Time certainly flies when you are having fun!  I can’t believe that this time last week I was wandering around the Australian War Memorial in Canberra with Convention about to start the next day.  Life certainly gets back to normal pretty quickly.

Well we started out last Wed afternoon to Canberra with between 15-20 WA girls taking up almost the entire back section of the plane.  Yes it was noisy and yes we were so excited! I did feel a little sorry for the poor guys sitting around us.  Once we landed we hopped in our mini buses and headed off to the Crowne Plaza hotel.  Vick (my roomie and downline) and I took the lift to the top floor to check out our room and the view, both of which were gorgeous.   A big thanks to Pat Carr for organising that for us! 

On Thursday we had a free day but because we were such a big group this year, we decided to have little breakaway groups which worked perfectly because as we all know everyone wants to do and see different things.  Vick, Mon, Makeesha and myself wandered around the city for a little while and were completely amazed by how quiet it was.  Canberra CBD is like a ghost town!  I think we doubled the population because everytime I turned a corner I saw another Stampin’ Up! demo – who else was there?  I’m really not sure.  We managed a few purchases between us and then after lunch Vick, Mon and I enjoyed a lovely stroll to the War Memorial – the beautiful colours in the trees and parklands were amazing.  Autumn is a obviously a great time to visit!  The Memorial was absolutely incredible and well worth a visit.  The road layout between the War Memorial and Parliament House is something to see as well and I’ve got a few pics to show you.

This is the view from the middle of the road looking up towards the War Memorial…  

and this is the view looking back down towards Parliament House.  Someone put a lot of thought into this planning and the effect is quite magnificent.

Vick and I thoroughly enjoyed being roomies and even though I wasn’t tempted by the gym every morning at some hideous hour, Vick was.  We have that opposite energy level thing happening!  Every morning when she came back in she would wind up the blinds and call “Lou, Lou, oh come and look at this!”  and I would wander over and the first day it was our beautiful view which we hadn’t seen the night before, the second day it was completely fogged over and we couldnt see a thing, so by the third day it was getting a little tiresome and I said “what now?” and this is what we saw…..

 Ok, onto the real reason we were in Canberra…

Myself and my gorgeous downline and roomie Vicki as we entered the Convention (looking a bit like tin solders!).  This was Vick’s first convention and my third but it’s always so exciting!! 

Swap time!!

Make and take time!!

 Awards Dinner time!!

Over the two day period we had wonderfully informative sessions on a wide range of topics to help with our Stampin’ Up! businesses, from general business to sales, recruiting and workshop wows.  I have returned with loads of new ideas and feel so inspired to get creating…. now just to find the time somewhere.

I had the most wonderful time with my fellow demonstrators and so enjoyed the company of the other Perth girls and many others I met at Convention.  We had the best group of girls together and I’ve never laughed so hard or so long (well…. not since last year’s trip anyway). 

The WA girls excelled again this year and our team did very well with many gaining awards for their hard work.  I am so proud to be working alongside them and congratulate everyone, especially my gorgeous friends Keesh and Ngaire, who both made the Top 25 Demonstrators!

Back soon with more news and perhaps a little stamping.