Chicago CHA Highlights

Hiya!  I'd typed out this HUGE post about CHA with pictures and my blogger zonked it.  Ugh...



I hope I catch the gist of it again...



Wednesday:

Lori Craig, Julie Campbell and I roomed together, after we arrived late that evening.  Long queues for luggage, excessive amounts of Starbucks caffeine and copious amounts of giggling kept us up late.



Thursday:

Lori, Julie and I went to the Copic Certification class all day.  There were tons of stamping rock stars in this class.  I couldn't help but be intimidated.  I had the opportunity to watch Debbie Olsen in action.  Amazing stuff!!!  Serious talent!



Here, Debbie's giving some pointers to the group (and some serious rock stars, I tell ya!):

We sat with Bev Gerard, Vicki Garrett and Kristi Ferro and these girls kept us in stitches the whole time.  What a fun day!



Bev and Vicki hard at work:

And Kristi... what a hoot, this girl:

Marianne signing my certificate... it's official!!!

Kim Leech had come in search of us in our class and we'd gotten a group shot.  Notice how Lori, Julie and I all got the memo on wearing pink?  LOL!!

After class, we headed to the showroom floor to help with booth set up.  When the boxes were all piled, it seemed like an insurmountable task to get that all set up, but somehow we managed.  We had some last minute work to be done on Friday, but this was almost exclusively complete.

Besides being excessively (read that as oppressively hot on the show floor), I think we were all wiped out.  We eventually made it to the Hyatt for dinner, where I met up with my mom.  She was able to join the crowd too!  I was so grateful she came.  My mom and I are very close and it meant a lot to me to spend my time at CHA with my best friend.  You'll have to read on Julie Campbell's blog her humorous account of dinner.  Let's just say it was really funny how a nearly 60 year old hit it off with the group.



After our dinner, we went to the lobby of the Hyatt for an informal lesson with Ellen Hutson (!!!) on coloring with Copics and Prismacolor pencils.  What a wonderful discussion!  I learned a great deal.  What I found most interesting was that Ellen talked about who inspired and influenced her in her art and here she was doing the same for us.  Thank you, Ellen!



Julie, Ellen and I:

Dawn Lusk and her sweet daughter, Amber:

We somehow managed to get back to the hotel (nearly midnight) and fell in bed.  What a LONG day!  How fun!!!!



Friday:

We scrambled this morning to get to the show on time (a slight issue with the shuttles not running) and made it in time to see the kick-off of the convention.  A parade of bagpipers marched through the hall... it was quite a sight to see...

I spent time in the booth demoing and answering customer questions, which I hope I did well.  It's easy to be enthusiastic about Cornish Heritage Farm's products.  :-)  I did get to meander through the show with mom.  I think my favorite booth was Ranger, where we watched Tim Holtz create a project from the beginning in his grungy style.



Here's Tim Holtz and Ali Edwards demoing at Ranger:

Other favorite stops were Cosmo Cricket and October Afternoon... more paper!  A girl can't have enough paper!!!



After the close of the show, we headed to the Hyatt for the SCS Cupcake Reception.  There were so many people there that I knew but had never met in person!  I met Sharon Harnist and Gina K... both the sweetest ladies ever (and of course, I didn't get photos with them... I'm kicking myself now).  I also met AJ and Teresa (both ladies are super sweet and talented -- and they'd been big sisters for me in the past on SCS).



AJ:

Teresa:

We'd also taken a CHF team photo of the girls that were there (Michele had left before we got this coordinated).  Richard is laughing in this photo because he'd tried to smooch Lisa Strahl's cupcake on her and failed.  He's a devil...  I don't think we annoyed him too much over the weekend.  ;-)

After the cupcakes, Dawn, Julie, Mom and I went to a great Italian restaurant for dinner called Olivetti's.  If you are ever staying near O'Hare, I highly recommend it!  We stuffed ourselves and then headed back to our hotel, where we stayed up too late laughing over silly things, like girls always manage to do!



Saturday:

I actually don't have any photos for Saturday... I spent a good chunk of it in the booth, demoing and talking to customers.  Gina K stopped by again and I forgot (AGAIN) my camera!  She's a doll and talked with us for quite some time.  What a treat!  After I wrapped up at the booth, we headed to the airport to head home.



CHA was a fantastic experience.  I realize that the convention about the product, but I think it's really about community.  Women 100 years ago used to sit together, creating quilts or making clothes.  Now, we get together to stamp, create scrapbook pages and preserve memories.  What a blessing to meet so many people that share and enjoy doing what I love to do too!



Thanks for stopping by!  Sorry for the novel...

lise