Stamps, Paper, Die Cuts & FRIENDS!

I foolishly thought I was going to be able to do two things differently this year at CHA . . . (1) put up a blog post every evening (yeah . . . right!!), and (2) see more of the show! Well, neither of those things actually happened. We were up VERY early every day getting things ready in the Spellbinders booth (on Monday we had a class to put on, so we had to be at the Convention Center by 6:15 a.m.!). We were also up VERY late every night (which was infinitely more fun going out to dinner . . . LOVE Bubba Gumps! . . . and Heidi and I went to Disneyland on Monday night . . . that was a REALLY long day!)

I'm actually back home already. I ended up leaving yesterday afternoon because of a funeral that I am going to today for my uncle (we were kind of expecting it, but hoping for the best). Anyway, after being delayed for TWO HOURS (I swear, I will NEVER do USAir again!), they decided to transfer me to a Delta flight, since I was going to miss my connection in Phoenix (yeah, yeah, yeah . . . a flight from Anaheim to Salt Lake should be a straight shot, right???). I ended up getting home two hours earlier than my original itinerary had laid out, which was good and bad, since I had planned on meeting my friend Karen (imastampin on SCS) to swap some things . . . I had a Wizard for her, and she had some of my new dies!!! Guess I will be making a trip to the post office later today!!

Anyway, I never DID get much time to look around at everything. Saturday was set up. Sunday I actually got to peruse things during my break for a couple of hours. Monday, my break was scheduled at the end of the day so that Heidi (there she is again . . . as in Blankenship) and I could go to Disneyland. And yesterday, since I was leaving early, I only had a one-hour break, so I didn't get to see a whole lot. I DID walk through the Convention Center from end to end about 100 times, so I got to see things briefly as I passed on by, but I digress . . .

My FAVORITE part about CHA is hooking up with my friends from all over!! What a fun experience that was!! I noticed several things while getting these pictures ready to share as well. First, I look tired in most of 'em!! (Guess the camera doesn't lie!) Next, I seem to be looking somewhere besides the camera a good deal of the time (guess I was marching to my own drummer, eh? Or maybe that was just the voices in my head!) I also noticed that I was on the same wavelength as some of my friends with our color combos for the day as well (Jeanne and I were pink, while Diana and I were green!)!

Anyway, without further delay, here are SOME of the friends I got to hook up with . . .

Diana Crick . . . can I just say that I LOVE this woman and that she is a GENIUS (she is, after all, the inventor of the Scor-Pal!)?? I had NO idea she was at CHA last year 'til after I got home (I was totally bummed that I had been in the same building with her for DAYS and never even knew we were under the same roof!) I also "scored" a Scor-Mat from her, which makes me mui-mui happy!! Can't wait to play with THAT I can tell ya (and Diana, if you ever DO make it to SLC, the offer of a free place to stay still stands!)!


Judy (StampinQueenJAR) Rozema and I had planned to hook up at the SCS Cupcake Reception before we even left for CHA. How funny that we were in the same room together forEVUH before she approached me (we had been on opposite side of the room, and since I am vertically challenged, we just didn't see each other!)! I am SOOOO glad we did finally hook up. We've been chattin' pals on SCS since, like, the beginning of time!!






Jeanne, Jeanne, Jeanne . . . what is NOT to love about this woman?? She's funny, talented and great fun to be around! Don't we just look FAB in our matching pink????






Gotta love those Hanna Stamps, right?? I have known Krissy Ferro for about 3 years. We were in the Control Freaks swap group together. I met her for the first time at CHA last year, along with my good friend, Vicki Garrett (summerthyme64). They are both such sweeties!! Krissy was busy setting some stuff up, so she isn't actually in the picture (she was just barely out of frame to the right of me!)! But, here I am with Jennifer Buck (JenniB04) and Vicki . . .



Can you say SHORT PEOPLE ROCK???? It is SO great when I actually get to talk to another adult and look them straight in the eye (as opposed to straight in the throat!)! Emily (emilymomto3boys) Giovanni and Natasha (Tashers) Trupp were great fun to meet. I am sad that this turned out so blurry, but happy to have been able to visit with these girls, nonetheless . . .



Laura (Lov'n Life n Vegas) Canale and Michelle (flaxychick) Giraud also stopped by the Spellbinders booth! It was AMAZING and TERRIFIC to be able to meet up with so many of my SCS friends. We took this picture right before I had to dash out the door to catch a shuttle to the airport. I was happy that I didn't miss hooking up with these girls!





Here's one more of me and Jennifer. She is the absolute SWEETEST person ever!! (Just as you would expect!) We had a very nice visit right before I left as well. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to hang out with some of the most talented women in the industry this week. How lucky am I???





Last, but not least, here's my BFF Heidi! I cannot tell ya how many hours we have spent on the phone this past year as members of the Spellbinders DT and as friends. She is incredibly talented, generous, kind and has a great listening ear (plus, she is now converted from the dark side and has decided that her kids NEED to go to Disneyland . . . thanks for being such a good sport and going on Space Mountain with me . . . still don't think I have EVER laughed that hard while on a roller coaster before . . . sorry we nearly scared ya to DEATH!!)

I have some fun photos of the make-and-takes we did in the Spellbinders booth, PLUS some close up shots of the awesome new Impressabilities, so stay tuned . . .

PS - Lynn Mercurio . . . if you are reading this you NEED to send me a copy of the picture of the two of us together where I look like an AMAZON . . . and you NEED to destroy the fire drill picture altogether!!