Beeh & Charlotte

Last week, a couple of my coworkers were visiting town--so Shiloh & I got to spend some evenings with them, showing them around. Bernadette (who you might recognize from my previous Brisbane posts) is from our Sydney office and Charlotte is from the Frankfurt office. Here they are....Charlotte on left; B on right...

We went to the top of the Joseph Smith Building to see the view of the whole valley...and ended up eating at the Roof. I really really love that place--so delicious! And we got to watch the sun set behind the temple. And we snapped a photo on the way out....Shiloh, Charlotte, B & Me....

Charlotte was playing photographer w/my camera and she took this amazing shot of the temple...

And we listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform--it was their rehearsal for Sunday's performance...but none of my photos of the choir turned out...so here's one of us instead! :) You know how I love those self-portraits....

It was such a fun week and the office is going to seem a little flat without them tomorrow...once again I am reminded how lucky I am to work with such wonderful people!

"Finished" Spare Room

Finally--a posting about my "finished" spare room. I still want to do a few more things (different light fixture, hang a shelf or two, new dresser or desk or something, easy chair). Anyway it is really difficult to photograph a room all at once so I've sort of broken it up. A few weeks ago, Zane & Zoey slept over and in the morning we took a few photos....


The next picture is of my favorite piece in the room--I picked this little mirror up in an antique market in Paris. As Zoey pointed out to me--there are earrings on it! It's made of all kinds of random jewelry and sparkly things. AMAZING!

Both the Z's....bright and early in the morning...

Lastly, I had to post this picture....I said "OK put your arms around each other" and immediately this is what happened....I'm having major flashbacks to when I was a kid. :)

Stamping Queens!

Vanessa & I started a stamping blog so that we could share our ideas with each other, and other stampers, and hopefully have other stampers share ideas with us. :) We're calling it Stamping Queens---don't be shy--let us know if you have ideas to post and we'll add you to the contributors! :) We've got some fun things planned for this blog.... so stay tuned!

Brisbane, pt. 3

And now for the last of my Australia pics....this first one is taken from inside one of the places we ate....I love it because this is exactly how I think of Brisbane--green, beautiful, happy. These huge trellises are are all over the area between our hotel and the river--over beautiful walking paths (thanks for the pics, Carrie! :)

One of my fave pics--not sure when it was taken but it was sometime on Friday. B & Me. I love how we look so happy and excited!

After classes ended on Saturday--we spent awhile taking things down and boxing stuff up to be shipped....B, Carrie, Amy.

And then we had awhile to relax and get ready for awards night...Emma...she's always so cool, even when relaxing (and drinking a diet coke if you can't tell).

And we were pretty tired (Carrie).....

But we still found the energy to get gussied up (Holly, Emma)...

All ready for awards night and dinner....(Carrie, B, Karen, Emma & moi)

Me and Shelli....
And then the night began...I got to sit by some fab demos from Western Australia (Louise, Monique & Makeesha)....

Makeesha, Ngaire & Skip...

Jan & Cherita....

Food again--this was our delish "chocolate basket" which was kinda like a Cold Stone chocolate-dipped waffle bowl--w/out the waffle. haha yum! We had a full dinner which was so nice! So we sat and visited and waited anxiously for the awards to start....

I always love seeing demonsrators walk across the stage and get an award for some accomplishment or another. It was particularly amazing to me to see demos who have only been in business for a year or two or less achieve such amazing goals!!! It was an a wonderful night!!

And we weren't ready for things to be over yet so we went out for a drink afterwards--our last picture before turning in and packing and saying goodbye to Emma the next morning....

Sunday started early--with a quick goodbye to Emma and her darling family (Sean & Milan)....

....And when we reached our gate around 10am, we learned our plane was being detained and we wouldn't be leaving until 3:30 or so. At that point we started speculating when we would actually get home. Even the most pessimistic guess was too early.....we arrived in LA around 11am Pacific time (still Sunday--or Sunday again)....but connections were scarce and 8 of us were "booked" to leave around 9:15. I say "booked" because we ended up having a billion problems....

This next pic is of the darling girl (Wendy) sitting across the aisle from me on the long flight. She's having a bit of vegemite on her biscuit (she prefers jelly but there wasn't any of that on hand. haha but for the record, it tastes NOTHING like jelly. I don't mind it though b/c it's super salty--kinda like mashed up caviar).

This is our official documentation about our rebooked flight to SLC.....so you can see the beginnings of the problem...

So we spent 8 or so hours in LA...went to lunch & a movie before departing around 10pm, arriving in SLC around 12:30am....and I actually arrived home around 2am.

Home at last! Can you believe how good everyone looks after 36 hours of travel? (Carrie, Linda, Holly, Spencer, Pam & Amy).

It was truly amazing--every bit of it. The end. And now I can post about something else. Thanks for viewing all these pics--since my blog is very much a journal for me, I really want to put lots of pictures up here to look back on....next up.... real pics of my finished spare room! :)

Brisbane, pt. 2

So Friday was show day 1...and show days always start early. I snapped this pic about 5:45am just after waking up....

The Brisbane skyline....you can almost see the river....we weren't downtown but in Southbank--which if you ask me is even a better location than being downtown.

Registration started earlier than planned--we were ready so we opened around 7:45am....so much excitment!!


Being around demonstrators is the funnest part of events for me so I'm uploading a lot of pictures of them....this next pic is Teresa and Alisa--they presented Workshop Wows on Friday. Amazing stampers!! And fab presenters too!

Then at 8:00 we opened Memento Mall--which is where demos can buy all kinds of logo merchandise (shirts, trinkets, business supplies, etc.)

And at 10 the show began w/a welcome from Shelli (our owner & CEO).
Linda & Spencer got to help out behind the scenes this time...we were all multitasking...

Then it was on to classes--I taught one on Booking Workshops and had a different demonstrator help me in each class....this is Ngaire. She had some amazing advice!

And then this is Cherita--after class. I met both Ngaire & Cherita in Perth last June--they are two fabulously wonderful ppl and it was so great to see them again!
Friday night we ran over to the market nearby for a few minutes after all the classes were over...Carrie, me, Emma....

And then Saturday I taught watercolouring....tough day at the office. :)

Saturday afternoon we had a couple more WOW presenters--Jacque & Jayne--getting mic'd up by Jason. They did awesome too--I never tire of seeing their ideas...

And this pic is w/3 Queensland demos--Stephanie, Vicki & Nicki...And this is a pic as we were taking down and packing up....we took about 12 pics to get one w/Linda's eyes open...Carrie, Linda, me...
Next and final posting will be awards night and the trip home....the two most eventful and exciting parts of the trip!!! :)

Brisbane, pt. 1

Just got home a business trip to Brisbane, Australia--late last night...or really early this morning. We were delayed several times--such a nightmare. The whole week was sooooooooooooo amazing and I smile whenever I think about it b/c it far exceeded my already too high expectations! It was Convention--so basically the biggest celebration of the year!

So here's a recap....

Sunday night, me and 4 of my coworkers flew SLC to LAX and then on to Brisbane. I took this first pic in LAX b/c there's something about that airport that I just totally love....and I guess this board sort of explains it. Look at all the places you could go!!!! Plus from where we were sitting in front of this, I could see the check-in counters where Syd Bristow checked in on her way to Taipei in the ALIAS pilot. "What lipstick are you wearing? It totally pops!"

Carrie & I went a day earlier than we needed to be there b/c we wanted to see the city, get acclimated, and become one w/the Australian culture.....so we went shopping all day!!! :) Our first stop: Queen Street mall. We didn't buy too much--a few souvenirs and of course I had to get a handbag....it's the violet one that will be in later pics. :)

It's weird but I always love going in convenience and drug stores in other countries. First we went straight to the candy aisle....they have delicious treats there!!

....then I struggled to find a replacement for my bottle of Rave that evaporated on the plane. And for the record--there still is nothing that compares! :)

Next we found a cool outdoor bar for some delish lunch!! And we attempted to take a self-timer but then things when a bit awry....we caused a bit of a ruckus!! haha

That night I went to "Step Up 2" while Carrie opted to read a book (what like that movie wasn't enough of a pull? haha). Then Aaron and B arrived from Sydney and we went to a yum yum Turkish restaurant. That was my first Turkish experience. :)

The next day we had an easy morning....breakfast, shopping, lunch and Emma finally arrived from Auckland! :) Then we started to set-up in the afternoon.

That night, me, Emma, Carrie & B went to a delish Greek restaurant....and sometimes I take pictures of my food (thanks to Jaime! :).

And here's B & Emma....

And that's it for my first posting....more tomorrow but first I need to send in my taxes! :)