Back from CHA

I had so much fun during my short trip at CHA. I can tell you I have a brand new appreciation for store owners. I have no idea how they make any decisions in this place! It was like total sensory overload!!! By the end of the first day my eyes were glossed over....everything started to look the same. There was just more and more and more patterned paper! Sadly, I left CHA with very little on my 'must have' list. There were lots of things I found to be pretty but not a lot that screamed, 'Buy Me!' Of course not owning a store, I couldn't actually place any orders, but you get the picture. One fairly recent product I had previously paid no mind to, I now think is totally cool after getting a chance to play with it.....Tim Holtz's Grunge Board!

Emily and I spent all of Saturday walking the floor. When we got to the Ranger booth, we spied Tim Holtz and Ali Edwards. We sat down and did a make and take using the Grunge Board, then contemplated whether or not to ask to take our picture with Tim (Ali had moved on). When there was a good opportunity we approached him and had a little conversation about Adirondack pads and asked for a picture. He was so nice!!!! Talks to ya' like you're a friend... Here's Scoopy, Tim, and I.

One of our stops was also at the Cornish Heritage Farms booth. Right away I spotted Keri Sereika and Scoopy spotted Lisa Strahl. We were able to meet Keri but had to wait for a bit to talk to Lisa as she was busy helping a customer. While waiting we perused the CHF booth. I got to see some images from the Rubbage Bin, Kim Hughes, the Elvis line, and Thomas Kinkade and if you look in the back left corner of this photo....Thomas the Train is coming! Now my kids are too old for Thomas but I sure would have enjoyed having these when they were younger.

I met lots fabulous SCS folks. Trudee Sauer, Debbie Olson, Ellen Hutson, and A Muse's very own Michelle White worked the Copic booth. It was fabulous to see Trudee and Debbie in action. I was able to see them demonstrate the airbrush system and their coloring techniques. Cool stuff! I also met some of the Copic staff and they were just the nicest people. Here are some other folks I met (forgive me if I left anyone off!): Jeanne Streiff, BadSherry, Kittie747, Linda Duke, Jami Siebley, saw Taylor Van Bruggen from afar, EarlyMorning, Willowsmom....I know there were more. Everyone pretty much looked like their blog and/or avatar pictures. Some were taller than expected and some were shorter than I expected but their faces were instantly recognizeable. We spotted Elsie from the Love, Elsie line at her booth. Heidi Swapp was working at her own booth as well.

The best thing about my trip was meeting the A Muse gals that I'd never met before in person. We all had dinner together at the Cheesecake Factory and Michelle has the group picture over on her blog. This is one group of fabulous women! That's all for now! I'm a little swamped from taking some time off for CHA and have a lot of catching up to do.