Winter CHA - Day 3

What a day! Can't I just live here and soak in the sun on my lunch break and talk to paper craft celebrities all day? This is THE life. I do miss my kiddies though but I know they are in good hands. Thank you to my mom and cousin, Lauren!

Kell and I each got pictures with some of our favourite people. Here is a picture of me and Heidi Swapp after watching her demo her new product. Too cool!






And here is a picture of Kell with her favourite Tsuki demonstrator. Honestly, she is THE cutest lady. You guys may even get a chance to see her in person.....Stay tuned!






We felt like "old" pros here today, placing orders and basically taking care of business. You will be so amazed with the gorgeous product we have coming in. Here are the companies we have ordered from:

• Spellbinders
• Basic Grey
• Scribble Scrabble
• We R Memory Makers
• Art Institute Glitter
• Daisy Bucket
• Tsukineko
• Hampton
• Hero Art
• GCD
• Heidi Swapp
• Magenta
• Cosmo Cricket
• Core D'inations
• My Sentiments Exactly
• Tonic
• Kaiser Craft
• Impression Obsession
• Upsy Daisy
• Inkadinkado
• My Yellow Bicycle
• May Arts
• Beau Regard
• Penny Black
• ETC.....

I know I am forgetting someone. Well, you get the point. We are definitely working hard so you will see the best product in our store.

Tomorrow is the final day of the show and we are eager to get the final orders placed and maybe get in a few make and takes. I know we will be running around like crazy, but that is the way we like it. I am so excited for the last day, but also very sad for it to be over. We will let you know how we make out. Any last request, speak now or......

Winter CHA - Day 2 - "I'd like to buy a vowel"

Ok...after our crazy day of star stalking yesterday, we knew we had to get down to business. We had to cover the second half of the show and we did it! Again, it was an eventful day including one evacuation of the entire convention (yes, for real), one run in with a celebrity (the very petite Vanna White....and no we did not stalk her. We just "happened" to show up at Lion Brand Yarns booth the moment the fashion show with Vanna began) and two very cool classes (one with 7 Gypsies and one with Rusty Pickle). Here is a sneak peek of my 7 Gypsies house album.
What a great class. Did you know I am now an official gypsy??






Now about the products....Here are the highlights:

1. Well, we are coming home with ONE OF EACH OF THE NEW BASIC GREY PAPERS!!!!! The order has been placed and the papers/run-ons/brads are as cool in life as they are on line!



2. The 12x12 paper invisibles by Heidi Swapp were our ABSOLUTE favourite new product hands down! Remember those decoder paper and pens we use to have as kids where you couldn't see the hidden message until the special pen was rubbed over it? Well this is kind of like that but only WAY cooler! The "hidden" messages are beautiful patterns and with just a little ink and technique, these bland white sheets turn into works of art.



3. Heidi Swapp tops our list again with her new Mega Masks. Honestly, our brains are in overload mode with the possibilities for upcoming classes.



4. The new Penny Black stamps were amazing. The wish list became our order as we had NO control whatsoever.
   

Tonight we are working hard at getting a bunch of orders filled out (and trust us, the budget has been blown). I am personally looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. The "boss" has given me the morning off. Well, not off exactly. Instead of waking up at 5:30AM, I get to sleep in until 7:30AM. I think she realized another 7AM class would have done me in!!

Winter CHA 2009...Day 1

I don't know if anyone noticed what time I posted last night, but it was 12:58am California time (or 3:58am Chatham time), but I just have to tell you my story from last night...

We hit the sack at about 11pm (it felt like 2am to us with the time change). I had three alarms set for 6am to get up for our 7am classes, but I was so nervous about not getting up on time. So all of a sudden I woke up (was happy I woke up before hearing the alarm), get up, shower, start putting on my make-up, when all of a sudden Matt taps on the door, looks at me like I have ten heads and says "What are you doing?!?!?" I had no idea what he was talking about, and I say, "I'm getting ready for class!" Then he asks me again what I'm doing, and begins to tells me it is 12:30 in the morning!!!

I guess an hour and a half was enough sleep for me because I was so excited!!! All I kept thinking was thank goodness he came in to tell me that, otherwise I would have woke up Kim, and we would have been 6 hours early for class! So rather than go back to bed, why not try to post what we tried so hard to do a couple hours earlier! (Format complications!)

So now we are so excited to tell you about our first day at the show, and how we made out with out to-do-list!!!

1 - Making it to our classes, and learning new techniques...

Kim took the Magenta class which includes working with alcohol inks and peels offs and

I took a Ranger mixed medium madness class, with Claudine Hellmuth. It was totally my style where we start with a blank canvas, and learn lots of ways to use products. Here it is.... cool eh?

2 - Running to Basic Grey & Spellbinders booths...

We RAN as fast as we could to Basic Grey, only to realize that they are NOT shipping in priority. Instead, they are shipping by regions. Boy, was there ever a lot of angry out of breath women at that booth!

And for Spellbinders, their new releases are AMAZING! Not only do they have all the new dies, but they also new "Impressabilities" that are like a metal embossing folder... they are FABULOUS!!! We were promised to have the new products shipped to us in the first batch... let's cross our fingers!!!

3 - Meet and get a pic of Paris Hilton...

After and hour of stalking the security men in black, Paris Hilton arrives at the convention center.... you will NOT even believe this...

Here she is saying hi to Kim!!!!

And here's my video....

This is how we spent two hours of our day! Not the most productive, but definitely memorable! We cannot help but laugh when we watch this video!!

4 - Not embarrass ourselves around Tim... not today anyway! We watched a bit of his demos and made eye contact with him a couple of times but that was about it. Once again, he continues to amaze us.

Tomorrow our plan is to cover the second half of the show. We will give you a complete listing of all the great products we saw over the course of two days. All we can say is trends include: owls, ladybugs, jungle/circus, Indian inspired, major glitter items and mushrooms.

Honestly, I don't know if anything can top today!

California Dreaming...Winter CHA 2009

Well, here we are in California! We are so excited for the convention to start. For those of you that do not know, Kell and I are in Anaheim for the Craft & Hobby Associations (CHA) winter convention. This is where all the manufacturers release their latest and greatest. We are like kids in a candy store!! The booths are gorgeous! You see all those famous crafters walking around like Becky Higgins, Tim Holtz, etc. It is so cool.

Last time we were here together (2 years ago) we basically stalked Tim Holtz. We hung around his demos for an embarrassingly LONG time! We finally did get the nerve to ask him for a photo with us….that is the one that we just cannot bare to take off our website….yes, we are obsessed! It is our mission to get a new photo with him this time! We will let you know if we embarrass ourselves again or if we decide to lay it cool.

It is our plan to keep you posted on all the happenings here in Anaheim. We want you to feel like you are actually here with us! Sorry we couldn’t book a party bus to this show! Each day we will post our to do list and then we will let you know if we crossed everything off.

So here is tomorrows to do list

1. Learn tons of new tips and tricks at our 7AM classes so we can come back and share them with you. I have a sweet Magenta class and Kell is taking a Ranger class.

2. Literally run to the Basic Grey & Spellbinders booths and place our order with them. Note...orders are filled in the order they are placed so you will thank us for all the intensive training we have being doing over the last two weeks when you are working with the NEW Basic Grey before all your friends in other cities!

3. Meet our new BFF ( Paris Hilton) and get a pic with her.

4. Try not to embarrass ourselves around Tim

Wish us luck!

Oh, just so you know, the store is still open while we are away. We have our amazing staff eager and willing to assist you. We will be back on February 3 with lots of new projects and demo products for you to get excited about

Prize Winnners!

Thank you to everyone for coming out to our Birthday party last week! I can't beleive how many people battled the icy, snowy weather to take advantage of our sale! We now made some room to bring in the new!

As most of you now, CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) Winter show is next week. This is the largest craft show in the world, where the most new products are released! Kim and I are off to find what's new and what's hot for 2009. I know many people have seen sneak peeks from many of your favourite companies, and have asked us to order. If there is anyone else who has any suggestions, feel free to let us know and we will check it out while we are there. We will keep you guys updated on here next week while we are away!

Now for the part you've all been waiting for.. the draw!

Congratulations to all of our lucky winners!

You can pick up your prizes during regular store hours.

Prize Package #1

Winner : Alison Reid

Prize Package #2

Winner: Rebecca Miller

Prize Package #3

Winner: Margaret Authier

Prize Package #4

Winner: Shane VanMoorsel

Prize Pakage #5
Winner: Joanne Peirson