Shanna and Jared had their announcement  photos taken yesterday. With Jon behind the camera, there were lots of fun shots to choose from!  (He and Shalae and the kids are in town for the family photo shoot for the catalog on Saturday, so it was perfect timing!)

Sean, who designed the announcement  (to die for!) helped out during the shoot; they went out to the Great Salt Lake. And now they (Jon and Sean) are working to prepare the print pieces  to go to the printers first thing.

Of course, because of the short notice (Shanna and Jared are getting married on April 10, LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY. . . BUT WE’RE NOT STRESSED OR ANYTHING!), the announcements won’t be hand-stamped at all. (Does it count that they’re being printed on our Elegant Eggplant card stock?) We just didn’t have time.

The bridal shower invitations and favors WILL be hand-stamped though; I’ll post them when we finish them.

And I’ll post a finished announcement as well, when they are hot off the press next week.

  In the meantime, here are a few of the photos Shanna and Jared didn’t choose for the announcements.

It’s very exciting to see my youngest and last daughter prepare for this singularly important event in her life. I’m sure I’ll get sentimental at some point, but there’s no time for that right now. . . .we’ve got way too many things on our list to check off!

With luggage securely in hand, we headed to Toronto yesterday, and our last Canadian Workshop of a Lifetime for quite awhile. (We have one more to do in the Great White North, but it will be later because Tamye wasn’t available these past two weeks.)

This workshop was with Esther Moore, a sweetheart of a demonstrator. Anyone who is pregnant with her third child and her oldest is three deserves a medal! She is due in five or six weeks, and was darling with her two little boys. You can tell she’s a great mother!

And she’s a great demonstrator as well! She’s new (just signed up in October) and is gung ho. Believe it or not, she has a few more events scheduled between now and the birth of her baby! She got another booking last night at the workshop as well, although I’m not sure when she’ll schedule that one.

The workshop went well. Esther took seriously the challenge to have at least half of the guests be completely new to Stampin’ Up!, and so more than half of her guests she met last night for the first time. (We love when that happens, don’t we? That’s truly the magic of a workshop at work!) 

The guests seemed to like the projects; they liked it even more when I messed up. (smile) They laughed when I put the Happy Birthday card through the Big Shot without stamping it first, and they also found it amusing when I forgot to put the brad and grommet on before I started layering on the demonstration project. I asked them if they thought I was perfect, and they said “yes.” They know better now! I don’t think I’ve ever demonstrated anything anywhere without goofing up, but that just helps reassure people that anyone can do this; you certainly don’t have to be perfect! 

Esther’s guests also really liked the stenciling, which I was happy about (since it’s one of my favorite techniques). They didn’t realize how easy it was, and they loved the look it creates.

And I have to mention the custom-made Stampin’ Up! cupcakes—handmade by a friend. Esther gave her some DSP, and she went to town. Aren’t they beautiful? Almost too lovely to eat. . . . but not quite!

After the workshop, we rushed off to dinner with a small group of Esther’s demonstrator friends (upline, sideline, etc.). We were late (nobody seemed to want to leave the workshop, which is always a good sign!), but thoroughly enjoyed dinner and the conversation as well! (And thanks, ladies, for the tip about getting to the airport early! We would have never made our flight if you hadn’t warned us that it was one of the busiest travel days of the year in Canada and to get there at least three hours early.)

I’ve said it before, and I’m certain I’ll say it about every one—this Workshop of a Lifetime was fabulous! Heading out, Sara and I were a little nervous. They hadn't found our luggage yet, so we were still wearing our travel clothes and hats to cover our hair, with a lot of prep work (which we had planned to do in the hotel, but couldn’t because our cutters and scissors were in our suitcases) still to do.

After we drove for about an hour, we entered L’Orignal and immediately felt reassured. The town is charming. And Kim’s gorgeous house, which sits on the river’s edge, was even more welcoming.

And then we met Kim, who was incredibly gracious and unselfish, the perfect hostess. She’d heard about the luggage mishap, had all the supplies we needed ready and waiting, and immediately put us at ease.

Although her guests arrived before we were completely ready, they were equally gracious as they waited patiently, and we all chatted and laughed about the challenges we’d encountered in our travels.

The actual workshop itself went off without a hitch (how could it not in such an incredible stamping room!), and the guests enjoyed making the Make & Takes. I think Kim got three bookings; I’m not sure about sales because Kim didn’t close it last night. And Sara and I could have listened to everyone talk in French (all the guests were bilingual and slipped back and forth between both languages) all night long—it’s a beautiful language!

Between the workshop and her demonstrator event, we ate dinner. Kim’s husband came home early from work (the first time he’s done that, she said) and served us a delicious dinner! Her darling girls were there as well—a simply adorable family!

More than 140 demonstrators attended Kim’s demonstrator event; we kept busy with picture taking and chatting, and it was also a wonderful experience. Kim had displays, four Make & Takes, and plenty of action. I think she signed up three recruits too! You can tell that Kim takes this business seriously, is very detail-oriented, and loves both her customers and fellow demonstrators. And they love her back!

We were sad to leave Kim and L’Orignal behind us when the evening was over. But when we arrived at the hotel and found our lost luggage sitting in our hotel room, we brightened right up! Sara did the happy dance (I wish I’d had the camera!), and we had a shower and put on CLEAN clothes for the first time in two days!  Woo hoo!

All I can say is that I hope never to repeat this day. It certainly hasn’t been my worst, but it definitely hasn’t been my best!

Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that Sara and I left this morning to head off for our third week of Workshops of a Lifetime. Our flight leaving Salt Lake City was delayed by two hours, meaning we missed one connection, meaning we missed another connection. We eventually got re-routed to our final destination from Chicago, arriving way later than originally planned. (And since I didn’t get any sleep last night, I was kind of counting on getting to bed early tonight! Hate when that happens. . . )

And to add insult to injury, our luggage (complete with clothes, make-up, and some of the workshop supplies) flew off into the sunset to who knows where. We had hoped that it might arrive here before we did, but unfortunately, we were disappointed. I laughed as we left the baggage area after filling out all the forms, because Sara kept looking back longingly at the carousel, hoping against hope that somehow the missing bags might miraculously appear. Didn’t happen. . .

So tonight, besides being exhausted, we’re trying to come up with a Plan B for our workshop. I think we’ll be OK—we have the actual project and Make & Takes with us (we had them in our carry-ons) and we’re hoping our sweet hostess has many of the basic supplies that we will need to replace the ones that are flying (or sitting) somewhere in the vast airline universe.

I think we’ll go to bed now. We’re finally here, we know what we’ve got and what we don’t have, and the day will be much brighter tomorrow, right? I know the workshop will be fabulous regardless—I mean, I’ve never been with a group of stampers and not had a great time. As a friend of mine likes to say, “It will be alright in the end, so if it’s not alright, it’s not the end!” I’m certain that tomorrow night, everything will be alright!

P.S. I haven’t forgotten to choose the Creative Challenge winners—I had planned to finalize that tonight, but I think I’ll go to bed instead. Watch for those winners to be announced soon. . . .

I’ve had one full day between arriving home from the Calgary Regional and heading off to the next round of Workshops of a Lifetime—and guess how I spent it? Shopping—for a wedding dress!

Yes, I’m thrilled to announce (although it’s not news to some of you, Shanna’s been talking about it for days!) that Shanna is engaged. 

Her fiancé is Jared Bridegan, the brother of one of her best friend’s husband. They met back in October, right after she came home from her mission. Her friend’s husband actually e-mailed Shanna on her mission and told her about his brother, but Shanna wasn’t interested—too busy doing missionary work.

Then when she came home, she was kind of dating another guy. Jared flew out (he lives in Florida) for one day and they went to lunch, but Shanna wasn’t interested. Jared stayed in touch though, texting and calling, and Shanna started to pay more attention. Eventually, she flew out to Florida, and that face-to-face visit went much better than the previous one!

Jared flew out this weekend to make it official, and he happened to be here for Sterling’s big 60^th birthday, a milestone that Sterling hasn’t been thrilled with. We had the kids over for dinner on Sunday, and he got a shirt to help him remember the day. Other than that, we pretty much let him ignore it.

So now you know all the details leading up to today’s shopping trip.

So all the girls but Shalae met at the first store this morning as it opened. We went to one store in Utah County, then grabbed an early lunch (we met Sterling and Jared—Sterling was taking Jared to the airport to catch a flight back home so he can wrap up things before he moves out here) before visiting two more stores. We texted photos of the dresses to Shalae, and she’d call us to share her thoughts, so while it wasn’t quite as good as her being there, she was at least a part of it.

We found dresses we liked in each of the shops, but it was at the last shop that we found THE ONE. We knew the minute she put it on that this dress was meant for Shanna. I won’t post a picture of that dress quite yet—there are a few alterations and additions that need to be made, but I’ll definitely post photos after the wedding. 

So that’s today’s big news! We’re looking forward to spending more time with Jared once he moves out here in the next week or so, and in the meantime we’re thrilled with the way he treats Shanna and that they are so much in love! She cried when they said good-bye today, and I rolled my eyes a little. They’ll be apart for a whole SIX DAYS! But then I remembered leaving Sterling and sobbing the entire two-hour flight back to school, so I do understand. It is kind of cute. . .

I’m staying up late tonight to finish preparing for this week’s two Workshops of a Lifetime. I’ll be catching a flight early tomorrow for that. So now I have to stop thinking about wedding dresses and turn my attention to stamping projects.  . . .