Wow...

...is all I can say about this past week! We have had such a great time here, and I am sad to see it end (but I am so happy to get home and see my Little Miss again).

Here are a few random pictures from this past week for your enjoyment:


This is the Salt Palace Convention Center, where we spent the week learning more amazing things about stamping than I can begin to describe or share here. It is so pretty lit up at night, and we had a straight view of it from our gorgeous hotel room.

This is my group of friends that I call "SASS-y", which stands for "South Austin Sassy Stampers". At this convention it included Lydia (giving me bunny ears, myself, Cheryl, and Dana as well. This group is subject to change, and we really do accept anyone who is anywhere remotely near the South Austin area, drinks coffee, eats sushi, and is willing to play Twister. (Lydia abstained from Twister but she is the founding member of SASS-y so she can do things like that without endangering her position in the group.

Not sure if you can see it or not but some of us also have our faces painted in this picture. The entire party was amazingly fun, with hula hooping, twister, game show try-outs, and just general 60's and 70's frivolity.

Next up is one of my favorite pictures, myself and Meg on awards night. There are several reasons that it is my favorite, but one of the top ones is that I got to see Meg in several marches across the stage, one of which was the march for Founder's Circle. This means that Meg made the top 100 demonstrators in the country and is going on a special trip out to St. George, Utah in September. Way to go, Meg! We are all proud of you!

Now, I had a contest yesterday and really enjoyed reading everyone's comments on what your favorite Stampin' Up! products are. The winner yesterday was Susan Brown, who gets her choice of either a reusable grocery bag or a Stampin' Up! clear ruler that has a designer series paper design on it.

Once I get home there will be some more contests, and a lot more pictures. For now I am going to tuck in and get some sleep. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow, and are ready for a fun week! I will be hitting the phones Monday to make a lot of phone calls because there is an August hostess special that you do not want to miss. In fact, the first four hostesses that book a workshop with me for the month of August will receive their order delivered in one of those ultra-cute new reusable bags. Imagine your free merchandise arriving packed in one of those bags. Yes, I said free merchandise, because for every workshop that closes at $350 in merchandise for the month of August, the hostess will get:

--any Level One or Level Two Hostess set out of the Idea Book & Catalog, the Summer Mini, or the Definitely Decorative catalog, plus

--$40 in free merchandise, plus

--an additional $25 in free merchadise.

That is a huge value in totally free merchandise, just for having a fun afternoon or evening with your friends. And with all the new techniques and designs I have just spent the week learning about, I promise it will be fun. If you need more fun and girl time in your life then get your calendar out because the calls will start on Monday morning. If I don't have your contact information but you would like to have a workshop, then please email me at baxter1@austin.rr.com and I will get in touch with you to get your date on the calendar.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend, and until next time, Happy Stamping!

Kim

Breakfast with the Executive Team...

...will be happening in the morning! I sure hope that they look in a little better shape tomorrow morning than they did Wednesday night. Just take a little look-see:

No idea who the man with the beard is, but the blond, peace-loving guy next to him is Mark Jessen, who is THE trainer with Stampin' Up. Mark is the guy who helps put together all the amazing training, both online and in-person, that the demonstrators receive.

Let's move on to the groovy couple on the dance floor. Those are none other than Shelli and her husband, Sterling. Even in 70's clothes, Shelli is so cute you just want to put her in your convention bag and bring her home with you. Not that I would ever do that, I'm just saying. Maybe I've said too much. I'll just show a couple of pictures now instead.

This is how the main stage in Demonstrator Theater is decorated. I will do my best to get some more shots tomorrow, as my camera has been ill with me and not wanting to work the way I would like it too, but the set looks like big, huge stamp blocks, a tag with an eyelet and the new ribbon, and on the sides are borders that are done in the eyelet and new scalloped edge border. So cute!

One other cute thing is the perk of bringing your roommates little gifts to welcome them. Now, last year I did not bring any gifts, but I was told that when you are a first time Convention attendee that you aren't expected to. It wasn't until about a week before I flew out of Austin that I realized that this time I would not be a "first timer", and I had better be making some presents, so I created these:

I just love how well the Friends Never Fade set coordinates with the paper. The best part about it is, I don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out if it will go together, because I know it will and that these colors look amazing together! The girls were very happy to get these little journals to take notes in for Convention.

So, before I head to bed, time for another contest. Just add a comment and tell me what your favorite new product in the Idea Book & Catalog is and why. I will take entries until 7 p.m. Friday night (Central Time) and will post a winner later that evening.

I hope everyone has a great night, and I will see you all very soon! Until next time, Happy Stamping!

Kim

And the winner is...

...lucky comment number 4, which belongs to Kim M.! Kim, since I know where you live you will get your prize on Monday, which is this:


a designer reusable bag that features new Stampin' Up! colors and this super cute flower design! Congrats to Kim!

I am getting ready for Awards Night with the girls here. This is an amazing night because my upline, Meg, earned Founder's Circle this year! We are going to get all dressed up, and I promise there will be more pictures later and another contest tonight, so check back later to see what it is!

Until next time, Happy Stamping!

Kim

I promised you....

...some pictures of all the wonderful goodies from Memento Mall, so here are a few:

The Christmas ornament that is so beautiful it made my eyes hurt! You can leave the sweet stamped image in it, or you can put in a favorite photo...whatever you want!

The tote that I will probably snuggle up with tonight! Loved it so much that I also got the matching laptop case to store my paperwork in, since my hubby (rock on, David!) got me a laptop that is too big for a normal case to handle.

Our fun, funky Convention bag this year! First of all, it is pink and orange, and who wouldn't be happy just to touch it, right?

Secondly, it is full of stamp sets, which we all know automatically increases its cool status to Defcon 4.

Finally, I got to experience one of my awesome downline girls get her first Convention bag! I hope that next year we have a slew of Stamp-a-Rama girls here together, having all kinds of fun! I can't wait to post more, and I am so excited to get home to share all the amazing things I am seeing with all of you. If you have ever, or never, thought about having a workshop before you are going to want one when I get back! I just can't wait!

OK, off to happy hour and then to the Flower Power party with the fun folks at Stampin' Up! Tomorrow we will be live from the Main Stage, where all the great classes and demonstrations will be held. I just can't wait! I hope y'all are excited and enjoying the little posts I am putting up here.

Contest for today: Who co-founded Stampin' Up! with Shelli, and what year did the company start? Answer in a comment on this post, and I will draw a winner from all the correct answers. Tell you friends to come check out the blog so that they have a chance to win, too! (Don't be the girl who doesn't tell anyone because you want a better chance for yourself...there will be plenty of love to go around!)

See y'all soon, and until next time...Happy Stamping!

Kim

Don't be hatin'...

...since I stepped out of the chair massage and got to meet Brian Pilling and get a picture with him. And I didn't even need bail money afterward.

Neelam, Emily, this is for you!

For my downline girls...you will recognize the name because Brian does a ton of the webinars for Stampin' Up! and was a favorite presenter last year. He is so dynamic and fun that when he was doing a mock demonstration about how well the paper cutter worked that I actually thought, "Hey, I know I have one, but I could probably use another one!"

So, here is my first brush with fame at the Center of the Known Stamping Universe! More tomorrow, time for bed.

Have a great night, and Happy Stamping!

Kim

We're here!

We have survived a morning of flying to arrive safely in Salt Lake City. As promised, you will see a picture of Tamzin making her swaps while we waited at Denver Airport. What you can't see is that she and I are sitting at a little table with little stools designed for little children. It looked like the best place for some stamping and so we planted our little banner on it and camped out until it was time to board the plane.

Now I have to tell y'all something. I am operating on a miniscule amount of sleep here. I truly, madly, and deeply mean it. Sunday night I was busy working on some things at my house, and ended up getting a whopping 2 1/2 hours of sleep before I had to get up to get my hair cut. Then David and I went on about a squillion errands so that I could:

1. Insure that I would have a nice trip and look like someone you would want to invite into your home to show you how to make pretty things with paper, ink, and stamps, and

2. Make sure that there were enough "easy" foods in the house to give my Little Miss a fighting chance at maintaining some level of nutrition while I am gone.

That is what led to me coming home from those errands and getting into another round of projects that I absolutely had to complete before I left this morning at 5 a.m. for the airport. As the minutes ticked into hours I suddenly realized that I was at the point where if I did lay down, any rest I would get would be equal to a "nap" and not the much needed "sleep", so I ended up staying up. Let's just say that tonight, I have a feeling I will rest very, very well!

Speaking of resting well, here are two quick shots of our room at Hotel Monaco. The beds are beyond comfortable, there is a nice sitting area and since we have a corner room, so great views of the Convention Center where we will all be having fun tomorrow, as well as some of the gorgeous architecture downtown.

I am signing off for now, but expect the following tomorrow:

Pictures of roommate gifts (hey, if you thought the stuff that we see at Convention is great, you ought to see what we do for each other!)

Lots of squeals

Pictures from Memento Mall

More squeals

Pictures from the Gathering Place and Awards Booth

Yep...like little piglets

And the list goes on and on.

For all my girls back in Austin and in the rest of the cyberworld, why don't you leave a comment and tell me what you are most interested in seeing/hearing about from Convention and if you have any predictions on what we might see at Memento Mall tomorrow. I won't just be shopping for me, I am going to be shopping for prizes and the fun (for you) will begin soon.

Have a great night...and until next time, Happy Stamping!

Kim

Live, from Denver...

...Tamzin and I are at Denver airport waiting for our next flight which will take us to the Known Center of the Stamping Universe, Salt Lake City! Currently Tamzin is working on swaps and I am hoping that we are able to get bumped off of this flight and onto a slightly later one because it means we can both get a flight voucher, which I will use to....wait for it, wait for it....go to Convention again next year! Or Leadership in January. Who knows, but I can tell you it will be used for the progression of all that is good in the stamping world.

I have to say I am grateful for Tamzin, who, when she saw me looking nervously out at the rainy, gray, clouded skies made a point to tell me, "Don't look over there! Look at me! I went to a lot of trouble to look radiant so that you could look at me and not out the window." I think she is afraid that I really will see a man on the wing of the plane. (Although I discovered that she has never seen The Twilight Zone and I must remedy this as soon as possible.)

For some reason my computer is not allowing me to add my picture of Tamzin diligently working right now, but I will try again soon. Until then, check back often because the updates will come as fast as I can put them in!

Happy Stamping!

Kim

Leaving...

...on a jet plane! Of course, I know when I'll be back again. I am heading to the center of the Known Stamping Universe...Salt Lake City, first thing Tuesday morning. And by "first thing", I truly mean it. My wonderful friend and downline member, Tamzin, is having her equally wonderful hubby, Allan, drive us to Bergstrom at 5 a.m. so that I can calm down before our 7:10 flight out. Since I believe in full disclosure here I had to confess to Tamzin that I am a nervous flier.

I believe that I have a genetic mutation, inherited from my father, that makes it impossible for me to be fully comfortable on a plane. It stems from a number of factors, which are, in no particular order:

1. I like control. I like to know that at any given point in time, I am, or am capable of becoming, fully in control of my surroundings and actions. I do not get this feeling on a plane, particularly when a peach-fuzz faced pilot gets on board and is given the "knuckle bump" to the surfer dude sitting in the bulkhead seat. I want to ask, "Does your mom know you are here?", but I refrain and just silently pray that when death surely comes it will be quick and painless.

2. I see danger. Not like everyday folks see it. One of the drawbacks in having worked a long time in EMS is the fact that you see a lot of unbelievable things. People have a funny way of taking everyday objects and somehow seriously hurting themselves with them, and paramedics get to see it all (and hear the stories) firsts hand. So if I get to sit back and ruminate too long on the fact that I am in a glorified Coke can with wings on it, hurtling at 600 miles per hour and an altitude around 30,000 feet, my mind starts doing the statistics on the fact that if the flight attendant hands me my tasty bloody mary as we hit a little patch of turbulence, there is a strong possibility that the piece of celery in it will shoot up my nose and straight into my brain and I will no longer be me. It could happen. Don't judge me.

3. Ever see Apollo 13? One little part goes bad, and three very intelligent astronauts had to use all of their skill, plus the skill of a Mission Control that was jammed packed with physicists, just to make it back to Earth in one piece. How confident am I that the chick with purple hair at Lockheed-Martin was paying attention the day she soldered that wing into place?

4. I know that deep down, in the depths of my soul, the Twilight Zone writer who thought up that whole, "There's a man on the wing of the plane" bit had some kind of super-secret insider information that there is some weirdo flying cousin of the Yeti that can land on the wing and if not for an observant flier, such as myself, will bring the whole thing crashing to the ground.

So, to keep my mind off of the fact that I do not like to fly, I decided to do some more work on my swaps instead. You want a look? Just remember, if my little jet does not make it to Salt Lake City, Center of the Known Stamping Universe, that these were my last two really cute cards, and I left them here for you to enjoy.

I have churned out 100 of the "Artistic Etchings" one, and am finishing up around 50 of the "Friends Never Fade" card before Tuesday. I think my big plan is to leave all the adhering for the time in the air, so that my mind is busy doing something very mundane and Tamzin doesn't have to feed me Valium like a momma bird giving her babies a worm. Pray for Tamzin, she might need it!

I will be posting updates and as many pictures as I can from Convention starting on Tuesday night. I hope that you will follow along, and feel free to ask questions in the comments section. After I make my first run through Memento Mall (which T. and I are referring to as "Diagon Alley") there might be some prizes to try for here, so stay tuned and tell your friends to come check out my little blog as well.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend and is looking forward to a fun-filled week. Until next time...Happy Stamping!

Kim