Contempo Christmas

 

 

Tomorrow I have my first round of Stamp a Stack of Christmas cards so I have been cutting paper. I usually don't do my Christmas card class this early, but this year I figured I would do one now and I can repeat it later. Everyone will be making 10 cards, it is 5 designs and they make 2 of each.

 I had hoped to get all the cutting done before I left for Founder's but I didn't get it done, cause I was working on my swap and other stuff. So I have been a paper cutting crazy person the last few days. I cased most of the cards we are doing, with a tweak here and there. 

This card was inspired by a swap I got from my girlfriend Amy Smith (hey sister!!) I just changed the ribbon, and added DSP.

Stamp Set: Contempo Christmas

Paper: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Deck the Halls DSP

Ink: Early Espresso

Misc: Very Vanilla 1/2" Seam binding, Ornament Extra-large punch

I love the antique vintage look of this card, and this DSP pack, I would love to frame it. Wait till you see one of the other cards from class.

While I have been setting up my studio for class in the morning (my tables were totally covered with upcoming classes and other projects) I have had HBO on and the show Bored to Death has been on, what a wacky show. I love Ted Danson, he sure can pull off that white hair eh? 

Well I better hit the hay, morning will come early. Have an awesome Saturday and thanks for stopping in.

To order the Stampin' Up! products shown here, my on-line store is open 24-7

 

Founder's Circle 2010 Fourth Day

Well it was hard to believe but it was the last full day at Founder's Circle.  It just seemed like we got there. We all were able to sleep in because we did not have to be anywhere until getting on the bus at noon to go to our Fabulous Final Event.

I got up and dressed in my new clothes and headed down for breakfast.  I ate biscuits and gravy, oh that is my favorite thing to order when we go out for breakfast, and if I can I always order a plate of fries, there is nothing like fries and gravy...it's better with brown gravy, but beggars can't be choosers.

So we all headed up to our rooms to don our new pink bowling shirts, we were chatting it up in the elevators. Trying to decide "are we really bowling?" "can they make us bowl?" "what about those Demonstrators with long fingernails, how are they going to hold the ball?" So we headed over to the gathering place to see who all was ready. Speaking of elevators I just heard on the news that elevator buttons are dirtier then the toilet...OMG! how many times did I touch the elevator button at Founder's? Quite a few, looks like I'll be using my sleeve from now on, I usually flush the toilet with my foot cause that handle is all germy, but I don't think I am talented enough to push an elevator button with my toe...can you imagine someone catching you with your foot up there doing that? What would you say? "Ummm, I was born in the jungle and raised by apes...nice to meet you my name is George-ette."

Here's Mandy we were taking pictures of each other..ha!

She is just the cutest thing!

Here's Tiffany, Dawn Griffith and I. It was nice getting to know Dawn better.

This sweet lady  Missy Shipman is such a peach.  She came up to me at convention and was probably the first person that I did not actually know to congratulate me on earning Founder's Circle, she kissed my cheek and gave me a big hug.  She is such a doll, and I am proud to call her my friend.  

Look at that sea of pink.  We were all waiting to get on the buses, and trying to figure out if we needed to be with our team mates already.

So while we were driving on the bus, we were all trying to figure out where we were going and then we pulled into the convention center that we had the regionals at. On the building was a big sign and it said Gun Show.  I was like are we gonna be the targets? I mean how hard would we be to miss eh?   I think it was Pam that said in the mic of the bus. "We are not going to the Gun Show". So we all just followed each other in, and the room we entered had big black curtains on the glass walls so we could not even see what we were going into.

Then we walked in and we all just laughed.

Wii were going to bowl after all. There was about 15 huge screens and they were all set up to play Wii bowling.  Now I have played a time or two with Eric, and I wish he had taught me his tricks on getting strikes each time.

We ate our meal first, and I couldn't believe what we were eating.  You had your choice of brats, or...a hamburger...ha! My last meal that SU! gave us and it was a hamburger...remember I told you the two meals I ate that SU! did not provide I ate a hamburger and fries each time.  Too funny.

The room was decorated all retro style with records and fun flower arrangements to look like ice cream sundaes.

Our table was all set, and we even had our names on our placemats.  So this would be from that master list they warned us about, if we swapped scarves with anyone. Ha! Looking back now I am so glad that SU! made us do this, cause I only knew one girl at my table before, and that was Caroline LeBel, the rest were all new people to me, and I am so glad that we were on the same team, even though we did not win any prizes, we had the best team ever!

Look how cute the centerpiece was, and the little coke bottles were so cute.  I actually drank mine and brought home the empty bottle. Heck I even took my coaster!

Here's Meg and I. Look how cute she is with her little foot cocked out crooked.  We were in teams of 4 to play the game and Meg and her team went first.

Here's our full team before we started to play. We were called the Bitty Buttons.  The pink is almost blinding in this picture eh? Looks more like Pepto Bismol Buttons.

   Here's Kim Peck ready to throw the first strike.  Cindy Baughman and Tamie Ackerson looked on.

Then it was our turn to play.  After we finished, I actually got the highest score from our foursome, I didn't realize I was competitive till I started to play then I was really focused.  We stood with our score and did the hand signals for our number. There is me, Fanny Trepanier, Caroline LeBel, and what is Patty Chenail doing? She is doing the loser sign, she was so funny! I can hardly wait to get to know her better.

So we were told that we would have to do a cheer, and then we would be voted on by judges. So we had all gone out in the hallway, kinda like American Idol does, and we practiced and came up with a cheer. What is funny is Fanny is french, so Caroline had to translate stuff to her, BUT she does know some songs, like Grease, and some Elvis in english (even if she does not know what she is saying) so we picked a song that would work and we figured she would be our secret weapon, no one would expect her to sing so beautiful and in ENGLISH!!!       

 

Don't you think we should have won?

So on the bus ride back Dawn and I got our picture taken together, I did not even remember us holding hands for it, until I uploaded it, how fun.  She is so dang cute.

I also had to definitely get my picture taken with my bud Lynsay Mahon, I didn't get to see her much cause she was always hiking, or running, or rock repelling.  No wonder she is in such great shape.

So before I had left for my trip Tiffany had asked if I would show her how to watercolor, and I said sure, then Ann Clemmer asked if I would show her and her downline Karen too.  So I said that they should bring some things stamped and I could show them.  Well the word got out and next thing you know a few more people wanted me to show them, and that was fine by me but I only had stamped so many things to show. In my room I showed Karen Duke and Julie Salva. So down in the gathering place the last night I showed a few people. (well the group got to be more then a few but it was fun). Here I am with Selma, she is the sweetie that made the cute paper cupcake that our Simply Adorned necklace was in.  She was asking me a few questions.  If I earn the trip next year I will try to maybe (if I am allowed - not sure if there are rules, cause everyone needs to be able to partake in stuff ya know) but anyway a few asked if I would do it next year, and if I can I will try to do it different so that everyone has a stamped thing and we can do it together.

Oh and stay tuned I have a video to show you soon, so you too can learn to watercolor.  If you can not wait till then, you can always check this tutorial out I did a couple years ago, this was before I did videos so it is pictures.  Just click on this link.

After all the fun times down in the gathering place, it was time to head up to our room and pack. But what would we get for the last night?  Oh it looks like a cake.

OMG! It's an amazing sweater and look at the details...

The Stampin' Up! logo...in rubber even!

Our striped ribbon and our vintage ribbon too. How sweet. What a one of kind...I mean a one of 135 kind of sweater. I love it, and it is Early Espresso color.  I'll need it when I go visit my BFF Tracy as the weather will be cooler there.

I was so glad that I had packed a smaller suitcase inside my bigger suitcase cause I totally needed it to bring all my loot home.  Bonnie calls it SWAG, but I need to look that up. I had said night to everyone, Shelli even gave us a hug goodnight down in the gathering place cause they were gonna head out early in the morning.

So after I packed and I was in my jammies, I actually turned on the tv, I was gonna enjoy my last night, I had brought some pizza pringles from home, and I thought gee I'd lay in bed and watch Two and a Half Men and munch...like I needed it right?  So I popped open the can and ate one, yum.  I set the can on the night stand, and I got into bed.  I reached for the remote that was sitting behind the pringles can and I by accident hit the can, and all over the floor went my pringles, not a one stayed in the can.  OMG! I was so mad, I guess someone was telling me I really didn't need those pringles, so I scooped them up, and tossed them in the garbage, cursing and grumbling the whole time.  Plus now I was like gee the maids are gonna think I'm a pig, I almost called room service to bring me a vaccuum, but can you imagine, midnight and someone is vaccuming next door...so I cleaned it up as best as I could.  I ate some trail mix instead...ha!

The next morning I got up a bit early so I could say bye to my new friends.  I didn't have to get on the shuttle till 1:15, where Tiffany I think she had to be up at 6am (I said bye to her that night), and Meg was on the 10am shuttle, so I could eat breakfast with her.

Our flight out of St. George was delayed cause they had overbooked it, and had to get people to opt to take a different way home, so I just barely made it to my connection, but then once I was on the plane they were waiting on other people so they did a lot of seat shuffling.  I slept most of the way home, I was a tired traveler.

It was nice to get home, and Jeff and Eric picked me up at the airport and we stopped off and ate supper on the way home, and guess what I had? You guessed it...hamburger and fries! Ha!

  Here's all my loot spread out at home.  I should have did it in St. George on my big bed.

Well this ends my first Founder's Circle trip story, I hope you have enjoyed it and I did not bore you.  I love being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and it has brought much joy to my life and friends that I will have for a lifetime. It also has brought me YOU.  My faithful Blog readers that make me feel good each day when you come by to say hi!

Well it's almost midnight and I got lots of paper to cut tomorrow for my Stamp a Stack of Christmas cards this weekend.  So I better say night night.

Have an awesome Friday and thanks for stopping in!

   

Founder's Circle 2010 Third Day

So Friday morning, I ate breakfast down in the Courtyard Cafe so that I didn't have to break anymore of Tiffany's rules...she knows I am giving her a hard time. Cause she also knows she made me feel so comfortable that I know it helped me enjoy my trip and get to know so many people.

Stampin' Up! had scheduled a half day regional just for us to attend so we headed on over to the Convention center on the bus for that.

Here's some of the crowds, and note to self, make sure to get more cameras of me and people, I think I am on other people's cameras, as I have snagged some pictures off the internet, but I need to be better about saying "hey can you take one on my camera too". Not to the point where there are tons of cameras taking the same picture, but you know what I mean.

We got the Day of Gratitude stamp set and made some fun make n takes, ok let me re-word that, we got the Day of Gratitude stamp set, and I took my make n take packet and walked around chatted and took pictures, I still have not made my cards, bad I know.

Stampin' Up! announced they would be having a special, if you join my Di's Country INKers team before October 3, you will get this awesome set "Eat Chocolate" for free with your kit, it won't even be available until January...cool eh? That also includes the Greenhouse Gala tote too.  If you want more information, please let me know.  I would love to have you join my team.

 We played a fun game where we had to guess what these words say, Mark Jessen came up with them, he's a fun guy and I got to work with him last year when I was one of the Artisan Award winners. Can you guess what this says? It's one of my favorite tools to use.  It holds water. You paint with it.  Right, it says Aqua Painter.

How about this one?

This one took me a while to figure out, I was too busy snapping pictures and I could not hear what people were yelling out, so after looking at it for 5 minutes tonight I finally got it.  Did you? It's a new core color.  Yep, Early Espresso.  What a fun game eh?  There were lots more but I just showed you a couple.

We had some awesome Workshop Wows and I learned some fun new things.  After the regional was over we got back on our bus and headed back to the hotel, or some people were calling it the ranch. We ate lunch and it was this amazing pasta buffet, I ate kinda quick cause Catherine Pooler told me to hurry up, they asked me to go shopping with them and they were leaving pronto, and I wanted to hang out with those cute popular chicks so I ate quick...but then look what they brought over...

...a warm brownie in a skillet with ice cream. I only ate about three bites cause it was rich.

Here's Joanna and I. She is so cute, and she was freaking us out, the first time we met her, her hair was straight like this, then the next day it was all wavy and we almost didn't recognize her.

So then Mandy and I headed to the outlet mall in the van with, I hope I don't forget anyone...cause I am gonna drop names here...ha!

Catherine Pooler, Jo Golden, Jen Jacobsen, Jodi Reinhert, Dena Rekow, Josee Smuck - I think that was it.  So we headed to the outlet mall, and some of the girls got jeans.  Then we headed to the real mall the girls wanted to go to Buckle.  Catherine and a few of the other girls go there every year.  So I will admit I felt like an old woman there, and like I was the college dorm Mum.  The sales girl doted all over the girls and did not even give me a look. So I stood around like a wart on a toad and finally I looked at some jeans.  I asked the sales girl a question about them, and finally I think she noticed me. It was so much fun trying on jeans and shirts with the girls, they were a blast, and the sales girl would bring you stuff to try on, beats Walmart...ha!  I totally enjoyed the experience cause basically I have been wearing the wrong size jean.  I tried on the size I usually wear and I said well they are all loose in the back, you know you sit down and the back sticks out and you could carry your wallet back there, and I am constantly hiking them up, so the girl said try on this smaller size and that did it too, so then she said try on something smaller, and I am like no way.  So the next jean fit much better they did not do that back thing but they were too tight around my girly front area and I like to leave something to the imagination, so she brought me ones that were higher in the waist and they were perfect, even a great length for my boots. Most of the girls were getting the skinny leg bottoms, but I prefer boot cut.  So I felt a bit younger, but not so young as people will think look at that old chick trying to wear young clothes, so I picked up a couple shirts, and we all agreed that we would wear our new duds to our final dinner.

  Here's me and one of the sales girls making my purchase.

Then we headed back to the hotel and some of us worked on our make n takes, these are a couple of my new buds, Tiffany and my newest friend Meg Daves. What a doll, I can hardly wait to see her again in Nashville.

Shelli and Shalae came in and we all visited, so we took another opportunity to get our picture taken with Shelli, here I am with Shelli and Tiffany. Pam Morgan took this picture of us. Who is Pam? Well here she is...

 ...she has to be one of the nicest people that work at Stampin' Up! I mean they are all nice, but the first time I met Pam for real was on our first cruise to Alaska, and she always knows who I am, and will comment about Arizona, so she even knows where I live.  I guess I like that bit of ego stroking, I mean come on everyone does right? I remember at Leadership in Phoenix, this year, she asked me if I just skateboarded over...what a gem.

So while we were chatting with Shelli, we were talking about dinner as that night was a free night for supper. We said we were going to go to Five Guys hamburgers as we had seen it on the way back from the convention center and it was walking distance. So we all decided to meet at 6:30 in the lobby.  The other girls were surprised when me met them and said that Shelli would be joining us. So Shelli, Shalae, and Sara and all us gals walked over to the hamburger place. It was so delicious and the fries were amazing. They have this scrumptious french fry sauce...yum! We headed back after our dinner cause tonight was the Sock Hop Swap & Share.

  We got all dolled up in our best pajamas and hung out.

It was funny to see some girls with the same pajamas on.  I had picked up a new pair before I left and had not washed them cause I got them the day before, so when I put them on the first time, I thought I was gonna scratch my neck off the lace was so itchy.

Look how cute Mandy Grant and Jodi Reinert are.

When we walked in we were handed a popcorn box and a stapled booklet of all sorts of business tips from everyone there that had a tip to give.  I was like oh yum I love popcorn, but then I opened it up and it was a beautiful note book and a pen.

They did have popcorn machines there and I was so tempted to go get some but I was so full after dinner, in fact I weighed myself yesterday and I am almost the weight I started at in July to LOOSE!!! OMG!!!! That is so not good!

Here's Mandy and I. She is so cute, she had ran into Macy's I think she said at the mall and these pajamas were hanging there, and they almost looked like the candelabra in the Dark & Dreary set.

Here's Jodi and I, she is so sweet.  How bad am I that I was hanging out shopping with Jodi and did not even realize she was one of the Advisory Board members. Bad Di.

So we sat down and listened to some fun tips. Taking notes with our nice new pen. I don't want to ruin my book with my horrible writing so I have not wrote in it yet, I think I will save it for the Alaska trip and take notes every night, maybe by then I will have a laptop but I don't think you have internet service on the ship right? I don't know. Oh well I am just typing and thinking out loud. That is called multi-tasking!

Another sweetie I got to meet better was Sandi Rule, I can't even believe she knows my name, but we got our picture taken together, and she even reads my blog. So sending you a big Hi Sandi!!! She is so sweet, we were giving Tiffany a hard time and telling her we would crop her out of the picture, as Sandi and I wanted an "alone" picture...ha! See Tiffany, I didn't! Big smooches to you both!

Then it was time for the swap, I had no idea how this was gonna go, I mean I have only seen pictures and I was trying to figure out how on earth I was going to hold these 5 bags of cards and the bag that the swaps I was getting was going into too.  

 Colleen Magness stood beside me and she explained how to do it. We lucked out and we were at the end of the line, so we got to stand most of the time, so by the time I actually had to move I might have had one gallon ziplock left of cards so it went totally fine.  Colleen and I were pretending to be flight attendants, so as someone swapped with us we would say "thank you, bye bye!" I think people thought we were nuts.  We only did it a few times, but when we got to swap with each other, you're darn tootin' we said it to each other.

Here they come around the bend. This had to be one of the main highlights of my trip, and you should see the masterpieces I came home with...wow!  I will share some while I am at my BFF Tracy's house, as I know I won't have time to be stamping stuff prior to leaving, I have classes right up till I leave, so needless to say my household is a little crazy right now. In fact I should be getting my totes ready for my class tomorrow! Ha!

After we were done we went and hung out for a little bit in the gathering place it was about midnight so we didn't stay long.  This is one of the funnest girls I met, her name is France Martin, but we all call her Frenchie, and she is french and has the cutest axxent, and it is liked chopped engleesh, but you totally know what she is saying and you want to talk just like her.  We wanted our picture taken together, and Jane Wike did amazing as the photographer.

Look how cute Jane is with her Owl pajamas, I saw at least three people with these on...adorable, and me in my plain gray itchy necked ones. Next year, if I earn Founder's I'll know better.

Then it was time to go to bed, or at least our room I mean the pillow gift had to be there by now right? I mean it was the next day by now.  So when I got to my room this was on the bed.  Pizza! Well that was a change, every meal that SU! did not give us I ate a hamburger and fries, for Iggy's that is what I had and then the Five Guys burger too.  I can eat fries for every meal so I was cool with it, but that just seemed funny to me.

So what was inside the pizza box?

It was a pink bowling shirt!

The little note said we would need our shirt, our team and our team scarf for the Fabulous Final Event. Now guess what was going through my head?  But I just bought the cutest dang outfit for the Fabulous Final Event! Cripes!  OK, so then I went over to Tiffany's room she was right next door, and hung out with Ann Clemmer and her downline Karen Johnson, and we gabbed and laughed and looked at our swaps, and tried to figure out. "Would we really be bowling tomorrow?". So after a while I looked at the clock and I was like "OMG! it was 2am", so we all said good night and we went to bed.

My bed was super comfortable and there were like 6 pillows on each bed, it took me about 4 tries each night to get the right dang pillow to sleep on, I felt like Goldilocks, this was too hard, this was too soft, this one was just right!

So I hope you enjoyed today's Founder's Circle story, I have to get off here, and pack my totes for my class tomorrow, oops! should have done that before I sat down to do this. Oh well.

Have an amazing Thursday and thanks for stopping in!

 

     

   

Founder's Circle 2010 Second Day

 

Remember I ended yesterday's post with a little tease? Me tease you? Yes I did. Well I can't really show you what was in the Take Out box, but we are allowed to show the make n takes...well I only finished one while I was there, cause I'm a yapper and not a stamper when I am at events, I much rather finish them at home. We got a stamp set, a punch, ribbon and ink pads so we could do our make n takes.

  So this shows you the cute stamp set we got and if you look at the card, you might just figure out what punch we got. You are totally going to want it.

So before I tell you about my second day at Founder's Circle let me tell you about today.  Remember I said that I had scheduled to have the gasket or molding put back on my Nitro above my front windshield the morning I got back? Well I got up and got ready for the day and about an hour after they were supposed to be here they called and said the van was having issues and they would have to reschedule.  So I made the appointment for this morning instead.

So the guy called and said he was on the way, and then he called a while later to get better directions. Even though I try to tell them directions before they are always like "I got a GPS" well ok then Sherlock have at it.  Then he got here and started to work on the truck, I told him if he needed anything I would be in my studio.  So a while later he knocks on the door and says he is all done, and could I sign the paper work. So I look at my truck...hmmm...nothing looks different

me: where's the molding?

guy: what molding?

me: you were supposed to put molding above the front windshield

guy: it's down inside you can't see it

me: what?

guy: it's down in the glass, you can't see it.

me: well the guy could see it was missing at the car wash

me (opening door and standing on the threshold so I can point to what I am talking about): there is supposed to be molding here, apparently it came loose and blew off

guy: I am not sure, I just replaced your windshield

me: you what?

guy: I put in a new windshield

me: but I didn't need a new windshield, I just needed my molding replaced and you were to pop out the window to add it and then pop my window back in

guy: oh my paperwork said new windshield

me: where's my sticker?

guy: what sticker?

me: my Stampin' Up! sticker from the front window?

so he leads me over to his van with all these windshields in it and pulls out my poor windshield that now has a big crack in it and I take my cling Stampin' Up! sticker logo thing off it.

me: well I hope my insurance is not gonna be charged for a new window when all I needed was molding

guy: I'll call my boss, but it did have a lot of chips in it

me in my head : no it didn't or the guy would have set it up for that in the first place, half of the "chips" I think were bug sh*t

so anyway he calls his boss and his boss is going to call me. So later the guy who originally set this all up calls me and he is livid that this happened, he said my molding is not even in yet, if anything they should have rescheduled. He is gonna get it all worked out with the insurance company and come and do the molding himself.  Ya know what Jeff said when I told him the story?  He said "I would have been out there the whole time they were working on my truck". Well I'm a girl and he's a guy and that is the difference in the two sexes isn't it? What I don't understand is how this guy could replace my windshield and not even say "hey your molding is missing?"

So let's get to the fun part...this post is going to be a mile long...sorry about that. Feel free to go get a coffee, cinnamon roll, and perhaps even put on a roast for supper, you are going to be here a while.

So my second day at Founder's Circle, I got up to go to breakfast with Tiffany and she was not quite ready, so I went downstairs and grabbed a milk and a muffin, and I could not see anywhere to sit so I went back to my room to eat it. (Later Tiffany was like, "no you sit with someone and get to know people, you don't eat in your room"..oops!)

So after breakfast we loaded up in the buses to go to Kanab, and this is where they make the stamps. They also separated the newbies in one bus and the oldies in another bus, that way it was easy to keep us straight.  Shelli went on the trip to Kanab with us and she asked us questions on the mic about our opinions on all sorts of stuff, I thought this was fun, and I totally know they listen. Shalae and Sara were taking notes. How do I know they listen? Cause over the years I have seen things happen that we have asked for, a couple that come to mind are on-line ordering, and Stampin' Up! taking credit cards. These things are now an every day thing, and I am thankful that Shelli and Stampin' Up! ask our opinions all the time.

 Here's Jan and I ready for the trip. Boy the older I get the more I look like my Mum.

Here's Joanna Banta and Mandy, they sat across the aisle from us. Such fun younguns.

Here is Shelli as she asks us questions, she is always dressed so cute.

While I was on the bus, I had girls sign my Founder's Circle Year book and I asked if they please would pass it back and have people sign it.  So ha! too funny, I told Tiffany that I did that, and she was like "no, you have to go up and introduce yourself" so next year if I earn the trip Tiffany really has to shoot me off a memo for all the rules before hand...ha!

When we got to Kanab I could not get over how much it looked like the Riverton facility just a little smaller, and what was so cool, the employees came out and cheered to us and clapped for us and I get a little teary eyed right now thinking about it.  They put their heart and soul into every stamp set that is made, I was honored to be able to meet them, and applaud them back.

After we had gone through we had a question and answer time and one of the guys used to work at Riverton and then started here, and everyone was saying "don't you love the new building, it's so bright and nice" and he was like "yeah" but he had come from Riverton so he didn't understand till he had to go to the old Kanab building and then he understood. I guess it was pretty dark and lots of rooms here and there as Stampin' Up! just kept adding on as they needed it. How nice that they have such a great building to work in now.

Look at the fun signs they were holding up.

 How nice eh?

Here I am with the Welcome sign, look how cute the lobby is behind me, just like a living room.

I think I would love to work here, and I would be smiling all the time, and to look over the desk at the fireplace would be so cool...or hot if it is lit up.

We then headed up to the apartments above the facility, and Shelli was telling about it as well as another couple that work there, and I wish I took their picture, they had been married quite a while, and lost so much weight together, they were too cute. Anyway the apartment was gorgeous, and I love the chandeliers and all that.

Here's one of the bedrooms. Wouldn't you like to curl up in that bed?

Look at this cute bathroom, and I can see the beautiful Shelly May in the mirror.  One thing I noticed is there is no toilet seat lid.  We might need to do that at our house, it will give Eric one less thing to lift up and perhaps he won't forget this way.

Here's another bedroom, and I got in the picture to prove I was there. Look how cute the headboard is, it's a door.

I love all the stuff up on the shelves and things, at my house the dust would cover it in a week. Maybe we should move to Utah, it sure was beautiful.

Here is the family room, I love the toys in the corner, and all the pictures on the wall.

This is the skylight above the family room, very neat eh? I took this one thinking of my friend Melissa, this reminded me of something she would take a picture of...what you think Mel?

Here is another bedroom, and if I am not mistaken I think this one is Shelli's.

Here's the kitchen. Wouldn't you like to make cinnamon rolls and drink a cup of coffee here?

Here's more stuff up on top of the cupboards, I have stuff on top of my kitchen cupboards but it is spread all across, I need to group things in a cluster more, then maybe the dust and spiders won't be able to settle in.

Before we headed back downstairs Jan and I got our picture taken with Shalae (on the left) and Sara (on the right). It was fun to see them interact with each other, it really made me miss my little sisters Jacqui and Courtney.

We then went through the manufacturing part of the plant and we were not able to take pictures cause there was stuff in there that is secret, new stamp sets and stuff like that.  It was amazing to see how it is all done, and I actually got to put a stamp set together, cut it out and put blocks in a box and everything.  Oh and at one point when we went into the room where they make the metal die things who was sitting at the desk but Cherokee, I about flipped my lid.  I got a big old hug, and the girls were like "how do you know each other?" so I told them that at my very first convention 11 years ago Cherokee gave me my tote and signed me in, I gave him a butterfly pin I made and he gave it to his daughter.  I think it has been three years since I saw him at convention, as he would help here and there, he does not work at the conventions anymore. We chatted a bit, I asked how his daughter was and he asked about my family.  Since we were inside I could not get a picture of us together, but it was so nice to see him after all these years.  

 After we went through the plant we had a question and answer time, and we could use the bathrooms. I asked if I could take a picture of this. This is actually the men's washroom altered for the day...ha!

Before we got on the bus, I scooted out to the road and got my picture taken with the rock, I missed doing this at Riverton a couple years ago. Note to self: don't put your phone in your back pocket it makes yer arse all wacky crooked.

Are you getting tired yet? The day is only half over...ha!

Off to the Kanab City Park we go...get on the bus, ya don't want to have to walk...

Isn't this gorgeous? The green grass, the blue sky, breathtaking.  I walked in with Pam Morgan and I told her no wonder they live in Utah, I sure do miss the green. Stampin' Up! has re-done this park and have made it a safe place for children to play. Shelli explained that when her kids were younger it was not a safe place so they did not play there.  

Look how safe it is, the playground is covered in rubber that Stampin' Up! cuts up from leftover stamp set edges and stuff. It was so bouncy to walk on, these are my feet in the park...that Stampin' Up! helped to build...at Founder's Circle.

I am pretending to sit on the slide but it was hot, hoT, HOT!!

Here's me throwing rubber up into the air, I couldn't believe you can see it in the picture, that is cause of my bad girl camera, she's a keeper (I even bought her new strap covers today).  I didn't want to lay in the rubber cause well I was afraid of pee, yeah you heard it here first folks I was thinking...park...kids...pee...ugh! So I just sat and threw the rubber up. Later Tiffany made me do it again and she was tossing rubber all over me, and later when I undressed I had a piece in my bra...ha!

After the rubber fun we walked over to the covered eating area for lunch, and look at what our lunches were served in, these fun little totes with these cute little spoon/fork foldie things.

Here's me modeling with my new lunch bag, I love it!  The sandwich was a little spicy for this chick, but I ate my potato salad and then I went to get my dessert...

...creme brulee. You know you are at Founder's Circle when you are eating creme brulee in the park.  I gobbled it up with my spoon trying to make sure I didn't get my fork poking in my eye.

 We took our pictures up on some rocks, here is Tiffany and I.

This was the only rock climbing I did. Here right to left, Jan, Joanna, Mandy, Tiffany and myself. After we climbed down off the rocks, we took a few more pictures before we got on the bus.

 Here is my friend Dawn Rapsas and I...

  ...and my other friend Jacque Craig, they are so much fun, they came in early last year before Leadership and slept at MAMMa's, we went over there to stamp and we were all laughing so hard.

Then we headed to the bus and did some souvenier shopping, remind me to show you what I got there, I almost peed my pants when I saw it, so I just had to have it. I bet no one guesses what it is. I dare ya to even try.

On the bus ride home we played games, (I didn't win a game but we all got ribbon).  The bus ahead of us had air conditioning issues so we had to stop to help them on the side of the road near Colorado City, and that is actually in Arizona, and that seemed odd to me.  Since I am geographically challenged I just scratched my head and said "oh really?".

  When we got back we went to the gathering place and look, the wall came down and it was huge with these couches and chairs and tables to just hang out and do whatever you wanted.

We even hinted to Bonnie that we thought that if one of our pillow gifts was actually one of these pillows that that would be cool.

We all just hung out, some girls stamped, some worked on their computers, some just visited. Shelli and Shalae were actually helping Lucia Gammon put her swaps together. How fun is that.  I popped in and Tiffany took my picture.

We were on our own for supper so we had Iggy's deliver our food to the hotel, they got mixed up on where to take it so it was cold by the time we got it, but we ate it anyway.  Then it was time to go to bed, and see what goodie was on our pillow tonight, you hate to wait too long to go get it cause some girls go get it then come down showing it off, and then your fun is over.

So when I got to my room this is what I found, and they put it by flatsky the bear to guard it.

 It is the most beautiful paper and ribbon cupcake with a button as the cherry on top and Selma made them all. Bless her heart, she is such a dear I worked with her years ago (I can't remember for what now) and I love talking with her every year.  

What was inside? jelly? pudding? nope, it was a Simply Adorned necklace and charm.

Shelli and the girls made them. Here is the front, look how cute with the little button brad, and the black satin ribbon.

And here is the back, with one of my favorite sets. It also has a black bauble hanging on it too but you can't see it in the picture.

So after a busy busy day, I got my pajamas on, and climbed into bed with my book and settled in for the night.

I hope you are enjoying my trip as much as I am remembering about it.  I am totally going to make a My Digital Studio book about it.

Have a great Wednesday and thanks for stopping in!

 

             

Founder's Circle 2010 First Day

I know you are probably saying, gee you already posted this, and well I kinda did and I kinda didn't. Some of the posts I did ahead of time before I left for Founder's, and then ones with no pictures I posted from my Precious while I was there and now I have my pictures uploaded.  I know you have probably seen these all over blog-dome, but this is kinda my journal so I am gonna tell my stories anyway.  I hope you don't mind.

 I had an early flight to Salt Lake City, so that I did not miss anything and also so that Jeff could drop me off at the airport on the way to work. So it was dark when we left.  I got on the plane and headed to Salt Lake City.  I knew I would see Tiffany Bauer there as we had the same flight.

But then I ran into Mandy Grant at the SLC airport so we sat and chatted, this was her first time too. Then a few more people showed up and they finally let us get on the plane. Well it reminded me of the President's plane...in color...it was silver...the size...not so much. Here I am sitting in my seat so excited to be almost there.

Here's cute little Mandy, well I should say young, she is not little she is way taller then me. She was in the back of the plane which is only like 10 seats from the front of the plane...ha!

What was so funny is Glenda Travelstead was also on this plane and she sat in front of me and Vicki Edwards, and I guess she usually takes the bus, so she was not very excited to be on the plane.  Once I told her that the in-flight movie was going to be Twilight (she is a die-hard fan, worse then me), she calmed down. Of course I was only kidding, cause we didn't have a movie...ha! We did feel like we were on a rollercoaster though as we landed into St. George there were several screams and my stomach was jumping around, but we landed safely.

Here it is, look how close we were to the propeller as we exited Airforce One.

How sad are we? We all took pictures of the baggage claim area, I wish I had of taken a picture once it opened up. See that little garage door thingie? That just slid up and we could see right outside and our plane and they just dropped our luggage in and it slid the 12 inches down and we picked it up. I mean we could have given the bag handler a handshake and a tip it was that close.

Then we were loaded in a van, and our luggage in a trailer, and off we went, it was a quick ride and we got to the Hotel. Kellie Sue handed us our room keys as we got out of the van, no having to wait in line at the hotel clerk desk, how great is that. Kelli Sue even knew my name without me even having my name tag on...how sweet is that?

Look at the fun sign to welcome us! There were neat Decor Elements all over the hotel.  Tiffany and I teased over how to say Decor...I say Dicore, other people say Daycore. Whose right?

We picked up our name badges, and they all had a colored scarf on them and we had to find our other 7 team mates and they would be who we would eat dinner with that night, they said no switching as they had a master list.  At first I was not liking this, cause I was gonna be glued to Tiffany's side, but then I got a bit more comfortable when more people arrived and I saw some familiar faces. 

Once we got our name badges, we headed into the gathering place and they had all this yummy candy and chocolates around. Stampin' Up! has an employee that does the Decor Elements on the windows and he is also a chocolateer, so he did all the chocolates for us each day. Can you say extra poundage? I have not got on the scales yet since I got home.

Oh and remember when I mentioned Plinko and I talked about spinning the wheel...well...ummm...there is no wheel, well unless you count the round little wheel that you drop in the plinko thing so it goes plink plink all the way down till you see what prize you won.  We could do this every day!

We headed up to our room to drop off our stuff, and this is what was on my door and everyone elses too.  Our names on a record. How cute is that? This year's theme was a Retro theme. Which was cool, cause our Founder's bag did not really let you in on that at all.

Here I am standing at my door.  I wonder what my room will be like?

Wow, 2 big beds, a bar area with a fridge and a microwave, and even a corner nook thing.

Here's from the other side. I could live here!  I made sure to take the picture right away, usually I forget and then forget it, I have a mess all over, this year was not bad cause I had so much space for just me.

Then we headed back down to the gathering place to pick out our candy apple. There were all sorts of flavors.

Here is sweet Cori as she hands me my butter finger one.

Then I think we ate lunch and in case we didn't get enough candy they had all these cute desserts on this glass topped table and it looked so cute.  I picked the strawberry tart.

Here is Jan House and I, we have been Demonstrators about the same length of time, 11 years can you believe it? We met gosh I can't even remember when, 8 years ago maybe, whenever we had Convention in Orlando.  We both worked Make n Takes that year, and we have been friends ever since. This was her first time too, and not the last right Jan?

This is Vicki Edwards and I, she was one of the Rising Stars. It was so nice to meet her, we sat beside each other on the roller coaster, I mean the plane.

This is Vanna, I mean Tiffany Bauer showing off the Fabulous Decor Elements on the kitchen divider thing. It was sad to see it being scraped off the last day.

Then Tiffany and I headed back to the gathering place so they could cut our caramel apples for us, cause we had not eaten enough food...not!

Then I was antsy to unpack, after being carnies when Jeff and I were younger, I do not like to live outside of a suitcase, so I wanted to get everything hung up and put in drawers, plus I hate to iron and that is another reason.

I also wanted to change for our first group dinner, we had to find all our team mates, and we didn't get all together till dinner. Cause once we had all 8 people, we got a prize. It was a new stamp set, it is cute, and sorry I can't show you, but you will have to take my word on it.  I will have to see if anyone took our picture with our set, I don't even know if we did that or not.  I do know, that I love love love my Bad Girl camera, and did not even take my little red one out of its case.

This was our table, how cute is that, our team was called the Bitty Buttons, and our place mats were record album covers. Mine was Matt Bianco and I had never heard of them before. Too funny, Caroline LeBel's album was a musical that she watches every year so she was even singing some of the songs, we tried to pay her to stop, but she is Canadian and we didn't have the right kind of cash...ha!

Dinner was amazing, it started out with a wedge of lettuce that was so good, but I wish the plate was bigger cause I was afraid of cutting it and half of it being on the table. Then our main course was carrots, mashed potatoes,and beef wellington, and look at the initials on the pastry. SU...too fun!

So I could not even finish my first course and out comes dessert, it was fried with like a pudding inside, and I ate the raspberries and a few bites, but I was so full.

I was also excited to get to my room to see what our pillow gift would be.  We did take our record album cover sleeve thing and that is what we would put our door record in to get it home safe.

So when I got to my room, look what was there. OMG! more food, are you kidding me? 

I love the polka dotted tissue paper...what was inside? Well I'll show you, kind of tomorrow. I got my pajamas on and went to bed.

      Oh and since it has been a long time since I have slept alone, cause usually I have at least Toby if Jeff goes on hunting trips, and at Convention, I got my BFF Tracy, I took my little flatsky bear to keep me company.

So that's my first day story. 

Have a super Tuesday and thanks for stopping in.