Leadership Was Awesome!!

Nothing like a little get together with 1000 other women lovin' the same thing I love to get a little energized after the holidays! That is one of the many thousands of things I ♥ about Stampin' Up! The friendships, the energy, the excitement...no where can you gather that much enthusiasm than at a Stampin' Up! event.

This company truly cares about their demonstrators and customers whether you are a leader or not, and are seriously listening to what we say and want. Leadership 2010 was evident that they ARE strongly committed to us and are pulling out all stops to help us and reward us as we succeed in our goals!

This years Leadership theme was 'Love What You Do'...designed especially for ME because I LOVE WHAT I DO!!! How did they know?? Ü

Royalty herself, Shelli Gardner greeting everyone on the first day. What a gracious, beautiful heart that woman has! She truly cares about this business and all that are involved. The set was absolutely beautiful! So rich in color and meaning. We are in this business to share what we love and gather with friends and family and that was the whole feel of the conference. The hand painted set was breath taking and I wish you all could have seen it! Each frame hand painted and inserted with photos from the catalog of people showing others what they love! Getting that 'Love' theme yet???

The center piece was HUGE. It was hand painted and absolutely looked like a real antiqued gold frame. BEAUTIFUL!!!

We had two jam-packed days of classes and information pertaining to leadership . All the classes I took were superior! Our keynote speaker was Sue Rusch. She delivered valuable information but was also very entertaining! Then there are all the surprises...the little bits of excitement you don't expect ! I'm sure you've seen them all on other blogs by now. The stamp sets, the quilt blocks, great announcements, the prize patrol deliveries, (I didn't win but somehow I'm still happy!), and meeting up with old friends, making new friends and sharing . It's the best kind of exhausting you can have!

For me, one of the things I love is seeing old and making new friends. Today I am going to share with you a few pictures of friends.

One of my virtual friends I took to convention on a Popsicle stick in August, Lorri Heiling (see here if you missed it!). It was so nice to meet up with her in person again. I'm telling ya, if you know that girl you can see her halo...what an angel! My other Popsicle mate, Nancy Riley didn't attend Leadership but did attend Regionals on Saturday. I flew home Friday night, so I missed out on meeting her in person, a huge bummer for me! Also pictured is my new friend Corinne Somerville from Canada who I've followed her blog for years and finally got to meet. She is delightful!!!!

Met up with my little buddy Dawn Rapsas. I kind of feel like a giant here! You would never know how small that woman is if you spent 5 seconds around her energy. She is a powerhouse and so kind and generous! Love her!!

A highlight for me...meeting Patti Lee!!!!!!!!! I saw Patti Lee, I touched Patti Lee, I sat with Patti Lee, Patti Lee gave me one of her swaps...OK, two of them! I have a piece of Patti Lee...don't you wish you were me? Have I mentioned how much I love this lady??

I kind of stalked this lady (don't tell her!) till I had her cornered..then I came up behind her (insert shaking knees) and I said, 'are you Patti'? I KNEW it was her, dressed head to toe in red and with darling red glasses. She said really quietly like, 'yes'. I introduced myself (still shaking) and she screamed so loud (happy screams, folks!) I almost ran the other way!!! I was so excited!! Now I know how that feels when people do that to me. We all love the same things, why are we so scared to introduce ourselves to each other?? It's a crazy thing! It always turns out great tho, huh??

All right, enough for today. I have a couple more days of sharing. I'll tell you about Managers Reception, some cool things I learned and, oh ya...hold on...BFF!!!!! That will take up a whole posting by itself!! Ü