Convention was totally fantastic… but I fully expected it to be!

I’ve wanted to pop in and update you all on how things went, but I thought I should probably avoid WWIII by spending some time with the family first….. but now they are back at school and work and my time is my own today…. and what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Muahahahahahahaaaa!

I will start at the beginning, the very beginning. We all went up as a family on the Tuesday before convention, and stayed at my Sister In Law’s place out near Mt Cout-Tha for a couple of nights. We did some touristy stuff at the Botanical Gardens, like feeding the ducks, and playing spot the lizard….

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OK so the big one is not real, but the other two are - and these things were EVERYWHERE.

This photo cracks me up - Amy was feeding some birds, and one came right up and snatched the bread from her hand…

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We also took a drive in to Southbank, and walked the whole length of it. What an awesome place! The kids loved the ‘real’ beach up in the park bit, quite unexpected to find a beach complete with sand in that spot! We went to the Museum, which was a big hit - how big do the bugs get in Queensland for goodness sakes! Ewwwwwwwwwwww.

And another funny pic - this one is Quinn and Amy. You know the boards where you stick your head in the hole, and on the other side you are a strongman, or chick in a bikini? They were dinosaurs. Convincing hey.

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So FINALLY we had killed enough time doing family stuff. It was Thursday and time to get to the real purpose of the trip up North. David and the kids dropped me off at the apartments Tracey had booked, and I must say that my knees went weak when I saw that we were right over the road from a snazzy little place called the Melbourne Bar. Yes, our balcony looked out at nirvana! It was fate I think.

I bagsed my bed, and then decided to go and scope out the Convention Centre (after all it was only 2.30pm and the others weren’t arriving for hours). As luck would have it, I ran into Tina, Jacqui and Di on the bottom floor, and they convinced me to go to the bar with them. I fought the suggestion with everything I had…. but in the end, evil prevailed and I went along. Gosh could it really have been 10pm when I stumbled back over the threshold of the apartment? Must be a time difference thing in Queensland perhaps? *looking innocent* I should have synchonised watches or something.

It was an absolute blast to catch up with so many demonstrators that night, many from my team who had made the trip up - it’s this part that I love the best about these gatherings. How else would we ever see each other? We’re all over the country!

Tracey, Carol and I had quite a few visitors in our room that night (and the next and the next), so I think it was about 2am when we finally crashed into bed…. alarm set for 7am so we wouldn’t be late for registration. OHO! Little did we know that not only was there a lovely bar over the road, but a nice big development - and in Queensland it is A-OK to start construction work at 6am. Ye gods! (Of course 6am is for slackers, I believe our guys started at 5.30am like the good industrious souls they were.)

Never mind, it meant we were definitely NOT late for registration!

Back with more later…. including some bragging about members of my team achieving great things, so be prepared!!!!

 

Crikey, how organised am I?! I uploaded this pic before I left, so I could do a quick update while I am away…. it’s the last of my convention swaps. I ended up making 52 in all so I was pretty chuffed with myself! (Not 52 of these, 52 in total of all my swaps… I’m not THAT good! )

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This one uses Garden Whimsy, a really cute set, and one we got for free at the Leadership training on Friday night - how cool is that!

The colours I’ve used are Bashful Blue, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal - I think anyway, I haven’t got one with me to check it properly, as I managed to swap them all. I’ll correct this post if I’m wrong when I get home. I also used the paper piercing tool, and added some Bashful Blue brads to finish it off. I must say I LOVE the colour combo, it’s so fresh looking!

Anyhoo, hope you like it… I’ll be updating all about convention when I get home later this week.

Yes, it’s 2 hours before I leave for the airport, and here I am finally uploading that swap card for you! 

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This one uses a new set from the 2008-2009 Idea Book & Catalogue, called Priceless, and its matching Jumbo Stampin’ Around Wheel, So Swirly. The colours are Tempting Turquoise, Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal - yes this combo is from the Colour Wheel! PLUS the new scallop circle punch - I’m going to LOVE that one!

Short and sweet - I have to keep packing

The new Idea Book & Catalogue for 2008-2009 is here!

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I’m still working on swaps for convention, but you can see two of them in that pic - and a couple of sets from the new catalogue too.

I’ll be back before I leave for Brisbane, to upload a closeup of that teal and celery card, but for now I have to zip off to work. Curse this job of mine! How much nicer would it be to just stay at home and stamp all day!