STAMPIN'UP! SEMINAR-HAMILTON,ONT

Wow... what a great weekend!

Beth and I left Friday afternoon for Hamilton, Canada. Took a little while,,2 hours...the bridge at Lewiston Queenston bridge into Canada was a little backed up... 15 minutes more or less but straight thru was fine until we got into Hamilton and finding the hotel, which we did,just took a few miles. We stayed at the Sheraton across from the convention center,, beautiful hotel, comfy. We exchanged roomy gifts.... Beth made a very cute tote for me from StampinUP fabric.... it is so cute,, pockets inside and out....WOW.....
    Then we had dinner in the hotel and we did some stamping in the room Friday nite. I made the ornament on the front of the Holiday mini. Did I mention Beth brought everything with her to make it!? After much die cutting, I got it  half put together, just have finishing touches to add.

Saturday, we got up early enough, found a Timmy Ho's for breakfast,, hotel breakfast was a touch expensive on my budget.
Walked over to convention center and registered, no prob there. Everyone got a brown paper shopping bag with supplies for  make and takes. I was a little disappointed, no stamp set.
   We did our swaps, I got some beauties.... then the seminar started........WITH.......






SHELLY GARDENER... CEO AND CO FOUNDER of STAMPIN'UP!!!

I was very surprised,, I had heard long ago that she wouldn't be attending seminars,, but she had an appointment with editors of Canadian magazines for advertizing campaigns.. ...anyway... what a surprise!
    So, she gives her opening speech and then she announces the first gift giveaway... names appear on the board,, and MY NAME WAS FIRST PICKED!!! WOOPIE.. !  I got a free stamp set...Wonderfall from the catalog! Now that was worth it....
  As the seminar progress, there were demonstrators showing different techniques and giving advice and tips and tricks for card making and in between more gifts were given away. Everyone was given a Scrapbooking  kit, Merry Moments,and another stamp set called Seasonal Sayings!!! I came home with some nice goodies.

   One thing Shelly had to do was pick 2 cards from the swap gallery and the winners would receive a catalog shopping spree.I'll post one of the winner soon... it was definetly a winner...

    After lunch,, (turkey sandwich, apple, chips and brownie with nuts,didn't eat that one!)...  I was returning to my seat, and there was a lonely female in a raincoat at the swaps gallery looking at all the swaps... and lo and behold .....there was Shelly trying to pick out the winners,, incognito I might add.. so I wandered up to her to say hi.. and told her about first meeting her at the Poconos Seminar 10years ago.. she laughed and said "that was our seminar from hell"..referring to the resort of course.  She noticed I was a guest, and I short versioned an explanation and told her I was hoping to sign up again soon. We hugged and I returned to my seat.
           And I forgot to mention, a few of the ladies at our table mentioned that the IKEA store was 10 minutes away.. got directions from them and we were thinking about making a stop on the way home.
   When the seminar was ending, I was trying to think of something to have Shelly sign for me.  My visor of course.... she graciously signed it for me.
Then Beth said, have her sign my stamp set boxes!!.. WELL DUH...!!so as we were leaving, Beth and I got our stamp sets signed and pics taken with Shelly! again.
   So, that was the end of a very fun day.
BUT!!!! as we were leaving we just had to go to IKEA,,,we found it...... spent an hour there and still didn't see the whole store,,, oh the possibilites!!!that place is huge,, !!
    I had some Canadian money to spend,, so we stopped for dinner before heading home... a cute little bistro just a little way from IKEA... Beth ordered this spagetti squash dish.. when it came it was huge!!.... filled with peppers, onions, olives, tomatoes, feta cheese,, I just had to try some... yummmy,,,gotta make it!
     We made it back to the U.S.of A. safe and sound, no traffic into the states,, but there was at least a 2 hour wait to get into Canada at the Lewiston/Queenston bridge.  
     Next week..... fairgrounds stamp convention and Becky's shoebox and fancy fold class ....glad my stuff is ready to go.. oh wait, I have 2 new stamp sets!!! I may have to change my shoebox!  Yikes!!
   So, I'll start posting the swaps I received  sometime this week... so keep checking back, cause I have lots to show you!