Melbourne- Convention 2011

I have to tell you about the AMAZING time I had last week at the 2011 Stampin' Up! Convention in Melbourne. There wasn't a single millisecond of the trip that I didn't love- even if I did miss my Elliot lots. 

Sydney, last year, was fabulous but Melbourne was more than fabulous. Lots of things made it amazing........ This year eleven us from our Klass Act team (including honourable members) made the trip which made for one fantastically girly get away- lots of fun, laughs, chats and the occasional brimming over of emotion. I LOVE Melbourne- even though it was freezing and wet- so the Convention being there was lovely. Then there was the Convention itself.......hundreds of super talented demos; swaps; Memneto Mall; amazingly Wowee workshop Wows; fabulous Stampin' Up! presentations, stage set-up, staff; completely exciting sneak peeks; lovely Awards night........I could go on and on.....but I won't. Instead I will show you a few (ok more than a few) photos.

 My hooty owl box swap. The box is a three-sided acetate box with a slide out box inside contain some little treats. When you pull on the ribbon the drawer slides out. I made them in two different colour schemes- Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie, and Baja Breeze and Early Espresso. There they are all packed up ready for their journey to Melbourne for swapping.

 My gorgeous friends and Klass Act team mates (and honourary members) from left:
Lee; Sarah-Jane; Tracey; Jan and Sarah. Love you girls xxx

Another Klassy chick and fabbo friend Michelle (aka Ministamper) with THE Shelli Gardner. Michelle made Shelli the most gorgeous pressie (which I teased her about) and it was lovely to see Shelli's reaction when Michelle gave it to her and again when she opened it to find 3 gorgeous little brooches inside.

 Here I am, on the first day of Convention, with all three of my Stampin' Up! bags. Last year's convention bag, this years and the gorgeous Greenhouse Gala tote that I (and every other demonstrator there) just HAD to have.

 Main stage complete with giant stamp blocks on stage and huge border punch decorations up the sides and along the bottom.

 

Fabulous Klassy chicks out for dinner in Melbourne. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see the very lovely Fiona again (there she is at the top left of the table in the top pic). I met Fi last year at Convention and she is just one of the loveliest people you could ever meet and a fellow midwife too, so we always have lots to chat about (Hi Fi xxx)

 My beautiful friend and very talented upline Sarah Klass and I at the Awards Night Dinner.

Delicious dessert (**ok Michelle you can laugh at me again for taking pictures of my food**) at Awards Night dinner- topped with a chocolate '5' to celebrate SU's 5th birthday in Australia.

The one thing I just HAD to do when visiting Melbourne was go visit the cake shops on Acland Street in St. Kilda. How lucky was I to have these gorgeous girls come with me to eat some scrummy yummy cakes (oh and that was after we had eaten an equally yummy breakfast.

All in all it was the most amazing trip away- something I will never forget. I'm already wondering if I will be lucky enough to do it all again next year in Canberra.

I have a huge back log of photos of cards and projects to show you so watch this space for more coming soon.