CHA Happenings

I arrived in Chicago late Wednesday night and haven't had a free second until now to log on and tell everyone about what's going on at CHA. We have been SO busy! You will be proud to know that I am now a Certified Copic user! ;) Most of my day Saturday was spent with Marianne at the Copic class & I really learned a lot! And.... the class was full of stamping "celebrities", which is always fun too. I'm not really the 'run up and scream... take your picture with me please' kind of person - but I really liked getting to know some of the personalities that you see everyday in the paper crafting world.

Then... later that evening, all of the CHF girls (and Richard) had dinner together after the booth was set up. Dawn Lusk thought it would be fun to celebrate Becky Olsen's birthday early and had the waitress bring out some cake. And that's where the night got even crazier. For some reason, this man from the bar area took a liking to our little birthday girl. :) He had to be 75+ and just didn't seem to get the cue that Becky wasn't too interested. So... a few minutes later, the waitress comes over with a drink for me... saying that the 'gentleman' at the bar had it sent to me. Um, yeah. I have to say -- that's a new one for the record books. Love being hit on by a senior citizen. It was really gross... but totally hilarious at the same time. And no - I didn't drink it. :) Richard made sure we were safely at our next destination before leaving us for the evening.

So... from that point, we met up with Ellen Hutson - who gave us 'coloring lessons'. Let me tell you... that girl is SO SWEET! She is such a power house in the crafting world... but is completely down to earth and so genuine! She has so much knowledge about coloring and design... it just amazes me!

And that was all just what happened yesterday! Today was another FULL day and was the first official day at CHA. I worked in the CHF booth for quite a bit of the day, but I did get to walk the floor a bit with Sarah Moore & Melissa Norris (Craft Critique gals) to see some of the new products that are about to hit the shelves. I'll be writing a post for Craft Critique really soon (as soon as I can get my pictures organized)... so you'll have to check it out!

After the show closing, some of the girls & I went to the Split Coast Stampers Cupcake Reception and got to mingle with some more familiar faces. I turned the corner and saw Gina K (she is just SO CUTE!) and got to sneak in a hug. (She's just one of those that you just have to touch to see if she's real, you know?!?)

And THEN... we went searching for somewhere decent to eat and ended up at this wonderful hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant. OH YUM! It was just the comfort food that we needed & I got to try some new foods. Loved it!

Well... I haven't had hardly any sleep for days (just take one look at me in the pic above and you'll see what I mean)... so I'm going to wrap this up and try to get a little rest before it starts all over tomorrow. I fly out tomorrow evening & can't wait to get back home and squeeze my boys. :)