Tuesday, January 29, 2013

A Slice of My Life (warning LONG)

I'm finally able to sit down and share so many of my thoughts.  Since Leadership I've been enjoying so much but too busy to write it all down.  As you probably saw from my blog posts I had a fabulous time at leadership 2013.  Every Stampin' Up! event is different and I experience different things each time.  If I could only attend one event each year, I think Leadership would be it.  Sure, I'd miss the thrill of receiving annual awards at Convention and I'd miss the excitment of seeing all the new catalogue products in action and dancing to the new theme song but I do really like the smaller more intimate feel of Leadership (by smaller I mean like 1000 people instead of 3000).  It's easier to find your friends in the crowd and just feels like there's more time to talk.  That was my favourite part this year.  There was a wonderful unplanned moment when my downline Esther and a new friend Julie had lunch together.  I got to learn so much more about my new friend and the conversation just turned into an honest, intimate time of sharing of the joys and struggles of our lives.  Really nothing to do with stampin but that's what I've discovered.  I'm in love with being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator not just for stampin' but for the relationships and the people.  So although many people have made comments over and over to me along the lines of "I don't know how you juggle work, your family and church and you still have time for stamping" or "I can't imagine being as busy as you are" etc, I don't see everything as a burden that I need to fit in.  (okay, yes, maybe sometimes I get frazzled and overwhelmed) but to me, everything is interconnected.  When I go to work, I'm serving my family financially and stamping has brought tangible benefits to my family (like I can't wait to have a mother son date to FIJI!) and also relational skills as through my business I have learned new communication skills that I can incorporate with my family and the things I learn at church about loving people I can apply to all the people I meet through my business.  Being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator has been an area where I've felt free enough to make decisions that are a little out of my comfort zone but then I get to see the unexpected happen and it gives me courage to try new things in other areas of my life.   It's really very cool and challenging and exciting.  I feel like I'm living life to the full and I'm THANKFUL!  Whew!  That was cathartic for me and maybe way more than you wanted to know about my thoughts.  Soooo moving on...
Another fun thing this year was that my group of friends decided to do a shoebox swap at Leadership.  A shoebox swap is basically make and takes.  Each person prepares all the supplies for each person to make their card.  Most things are pre-punched and prepared and everything you need fits into a shoebox.  So you work on one card then when you're done you put everything back in the box and swap boxes with someone else.  We had so much fun that I think we decided that we would make it an annual thing.
Here's some of the cards we made. 
Can you see why we had such fun and loved our samples and plan to do it again next year?


Coming back from Leadership I was exhausted but I didn't want to let my family know because it just seems stupid that I should go away for 4 days to Orlando and come home and be sleeping all the time and generally useless.  So I tried to get right back into the swing of household and life things and had great fun at a couple of stamping events one of which was my quarterly Diva Dinner.  Wanting to involve my family since they are so special, Kevin, Nathaniel, and Michelle agreed to dress up and participate in the evening.  I really wanted my Diva girls to feel special so Kevin was at the door to take the coats and Nathaniel handed everyone their make n take bags.  Kevin was in charge of serving the food to everyone and one of the highlights was gift giveaway. Nathaniel came down and rang a bell and the first time announced in his sweet little voice "this bell means you are getting a prize!"  To which all the girls cheered and Michelle came down and handed out the first of the the gifts.  (Kevin had cleverly thought to put the spools of ribbon on a spoon handle).



Next time Nathaniel came down and rang the bell, no explanation was needed, the girls just clapped and cheered!  It was a great evening.  Frankly I thought the food was not good but I warned everyone that cooking was not my forte but I still wanted to do homemade.

Everything has now slowed down tremendously.  I caught up on sleep and even arranged for the kids to sleep over at my parents for one night so I could take Kevin out to dinner and let him sleep in the next morning.  I wanted to do something for Kevin since he is just so super helpful in so many ways.
Well, obviously I didn't learn enough from leadership because I'm sure one of the tips was to have short blog posts but since I have all this time on my hands now...

If you want to experience a little more fun and excitment in your life, consider the Stampin' Up! starter kit.  During Sale-a-bration you get 25% more goodies in your kit.  You get to choose $194 worth of product (whatever you want!) and you only pay $125 NO TAX, NO SHIPPING! Tell me that's not the best deal ever?!  Plus all the other wonderful experiences that come along with it.  Maybe you'll be my next Diva Dinner recipient!  I would love it!  Join the Fun today or contact me for more information.  genevieve.ko@sympatico.ca


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