SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Sherry Stuart likes to party hard and work hard - all at the same time.

As Yellowknife's premier direct seller of Pampered Chef products, Stuart is a one-woman success story - a stay-at-home mom who brings home her fair share of the bacon and the regular free trip, too. (We'll get to those.)

What's the most popular item among Yellowknife Pampered Chef clients? Knives, according to direct seller Sherry Stuart. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Pampered Chef, a popular line of kitchen products sold in people's homes all over North America, first caught her attention three years ago, when she was living in Grande Prairie, Alta.

She and her sister were hosting a cooking show - a gathering of 10 to 12 women where a Pampered Chef consultant (industry slang for salesperson) uses products to cook a meal, circulars some catalogues and takes down orders.

"I was watching the consultant clean up," said Stuart, who, when not holding her own shows, works out of her home on Jeske Crescent. "(My sister) just kind of turned and I was like 'Oh my gosh.' It was almost like a magnetic reaction."

Stuart's flirtation with the business remained just that, a flirtation, for about a year until she moved to Whitecourt, Alta.

"I guess I just wasn't sure," she said. "You know, I'm not really a chef. Could I really do this - get up in front of people and cook? But I said, 'You know what? This is just fun.' And what a great way to meet people in a new community. So I phoned (them) up and said, 'I'm ready.'"

She did well in Whitecourt. Really well.

"My first three months in the business, I received calls saying, 'I had to check your numbers twice because I could not believe how much you've been selling."

Based solely on sales during those first three months, she won a free trip for one to Mexico.

"Every year we have an incentive trip. You can earn it. I didn't know there was a trip. My director phoned me and said, 'Sherry, did you know that you are this close to winning the trip to Mexico?' I said, 'What trip?' And then I ended up going...

"After that, I was sold. I was going on every trip."

She and her husband, Bruce, travelled to Aruba and Paris. Next up: Disney with the kids, Ariel, 12, and Robert, 14. Stuart also has a 19-year-old daughter, Ashlee.

After Whitecourt, business boomed up North.

"The Yellowknife market, I found everyone loves to get out in the evening," she said. "One lady said, 'You know what it is about Yellowknife? It's just so cold that we love to get together, visit and spend money.' And I said, 'I can work with that.'"

Last month, Stuart was flown to Toronto to receive the Top Performance Cluster Award in Personal Sales, given out to sellers who ring up a minimum of $60,000 in commissionable sales in one year. She had to give a speech.

"It was probably the most nerve-wracking experience of my life. I hardly knew anybody. It was scary, and afterwards I had people hugging me, saying, 'You inspire me so much.'"

The job is ideal because it allows her to balance her home life and business, said Stuart.

"I'm a stay-at-home mom," she said. "I want to be at every ball game. I want to be at their school plays. I don't want to miss anything. This lets me have a career and stay at home."