Convention 2010 & {part 1} of our holiday

I know that you have ALL been waiting (very patiently I might add) for my news and pictures from Convention Sydney 2010!! Well wait no longer!!
Now before we get started it will be a long one so in the words of my fellow tea lover Sophie (from That Vintage) let's pour our favourite brew and sit and chat awhile.....

We left on Thursday 19th and headed our way to Sydney!! We were all soooo excited about seeing Mrs Green (Carli) and all the wonderful things like the harbour and the bridge and the opera house too. Our accommodation seemed great, enough room for us all and very nicely decorated!

Sophia and Esther having a rest

I had my very first managers supper on the Thursday night which was very special!! It was a great time, chatting to other demo's and enjoying a delicious pastry selection of sweets and the most amazingly scrummy hot chocolate that you could imagine!! It was served in a fabulous Share a cup mug (if you could call it that!) and at the end of the night we all received one!!! SOOOOO COOL!!

That night however it all went really yucky!!!! At 12.30am the fire alarm went off, we had 3 very scared and unhappy kiddies and one wonderful baby who didn't cry a peep!! We were told to evacuate and so we did, down 12 flights of stairs in our jimmie jams the kids, Allan, Carli and me! Once we were given the all clear we went back up the 12 flights of stairs. The kids however were very, VERY scared and didn't want to take their fingers out of their ears!!! Allan finally got them settled and asleep to have it happen ALL OVER AGAIN only 5 minutes after our precious children being asleep! The time now is 2.30am (approx) so off we go again, down, down the multitude of steps, outside and waiting in our jimmie jams in the cold!! Thankfully we were given the all clear AGAIN and so headed back to bed! I think the kids managed to get about 2hrs sleep before it was wake up time!! That wasn't the way we had planned to start our family holiday!! I must say though we were soooo blessed!! Can you imagine if there really WAS A FIRE and we had lost all our things!?? There would have been no convention and no STUFF!! So Praise God for the good side of it!my swaps

Off to Convention.... it was great, as it is every year!! I, being very sleep deprived and having a baby certainly made things a little more tricky but hanging out with my super amazing friend Carli was absolutely WONDERFUL in every way!!!! Swapping with other's is a buzz also and then meeting people whom I've only chatted on-line (like the lovely Sarah-Jane... WAVING!!) was really, really fab!!

Esther was FANTASTIC (after her first plane ride and such a horrid sleep) and the ideas that I got from assorted talented presenters were AWESOME!

Carli in the main room - check out the amount of tables!!

Back at the hotel, Allan had just got back from having fun with the kids at the Powerhouse Museum and with-in 10 minutes the fire alarm went off again, so my super, amazing Husband had to go through the drill for the 3rd time!! As you can guess they were not coping well!! Sadly at that point we decided that we should leave..... we did not want to go through that AGAIN, so we looked at other options..... of course what we know now with 4 little treasures is that accommodation is hard to find with so many...... after much thought and prayer and far too many phone calls, we decided to stay and take the chance....PRAISE GOD it didn't happen again!! YAY!

Hannah, Sophia and Ezekiel on their outing with Daddy

Saturday at Convention was GREAT! Carli, Esther and I enjoyed beautiful sunshine (one of the only days the sun made an appearance in the week!) for lunch and listened to the Jazz/Blues that was playing in the Darling Harbour!!

Ohhh what bliss, it was so, so fabulous!! LOVED IT!!!

love this photo

Then the award dinner!

WOW, OH WOW, OH WOW WEE!!! Carli and I arrived walked up to the door and were greeted by these cool guys in long trench coats snapping away on their camera's!! They mentioned something like
"look it's Kylie and Danni Minogue!" (yes they could have chosen some different actresses I agree!! still they are very famous and dress well!! he he)
Then they ask us who we are dressed by.... it was such a buzz... with beaming faces my lovely friend and I enter into the room on A RED CARPET!!!! Yes it was soooooooo cool!! We were then stopped again by another gentleman who asked to take our photo.... at this point there is NO WAY that the smile is leaving our faces!!! We proceed along the RED CARPET to be greeted by huge cheers and claps and whistles from the crowd!! Who was the crowd?? None other than the great girls from the SU headquarters and Aaron Scott the HEAD head honcho for Australia and Shannon, super trainer from the US. I ran up to them all and hugged them with glee!!

The very glamorous Shannon

Once getting our breath we found our seat, which had been saved by the super wonderful Bron and listened to a fantastic band who was... wait for it...playing JAZZ!!!

Wonderful Bron and me

We simply couldn't be happier!!! :0) Then you should have seen the table decorations...

WOW WEE!!! Can you imagine these lighting up each table (at least 30) in a darkened room with the striking black table cloths??? Yep it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! So AMAZING!!!!!!! :0)

Smiling with the lovely SJK'S! Sarah Klass and Sarah-Jane

I received an award for sales again this year by reaching over $30,000 which was a great effort with having a precious bundle and all! I was given 2 BRAND NEW stamp sets that will be released in the up and coming 2010/11 New CATTY! (YAY bring that on!!)

So there you have it, is your cuppa all gone?? Did you need a refill?? It has been a little long winded hasn't it!! he he!
Well I've enjoyed telling you all of my experience of convention twenty ten! I'll be back soon with PART 2 of our holiday!!
Thanks for popping in,
Smiles Sharnee :0)