ReluctantFarmChick.com

 Attending Stampin’Up! convention is always a great time for me.  I love to see people I haven’t seen in a while, and reconnect with ones (in person) that I generally speak to (or interact with in some way) during the year.  I also love to see the new stamps and accessories.  They lend themselves to a huge "blank slate" of Imagine what I can do with that!  Actually, who am I kidding.  It actually lends itself to Wow - I can’t wait to see what people come up with using that so I can copy them.  But anyway - it is fresh.  And fun.  And I always leave wishing I could stamp more.  And because stamping was a bit of a business for me, there’s always that possibility of putting the whole machine in gear and letting it work for me.  I’ve managed to studiously avoid that for several years now - and it’s proving hard to get back into it.  At convention 2007 I decided I was going to spend more time stamping.  Just for fun.  And when I got to convention 2008, I realized that stamping just hadn’t happened (other than 1 set of wedding invitations, 1 set of anniversary announcements, 1 set of baby announcements, and 2 sets of cards for gifts).  It’s not okay for a stamper to be able to make a list like that.  a) there’s very little creativity in that (lots of repetitive stamping) and b) when you can remember everything you’ve stamped, you haven’t stamped enough.  Not to mention the square footage in our house dedicated to stamping is completely being wasted under a pile of boxes.

With my new blog thing, Amy decided I could have a stamping page.  So simple.  It’s a no-brainer.  You blog.  You stamp.  You put the two together.  So here I am, letting you know, that in the very near future, I will, I might, I would like to, I have decided to, I think I’ll add a page to the blog dedicated to the enjoyment of stamping - mine and yours.  This will require an overhaul of some space.  But I’ll start small.  And my commitment is to fly-lady my stamp room.  Whatever it takes.

In the mean time, my farmchik life continues.  This week is corn week.  You’ll LOVE that post.  Thursday has been slated "corn day" for our family.  Last year I missed corn day because of stamp convention.  This year they kindly waited for my return by NOT picking the corn from the field.  Prince Farming’s dad said we could have the garden corn - it was planted later than the field, so it will be ready later.  Drat.

People attend convention for all sorts of reasons.  Motivation, Training, Rewards & recognition, New ideas, Networking, Swapping, Screaming, well - really all sorts of reasons.  Here are a few pictures to give you a small glimpse of the convention experience.

  SWAPPING - some crazy people spend many hours (it seems mostly midnight hours) stamping multiples of cards - like hundreds of them.  Then they lug them (or truck them) to convention and spend hours hauling them around the venue and swapping - that way they can go home with hundreds of different ideas in exchange for their one or two ideas.  It’s a great way to build a sample library.  Swaps make people need stamp sets they might never have even noticed before.  Accessories, color combinations, and other creative ideas are shared through swapping as well.

LINES (aka queues) I think I mentioned lines before.  Mostly the lines don’t move very quickly, which works in favor of swappers, because then they get to "do their thing."  Sometimes the swapping is what makes the lines take longer than what they really need to.  But it’s all part of the convention (or stamping) experience.  While people are swapping, they meet new friends and find old friends, and put names with faces they’ve only "met" on the computer in online stamp groups.  It’s a great way to "stop and smell the roses."

Sometimes all the stuff you get at convention along with the different swaps you get become a bit unwieldy.  So you have to find a little corner to reorganize and consolidate.  This is one of my room-mates (Valerie) who had a few too many bags and decided to take a little breather to make it all work together.

But after you reorganize and consolidate everything, the bags get so bloody heavy that some significant intervention is needed.  Luckily the convention planners anticipate this dilemma, so they contract with some very special people to do this:

This is another of my room mates (and a part of my Stampin’Up! team), Amber.  I wanted to take a picture of her face, but she was drooling, and I didn’t want to embarrass her (oops!!).  The only problem with this little service, is that their follow-up is lousy.  No one prevents the need for future massages by carrying the absolute BRICK of a bag that caused the severe back-ache to begin with.

Of course, after all this swapping, and standing in lines, and reorganizing, and it’s time to sit down. . . with old friends and new. There are tons of restaurants within walking distance of the Salt Palace that are really great.   Here we are at Macaroni Grill. 

From left to right:  Bonnie Towles (my friend and travel-mate from Jellico), Me, Sue (brilliant stamper who is the future-winner of "Artisan’s Award" and her friend Caroline; Valerie (my room-mate) and Amy (room-mate and bag with a bag); then Amanda (up-beat, glass is always full creative chick) and her two team-mates (can’t remember their names - way cool though. . . one owns/runs a sports bar in the Tampa area - something to do with "cop shop" or the likes)

 Salt Lake City - HERE I AM!! (will insert picture later).  It’s HOT but not as humid as home.  There are 5,600 crazy people registered to be at this convention, at least 75% of them were at the Salt Palace, standing in line before 8:30am.  They are INSANE (I can say that, because I was there to see them standing in line). 

The attraction?  Getting the new (and can I add totally cool, amazing, and stylish) convention bag (shoulder bag - not the normal backpack) with the . . . .<<<drum roll>>>> new Stampin’Up! Idea Book & Catalog.  Not to mention the three new stamp sets (one awesome, one good, and one okay). 

That was ONE line.  THEN there were people in another line to buy STUFF (these people know how to market: Supply/demand - limited edition - can only purchase these here and now etc).  In the past "Momento Mall" has run out of some supplies, which makes those things even more desireable to everyone else (actually - more desireable to the people who got to buy them too).  Last year (I think) they ran out of . . . don’t know what they were . . . maybe rings with ribbon samples on them? . . . And I didn’t get any.  I’ll bet there are 60 bazilion of those rings lying in people’s stamp rooms collecting dust.  They’re totally useless now because all that ribbon is probably retired already.  And so it goes, year after year.  But this year they have a very practical (and cute, organizational <<read "essential">>) project tote with pockets for cards, scissors, ink pads, and every other conceivable supply you’ll need for a stamping project.  And it’s CUTE.  And PRACTICAL.  And everyone NEEDS one.  NOW.  Those twenty old junky bags from previous conventions, leadership events, and manager’s retreats are totally useless and impractical.  Don’t you agree that everyone NEEDS one of these?

It comes with a very cute camera bag - of course my camera won’t fit in there - but Prince Farming’s probably will.  Or maybe I"ll need a new camera?  Oh - the possibilities. . .

Of course I couldn’t buy just ONE because what would happen if they RUN OUT??!?!?!? Oh, NO!!!

That’s because I’m such a good friend (read "sucker").  See, Louise will definitely need one.  As will Amber.  And we don’t want them to be disappointed now, do we?

Not sure what it is about girls and bags.  As if a convention bag and a tote aren’t enough, the prize for being in the top 100 consultants in the company ("Founder’s Circle") is. . . <<<<drum roll again>>>>……

A VERY desireable and amazingly incredible PINK LEATHER BAG.  And my client patient friend techno-geek resource person Amy was the proud (and emotional) recipient of one of these very limited edition specimens.  CONGRATULATIONS AMY! 

So the Bag got a bag.  yadda yadda yadda.  Unfortunately, along with the bag, she gets an all-expenses trip for a week to a spa in Utah somewhere.  And since she HATES to be touched (no touchy) - I’ll have to take her place.  Someone’s got to do it.  And she owes me for her amazing success.  She couldn’t have done it without me.  It’s my wisdom, coaching, persuasive cheerleading that has talked her off the ledge on multiple occassions to get her that stupid bag.  So the trip is MINE I tell you.  SHE OWES ME. (We’ll just forget about that minor detail of her taking me on two Stampin’ cruises in the past.  I don’t remember Mexico OR Bermuda.)

I’ll let you know how that turns out.  In the mean time, Amy wins as most stylish bag lady.