CHA, CHA, CHA (Part II)

So, home Saturday night, and DH and I were back on the road for family dinner night at my brother’s house in Temecula. Tom’s wife Barb is a great cook, and put together a homemade pizza party for us. We had fun making the pizzas (trying to throw the dough, aghhh, it isn’t easy) and piling them high with all our favorite goodies. I’m really liking the family dinner nights we’ve done the past few months, and I think we are going to make them a regular event.

Back on the road to Anaheim on Monday to check out my very first CHA Trade Show. While this is a bit more subdued; many more business suits and much quieter, it is about 3 times the size as the SuperShow and open only to CHA members, vendors and their guests. The major craft companies put up huge booths to showcase all their products, and the smaller, newer companies have their own section. Color is everywhere, big signs at floor level and up in the air over the booths. Many more crafts are represented; where the SuperShow was slanted toward paper crafts and scrapbookers, CHA covers just about everything.

Beadalon had a big booth there, and I met Yvette Rodriguez; love having a face to go with the e-mails. Lots and lots of very cool new things are coming from Beadalon. Our Ambassador Katie Hacker has just launched her own line of beading components called Katiedids. You are going to want to have them all, because they work so very well with all our CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements . If you are going to Tucson make sure you check out Beadalon’s booth.

I spent the entire day walking up and down the aisles of the show. I watched Ambassador Lisa Pavelka demonstrate her incredible polymer clay skills and her Magic Gloss products at the Amate Studios booth. Amate sells the Base Elements line of jewelry bases, links, charms and belt buckles that have the recessed areas that can be filled with any manner of materials.

I learned how to use the Hotfixer from the fine folks at the Kandi Corp. booth. I also entered a “name the new product” contest…I think I came up with 2 good suggestions, so we’ll see whether or not they select my entry. I checked out some very cool yarns shown at the Saleutions (an Australian company) booth.

Ran into Lilian Chen…seems she and I are at the same places a lot these days. It is always a delight to hang with Lilian, she is a real force of nature! Then I hung out at the JHB booth where I met Lisa Lambright. Haley Hertz and I held a floor meeting (literally, we were sitting on the floor) and she showed me some of her designs. Loved her crocheted wire cuff, simple, elegant, but packs a big punch with the color and the CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements Rivoli Button Focal and clasp. Haley is my new hero, she is talented, funny, cute as a button, full of energy, knows just about everyone in our CRYSTALLIZED™ world, and has a very, very cool job. Lisa Lambright gave me a copy of Kristal Wick’s book,  Fabulous Fabric Beads, and Kristal herself (who I have been basically stalking for five years now) signed it for me. I met Kristal five years ago at the 2006 CYS in Tucson show and I knew from the very start that this was a lady who was going places. Now she has a best selling book, her own line of fabric beads, a line of toggles that are coming out right now, and she has 2 finalist pieces this year in the K. Gottfried design contest, which she placed 3rd in last year. Go, Kristal, Go!

From left to right:  Kristal Wick, Margot Potter, Haley Hertz, Lisa Pavelka, Lilian Chen

So, exhausted, hungry and thirsty I headed back to my car at 5:45 (15 minutes after the show closed). The people who work these shows are real seasoned professionals; many of them had their booths covered and were out of there before me. They were back early the next morning while I was slowly sipping my coffee and looking over all the business cards, fliers and goodies I brought home from my 3 days in crafting heaven!