Melbourne Convention 2011!!

Hey everyone!

WOW! …….that is the first word that comes to mind about this years convention for the South Pacific region of Stampin’ Up! Melbourne was the venue and the weather was……well not the best, but hey, that’s not why we were there, LOL! This particular year though, was a little bit extra special to me. You may be all aware of a previous post of mine where I announced that I would not be attending this years convention. The year started off for the Brown family badly, illness, problem neighbours who threatened our lives, floods (which of course affected thousands), more medical problems and many other things that crop up when you have 4 children. We did decide however, to donate the furniture in our storage shed to the flood victims of Grantham to make there lives just a little bit easier. These goods were going to be my ticket to convention but it just didn’t matter anymore……It was just our little way to help. But, to my surprise a very good old school friend who is also a fellow demo asked around a few other demos and started to organise for me to attend. This was totally unexpected, and I am totally blown away by how generous these girls are. These girls know who they are and I have thanked them already at convention……but I want them to know if there is anything I can do for them just let me know!

Now back to convention……..this is where I must warn you that this post is quite long, so please go grab a cuppa, sit back and have a bo-peep at my convention pics and read my chit-chat.

First my swaps- This year I ran out of time to do decent swaps, by that I mean more involved, LOL!

So there is a bit of everything there….mostly out of the Autumn/Winter Mini…LOL! I would also like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that I swapped with. I received some awesome ideas and hope to use them all soon. I love swapping because when I am struggling with ideas or I need to freshen up some projects, swaps are great inspiration.  You receive a huge compliment of different stamping styles, tips, tricks and ideas when swapping. So it’s probably my fave part of convention. LOL!

Next is some pics, when I say ‘some’ I really mean HEAPS!!, of the people I caught up with. Some pics unfortunately didn’t turn out to well and I could not fix them, so please don’t take offense if you don’t see a photo that was taken of us. Maybe next year we will get a better one! LOL! Canberra HERE I COME!!

Every year SU have a new motto…..Share what you Love was this years. This tag was huge and on the main stage with enormous blocks of wood resembling stamp blocks. Simply awesome!

The gorgeous Shelli herself. Simply beautiful and of course gracious! Love her! Not liking the bit of me though LOL! But I will say I did work hard that morning behind the counter helping to check in demonstrators and hand out reward pins. I worked up quite a sweat! LOL!

The beautiful Shannon West! Super clever to boot. I always learn something new from Shannon and her work is just divine!

So now for those who don’t know…..the reason this event was extra special for me was that I was asked to present a Workshop WOW! I know Super Exciting right?!! Regionals was so much fun when I presented there, so when SU asked me to do one for convention I said YES, of course!! It did take me a while to figure out what I was going to present and WOW everyone with. In the end it was a cross between the Beautiful Butterflies die and the Bleaching technique. I will show those goodies at a later date.

Shelli on stage. I had to add this shot……I adore the clothes Shelli wears and this outfit was no exception. Aren’t those shoes gorgeous?! lol!

The rest of the photos were from the awards night. You can tell by my face that I had an absolute ball and enjoyed every moment.

Here we have Louise, Lee, Sarah-Jane and Sarah. A lovely group of ladies who I totally adore and of course make me laugh.

The ladies of Teal!!! LOL Genevra, Tracey, Wendy and Carol. How stunning they looked. It also seemed to be a very popular colour next to black.

This one is a little blurry….. but these are my roomies. Genevra, Wendy and Deb. A very lovely bunch of ladies! See you next year girls!

The lovely Tracey! Hubby is a little jealous of this one!!!! ROFLOL…..sorry personal joke. Love ya Trace!

This is the lady, and of course her husband that was behind the organisation in getting me to convention, God Bless Them! Probably the most lovely people you will ever meet. Thank you both! Michelle and Terry Cox.

These ladies were a blast, lots and lots of giggles I assure you. Nicola and Charmaine.

My upline Madonna. There is a reason why I am looking like this…..but that reason is below the shot, LOL! Too bad I had that zoom lens on huh?!

A lovely pair of New Zealand belles! So very talented too! I love their work. Delys and Paula.

Another lovely lady who creates beautiful work and inspires me all the time, Kim

The lovely, adorable and very clever Sophie Zadeh. Sophie is part of Australia’s home office and is our Training Facilitator.

The lovely Bonnie Thurber. This lady is a gas. So very very funny and extremely talented. Bonnie is from the American office.

I had a hard time tracking down this lovely lady on awards night…..LOL! I know the pic is a little blurry, but I had to put it in. The ultra lovely Shannon West. Shannon helped me get organised for my presentation, showed us all how super talented she is with her beautiful work and was always very helpful.

Okay, my last photo is a little strange. Aaron and Emma riding camels??? I must say it was super funny! LOL! They were advertising the 2012 Incentive Trip……. Cable Beach at Broome! Wouldn’t it be lovely to achieve something like this?! Hhmmmm….you never know, I might just give this a go! LOL!

Any names in this blog post that is not highlighted, I do apologise, I don’t have a link to a blog. If you are one of those people and you have a blog please let me know, I will link it!

Oh and I won a prize patrol this year!!! That was super exciting! My first ever win! LOL! There was also lots of sneak peeks of what’s to come in the new IB&C. It’s all hush hush though. You just have to wait until I can show you later. LOL Such a tease huh?! But I do have some information that I will put up on my blog tomorrow. You are all gonna LOVE IT!! So make sure you come back tomorrow to find out!

Well if you made it all this way, you are quite possibly hankering for another coffee! LOL! Thanks for following me in my endeavours and listening to my rambling. I promise to be shorter next time!

Thanks for dropping by!