize Patrol. 

5 Conventions and this is my first Prize Patrol win. 

But it was worth waiting for - not yet released stamps and DSP. Fantastic!! 

In fact I came home with 8 free stamp sets, some DSP, and a Simply Sent kit. How good is that? Stampin' Up! certainly are a generous and caring company to work with.

We are not able to give away too much about the Sneak Peeks we were shown at Convention, so I've tried to mask some of my goodies, but I did want to show you just what sort of "bootie" I received.

Here it is!

Drum Roll Please....

Yes I almost had to get another case to bring back all of this plus my purchases from Memento Mall.

We have a lot of fantastic announcements coming soon so stay tuned,

Until next time

Stay Crafty!