WOW! Fun at the Kaisercraft Party

THIS IS A LONG BLOG! BUT WAIT TIL YOU GET TO THE FABULOUS NEWS AT THE END!!

Today was a most amazing day!!! We went from Melbourne to Geelong on the train and then spent the day in and around Kaisercraft (and a couple of other lovely stores in the area). We had a tour of the offices and met heaps of all the fabulous people who work there. What an amazing team. Imagine working for Kaisercraft! They all look so happy...! We had a wonderful lunch with Christina (NZ Rep) and Clarinda. It's so great to see where people work when you're emailing them. We also did some SHOPPING at the Kaiser outlet store. Think big and filled with all the goodies we love...

We were kindly taken back to the motel (thanks Chez), rushed to have a quick peek at Geelong's beautiful waterfront, eat and glam up for the night at the launch party. We were warmly greeted by the owners Steven and Carolyn Kaiser and then thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people: Al Hannah, Melissa Kennedy, paper designers, managers, workers (oh dear I would love to name you all - but it's late!!) and of course other shop owners. People were so lovely and friendly and we really were having the most wonderful time. I think there were over 70 shops represented from all over Aussie (and 2 from NZ)

Then Steven and Matt did their opening addresses (a fine job) before the curtain was pulled open to reveal the new Q1 range set up in their HUGE scrap classroom. I was in there pretty early on to get photos of the most amazing creative dispays I have ever seen! Incredible - and even better was to meet the people who designed this stuff!!

We had a a bit of time to place orders (I wanted it all and decided to order it all). And then they had competition time! The first prize was INCREDIBLY INCREDIBLY generous so I got myself in a good position to take a photo of them pulling the name out of a hat... and then they called the name... Liz... (I'm thinking there are lots of Liz's)... from Artfull Crafts (I think that's the name of my business)... in New Zealand... WOWWWWWWW!! I waved to my husband and then it was a blur of photos and smiles and clapping and I really didn't know what to do or where to stand. They were taking more photos with us and Steven Kaiser and I then I had this terrible feeling the photo would look atrocious! (Whew it's okay!) Then I started getting teary... But I didn't faint (although that would have been hilarious!)

What an incredible blessing! I have never really won anything before (neither have I really entered any competition). This is an amazing prize for a small business like Artfull Crafts and it's come at the most incredible time. I've been wanting to expand the business, but unsure of how to do it.

The amount of stock I won is phenomenal and I will have to expand into the spare spare bedroom in the next couple of weeks. Our hunt for a shop-front house had already started - but we'll be getting more serious now!!

The rest of the evening was filled with people congratulating us and we were blessed to spend half and hour chatting with Steven (the owner) about business and how to expand and send it in a direction that works with our goals. He's also been the pastor of a church - so of course we talked about our favourite subject - the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On our way out the door we collected THE most amazing goodie bags filled with all the new releases... I will photograph them as soon as I've pulled them out and had a proper look!

What an incredible experience. The evening finished with being chauffeured by another generous Kaisercraft employee back to the Motel (thanks Conrad!).

Wow! So was it worth flying to Aussie on a whim for a product party? Indeed. It was already worth doing before I won the major prize! In fact, I really didn't think the evening could get any better...

I just love meeting people and sharing in the excitement of an amazing company like Kaiser. Now it's late (late) but I really did want to share this exciting news with you all. So the next question is: When is the stock arriving???? Apparently they will be packaging it up next week ... so keep your eye on this website. We are going to have a lot of fun sharing the prizes with you all!

I'm heading to bed now - but this time I will curl up into bed and read the fabulous Kaisercraft Magazine they just gave me...