July Stampers' Night Out!

Last night, The TOPICS! met for our July Stampers' Night Out at La Madeline - AND WE HAD A SUPER TIME! It is always a thrill for me to see everyone in one room and to share our stamping enthusiasm! We engaged in a card swap, and the requirements were to use a brand spankin' new stamp set from our new catalog and to somehow incorporate one of our new colors, either through card stock, inks, ribbon, or an embellishment! I think our group did a fabulous job for this swap! The winner of our favorite card received a gift certificate from me for some goodies out of the catalog. Kate Osborne was the winner! Here are the entries below:

The card above was stamped by Pam D'Urso.

The card above was stamped by Elizabeth Hurst.

The card above was stamped by Faye Wilson.

The card above was stamped by Cathy Vogel.

The card above was stamped by Danielle Adams.

The card above was stamped by Kate Osborne - and was THE WINNER!

The card above was stamped by Diane Burns.

The card above was stamped by Susanne Jeffery.

The card above was stamped by Karrilyn Ringnald.

The card above was stamped by Amy Hansen. Amy used the owl punch to make tulips!

The card above was stamped by Jennifer Gulch.

The card above was stamped by Jennifer Park.

The card above was stamped by Mary Lee Sherman.

The card above was stamped by Pam Davenport.

The card above was stamped by Gail Mikeska.

The card above was stamped by Blanca Cortez-Keister.

The card above did not have a name on the back.

The card above was stamped by Katherine Langner.

The card above was stamped by Tracy Fraser.

The bag topper above was stamped by Lizette Lobpries.

We also engaged in a New Catalog Scavenger Hunt! Here the gals are deeply engrossed in the hunt - all hoping to win the new owl punch in our catalog. The winner was Elizabeth Hurst, who took that cute little owl punch home with her! We had such a nice evening and I enjoyed everyone's company. What a great bunch of gals!

Convention 2010!

These are some happy gals! We all just received a "bundle" composed of the Deck the Halls Christmas Designer Series Paper, the Cherry Cobbler Classic Ink Pad, the Champagne Glass Glitter, and the Peaceful Season Level 2 Hostess Set! Stampin' Up! sure knows how to make a stampin' gal happy! From left to right is Kate Osborne, Anita Konvicka, Kirsteen Gill, and Pam D'Urso.

One evening my group met with several of my demonstrator friends' groups at the Olive Garden! We had a fun evening with some "get to know you" games that were lots of fun! This is me and Kate.

Here is Kirsteen, Anita, and Pam at the Olive Garden!

When you attend the convention, there is swapping frenzy going on everywhere! Here are Kirsteen and Anita engaging in the frenzy! You come home with lots of card samples; you swap cards with demonstrators from all over the United States; and you make lots of new friends! It's a blast!

One evening there was a flower power party! Here are the gals engaging in a game where you can win prizes! Doesn't that sound like fun? IT IS!

Anita got to participate in a contest - and her group won! Here she is, beaming with pride, over her prize! You lucky booger - I WANT ONE!

Here is Anita in action - working for that prize!

Anita is getting down all the contest rules before they start!

Anita absolutely loves Angie Juda - the Chick-N-Scratch lady! Who doesn't love Angie Juda? She's fabulous and everyone wants to have their picture taken with her!

Here we are at The Marriott anticipating the fun convention ahead! From left to right is my sister, Pam D'Urso, me, Kate Osborne, Anita Konvicka, and Kirsteen Gill. We had such a fun week and I enjoyed spending time with all of them!

Here is a new tote that we could purchase in Memento Mall! It's big enough to hold our 12 X 12 paper and also our paper cutter! Memento Mall has all kinds of Stampin' Up! logo items that you can only purchase at the convention! This demonstrator already has her tote loaded up with stampin' goodies! The tote matches our Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper! They also had laptop computer bags to match. Of course I had to have both! Some demonstrators bought the laptop computer bag - and now they have to buy computers!! It's hard to resist - everything in Memento Mall is something you'll want!

Pam and I got a VIP pass to enter Memento Mall before everyone else because we recruited someone between July 1st and July 19th! Here is Memento Mall before the masses were able to come in! It was a special treat to be able to walk right in because otherwise, you may stand in a 2-hour line to get in!

Every year when we go to the convention, it is such a great time to catch up with old friends and to make new ones, too! I had such a great time this year! I always come back invigorated, inspired, and ready to have another great year! Think about going with us next year! YOU'LL LOVE IT!

An Amazing Thing Happened!

I've returned home from the Stampin' Up! convention floating on air! An amazing thing happened to me! I learned at the convention that I earned the distinction of being a member of Founder's Circle and the spot I earned was No. 19! Founder's Circle is composed of Stampin' Up!'s 100 top demonstrators in the United States based on sales and promotions in your first-level downline - and I was No. 19! THAT IS AMAZING! I'm still pinching myself to make sure it's true. I can hardly claim it as a personal achievement, though. It is, without a doubt, a group achievement. All of my wonderful and loyal customers helped me with the sales portion and my wonderful and dedicated recruits helped me by reaching promotions this past year, which helped me gain that 19th spot!

I'm at a loss for words on how to say thank you, but THANK YOU, EVERYONE, for the role you played in making a dream come true for me. I can honestly say that I absolutely love what I do and it's because of people JUST LIKE YOU who give me a reason to get out of bed every day to work towards my goals! You are all precious to me and my life wouldn't be the same if it hadn't been touched by each one of you in some special way! Thank you for being in my life and thank you for your friendship! Those two things mean everything to me!

When I returned home from Utah, my husband had pink champagne waiting for me so that we could celebrate as a family! Isn't that sweet? Hunter and Haley made a banner for me that stretched across the front entry that made me cry! I received the pretty rose from Shelli Gardner when I got to go up on stage with her. THAT WAS FUN! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, EVERYONE!

A Celebratory Lunch!

Here is a sample of the little placecards I made for our celebratory lunch today at Brookwood Community Center! I'm just loving that new Chantilly ribbon!

Isn't this a great looking group of gals? I am so proud of them! These are my recruits who achieved promotions during the past Stampin' Up! year! The Stampin' Up! year ended June 30th! To celebrate their achievement, I treated them to lunch today at Brookwood Community Center! I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them and I am already looking forward to another celebratory lunch next July with my recruits who achieve promotions this coming year! I also gave them some fun hand-stamped goodies, but I think they liked the flip-flops the best! Mary Moosemiller, Kate Osborne, and Katherine Langner also promoted to Senior Associates, but they were unable to join us today.

This is Amy Hansen and me! Poor thing, she had to sit right next to me today, but she was a good sport about it! Amy promoted to a Senior Associate! I'm proud of her!

This is Faye Wilson and her friend Elois! I love getting photos of people when they're eating! That's okay, Faye, it doesn't look bad at all! That was some really good soup, wasn't it? We were celebrating Faye's promotion to a Supervisor! Isn't that awesome?

This is Tess Zimmerman and Laurie Carr. Can you tell that Tess doesn't like to have her picture taken close up? Thanks for letting me take it anyway, Tess! Laurie Carr is eating bread pudding, some of the best bread pudding you'll find anywhere! Tess and Laurie both promoted to Senior Associates.

This is Kelly Frnka and Diane Burns. Both of these gals promoted to Senior Associates and they are just as sweet as can be! Diane, that dessert looks superb - I should have gotten that!

Here's the whole gang! I really enjoyed the company, the conversation, and my time spent with all of you. You truly are people I love and adore! I hope you felt special and recognized today because that's exactly how I wanted you to feel! You ARE special and you SHOULD BE recognized!

OUR FIRST POOL DAY!

It finally happened - we got into the pool for the first time on July 4th! With all the rain we've been having because of Hurricane Alex, it delayed us from being able to enjoy the pool, but we did today! It has been a gorgeous day and we had a blast in the pool, and now I'm pleasantly exhausted!

Haley put Otto in the pool with her. He doesn't look very happy to me, but we were glad to see that he can jump out of the pool by himself. That way, if he ever falls in and is smart enough to swim over to the shelf, he'll be able to get out! Let's hope he never falls in!

Here I am at my FAVORITE place, the sun shelf! It is nice and cool under that umbrella and a nice beverage of some sort would have made it cooler, but there will be other times for that! I know I'm going to spend LOTS of time right here! Otto liked being in the shade, too!

I'm so happy with our pool. It is very relaxing to be in it and to listen to the waterfall. Call Suncor Services if you want a pool. They did a great job for us!

Even Randy is enjoying the pool today! After playing in the pool for THREE HOURS, I am exhausted and I need to take a nap! I'm not used to that much physical activity. Maybe this pool will get me into better shape! We played frisbee and floated around on some little intertubes that Carolyn Gray sent me and it wore me out!

I'm lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it! It was worth it all! Now I feel like I'm on vacation even when I'm at home! What could be nicer than that?