Would appreciate your thoughts on my dilemma...
 

My cousin has been selling SU! since before I even knew what it was. Since I have been interested, several years now, I have placed all my orders with her. My dilemma is the fact that she and I live 2.5 hours apart and I am unable to attend any of the stamping parties, etc. she has. I miss this. I'm sure I could find an SU! demo where I live and attend stamping get-togethers she may have but then I would most certainly feel obligated to place orders with her. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated!!

Talk with your cousin. She should understand your need for support and classes. It is more fun to have someone to stamp with and bounce ideas off of. You can assure her that you will still buy from her but that you will be buying from the other gal too. If she's been in business a long time I'm sure she has other customers. There are several people here that support more than 1 demo myself included.

You could also start a stamp club with friends and meet monthly or every other month and still order from your cousin.

If someone near you offers classes for a fee, I would say that by paying the fee you are helping out that demonstator. I would feel kinda funny going to free classes and then taking my orders to another demonstrator though.

Now how fun would that be? I say LOTS!!!

You might consider this!!!! As it would allow you to stamp with friends, AND, support your cousin!

I used to travel 7-8 hours down to my cousin's to do workshops for her and her friends . . . and then she became a demo'r herself! :grin:

You could always sign up to be a demo and then you would be her downline. You would be able to plan your own events, with your friends, get a discount and still help her out. Hmmm problem solved- everybody wins;)

Which brings up a question - what's an upline and a downline? No, I'm not a demonstrator.

Upline- The demonstrator you signed up to be a demonstrator under
Downline- Any demonstrators you sign up

Stampin' Up! places a responsbility on upline to help train and support their downlines. So it is really important to sign up under someone who is compatible what your needs!

if you have other stamping friends I would say get them together and make a monthly club that your cousin can demo at...

I agree with another poster too. If there is a demo in your area that charges a fee for classes, you could attend the classes and not feel obligated to purchase since you did pay to attend (the fee usually covers the cost of supplies and some of the demo's time).

Or maybe your cousin would be willing to prepare a workshop for you, mail it to you, you do the workshop and send her all the orders. I know a couple demo's do this.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

One of the key questions I have is how does your cousin feel about your dilemma? Or if you dont feel free to ask her, how do you think she feels. I certainly understand not wanting to cause hard feelings with a family member but maybe she totally gets *it* and would wish you lots of stampin fun with a new demo and all this worry is for naught.
I have a similiar situation where I moved 3 hours away from my dear friend who is my demo. I continued to order from her but was so missing the stamping gatherings. Finally I went to the SU website, found a demo in my area who has regular workshops (it did take a few tries for me to find the right one). I joined her club and am obligated to spend $25/month, (which is pretty easy to do) But at least once every quarter I do place an order with my old friend. I dont think I'm spending more that I would if I was just ordering from one person because I do limit myself with my new demo. My old friend gives me a little discount which is an incentive to keep ordering from her. She knows I am in a new club and theres no hard feelings. I figure as long as I live up to the expected spending with the new demo and help my friend out too we are all happy.