SIA - tears and triumphs...

This year, I was representing Scrapware at the Scrapbook Industry of Australia tradeshow. Scrapware's release was totally gorgeous! I'm so thrilled I got to be a part of it. Not only that, my designs were released too...so excited! Here's some pics...check out our display...all of those pink frames contain our new designs.Here's Ange, Kim and I...
Here we are teaching our make and takes and the totally cute name badges I made us using the new funky birds, as well as my friend Sandra working the Bella stand...Kim and I at the Awards dinner, my designs, and my friend Sar who is the new, very proud owner of Scrapbook Savvy!Here's a close up of my designs...I'm so proud of myself for taking a leap of faith. I have a lot of ideas running through my head, and some that are currently being digitised and cut...so watch out for Lisa Warren Designs for Scrapware at a scrapbook store near you soon! This release features a cute little peacock that would sit perfectly on the corner of your photo, my trees, flourishes, feathers and puzzle journaling pieces (the centre of which pops out so you can insert a photo).
Here's the run down of events...grab a chair because this is lengthy...then you'll understand why I haven't updated my blog before now! lol.

MONDAY
Sandra and I had a great morning together...taking it easy driving up to visit Scraploot, then lunch at Rhodes and finally on to the State Sports Centre at Homebush to set up the stalls. Kim picked Ange up at the airport and met us there. Poor Ange had been in hospital that morning with back spasms...they told her it was just muscular and she'd be ok, so she flew to Sydney. It was obvious she was not well, but being the trooper she is, she persevered and the stall looked beautiful! Monday night after we'd finished setting up, we went for dinner at the brewery downstairs from the Ibis, then headed up to bed. As Ange's back was sore and Kim is 6ft tall, I took the trundle, which was like a cot (lol). We discovered around 9pm that the air conditioning wasn't working, so we asked for maintenance to come up. Unfortunately, the technician couldn't fix it, so we requested a new room...now the story turns a little Goldilocks and the three bears...the next room was full of smoke; room no. 3 had no air conditioning either; room no. 4 was also full of smoke; and room no. 5 was just right! lol. We unpacked and settled in for the night. At some stage during the night, Kim got up and when she returned to her bed, she tripped over, nearly broke her toe and fell on top of me! lol!

TUESDAY
Its raining. Ange's condition was deteriorating rapidly, so she did the fastest shuffle she could into the centre. The doors opened at 9am and its on. At first it was quiet because most people went off to classes, but it quickly started to pick up once everyone saw how gorgeous our make and takes were...door hangers...stop/keep out for boys and birdhouse and flowers for girls...totally usable and adorable. The feedback we received from everyone was really positive and exciting. Ange went to see the sports doctor and he diagnosed a prolapsed disc or ruptured disc! Not quite the "muscular" issue the hospital in Melbourne thought it was. The dr prescribed a whole different range of painkillers and sent her back to us. She spent the rest of the day lying down in the first aid room and Kim and I looked after the stand. It was busy, busy, busy!!

TUESDAY NIGHT
Ange wasn't well enough to attend the Awards dinner, so Kim and I pushed on. Dinner was okay and the company was good...excitement though when the fire alarms went off and the firemen came into the room! I don't think they knew what hit them!! A room full of cackling, scrapbooking woman bearing cameras!! lol. We got back to the room around 11ish, chatted for a while, then went to sleep. At 1.20am, Ange woke us up to say she was in incredible pain...she couldn't even get out of bed! We called an ambulance and they took her to Concord Hospital. Kim and I followed to make sure she was okay, then returned to the hotel. We went to sleep around 4am.

VERY EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING
It is still raining. At 5am-ish the fire alarms went off in the hotel! At first I thought it was the alarm to wake me up, but it registered pretty quickly when it went to the "whoop" sound! I stuck my head out the door to see everyone else trying to figure out what to do. I quickly threw on a cardigan over my pyjamas, grabbed some shoes, and started down the stairs. I had makeup all over my face and terrible hair. The hotel was fully booked out too - The Who had a concert on that night and there were people everywhere!! So embarrassing - in my jammies in the pouring rain. The fire brigade gave the hotel the all clear, so we headed back up. We dropped back off to sleep, then the alarm went off again! Unbelievable!!! Kim asked that I leave her there to burn...we were so tired. Thankfully the alarm stopped and we could go back to sleep (so far the sleep total was about 2 hours for the night). Not one hour later, Ange rang from the hospital to say she was being discharged. We begged for an extra hour's sleep, then we'd pick her up.

LATER WEDNESDAY MORNING
Breakfast at the hotel, then we headed off to pick up Ange. The poor chicken had been thrown out of her bed and was waiting for us in the emergency room. She still couldn't walk properly and lord knows what medications they had her on. We dropped her back at the hotel, then headed off to the tradeshow. The show was really busy and people were lining up to do the make and takes. Sales were going really well too! Kim picked up Ange from the hotel at 1.30pm and brought her back to the show. By now, she was in a wheelchair and in immense pain. I still can't believe that the hospital discharged her!! It makes me cranky just thinking about it. The poor chook was sick too, then spent rest of the day in the first aid room again. By this stage, we were all exhausted! The show wrapped up, we started packing and checked on Ange, who was really, really unwell. We called another ambulance and demanded they take her to a different hospital...so off to RPA it was. Sandra and some of the volunteers packed up the rest of the stand and I am eternally grateful! I can't believe how many people were willing to drop everything to help us out...special thanks to Sandra, Sally, Lorraine, Kelly, Allison, Heidi and the volunteers (sorry I can't remember your names). I rang Ange's hubby to let him know, then we headed off to the hospital...the doctors at RPA were fantastic. They were treating Ange so well and she was very well medicated by the time we got there...although she did have a reaction to the morphine...but what do you expect after 3 days from hell. lol. Kim and I drove home in the fog and rain and got home about 10.30pm. It was such a long day! You'll all be happy to know that Ange has made it back to Melbourne now and is slowly getting back on her feet.

So, after reading all of that, I think you deserve a prize!!
To celebrate the fact that Scrapware had a great show despite the setbacks, I am having a giveaway! I have a sample pack of all the new release items valued at $80 to giveaway to one lucky blog reader!! Leave a comment on this post and let me know how use chipboard on your layouts...I will draw the winner next Friday (10 April).

Cheers, Lis.
ps. Wendy and Laura...I'll be sending your goodies from the previous giveaway this week.