Getting back into the swing of things

Wow... you leave for a few days and it takes another week to get back to normal! I left bright and early Saturday morning for CHA. This was my second trip to the big show in Anaheim, so I was really excited to get there because this time I knew what to expect.

At the airport I picked up the Time Traveler's Wife. I'm not finished with it yet, but I'm really digging it right now. It's a love story that includes time travel. I just want to see the author's notebook as she planned out this story, her first novel. Wowee!

Speaking of books, I was recently introduced to http://www.goodreads.com/ - It's a great site to get linked up with friends and check out what they are reading. I'm out there under Davinie, so be sure to add me so I can check out what you are reading! When I have spare time, I love to escape in a good book.

Anyway... I digress.....

I flew to CHA first thing Saturday morning. I could have taken a straight shot to LAX, but have heard concerns about traffic which worries me when it's time to come home, so I flew from Redmond to Seattle, and Seattle to Orange County... SNA, the John Wayne airport. That's really the best airport to get into if you are going to CHA in Anaheim, or doing Disney. Disney and the Convention Center are about 15 miles from the airport.

When I landed I met up with one of the buns from my sandwich, Nicole. Sandwich, you ask? Well, it started because Nicole and Nicole, a couple of fellow DT members from Studio Calico were set to be my roomies at the show. We couldn't be the Nicole sandwich, because when you buy a sandwich, it isn't about the buns, so it was the Davinie sandwich. I know. We are weird and easily entertained.

Anyway, Nic's plane wasn't scheduled to come in for a bit, so Nicole and I rented a car and went to lunch. About halfway through I realized she hadn't said my name yet, and it turns out, she and just about every other attendee of the show doesn't say it how my dear parent's thought it should be pronounced.

Davinie

Have Any?

Dav = HAVE

inie = inie or kinda like any

Dav (have) IN eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I guess I'm lucky because my grandmother tried to tell me that my name was almost Tequila Sunrise.... so, um, ya.

Anyway, there you have it. But you can call me Dav.

SO... digressing again.... Nik and I had lunch while we waited for Nic. And then poor Nic's plane was late because of winter weather in Minnesota, poor thing... so we waited some more, and then she finally arrived, we spotted her right away, and away we went.


Here's a pic of my Nicks. Nic is on the left and Nik is on the right, lol.

First we dropped off our projects at the Pink Paislee booth. Oh dear. Rebecca is the sweetest thing! I knew her little hairdo from a mile away so immediately spotted her in the crowd on setup day. AFter oggling the booth we headed to the hotel, dropped our stuff, and by that time it was dinner and my poor East Coast girls were hungry, so we jetted our little wagon to Downtown Disney for grub. I can't believe how busy it was there! 2 hour wait! We eventually found a spot, and settled in.

Everyone made fun of me the whole trip, but at dinner every night I'd have an Arnold Palmer. Do you know what that is? It's just half lemonade, half ice tea. I don't like the taste of ice tea on it's own, and I guess Mr Palmer didn't either, hence the drink name. But it's so refreshing that I had it every night.


Sunday morning we were up and at 'em with our Studio Calico tees. We wore the turquoise ones that day. And wouldn't you know it, the boss ladies, April and Scarlet, came down for breakfast, and they had on the black ones. Sheesh. We walked around all day getting catalogs and ideas for future SC kits, and it was a lot of fun. We had lots of people come up to us and tell us they get the Studio Calico kits, which was great. I'm not kidding when I say that April and Scarlet are brilliant. They take product I would never purchase on my own, individually, and put it together in a way that is cohesive and perfect. I know I am oh so lucky to work at this site.

I am NOT the CHA girl to go to for the CHA pics, because I didn't take near enough, but I did get some photos of some special scrappy girlies, so I can share those:



This is me with my neighbor girl, Tessa. She lives nearby in Bend and is currently teaching at our local scrapbook store, Scrapbooking Outside the Box. That is one talented chicky! She was working the Tinkering Ink booth, hence the flowery tee.

Oh, the super sweet Kimberly with Nic and I at the Sassafras Lass booth. She is such a sweetheart. I wish I could have spent time with her at the show, but at least we got a photo this time! lol

As for buzz, I will say that Sassafras was one of the more fun booths to visit. You know that little strip at the bottom of a 12x12 that you normally trim off and toss? Well, Sassafras Lass has made their papers size 12x13 now, and that bottom strip is now a decorative edge. Brilliant. You can trim off that little strip from the bottom and use it elsewhere on a layout, but you can also leave that decorative edge and trim off the top edge instead. SO. Cool.

This is Ms. Emily Pitts. Oh man that girl cracks me up. Seeing her live made it even more fun. Thanks for sharing my third choice in a cheesecake, Miss MLE!

Greg, April's super cool hubby, took turns with our cameras taking a few photos. This is our Charlie's angel pose..... a few rebels in this pic. That's Nik, Scarlet, Kirsty, April, myself, Joy, and Nic. What a FUN bunch. No need to tiptoe around anyone. They were a hoot and it was so nice to meet them..... LIVE. I wish the whole team could have been there, but I know that Tina, Jenn, and Christine held down the fort very well.

Monday and Tuesday morning I worked at the Pink Paislee booth. Oh yes, I was on video the first day, and that's my mug too, with Miss Tammy Tutterow. Holly didn't give me a moment to prepare or an advance notice to her questions... I have to say my voice doesn't seem that high pitched in real life. AND I know I've said it before but I hard the worst hair this show. ack. But it looked better when I had my head pressed to someone else's head for a photo, so I probably should have taken more, lol.

Monday night we at at the California Pizza Kitchen, and Tuesday night after the show we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. I had never eaten at either. For dessert on Tuesday I was determined to have cheesecake, but this restaurant had been so swamped with convention patrons all week that by the time I got there, it wasn't until my third choice that I got a bite to eat. It was chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake and it was delish, although I was almost too irritated by the time I got it to have any, lol. I placed my first order, and they came back later and said it was out... I placed my second order... and she came back later and said it was too cold to eat.... and then I placed my third order. I just wanted a piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory! What do they mean, RAN OUT?! I shared with Emily.

Oh, the sandwich. Technically I should be in the middle, but Nik was the only one with a black shirt on. I had SO much fun with these girls. It's a big stinker that we live across the country from each other, Nic in Virginia, Nik in Ohio, and me in Oregon. I would love to get together and scrap with these girls! And Nic and I have kids the same age, and Nik's daughter Allie is old enough to tend to them while we scrap, lol. I hope we have a chance to get together soon.

So.... long post, but I wanted to share what an AWESOME time I had at the show. It was so nice to take a break and do something for me, even though I was so anxious to get home when it was over. I hope to go again soon! I don't know if I can do Chicago... it seems so far away to me, but Anaheim for sure.

Things I loved from the show?

Pink Paislee - Of COURSE! lol

Jenni Bowlin - loved the Tangerine Dream line even though it's more red than orange, and her new tickets with images on them are fun

Autumn Leaves - Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut fabric went to paper and I can't wait to get my hands on some.

Sassafras Lass - ALL of it. So fun!

Cosmo Cricket - they had an AWESOME release. I have to get the robots and I don't have boys... I love the blackboard albums, brilliant, and Julie showed me the blackboard albums with their white rubons. Still white, not clear. So that was very cool. Cosmo now has fabric which I thought was also very, very cool.

Heidi Swapp - loved the Carefree line. I have girls! She said that she felt pressured to go to paper, but I'm glad she did! I thought it was super cute. pink, blue, yellow

MM Slice - Um, it has a NOTEWORTHY cartridge. Sold

MM - loved everything they are doing. They have new die cut paper and some of it has cutouts in it, which is cool. They have new die cut shapes too, including a ledger album which is super cool, and they are even bringing back more colors of the mini sticker alphas, which is very, very cool.

Prima's booth was very cool.

October Afternoon has some fun new papers.

... And that's all I can think of right now, lol.

:)

Now that I'm home I started getting back into the scrapping groove again. If you are still here after reading my novela, I'll leave you with a layout, lol. I was playing around with some of my yummy Pink Paislee, and mixed it with some Basic Grey, a damask print from Target, and some delicious fabric. I loved all the texture of this together... plus those sweet pics of my girl on her 4th birthday didn't hurt the layout either, lol.

Have a great week!