What a fantastic and uplifting time we had at Stampin' Up's On Stage Event held at Tudor Hall in Ottawa.
My downline and I drove from Peterborough the day before and had a beautiful uneventful 3 1/2 hour drive. This was the first event I had been to with Stampin Up since I went to Hamilton about 5 years ago, and I was really looking forward to this.
The traffic was light, the sun was shining, and the surrounding countryside was still colourful with fall leaves. There was only one blip in the drive when we thought we had taken a wrong turn, but it turned out we had just not gone far enough.
Some of our colleagues who used the 401, a major highway that runs parallel to Lake Ontario, ran into 2 major accidents, both involving trucks that had crashed and burned. These accidents closed the highway in both directions for hours, so they were late arriving.
I was taken aback when after checking in at the Hampton Inn I heard my name being called. It was a fellow demonstrator from Peterborough and a blog follower! What are the chances of that?
We met many fellow demonstrators from various parts of Ontario, Quebec and the U.S both at the hotel and at the restaurant where we went for supper. Because there were so many of us (we figured about 400) the the conversation was interesting, but noisy.
Okay, I'm going to admit something that a lot of you are going to be surprised at. I have never been to a Sports Bar. Yeah. Don't laugh! That's where we went for supper and my eyes went, for want of a better word "ga ga" Those giant, and I mean giant TV's blew me away! One was in sections and took up a whole wall! There were 2 more large ones on the walls in front and behind me. I can now understand why people flock to sports bars to watch sporting events.
Unfortunately the food was not as good as the conversation, but the latter was more important anyway.
On-Stage ran from 8 a.m until 6 p.m on Saturday and the enthusiasm in the room was contagious! At check in we were given a name tag and a cloth bag which contained a journal, passport case, a package of 3 pens and an envelope which contained 3 labels which were to be adhered to the name tag. I was totally surprised to see that I was going to be recognized for recruiting, leadership and annual sales. A picture of the name tag with the attachments will be posted later as I can't find my camera cord
The display boards were fantastic, and included actual cards and projects from the current and the soon to be released "Occasions and Sale-a-bration"catalogues.
Many presentations, and demonstrations, intermixed with make and takes, and of course "prize patrol" make for a full day. I always enjoy swapping cards and this activity resulted in obtaining some wonderful card samples. I will do a separate post to show the swap cards/tag I made. Both of us came home with a bag full of "goodies" which included stamp sets, make and takes, embellishments and other items from the supply box on the table - tired but happy.
I'd love to be able to share the new Occasions catalogue and the SAB catalogue with you, but you're just going to have to wait until you get your copy in early December. All I can tell you is that there are so many wonderful stamp sets with coordinating dies that it will take your breath away. And these sets coordinate with the "free SAB stamps, paper etc so well that your will get maximum use out of these items
A wonderful day, at a wonderful place, meeting wonderful people and enjoying the company of my downline. Stay tuned for pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment