What a fun trip we had to Brisbane SIA! I really should be going to bed now (after a 3am arrival back home...)

We were at the Papercraft Expo for Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday. Vicki and I slowly walked the aisles meeting lovely crafters and retailers, checking out the new stock, make-and-takes, demos and doing a little (little) bit of shopping.

The Saturday was pretty busy and it was really hard getting into some of the stalls to see what was going on. Satall design is VERY important!!

We've found quite a lot of new product lines that we will be introducing - in time for SENZ we hope. And we brought some back with us too after visiting Aussie distribution warehouses. Well, we tried to bring the goods back! I decided to pay the excess baggage and was ready with the invoice for the commercial goods (to pay GST and customs charges). The plane arrived at 12am and by 1am we were being seen by the Customs area. They didn't want to deal with the clearance and said that we had to keep everything at the airport in the boxes until the morning...

So we came back to Timaru empty handed. Hopefully they will have everything done by tomorrow so that we can do a quick drive back to ChCh to collect them over the weekend!!

Anyway, some of the new items we brought back are the Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies and embossing folders, Twiddleybitz chipboard (for miles!), Me and My Big Ideas layout kits, Papermania products (part of the DoCrafts machine), Just Rite Stamps, Smooch and Smooch Spritz (what fun) and some other random bits and pieces. I'm sure we'll be working hard over the next few days to get it out in the shop and on the website.

We'll also be stocking Magnolia stamps, Martha Stewart punches, Copic Ciao markers, Opals, Unity Stamps, Stamp Scapes and some Darkroom Door products. We're wanting to improve our stamping selection to meet the local demand - and we think you'll like the range. These items will be arriving in time for SENZ.

We didn't have a lot of time for holidaying while we were away - although friends of ours met us for a meal and we popped down to the Gold Coast for an evening with my cousin.

Vicki is staying in Aussie for another 2 weeks visiting family and Juanita is sunning it in Fiji. Meanwhile I had 568 messages to check this morning, 15 boxes of stock to open (that's the stuff that arrived while I was away!) and now I've just finished packing up the Scrappin Sensations Monthly Layout Kit. I think I need a holiday...!! Night Night...