Day One of Convention

Today was my birthday and as much as I would have wanted to spend it with my family back home, I was with my second family, my teamies.  I was greeted with cards and gifts and have to say I felt very, very spoilt.

At the Main Stage it all began with beautiful dancers

then our official welcome by the amazing Sara Douglas.

We had prize patrols, lots of exciting new products were given away and how tense it gets when we are waiting to see which colour band will be chosen for the Prize Patrol giveaways!

We sat and watched some amazing presentations, so very inspiring and saw so many sneak peaks, it was just so exciting!

We had several all attendee giveaways, this one contained products from the new "Undefined" range where you can carve your own stamps, just how brilliant is that.  This was something I was lucky enough to try on the Incentive Trip and I must say that I need to practice a little on my drawing skills!

After the first main stage presentations we ventured off to visit the Expo, several demonstrator booths featuring amazing new sneak peak products in action, I just cant' wait to share them with you but will have to wait a while!

Here is Carol demonstrating a new Big Shot die

Here is the Recognition Booth, a place for everyone to visit who achieved a promotion in the last Stampin' Up! year, sadly I couldn't visit this year but fingers crossed for next year!

I was proud for 3 of my team members to visit here though, here's Sarah, she was joined by Bel and Diana too, well done my little inspirationals!

The tables settings were so sweet, shabby white washed chairs and old books stacked and tied with ribbon.

 And before we knew it, awards night was upon us......

Here's Chris from Demonstrator Support in Germany along with Caroline

Sarah taking a photo op before heading into the Main Stage

Judith and Diana

waiting for the presentations to begin

It was difficult to get a good picture but here Caroline is doing the "march" for her Personal Sales, Congratulations!

I was very proud to take 2nd Place for personal Annual Sales this year, and I would really like to take this opportunity to thank all of my wonderful customers for helping me to achieve this and I am thankful to be able to share something I am so passionate about with others and really Make a Difference.  Although I have worked incredibly hard to reach this goal, I wouldn't be where I am today without the loyalty of my customers.

Here I am on stage with the Top 5 Sales achievers.  I also did the "march" across the stage for achieving next year's Incentive Trip which is an amazing Caribbean Cruise which will be very exciting.  My sales were a huge part of achieving this trip but I really have to thank members of my team who earned promotions which helped me along my way, so thank you my Inspirationals, lets hope some of you will earn the next Incentive Trip in 2015.

When the Awards were finished we headed off to the 25th Anniversary Party, a live band, dancing and food, and of course, more photo opportunities.

Myself and Judith followed by Trevor and Irene

And finally a group photo of us, five of my Level One team then Trevor who is Caroline's Level One.

If you would like to be part of next year's Convention, why not join my team, Stampin' Up! really is a great family to be a part of and why not share what you love.  For an informal chat please give me a call on 07717 068909.

European Convention Manchester - Silver 2 Reception

what an AMAZING time I had at the European Convention in Manchester last week, I have been busy preparing for my all day class on Saturday  but I have finally found some time to fill you in on the fun time we had

On arrival at our Hotel we realised just how close the Convention Centre was to us, literally across the street, perfect.

Convention began with the Silver 2 Reception at the Marriot Albert and Victoria Hotel just a short distance from us and Caroline and myself were greeted by Sara Douglas who was in the Reception area with a warm welcome.  We made our way to the lounge area where cocktails awaited us and we chatted and swapped with fellow demonstrators before collecting our Lanyards, Namebadges and Pins.

The Silver 2 Reception area was beautiful, stunning table settings with beautifully bow covered chairs awaited us.  The table centre piece was gorgeous, an ice block encasing a flower which quietly melted during the evening!

My camera flash worked very well here but the room was actually very dimly lit which set a lovely mood.

We were presented with gorgeous Stationary Portfolios bearing the SU logo and an engraved pen to mark this special event, of course gift wrapped simply but beautifully.

Silver balloons adorned the room and confetti across the tables.  Thank you Charlotte Harding for the lovely setting, you really made it look so beautiful for us.

After the presentations we were invited to enjoy the hot buffet which had been put in place for us, it was very nice and lovely to be a part of this group of demonstrators and I hope next year that I will be able to enjoy this with more of my team.

We jumped into a taxi back to our hotel and met up with the rest of the team in the hotel restaurant then headed to our room for a little making and taking, something that's a bit of a tradition for Convention!

I was very impressed with Caroline, this year she brought table mats for us to stamp on as previous years have found us hunting around the hotel room for a nice flat surface to stamp on!!

Just thought I'd share my slipper socks, I love these to bits and felt that it was just about that time of year for them to make an appearance again!  I originally bought these as stockings when travelling on a ski-ing holiday a couple of years ago and stuffed them with golden coins and sweets for Jack and Sophie to open on Christmas morning and since then, at Christmas time, I jingle around the house and it puts a smile on everyone's face!

Back with lots more fabulous memories tomorrow.