we have arrived in beautiful johannesburg, south africa and i will tell you that it was absolutely worth every hour of travel time. mario and i are so thankful to be here once again, and enjoyed spending the day and evening with our great friends glenda and gary and their son’s byron and kyle for a wonderful lunch and then a “braai” (south african term for bbq) at their home. after a great time, we were back at our hotel for some much needed sleep to be ready for the first event the following morning.
we woke early and headed to the venue to get ready for an all-day ranger retailer education event for our friend lyn from rubber stamp & engraving/trodat (the south african distributor of tim holtz products). i had a full 7 hours of education planned teaching 20 different techniques to the retailers using lots of ranger products including distress inks, paints, stains, markers, perfect pearls, and alcohol inks. it was a great day educating the retailers and sharing lots of tips and techniques to go back and share with their customers. thank you to lyn and all of the retailers who attended the event. paula and her husband jay arrived that day in south africa and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with glenda and her family before starting the big event the next day.
it was another early morning as we headed back to the venue to get ready for our first all-day event of the sa scrapbook convention that paula and i were teaching. the room quickly filled with 170 delegates as we spent the entire day teaching two projects designed to educate and inspire. the following day we taught our second all-day event to another group of 150 delegates and really had such a wonderful two full days of creativity with everyone. thank you to all of the delegates for sharing the day with us, and sharing their excitement and willingness to learn and explore new techniques. thanks also to glenda, paula, mario, and the team at sa scrapbook convention for putting on such an amazing event.
next stop is port elizabeth to escape to the stunning kichaka game lodge for a few days of rest and relaxation. i’ll be back to share about that experience when we return to reality…t!m
