Stampin' Up! Brisbane Convention

Gosh its been a busy few weeks for me.  I have been on holidays for the past two weeks and I can honestly say it feels like two weeks.  We had our annual Stampin' Up! convention in Brisbane only this year Stampin' Up! are celebrating 25 years.  We had a wonderful time and it was all so inspiring. There are lots of new products in the coming catalogue and we had a sneak peek to some of those and were lucky enough to bring home some of the products. Unfortunately I am unable to show them to you but I can give you a sneak peek.
We arrived in Brisbane on the Tuesday afternoon and settled into our apartment which was only two blocks from the Convention Centre.  On the Wednesday myself and three other ladies hired a car and went for a drive to the Tamborine Mountains for the whole day. We had a wonderful time and the rain forest was absolutely gorgeous. We visited the Cheese Factory and strolled through the street to check out all the little shops including the yummy Fudge shop.  Mmm! Mmm! 
It rained off and on that day and it was 9', the coldest May in 8 years.
We then went to watch the Australian Outback Spectacular which was a very entertaining evening and I found it quite emotional.  I felt so proud to be an Australian.  The meal was great too. We left there and arrived back at our apartment around 11pm. 
The following day was the beginning of the Convention. We saw many WOW demonstrations and I took lots of photos to remember them all.  Its hard coming home after this event as we are not allowed to show anyone the products we received and we are so pumped up to show our friends and customers.  One of the things that touched my heart was how Stampin' Up! help so many people less fortunate than ourselves.  They donate to many charities including Ronald McDonald house. They asked us if we would like to help the Ronald McDonald House in any way and if we did they had someone taking names.  I put my name down as a volunteer and am waiting for the call to be able to give back to society.  One of the incentive trips that SU! did with their American demonstrators was to visit a poor country town and offer to help by painting and doing odd jobs including entertaining the little children by letting them make cards.  This touched my heart so much that I had tears all afternoon and into the evening. I think that was my Pearl for the whole convention. I do hope they put that video onto You Tube or something as I would love to show it to you and lets see if you don't shed a tear.
I came home and spent the next day putting photos onto USB's that various demonstrators had given me. I am chief photographer for the Stamp-a-Roos (Ngaire Andersons group). I love taking photos and it actually lessens the crowd at the show and tell sections.  This year there were 700 demonstrators at Convention and it is growing every year. One would think that we would have been crowded with that many demonstrators but it all seemed to flow very well. The Brisbane Convention Centre is very well layed out and there is plenty of room for everyone without rushing in to find a seat. I find sitting anywhere is great as you get to meet new people.  We actually met a lovely lady by the name of Cheryl who was attending Convention for the very first time. We all hit it off well and it turns out that this lady is from Brisbane and is moving to Perth later this year.  She did not know anyone in Perth but now she has a group of friends so the move wont be so daunting for her.


All Roomies together (what a great bunch!)
Sue Slater, Pat Carr, Jenny Chilton, Tracey Parsons, Josephine Joss & Vikki Poyner

 

Here I am in the beautiful Tamborine Mountains
Rainforest

 I will come back later to show you some of the swaps I received and also my swap for Convention. I have a new computer so I have not got some of the programs on this one that I need to adjust my photos etc.
See you soon.
Thanks for popping by:)