Ahhh... CHA is now a memory. It was a good show. All that remains is to follow up and start cranking stuff out. My luggage made it there and back fairly well, I got to visit with Jessica and saw a bunch of designer friends and spent some fun time with them. The show did seem a good bit smaller but the License and Design section had fairly good traffic. Our neighbors on either side were really interesting and fun to talk to, both doing way different things but willing to share their thoughts (and tape) with us. I returned home to find our heat is not working and my daughter is moving into her apartment this weekend so went right back into reality...

I'll post a shot of our booth tomorrow. I was elected to the CHA Designer Council and will serve as secretary for the next 2 years. I look forward to it- there are a great bunch of people I'll be working with, including Katie Hacker (www.KatieHacker.com) who lent me $20 for dinner when I thought I'd lost my wallet. Turned out it was back at the hotel (thank the Lord!)...

So now it's back to work... had 2 orders from military posts so will be working on them this week and then 2 wedding invitation jobs and a calligraphy job. The fun never ends :-)

Have been on a roll with projects and think they might possibly get done for CHA after all! Well, most anyway. While I do enjoy my night time (I work from 10PM till 3-4 AM), I find that when I get out and visit with people or do something different, my "craft" mind is still on the job. It seems to resolve whatever questions I may have and when I come back to the project, I know what to do! Thankfully...

On Tuesday I have a bride and her mom coming over for a consultation for "Save the Date" and possibly wedding invitation options. So tonight I will rustle up some samples and see what she thinks... I am so lucky to be able to do this for a JOB!

BTW, was talking to a friend at a party last night. She said her 3 daughters dragged her and her husband (home visiting from Iraq for 2 weeks) to Bride Wars. Bill described it as "painful" and Patty did not disagree. Another example of great trailers and a disappointing movie. Oh well...

Tonight I finished up a project for one of my favorite local stores, Zazu www.shopzazu.com. They change displays often, have some great Open Houses and it's always a fun place to visit. I do calligraphy work for their customers that want the special touch for their wedding invitations, formal affairs and anything else they ask me to do, basically. This customer sounded really interesting- her wedding will be at Disney Land so she went with the sea theme- so cute. The only thing I regret is that I don't always get to meet the customer. Of the ones I have met, we have gone on to exchange emails and talk after the event is over. You really become part of it sometimes. The photos here are their table cards and placecards. I included a shot of the blank ones because although I love this paper- hard to tell but it's very thick and shimmery- I have to line each one by hand. On light colors I can use my lightbox and don't have to take the time of lining them, inscribing, waiting for the ink to dry, then erasing the pencil lines. Also since each card was different I had to eye each card to make sure the name and table name would fit. Think I need to raise my prices now that I think of how much time this took me! I hope that the bride and groom have a great wedding and many happy years together.

Aside from that, I had all day to work but when I look at what came out of it, not so much... Maryanne is still home on winter break, Hayward had off work and Pam was working from home on the computer all day.


I tried to take some photos of my project for the Green Gallery but the weather has been bad for the last 2 days and it is a big mistake to take paper out into the rain to photograph even for just a minute... So maybe tomorrow! K- back to work...

While in Maine, I was able to make 2 trips to my favorite store, Marden's. It's kind of a cross between Big Lots, Ollie's Outlet and heaven. They have everything there, the prices are great and the staff is amazing- complete with that authentic Maine accent. Last time we went 5 years ago, we bought a bunch of fleece on the bolt for our Family Fleece business (once a year, my mom, 2 sisters and I head to Saugerties, NY for the Garlic Festival and attempt to sell handmade fleece hats, scarves and baby items. Mostly Mom does all the work and we goof off, go buy fudge, etc). Anyway, this time, they had gigantic bolts of one sided fleece for ONE DOLLAR a yard! Well, I just bought it up- great colors and such a deal! I cut some samples up to send to Mom and Janet so they can be shopping their local sales of patterned fleece to coordinate. Used the wavy blade on my rotary cutter and after I stacked it I thought it looked like a beautiful fleece sandwich so had to get a shot of it. Are those colors not amazing? So if you ever happen to be in Presque Isle, ME, make sure you stop in at Marden's.

Worked on my Green Gallery project tonight and think it is finished. Sometimes I wait till morning just to be sure I like it. Then I'll take some photos to send on to the company that supplied me with their soon to be released new papers and see what they think.

You may wonder what all this stuff is. I am working on a project for the Green Gallery for CHA. 30 designers have been selected to show a piece of their original work to be displayed in the lobby of the Anaheim Convention Center. The stipulation is that 25% of the project must use recycled materials. All of these cool old sewing items are part of my finished project which features a beaded top I found in a thrift store for $7 and cut up to create a whole new project. Some of the papers I am using have not been released yet so can't put up a finished sample until CHA but even my 20 year old daughter came down to see what I was up to and liked it. And 20 year olds are quite the tough critics...

Tonight I am trying to get the mojo fairy to pay me a visit so I can get back in gear. Or maybe tonight I clean...