Friday, October 24, 2014

Feeling the Close To My Heart Love




Last weekend I went to the first ever Close to My Heart Australasia Convention in beautiful Brisbane.  Many of you know what a struggle it has been for me to lose my Creative Memories business in such an unexpected way last year, and how hard it has been for me to truly embrace everything that Close to My Heart has to offer. Well last weekend changed that.  We were surprised by a visit from Close to My Heart's founder Jeanette Lynton.  Jeanette has not been in the best of health for a few years and I can only imagine the enormous courage it took to fly all this way to talk to Australian consultants.  She was joined by Brian Holman and Monica Whongi and our own Australian boss Brian O'Callaghan, who is one of the most humble, and genuine men I have ever met.

All weekend we were showered with new product and pressies.  The pace was unhurried and pleasant with lots of time for networking and catching up with consultant friends from all over Australia.  We participated in a papercraft swap (so I came home with lots of amazing cards and tags!) The feeling was one of comeraderie, friendship, support and gratitude.  I felt at home, and like I really have managed the change, and lived to be stronger, and in a better place.  At last now I can say that if someone offered me my old Creative Memories business back I would say no.  I am happy where I am.

Along with all of the fun of convention there was a training component and one of the things that came out of that is the realisation that I am not using this blog effectively.  It has always been a "craft" and family blog and I don't want to change that, but I do also want my customers to feel that this blog is of use to them, which is why now every Friday you can be guaranteed a Close To My Heart related post.  The usual stuff will still be posted whenever, but I will make Friday's post related to all things papercraft and memory keeping.
One of the big surprises of Convention was that my amazing team won 2nd in sales for the small team category!!!  How proud I am of this truly awesome group of girls!

A sneak peek and a play with new product from the Seasonal expressions catalogue as well as a nifty techniques book that we completed on the weekend.

And of course, since I've been back it has been a busy week of kindy and I haven't had a chance to get crafty at all.  Tomorrow is my Saturday workshop so here is a pic of the Stamp of the Month display:



Until next Friday, happy papercrafting!
Nell xxx

No comments: