Convention Part 1!

Hello! Happy Tuesday! (I think!) It is Tuesday, isn't it?! LOL I am still feeling a little loopy and off because of all the the time differences and my lack of sleep! Ok, I have a few photos to share with you from our first and second day in Utah! My very sweet down line and I flew out together! We landed on Tuesday at 4:13 in the afternoon and took an express shuttle to the hotel. We stayed at the Marriott and it was just beautiful! For our very first adventure we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant called the Blue Iguana! Now keep in mind that we ate breakfast in Charlotte North Carolina, lunch in Phoenix, Arizonia and dinner in Utah! (Too cool!!) The servings were ginormous and the food was awesome! (I am all about the food!) LOL This first picture is of Jo in front of the entrance to the Blue Iguana! If you look really closely you can make out the sign on the door that says Welcome to Stampin Up! Demos! Too cool!! :) This is Jo pointing to the sign:



After dinner we went back to our rooms to unpack! Then I hit the gym for my daily walk and Jo went swimming! I was worried about missing my walk. I have not missed a day since I started on January of 2009! I was able to go to the gym every day while there though so that worked out great! :)

Ok, our first real whole day there was a whirlwind of motion and activity!! Our schedule looked something like this:

Visit Starbucks
Check in and Bag Pick Up
First Business Class
Lunch
Riverton Campus Tour (40 minutes away)
***Change clothes!!
Flower Power Party
Dinner
***Change clothes
First Organized Swap (In our Jammies!)

We were literally on the move from the minute we woke up until we crashed way after dark that night! It was such a blast!! We planned super well though because our last function ended with us already in our jammies! LOL Here is a re-cap of our day:



These were the bags we got at check in! Isn't this cute! I just love the bright happy colors! It came with our new stamp sets inside, a new catalog, a lanyard, a new pin and a pen...pink of course to match the bag! :)



I couldn't resist snapping this shot! This cute lady said she didn't want to have to carry and show off her swap card all day so she was wearing it on her head! LOL Isn't she adorable! Loved this!


This was a shot of Jo and I on the bus headed for the tour at Riverton. This is the Stampin Up! facility where all the magic happens! It was absolutely gorgeous!!


This was the sign to welcome us in the lobby!


The view from the top floor down into the center of the main room and where the employees hang out and eat at break time! It was all really pretty!


Another angle!


This was taken in the museum. They had several displays set up along with history of the company displays. Everything was decorated beautifully! Lots of eye candy in this room!

All of these yummy treats were made from paper!!! Just wait until I share tomorrow's photos of the Sweet Shoppe with you...thud *falls right over!!*


More displays!


More displays!


More displays!


More displays!


More displays!


This was the Idea room! They had a beautiful room with lots of tables and giant bean bag chairs and room to create! Here is Jo doing some hard creative thinking of her own! LOL This room lead into this next fun room:


Floor-to-ceiling white boards with tons of room for brain storming!


Check this out!! Was hoping one (or ten!) of those boxes had my name on them! LOL This place was immense!! So cool to see the process in motion!





This picture was taken of a desk in DS!! They gave all of the SU! employees the days off from the facility so they could be at the convention to play too! Their desks were all covered with cards and pretty displays! It was neat to see!


This was a neat thing! They have a goal of 10,000 recruits in 2010 and they are actually keeping tally on this board in the hall way! Look at all those tick marks! Since it is really important that I do my share I will need to sign up 7-8 recruits in the next little bit! Let me know if you would like to be one of them! :) Big grin!



Ok course me being me...I wandered into the break room where the food was to be found! LOL They had oodles of fun vending machines and a cute kitchen with microwaves and sinks etc. The vending choices were awesome!! Everything from candy to coffee (Starbucks in a box!), to ice cream to soup! My absolute favorite though was the hot pizza vending machine!! How awesome is that!?! Drop in your money or use your charge card (!!!!) and out comes a hot personal pizza ready to eat! I was so excited by this! Guess I do not get out enough! :)



This is the traditional picture in front of the Stampin Up! sign. Had to take this one! *Note to self for the future...no slouching! LOL



This amazing shot was taken standing in the parking lot! This is the view these folks have every day when they come to work! So nice!!


This was taken back on the bus on our way back for the rest of the day's activities.


This was my Flower Power party outfit! I had peace sign earrings on and my sweet daughter iron on-ed all of my hip patches! *Thanks Hannah!* The party was a blast!! There was a Scavenger hunt, and games and displays! Hula hoop contests, face painting, twister, free give-aways, awesome music! (I discovered I really dig some of the tunes from the 60's man!)


Cute lady in her 60's duds!


One creative lady's idea of bell bottoms! Too funny!


Our new friends Debbie and Laura! They looked awesome!


More great outfits!


Far out wig, man!


This lady had a ball!


Groovy band!


More great outfits!




Me hula-hooping! Not sure what was going on with my face! LOL


Jo and I at the party!


Ok, back to the room to change clothes and head to the Marriott Lobby Jammies Swap! This was me in my jammies!


Jo and I in our jammies! :)


...and finally the beginning of the swap line!

It was an amazing day! We had such a great time! I will be back tomorrow with lots more to share! Hope that you have a super day! See you soonest!

I am home!!!!!!

Well helloooooooooo there!! I am home from Salt Lake City and am wiped deliriously out!! We took the red eye in last night/this morning and I have not slept in almost 35 hours! LOL Convention was amazing, wonderful, fantastic, inspiring, empowering and just plain darn fun!! I cannot say enough good stuff about the last week at convention! It was such a super experience! I am so sorry that I did not blog during the week...I tried and tried and tried!! The connection just would not cooperate! (I said many, many bad words at it!) Big thank you to my very sweet hubby for posting my update though! I am going to be a giant tease and only leave you with a couple pictures until my next post! I promise I will be back very soon with lots of pictures and fun details! :) Thanks so much for checking in on me!


This was our view on the flight into SLC. Isn't that just gorgeous?!



This was taken as soon as we landed. I was just in awe at that view! We live in the mountains also, but ours are blue. These were all sand colored with sprinklings of green everywhere! Just gorgeous!!

Ok, I promise to be back soonest with lots more! Have a wonderful night! :) Big hug! I am off to get some shut eye!

Technical difficulties

Hello everyone, it's Cory ... Ann Marie's husband!

Ann Marie asked me to let you know she is having technical difficulties getting connected to the internet from the hotel and will be back here as soon as she can. Sorry, no pretty pictures to go along with the post. :)

Have a great day!

And we're off...!!

Hello! I am writing from Charlotte NC! WooHoo! Hubby and the kids and I are staying in a hotel tonight so that getting to the airport in the am will be easy peasy! They will be seeing me off bright and early and since the airport is almost 3 hours away from home we thought this was the best way to go!

Today was a whirlwind of activity trying to get ready to go! I am the world's worst packer and trying to keep my suitcases under the weight limit was a major challenge! I am a big believer of bringing an extra of everything just in case! I will be holding my breath tomorrow when they weigh my luggage! Wish me luck! LOL

I spent forever getting my swaps all gathered and packaged up today! Three months ago I set myself a goal of making between 450-480 swaps for convention. I wound up making 452! I decided to stop there because the more I made the more concerned I became about weight and space during travel! I had the best time making my swaps though and cannot wait to make a ton of new friends swapping them all out! :) Here is what they all looked like together:





Ok, well we are going to hit the pool for a while! I am going to try to update every night with details from the day during Convention! *bouncing!* Next time I check in I will be writing from Utah! :) I haven't flown in years and although I am a little nervous about the checking in hub-bub I am really excited about the flight!

Have a super night! I will talk to you soonest!

Convention Swaps Part 2!

Hey there! I am back with the second half of my swaps to share with you! I am not going to go into much detail because I do not want to bore you silly, but if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will happily respond! Ok, here we go:


This card will be for general swapping, but at the Flower Power party Wednesday night! Flower Power is the theme, 60's is the dress code! I have my hippie chick outfit all ready to go! I figured the card should fit the theme so I went with bright flowers, a 'love'-ly sentiment and of course flowers! :)


This is a simple card using one of the level 2 hostess punch stamp sets. It uses the flower that goes with the BoHo Blossoms punch. I must admit that I didn't think it was anything special until I stamped it and then I was totally awed. It is just so pretty in person! I wanted a crisp color combo and went with Baja Breeze and the new Daffodil Delight! Very happy combo! I think of all of my swaps this may be my favorite one. :)


I am truly smitten with these flowers! They are from a SU! Big Shot die (one whose name completely escapes me right now). LOL I think they are just so pretty together! You get 5 flowers in the one die so you can use them separately or all together! The flower pot came to life because I had some scraps that I wanted to use up and I used the eyelet border punch to create some interesting lines running down the card! Cute, huh?!


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This one is for an organized Masculine Card swap. I wanted it to look distressed and a little tattered so I distressed the edges and sponged everything! I used Pocket Silhouettes and the square lattice folder.



This is my "I just landed in Salt Lake City and today is my first day to swap but I am tired from the flight so I wanted to keep it simple swap card"! :) What do you think? One color combo and...


...another! :) Love the butterflies!

Well, there you have it! I loved every minute of making these and cannot wait to trade them in Salt Lake City! :) *bouncing!!!!*

We are leaving tomorrow to stay the night in a hotel closer to the airport because I am flying out of an airport almost three hours away from home. I thought it would be fun for the family to stay over in a hotel and swim in the pool and watch hotel tv! Besides all of that...my flight leaves early and I have to be to the airport at the butt crack of dawn so this will make it easier on everyone. :)

Lots to do so I am out of here! I will be back soonest to check in! Have a great day!

Convention Swaps Part 1!

Hello! Happy Saturday!! I am sorry to have been MIA, but I have been stampin' my fingers to the bone!! I am so excited I feel like I could burst into a million ka-zillion little pieces!! I have been spending all of my free minutes working on convention swaps!! Swaps for convention that happens in just a mere few days!!! I have a basket that I take with me everywhere I go so that I can cut, stamp, adhere, glitter, punch, distress, emboss etc where ever I am! I have worked on swaps while waiting for my kiddos at gymnastics, at soccer, at the doctor's office! I have worked on them going down the road at 80 miles an hour (not while I was driving of course!) I have worked on them until the wee hours of the morning and first thing in the morning! I thought I would stop by and share them with you! Here is the first half of the madness! :)


This one is for an organized swap called Marriott Lobby in your Jammies swap! I will be meeting with 50 other ladies all decked out in our pajamas in the lobby of the Marriot! What a fun way to meet new folks, huh?! Cannot wait!

I used the square lattice embossing folder to create the frame and the stamp set For All You Do. The colors are all current SU!


This one is also for an organized swap called An Evening to Remember! Requirements for this one were to make 50 occasion cards using new colors and all current SU! products.

Stamp set is Shared Happiness and the punch is the border eyelet.


This is one of my designs for general swapping. I used the Top Note die and cut it in half and turned it inside out! The stamp set is Charming. This is the pink version.


This is the orange version! Funny how the same card can look so different by just changing the color scheme.


Another general card swap! Christmas in July, anyone?! :)


And in a different color!


Needed some variety!

That is the first half of my stash! What do you think?! I will be back tomorrow to share the rest of them with you! :) Only 3 more sleeps until I officially leave!

Have a wonderful day! I will be back soonest!