Home at last!

I finally got home from Calif.  Wow, what a long trip.  I went out for winter CHA and then stayed on to take care of my 86 year old mother who had a "procedure".  She is quite well, thank you, and was running around with her walker by the time I left.  I knew it was time to leave when I kept following her around telling her to slow down, sit down and put her feet up and she was having none of it.  A nurse came by on Sunday afternoon and pronounced her just fine.  Now a little about CHA.

Where to begin.  I did a demo/make & take for ImagineCrafts (aka:Memento/Tsukineko) on Friday evening.  My daughter came to assist me.  Oh. My. Goodness!  What a time we had.  This was my first rodeo so I thought I'd have maybe 4 people or so at a time.  I walked up front to leave my daughter's name at the door and saw a line that wrapped around the corner and down the hall.  I said "are all the people lined up to come in here?"  The door monitor said "yes".  WooHoo!  Instead of 4 people at a time we were teaching 8 people at a time.  Our project was a miniature art journaling page/postcard.  It measures 4" by 6" and is done on 140 lb. watercolor paper.  Just at our table we taught over 100 people, mostly retail  store owners, how to do this and only had 5 cards left by 9:00 when the event closed.  Whew!  Here are the photos of the room and a few of the exhibitors who were demo-ing projects BEFORE everyone came in.  There are no AFTER photos but believe me it did not look the same at any of the booths. :-)  We just kept scooping all the paper towels and baby wipes onto the floor behind the tables to make room for the next person.  Holly and I were busy for 3 hours straight.  I had the time of my life!

Imagine Crafts provided this calendar so people could put each project on a page as they moved around the room and completed each one.  I thought that was a really great idea.  I was "Miss November".   (lol)

The following days spent at CHA were surreal.  Imagine walking around and seeing all the crafters you follow on-line just sitting there or walking around.  One minute we'd spot the Gentleman Crafter strolling with Shelly Hickox, the next minute Dyan Reaveley would go flying by (wearing a moustache) closely followed by Wendy Vecchi.  Tim Holtz and Mario would be sitting close by visiting with anyone who stopped by to say hello.  So many of these crafting teachers were doing demos at different booths for hours.  If you wanted to you could just sit or stand there and be taught for a couple of hours by people like Dina Wakley or Claudine Hellmuth.  And the projects!  All the latest and greatest products were on display being demoed by each company.  The projects and decorations in the over 2000 booths were incredible.  I took a few photos but I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing my photos do not do the experience justice.  Here are a few photos I had the presence of mind to take.  Tomorrow I will share the rest of the photos.

Wendy Vecchi and Dyan Reaveley

Dyan with Dina Wakley

I'll see you all tomorrow and share a few photos of the new products and projects.  Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you all have a great weekend.

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