CHA, power cuts and crocs .... Oh My!

Hi cyber buddies ... tis me ..... I’m alive and have returned from an awfully big adventure!!! So as you know I was lucky enough to get to go to the CHA and all I can say is WOW! It is mahoosive and for a country girl from the UK sensory overload became the phrase of the visit! I had the BEST time in my brief visit and will try and share my experience with you now without writing the biggest blog post in the history of blogdom LOL are you sitting comfortably?? Ok then I’ll begin!

We arrived in California on Sunday night flying into America at Houston .... tip here if you ever connect through Houston check the gate departures before you start running the half a mile to the supposed gate only to have to turn round and run back again!!!!

Finally we got to California. We had a great deal on a room .... not 5 star but heh it was cheap and I was so excited to see the convention centre on the doorstep as we pulled up! A trip out for food, glass of vino then bed before the on slaught!!

Monday morning



I was actually finally there!!! When I walked in I was dumbfounded! Booths as far as the eye could see, headless chicken comes to mind LOL But I was led to the Purple Cows booth and tried to get my bearings. I met some of the fab Purple Cows DT and have made some new found long lasting friendships. (I will post links to my lovely cow girls in the next post, you can always catch them on purplecows.net under create if you want to nosey now!)



And I met the bosses ..... Oh we had a blast together and laughed the whole time we were there, hubby being a big hit with them.



As I wasn’t on the booth until the afternoon I got to explore. There was so much STUFF!!! I had to stop looking at one point my poor little brain had started to develop so many creative ideas and there’s only so much space in there LOL I did however get to meet the lovely Claudine Hellmuth, one of my inspirations



While on the Rangers booth I also met up with the lovely Dyan from Art from the Heart who was busy prepping for a dem but alas Sir Tim remained elusive to me, he was either surrounded by people or off round the floor with his amazing make and take stand.

I also spent some time with the Glitz girls this is the gorgeous Laura



And the rest of the Glitzy girls



Ginger, Laura, me and Erin.



They are so lovely as are their husbands who were also on the booth! And you have to check out the new releases and all the gorgeous things to be had, I am sat in my hotel room with a big bag of Glitzy goodness .... Lucky me!!!

So the afternoon saw me on the booth and after the initial ‘what do I do???’ panic I got into the swing and chatted to people from all over the world and from all walks of the craft industry! We left the floor about 5.30 and trotted off to the Anabella where the Purple Cows held a drinks reception, just before I left the booth however a very familiar, lovely face appeared to say hi .... twas our Shimelle. She came to join us for drinks



And a fun evening was had by all. At the reception I also met the gorgeous Jan Mollet Evans who then introduced me to the Craft Diva herself and of course the Duke from the Diva craft lounge. Again Hubby was a great hit here too with all the theatre connections and we had a blast. By the end of the evening we had a little British contingent going as Becks Fagg and Jo from Design Objectives, Sue (Crafty Stash) and Tracie Hudson joined the party! Finally we all gave in and bed was a welcome rest!

Tuesday morning bright and breezy I was on the floor ready to demo by 8.45am (very early by my standards LOL) And suddenly a very bizarre thing happened! Creativity Knocks came by the booth to film a tool demo as part of their top 10 tools segment and you guessed it yours truly was told she was doing it aaarrrgghhhhh (was going through my head) but I guess not having a lot of time to think about it helped .... right???? I did my best swan impression calm on the top paddling furiously underneath and did it ... The result will be posted on the creativity knocks website in February ... I guess I’ll tell you when! Rick (the boss) asked if I was nervous and said he could tell as he thought there was an earth tremor the counter was shaking so much ..... how very dare he! (But I was shaking rather a lot LOL)

After my morning demoing the afternoon was mine and in a slightly calmer (if not exhausted) state I had a wander .... there is some gorgeousness being released .... you have been warned! I didn’t manage anywhere near the whole show but tried to take in as much as possible, I did take pics but 1. This post is long enough and 2. Pictures don’t capture the scene really .... hey you’ll just have to visit LOL.

Tuesday evening my bosses at Purple Cows very kindly moved me and hubby into their hotel the Anabella and the extra luxury was a real treat it’s just we had to share the room ..... with Sadie Purple Cow!!!!



After a long day of meeting and greeting she had to have a lie down LOL I can’t repeat the note that was left just suffice it to say it was HILARIOUS! And as you can imagine this is a whole other story and after going to dinner and drinks at the Marriot with Rick, Gary, the Diva and Jan I have a whole story board of the adventures of Sadie LOL

Good food, good wine and good company, we were very ‘happy’





And so it was goodbye to California on Wednesday and Hola Mexcio once again!





However our return to the hotel was a whole other adventure. We returned to a blackout, the whole of the lagoon area had a power cut and the hotel was pitch black. We were in hysterics calling hola through the door to be answered by a little voice from the darkness illuminated by the light of a mobile phone! We infact saw our way up the stairs to our room by the light of my phone ... HILARIOUS! So dinner plans changed and we trolled off to the first restaurant with lights on and had a wonderful dinner and on the way back we actually saw one of the elusive crocodiles that live in the lagoon. We’ve been told they live in there but after 7 years it’s the first time we’ve seen the evidence, it was quite speactacular! Isn’t life funny with it's twists and turns??!!

There are a few gaps in my adventures but these I will share at a later date. I was sooooo glad we took the trip up there and wish you could have all been with me to join in the fun!

Well I guess it’s more sun, sand and sangria for me now sorry to all my UK cyber buddies I hear the white stuff is back ya boo sucks! I’ll try and get another post done soon and I’m back on the 8th so normal service will resume! Thanks for stopping by and trawling through this epic LOL.
I hope you’re all well and happy and until next time Happy Crafting!

Love
Mx

Ps As I said in my last post apologies for lack of links but slow connection and internet cafes and all that are not helpful, I will get sorted back in blighty! M x

PPS almost forgot the lovely Bev over at Banana Frog is looking for some new froglets to join the team!!! Call ends 14th Feb so what are you waiting for? ... get stamping!!!! M x