2013 CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) Tradeshow

 Last weekend Rocketman and I jetted off the Anaheim, CA for the CHA Tradeshow.  I had not attended the show since 2010 because of our moves to South Korea.  I was really excited to go and see all things crafts.  I was not disappointed.

 

I got to meet Mark Montano and received an autographed copy of his latest book.  He was my favorite designer on the television show "While You Were Out."  I also have all of his "Big Ass" books and they are full of wonderful projects. 

 Of course, our first stop when in California was In-N-Out Burger.  Oooooh, they are so delicious. It had been three years since we had been able to eat there.

 We also made a stop at Bubba Gump's.  They had this cool lighted glass so Rocketman ordered one to bring home to Noah.  The food was delicious.  We do have one here in Minnesota but it's at the Mall of America and we rarely go to that mall. 

 

 We stayed at the Arabella which was walking distance to the Anaheim Convention Center where the show was.  I was puzzled by this sticker in our room.  Wow, things had changed since we were there last. 

 I was able to winner a lottery spot in a Ranger's class.  It was called "Definitely Dylusional"

 It was taught by Dylan Reaveley.  She was a lot of fun and the class went at lightening speed.

 Oh, how I wish I had NOT wore my business clothes.  Luckily my pants were black so you didn't really see all my over spritting that landed on my clothing.

 I've never textured before and it was really fun to do.

 Finished!

 Holly walked the show with me and came by our hotel room with a gift from her local Korean market...........KIMCHI!!!!

At the show, we visited the 3M booth.  I love these tape dispensers. 

 Lots of tape.

 Cool Post-It Note dispensers. 

 Blogger is not playing nice so my photos are out of order.  Here is the autograph I got from Mark.

 Picked up some new clay.

 The designer's section of CHA set up a meet and greet for designers and manufacturers.  I got to meet Katie Hacker and she gave me some cool stuff.

 I use Beacon Adhesives a lot and they are fantastic.

I also saw a demo of the Vintaj Sizzix BIGkick machine and I am hooked.  I want one badly.  You take a disc of metal and run it through the machine with a texture die and this is what you get.  Then add some color and you are done.  I'm hoping Rocketman lets me order one soon along with the cool dies.

 

I also took a lot of classes and learned so much that my head was spinning.  We left on Monday and it really has taken me until today to recover.  Along with Holly, who was my first producer on "The Carol Duvall Show", we ran into so many people from the show.  It really was bittersweet to see them.  We had become such a family during the run of the show.

 

I will also say that I was surprised at the size of the show.  It was much smaller than shows I had attended previously.  The show usually was the last weekend of January and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it but we didn't run into the packed aisles as we had in years past.  I'm still glad I went and I had a couple of appointments for potential business opportunities so we will see where that leads.