Saturday night is a part of convention we all look forward to - the dinner and awards night.  We all got dolled up in our evening wear.  (I'll share a funny story with you about that at the end of this post!)

Here's some of the girls from our table - me, Tina and Toby in the back, and Christine and Judy in front.

There was a band playing ('scuse the blurry photo!)

Now if you know me you'll know I've got a strange habit of photographing the food at special events so here goes .....

I was rather missing my nice big digital SLR.  Not quite so photogenic in the food pics with my little point and shoot, but easier to fit in the handbag!  The yummy chocolate 5 on the cheesecake was because Stampin' Up is celebrating their 5th year in Australia this year.

Once our lovely dinner was finished it was time to head downstairs into the main stage area for the Awards Presentations.  It was so exciting to cheer on our fellow demonstrators for achievements in Sales, Recruiting and Leadership, and especially when my team mates names appeared on screen - Elaine, Miriam, Claire, and Tanja.

We Think Ink girls were very excited for our team member Kylie Bertucci who received her first sales award.  Kylie couldn't be there for the evening but we gave her a huge cheer which she'd just about have heard in Werribee I'm sure. 

An unanticipated fabulous highlight of the evening was this screen .....

Kylie was named 1st place in the Australian Rising Star Awards. What an achievement! 

The Rising Star program recognises demonstrators in their first FULL Stampin' Up year as a demonstrator for sales and team building.  (The SU year runs from April - end March.)  What a terrific recognition for Kylie and a lovely reward for all her enthusiasm and dedication.  A huge congrats!

Having a little toot of my own now, I was excited to be walking the stage this year with a sales award, a recruiting award and a career milestone award. 

And I must confess I was so thrilled to make the Top 25 Australian Demonstrator of the Year award again this year.  I got this silver pin when I checked in on the Thursday (along with pins for the other awards)  .....

..... so I knew then I'd made the list - then it was exciting on the evening to find out exactly where.  I'm number 15.   A huge congrats and pat on the back to the other girls on the list, and especially to a special someone who came in at number 1.  And to the 18 girls from Aust/NZ who are heading off to Fiji later this year on the Incentive Trip - well done.

We all got to go on stage and Shelli gave us each a hug and a lovely long stemmed rose.  Stampin' Up do a terrific job of making us all feel very special.   (Thank you to my friend Kathryn for some of the pics in this post - much appreciated.)

Stampin' Up give stamp sets as part of the various awards so I went home with a nice collection of goodies to add to my craft stash, and even better - a lovely lovely feeling of being recognised, appreciated and rewarded.  In my other roles that feeling is sometimes a little hard to find - they don't have 'Instilled a Love Of Reading' awards, or 'Kept Everyone Fed for a week' or 'Gives Good Snuggles' or 'Battled An Out Of Control Laundry'.    Hannah and Jack were most impressed with my certificate and think it should go up on the wall next to the Student Of The Week awards.  J

I wouldn't have received these awards without my lovely lovely team and my gorgeous customers and class girls, and most importantly my very supportive (and patient!) husband and lovely kids so a big big thanks to everyone.  What a fabulous job I have.

Before I close for today, a few other announcements were made at convention.

Next year we're heading to Canberra for Convention 2012, May 31st - June 2nd.   Put the date in your diary if you're a demonstrator.  And give a holler if all this fun has you tempted to join the crew and I'll send you some more info.  Did you know that you no longer need an ABN to join so it is now super quick and easy. 

Another memorable moment of the night -  Aaron and Emma (Aust and NZ managers) rode onto the stage on camels to let us know that next year's Incentive Trip is to Broome to the Cable Beach Resort.   Ooh sounds exciting!

Now - want to know that funny story!  I impulse bought a new dress the day I was leaving for convention as I fell in love with the funky flouncy hemline.  Ducked into DFO between sessions to get a 5 way convertible bra and while getting dolled up I was madly converting it 5 ways to see which was best (and wishing it came with a manual!)   Time was ticking so got dressed in a hurry and off we all went to the dinner.  It wasn't til I got home again that I realised I'd put the dress on backwards!   It does seem to be cut the same front and back but the nice panel of pleats was supposed to run down the front, not the back!   I did have a giggle!  What do you think - can you tell??  JJJ

And after that little laugh between us girls, now I'd best switch this computer off for a bit as my bag is still sitting here waiting for me to unpack it.   Have a wonderful week.

Cheers, Sue