The Festivities continue

Even though I'm on the road with the Goofballs...... I'll continue my story about Convention (I might not be able to text and drive but certainly I can talk and drive).....

OK so where was I ... oh yes... always when we were in General Sessions, they would have Prize Patrol.... everyone had a wrist and and if your color matched what was drawn.. you won! Lynette won the Chak Talk framelits set... I forgot to get her picture we were so excited! But the next Patrol Pat was a lucky winner and got the new bow die cut... lucky duck!

On our way now to the Expo Center to watch Demos and check

out more of the Display Boards...

Once inside we had opportunity to attend mini classes (business and incentive related) and Make n'Takes, and even participate in the Service Project where we assembled the final pieces to birthday stamping kits being given to a local Children's Hospital for kids who unfortunately had to spend their birthday in the hospital.... Here's Pat and I working diligently on them...

but somehow I felt like someone was watching us..... 

(ut oh... we got photo bombed!).... heeheehee

We were able to see Memento Mall where we could purchase new merchandise......  

Give these guys a raise.. they were even willing to

model the colors for us!

This is mostly what I did everywhere I went....

Thursday evening ended with Awards Night and a 24 year Celebration party... several gals were all blinged up for it... too cute.... they had live music, special dancers and games and snacks... unfortunately pretty minimal by the time we got through the doors!....we didn't get back to our room until nearly 10pm....

Do you guys recognize this gal?????

It's Dawn Griffith... many of us use her blog for great ideas and videos...

She was there and won several awards.. 

the most surprising for her was being

nominated and accepted into the Founder's Circle Advisory Board... 

it's a prestigious position each holds for a year..

giving advise and input from customers due to their

incredible successful business with SU....

she was crying all night... 

I got to spend a few minutes talking with her

to let her know how much we all appreciate her and her hard work!

Saturday was the final day.... again a General Session in the morning... more Prize Patrols... and then we went into Breakout classes which were awesome... my favorite was Living a Creative Life... mostly reminding us to be Playful, Adventurous and Courageous... so watch out... I'm going to put these lessons into practice.... (HINT: if you mention any of these three characteristics to me at my next SAS you'll win a prize).....

and finally I won Prize Patrol too!!!

I got the cute Christmas snowman set... 

with ribbon and buttons...perfect!

I'm sure most of you who follow SU know by now about the new product line they introduced during Convention... it's called Undefined... and I'm thinking it's gonna be amazing!

It's a "carve it yourself" kit....comes with carving tool and blocks, rubber and foam to assemble...

they also will give you stencils of some ideas should you want to use...

I think it will be crazy fum to create our own...

Here's wall display of what some of the gals there did already..

it was so popular and crowded that we didn't get a chance to

get our hands on it on the spot.... but never fear.. I've already ordered myself a kit!

I stopped and chatted with this gal from Oklahoma...

asking what she thought.. and she loved it...

she showed me her design....

the state with her stamping group initials IFO...

so of course I asked... stands for Inking For Others....

another group that does incredible work for charities and the needy....

Undefined –Stamp Carving Kit

That evening at the final General Session, there was one last All Attendee give-away at the very end...

We each received the Yippee Skippee stamp set.. what an appropriate way to end the Convention!

And you wont believe who we ran into ...

Colleen from our Crazy Card Club.. she came all the way

from Virginia!!! After the Closing Session we all went out to dinner together...

now that was the perfect ending to the perfect Convention!

Tomorrow I'll post the gob of card and project samples 

I took throughout Convention..

don't miss it!

Happy Birthday Claire!! Celebrating 200+ years of birthdays!

Today is Claire's landmark birthday... Happy Birthday my dear Claire!!....and we are ready to celebrate 200+ years of birthdays.... no, she isn't 200.... let me explain... as it is kinda scary when you say it that way!

Growing up in a Navy family, we were very close to another incredible family who became our very best friends over the years... our fathers were each others' Best Men at their weddings, godparents to each others' kids, and overall substitute parents whenever the opportunity arose!....

Of course I'm the eldest... Martha follows pretty close behind (although she reminds me constantly that she'll never be as old as I am!!)... then about 12 years later.... yep 12 years..... then came Melissa and lastly Claire... humm... now that I say that it is kinda obvious our parents must have been going to the same parties together....  anywho, between us four girls  we have over 200 years of life experience among us... so to celebrate Claire's birthday, we're gonna go on a road trip together....can you imagine the fun we're gonna have!!!

 

We've put together a fun itinerary and calling ourselves

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Goofballs...

We hit the road tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn....

toolin' down the highway ....
not to return until next Monday!

 

Roll down the windows girls....

get ready to pick the bugs out of yer teeth!
 

Convention Festivities Continue!

So the first day of Convention actually started Thursday evening with General Session where Shelli Gardner CEO and Co-Founder opened up the 25th Anniversary celebration! She is an incredible and inspiring role model ... so tender-hearted and genuine... of course the tears flowed as she expressed her gratitude to us for our love of not just stamping but of helping others.. after all, that truly is why we are in this together... love what we do and and share what we love! Our theme to Be The Difference was obvious!

I got several pictures but because the place was so massive (almost 6,000 attendees!) ... good thing they had giant monitors to project the speakers .... look closely and you can see the tiny speck of a person on stage.... that's Shelli!

Here's the monitor view.... much better....

Shelli introduced a very special guest we had at Convention... Ronald McDonald... yes the real deal... he was there to thank us for all we do as they are our Charity.. he told stories of kids he visited who have had impact on him and others as well and know that the millions of dollars we've donated through SU sales and hours of volunteer service to the Ronald McDonald House has had incredible impact... needless to say there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd after he left.... Ronald included couldn't help but let the tears of gratitude flow... very very very moving! I'm so proud to be a part of such an organization....

Once the tears dried,  we were all then given the 2013 Anniversary SU Backpack.... the place went berserk.... here's what they look like.. and the best part was that it was jam-packed full with several free stamp sets and goodies.... including the 25 year anniversary pin and a SU theme pen.... 

Look at the smiles on these faces....

we were all pretty happy!

Prior to Convention we were all informed that they were going to try to break the Guiness Book of Word Records for the  Most Cards Send from One Location on One Day... so that evening an official from Guiness was there to document the event... we had only 3 hour window to mail our cards in order to break the record... the US Mail trucks were waiting for us in the room next door.... so once the  Session ended, after a few Prize Patrols where they give our free products... we proceeded to attend the Opening Social...  we first headed for the Postal trucks so we could be sure to participate...

Once they verified my card was hand stamped, signed, addressed and postage included.. I sealed it and sent it off.... actually I sent several but they can only count one per person for the Record....

You can see the counter while I'm waiting in line..

it's at 671 (we had to exceed 1000 to break the record)....

Here I go... dropping them into the mail basket....

See those two right on top????

Addressed to Pam and PK2...

wanted them to be a part of it even though they didn't get to attend!

(did you guys get your cards yet???)

(click on picture to enlarge)

This is our official holding the mail basket...

Once I dropped them in I glanced at the counter....

Then I caught Lynette not far behind me...

Once we made it through.. got a shot of us at the trucks...

was silly but was kinda fun just to say we did it!

Once inside the Gathering Place, we then got to enjoy several Demonstrator Booths, a gazillion Display Boards (which is where I spent most of the time taking these photos), Paper Pumpkin booth where we got a free kit to share with others (hummm.. .wonder who I'll be giving mime to....) The Social wasn't over until 10pm... good thing our hotel was only one block away.... remember this was just barely the opening and already did so much! Oh yes, and we found out the following night that of course we broke the World Record with nearly 3000 cards send in those three hours.... woo hooooo!

Friday morning we had another General Session, which included more Prize Patrols (by the end of Convention EVERYONE one something!!!), announcements and some stage demos.. which were awesome!!!...and then we spent most of the time in the Gathering Place Expo  Room.... watching demos, gawking at the Display Boards,

Oh and one of the free sets we got in our backpack was

Gorgeous Grunge... I wasn't too excited about it...

but Lynette was over the moon.... can ya tell?

After we looked at the board with samples... 

I changed my mind... this is gonna be an awesome set ....

Mind you, here's just a small section of the miles of display boards..

these with Lynettes fav....

.. .and not just cards... projects too....

For now, I'll end with Spit Happens..  with Grunge of course!

just too cute...

Watch for more display cards and swap pictures....

coming soon!