©Stampin'Up!™1990-2010

I have heard from several of you that you are afraid I have fallen off the face of the earth since it's been so long since I blogged or emailed, but I can assure you I'm still here, things have just been so crazy busy that I'm just barely keeping my head above water! It's a GOOD crazy busy, a HAPPY crazy busy, but BUSY none the less!!!

In the middle of the NORMAL craziness of Christmas we all experience, our oldest daughter, Jessica, and her husband bought their first house AND a property to turn into the JESSICA HOLLIS PHOTOGRAPHY Studio! They moved into the house the week between Christmas & New Year's, and my main contribution to that endeavor was to keep Cohen (he's almost 2!) for two days & two nights!

Isn't he a cutie? He loved wearing PaPa's sockcap around the house! We ended up with toys from one end of the living room to the other, but we got along great and I actually was able to work on projects for my "Express Yourself!" Birthday Stamp-a-Stack, which was on Jan. 2nd, quite a bit!

As soon as the Jan. 2nd event was over, it was time to get my swaps ready and pack to go to Phoenix, AZ, for the Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference with my downline buddy, Linda! We experienced a ton of new ideas, received new stamps, had fun M&T's, and even were given this fun quilt square made by Stampin' Up! employees who used the Big Shot, 5-Point 3D Star die, and the Scalloped Circle #2 Die! Can you imagine 1,000 screaming Stampin' UP! demonstrators receiving this quilt square all at once? REALLY CRAZY FUN!

 

©Stampin'Up!™1990-2010

We stayed an extra day to attend the SU! Regional Conference, and that was a really relaxing day packed with Stamping, Stamping, Stamping! Here's a picture I took of one of the Regional Display Boards featuring the fun new Occasions mini set, I {Heart} Hearts! The presenter of this WOW demonstration used several of the stamps in this set to showcase 4 different simple stamping techniques all on one card: from left to right, top to bottom: "Rock n' Roll", "Generation" stamping (aka "stamping off"), "Direct-to-Paper", and "Kissing"!

Stampingrox Note: In order to give stampers an opportunity to contribute to the Red Cross Haitian Relief Fund, from now until February 28, 2010, for every wood or clear mount I {Heart} Hearts stamp set sold, Stampin' Up! is contributing $2 to this worthy cause! If you haven't already purchased this set, contact me today to order yours, or put it on your wish list to order at the next party you attend before Feb. 28!

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©Stampin'Up!™1990-2010

Ever since I got home I've been busy with lots of Sale-a-bration workshops and stamp camps, punctuated by a colonoscopy last week (those of you that have had those, KNOW the pre-day is the worst!) and my youngest son, Ben, had all 4 of his wisdom teeth removed!

Which brings us to the subject of Hostess Appreciation! Originally scheduled for September 2009, scheduling conflicts prevented most of my hostesses to be able to attend, so I rescheduled it for Jan 30th. HOWEVER, before the snail-mail invitations could be sent out, we received the news of an important out-of-state family gathering we need to attend. I have now RE-RESCHEDULED Hostess Appreciation for this date:

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH, 2010, 1-4 p.m. at my house, Bonnie, IL!

Past hostesses from Sept 2008 through future hostesses of March 2010 will be receiving their snail-mail invitation including all the details within the next week. Hostess Appreciation is FREE and includes food, fun stamping, doorprizes, a retired stamp set auction, lots of stamping displays, and this year a GRAND PRIZE!

That's it for now, but I PROMISE to be back soon with more fun stamping ideas!