Our last day in SLC and some sneak peeks!

We had decided to stay an extra day in Salt Lake City to do some sightseeing.  We rented a car at the hotel, then headed up to Park City.  We watched a performance of the Flying Aces, which consists of Olympic and World Cup champions in snow skiing, along with some people training.  It was great to watch, but we were in the sun for quite a while.  Needless to say, I'm a little red today.  After the show, we took the ski lift up to the top of the big slopes they train on in the winter, then visited the historic town of Park City.  After shopping in their Sunday market and shops, we headed back to town and drove down to the Saltair and the Salt Lake Marina.  We walked around and watched the sun set, then headed back to the hotel.  I'm currently at the airport waiting for our flight to board.  I'll share a few photos here, but keep scrolling to see a few sneak peeks of samples from the new Holiday Mini Catalog.

Up at the top of the slopes.

Chair lift heading up.

At the Great Salt Lake.

These are some of the cool salt crystal formations on the ground where the water is evaporating. 

Brine flies (which bite by the way) are very prominent close to the water.  The only things that live in the water are brine shrimp, algae and bacteria.  The brine flies are all over the place.  The millions of birds that stop there eat the brine shrimp and flies.  Brine cysts (the eggs of brine shrimp) are harvested and sold to fisheries for fish food.  This unlucky fly bit Laura and she had to kill it.  :(

Sunset on the Great Salt Lake.  

At convention, we were able to see lots of projects made using new items from the Holiday Mini Catalog.  Here are a few I thought I'd share:

Convention Day 3 & 4!

Convention finished up yesterday and we have been running like crazy!  We rented a car this morning and are heading up to Park City to do some shopping and sight seeing, so I'm excited about that.  I wanted to share a recap of the past couple of days to let you know what we've been up to.  But first, I just want to tell you again how AWESOME the Holiday Mini Catalog is!!!!!  I'm also loving the August and September Paper Pumpkin kits which are absolutely FABULOUS!  If you are already getting the Paper Pumpkin kits - you're so lucky!  If not, you need to sign up NOW for half off the first 2 months and get these wonderful kits.  Ooooo, I just got goosebumps thinking about it!

So here is what we did on Day 3 of Convention:  We did some swapping in the morning and then attended opening session where I got to walk across the stage twice - once for earning the Weekend Getaway Trip and the second for achieving a sales milestone of $200,000.  Thank you to all my wonderful customers!  Laura walked across the stage for her 5 year anniversary.   Laura and I each won stamp sets and accessories from the Prize Patrol and they gave everyone attending a new Stampin'Up! Archival ink pad.  They had some really great stamping demonstrations with items from the Holiday Mini Catalog, We attended several classes on communication, sales, products and making videos.  I'm super anxious to get going on a nice long video series, so STAY TUNED!!! We participated in several organized swaps during the day - SUDSOL card and gift exchange swap, Christmas card swap, gift card swap and more.  I also hosted my first Convention Swap for single layers cards and we had 15 participants.  We ate dinner at J.Wong's across the street (Thai & Chinese food), then headed back to the hotel.  We spent the evening going through our swaps, talking and planning business strategies and ideas.

Day 4 of Convention started with our last class doing some make and takes, presentations and speakers.  Reta won a stamp set from the Prize Patrol and they gave us all a pack of some new holiday Designer Series Paper.  It ended at noon, so Laura and Reta headed off to lunch and some shopping, and I attended an afternoon leadership conference.  We had a great speaker, did some team building exercises and listened to some presentations.  We also received another stamp set - woohoo!  We met back at the room, then went to Olive Garden for a quick dinner and then participated in a shoebox swap across the street from 7-9:30.  We made 14 cards and had a chance to visit with other demonstrators from around the country and Canada.

All in all, we had a great time and are energized and ready for a year of changes, challenges and some great stamping!!  I'm not allowed to post photos of the new merchandise yet, but here's a few photos from the last two days.

Laura and I each received this great gift - a mini trash bag filled with goodies!

Our shoe box swap.  

Convention - Day 2!

Day 2 of Convention was a blast.  We started off with breakfast in the hotel, then headed over for a morning of swaps and picked up our convention bag.  It's a gorgeous gray felt messenger bag with fun little Stampin'Up! accents hidden all over it.  We then headed into the opening session and learned all about the new Holiday Mini Catalog.  AMAZING!!!  You had better start saving now because you're going to want EVERYTHING!!  During lunch, Laura and Reta went off to participate in a couple organized swaps and I attend the SUDSOL lunch with a big group swap, photo and gift exchange.  An afternoon of fun and informative classes, then over to the Blue Iguana for dinner.  We headed back to the hotel for a quick rest and changed into our dancing 20's outfits and headed back for awards night and the after party.   We just came back to the hotel and are looking through all the great swaps we received and getting a closer look at the catalog.  Check back tomorrow to see what Friday holds in store...

Breakfast at the Hilton.

Waiting to get started.  

Our great convention bags!

A photo with our interim CEO - Sara Douglass.

The center stage was beautiful!

It was a madhouse!

Talking about our new Holiday Mini Catalog.  

I sat next to a lady and visited with her while she was working on some over the top tags for a swap.  

This was my contribution to the gift exchange.  A mixed media canvas using a couple of our new stamp sets.  

This was the gift I received.  Ironically, she's the one who got my canvas!

Dinner at the Blue Iguana.  We may, or may not, have been drinking margaritas...

I was definitely drinking a margarita...

Mole - my favorite!

Roaring 20's night.

Beautiful cake pops and other snacks.  

A great band and dance instructions.  

We accosted a policeman...

Nope, not the jail, just a photo op.  

Weekly Deals and a Convention story - Day1!

BLACKBERRY BLISS 5/8" STRIPED COTTON RIBBON Price: $7.00 $5.25	FAST FUSE ADHESIVE REFILL Price: $7.50 $5.25	FUN FRAMES TEXTURED IMPRESSIONS EMBOSSING FOLDERS Price: $8.50 $5.95
GO WILD 8-1/2" X 11" CARDSTOCK ASSORTMENT PACK Price: $7.00 $5.25	HELLO HONEY 5/8" STRIPED COTTON RIBBON Price: $7.00 $4.90	LITTLE NUMBERS THINLITS DIES Price: $20.00 $15.00
SCHOOLHOUSE 8-1/2" X 11" CARDSTOCK ASSORTMENT PACK Price: $7.00 $5.25	SMOKY SLATE 5/8" CHEVRON RIBBON Price: $7.00 $5.25	STARS FRAMELITS DIES Price: $27.00 $20.25
TANGELO TWIST 5/8" STRIPED COTTON RIBBON Price: $7.00 $5.25	UPDATED ESSENTIALS PAPER-PIERCING PACK Price: $8.00 $6.00

For more details on these great weekly deals, click here!

A bedtime convention story - Day 1:

Once upon a time, last night, 3 Stampin'Up! Demonstrators were packing up their 2 suitcases each of cards and swaps and their one small bag of clothes.  At 2:00am, they met at the captain's house after 0 hours of sleep (except for the captain who managed 2 bad hours of stress dreams), and drove 2-1/2 hours through nighttime thunderstorms to the Little Rock airport.  After 2 extremely full flights, they arrived in a wonderful land called Salt Lake City.  A shuttle picked them up within 5 minutes of calling and whisked them off to the Hilton where a room was already waiting for them.  So the 3 SU Demonstrators and their 9 suitcases crowded into their room, unpacked and found places to put everything.  One of the Demonstrators didn't finish their swaps (can you guess who?), so she set up a crafting space and got right to work.  At 1:30, they walked 3 blocks to a fun micro brewery restaurant called Squatters where they ate and maybe drank beer.  It was their lucky day, because as soon as they arrived at the convention center, a chariot (or bus as we call them in Arkansas) was waiting to take them to the grand palace of Stampin'Up!  We had a wonderful tour and met some of our outstanding staff and took many pictures.  As we continued our lucky day, a bus was waiting to take us right back to town.  It stormed during our stay, but the sun was out and the weather was cool when we left - so yay!  We then headed back to the Hilton so "someone" could finish her swaps for our Hilton PJ Swap at 9:00pm.  At 9:00, we headed downstairs to our swap.  The wonderful hostesses had little gifts and swap bags for all of us.  We had brought the bags Reta made and we received lots of great compliments from everyone.  The luck was with us, as I won the PJ contest and Laura won the card contest!  Woohoo!  The Crew is rockin' it so far in SLC!  The night ended with an ice spill from a long journey to the vending area.  Stay tuned for another bedtime story tomorrow!

"Someone is trying to finish her swaps"

Laura's little helper.  

Just some of our luggage.  

Unpacking.

Lunch at Squatters.

Someone had some fancy nail art!

The bus ride!

Stampin'Up! Headquarters

In the atrium at headquarters. 

Inspire, Create, Share.

Great roomie gifts from Reta!  This one is mine.  

Reta and Laura's bags.  

Love the little tag.  

Adorable.  Lots of complements!

These are my roomie gifts for Laura and Reta. Little Stampin'Up! suitcases.  

Packed full of goodies.  

Laura made us these great luggage tags and butterfly pins for our name badges.  

At the PJ Swap with our great swap bags and our swaps.  

Our winning photo - me for PJ's and Laura for best card!

Our prize!  Cute tag and so appropriate!  Woohoo!