Well Hello There Anaheim (CHA Day 1)

It's only just past 8. I think I've been conscious for some 17 hours and it seems that at some point caffeine just stops being relevant and you need to succumb to sleep. We got to Southern California with all our bags and did some major trekking through the CHA compound attempting to find our spot in the newbies section. More doors here are locked than unlocked and it means you do a LOT of traveling. This would be awesome accept for the fact we're hauling boxes and suitcases full of merchandise.


But so far it's been a lot of fun. I think the people in the booths around us are really nice and the booth just across from us has some fun stamps that I will be eyeing for three days. Sherrill Kahn brought her husband Joel down to visit us and it was so great o meet him! We're yet to run into Claudine Hellmuth or Traci Bautista or Sherri Haab but hopefully I'll be able to track some of them down tomorrow...although I'm sure they are ALL incredibly busy with demonstrations.

The only really funny thing was how the cashier at Target seemed confused when we didn't want bags for every small thing. We were buying a plastic garbage can and I told her to just throw all our stuff in there. She looked at me like I was crazy. I wanted to put my hand on her arm and say, "I know. I'm from Oregon." That point would have been doubly clear 5 minutes later when Dad and I absolutely and completely lost our rental car in the parking lot. Ten points for wandering tourists!

Tomorrow we will probably be at our booth by 7:30 am so...To sleep!

PS- The second image down is a map of the entire layout of CHA. OK that's a lie because it excludes our section of New Members. (Glorious)

CHA- a paperaholics dream

Across the country small business owners are staying up late preparing for the Craft and Hobby Association. This is a huge event where retailers go to find merchandise and product makers go to find retailers. We are working overtime preparing for the trip. I've been writing letters to some incredible paper stores (*drool*) and working on graphics for flyers. I spent almost 2 hours fighting Photoshop this afternoon but then accidentally learned how to do something really cool so it was all worth it.

On a completely random note, last night I was in our local craft store (surprise) and I was flipping through a 2007 Sommerset and suddenly was facing really familiar work. Sure enough, there was Sherrill Kahn's name shining out at me. It's so great to meet these artists and to have a personality to go with the names. Such talented hardworking people.

More CHA Chances

Find Claudine Hellmuth tomorrow at:
9am-12 Ranger Booth #4843 - demo

2 -3:30pm Lazar StudioWERX Booth #3772- meet the artist - stop by for a fun photo - become a life sized Poppet®!!

4pm-5pm F+W Publications Booth #1509 -- book signing and demo ONE FREE book to each person. LIMITED quantities!

Sherri Haab
10 am - 11 am Watson and Guptel booth, demo

Traci Bautista has events going on as well but I'm not sure when. Surely worth checking out though!!

Sherri Haab at WG Booth!

If your at CHA this week (and I hope you are...although why would you be checking email?) check out Sherri Haab at the Watson & Guptel booth on Monday 11-12 and Tues 10-11.

More on artists at CHA coming tomorrow!

And if you want to keep an eye on what fun projects Sherri has going on, check back here or at her blog.

Friday Goodies- CHA CHA CHA

(A card I designed this week)

If you randomly find a magic genie and he's offering you 3 wishes, use at least 2 on this.

The website doesn't do it justice but CHA stands for The Craft and Hobby Association. Their press release says "You’ll have the chance to explore 3200 booths featuring the newest offerings from 1100-plus companies –divided into six product sections for optimum buying convenience. "

I'm drooling....in Oregon...where I will be ALL of next week. But if YOU are in the Anaheim area, go check it out.

Also a few of the CCP artists will be there including Traci Bautista, Sherri Haab and Claudine Hellmuth. Check back on Sunday. I'll post the where and when they'll be along with the instructions for a project Sherri will be demoing. See what other fun stuff is going on here.

Have a great weekend!