crafty round-up

As promised, I am back from the west coast with news of crafting and the world’s largest craft industry convention under my belt! The CHA Show (Craft and Hobby Association) was gianormous alright, sheesh. The weather in Anaheim was a lovely 75-80 degrees. I made it a point to eat every meal I could outside…

Ahhh…palm trees and people watching, what could be better? Since I’m pretty isolated working at home in the studio, being out and about in the world was sooo good for me.

This may look like a nice treat…sitting outside with a coffee and a muffin before heading into the density of craft supplies with throngs of people. I got my dress pants and fancy shoes…

However, that morning only the view was a treat! (bad coffee, worse muffin, and painful shoes! Good gravy, what was I thinking?) And so begins the day of a convention-goer.

I’ll let you know upfront that I don’t have much to show in the way of specific crafty inspiration. There were rules about the show (for the trade only, not open to the public) one of which included no photography in the booths without permission. Hmmm…I guess I’m just a goody-goody, because I saw a lot of rule breaking. Didn’t hear much permission asking either. But I digress…

What I DO have photos of is people! Yay, people! Here’s a photo of Natalie Zee-Drieu from CRAFT Magazine. I was so excited to finally meet her in person after a year or so of emailing and working together on this and that. She and Sherry Huss (of Maker Faire) came by the F+W booth where I was signing books and doing make-and-takes. Do you see that button pinned to my name tag? The publisher had little cupcake buttons made up to promote the book. Cute!
***newly updated: check out the CRAFT podcast tutorial of my make and takes!***

Here’s me with author Claudine Hellmuth, later that day. (yes! I went back to the hotel and changed clothes and SHOES…I think my feet are still wondering what I was subjecting them to) Claudine is super friendly and is such a pro at these events. It was great to meet her finally as well. (BTW, she’s a “Martha Buddy”…we exchanged emails before her appearance on the MS show last fall!) Thank you Claudine for showing me the ropes!

And who’s this I ran into by surprise? Why, it’s Ms. Heather Bailey! It was pretty funny. After my book signing I was walking the show, taking in the sights. I was in the scrapbooking area (which was like 50% of the show!) when I felt like someone was watching me. Look up at those eyes! Wow! I didn’t know she was going to be there or I would’ve pestered her in advance. :) Anyway, I looked down from the sign to see Heather herself standing there. She’s got a new scrapbook paper line, who knew? She was very engrossed in a conversation so I couldn’t pop over and say hi right then. I walked a few more aisles then peeked back…rats! Still busy. I was starting to feel like I was exhibiting stalker-ish behavior, so I just decided to go for it. I’m glad I did. She was very gracious and I met her friendly husband, Isaac, as well. She was nice enough to pose with me under her giant eyes for a photo…yay! :) Another blogger, brought to life. Thank you Heather and congrats on the new line!

I also want to say thanks to every one I met that came by the booth to say hi and show their enthusiasm for Warm Fuzzies! I put so much work, heart and soul into my book and it was immensely gratifying to see it come full circle. It was very well received and your response to it was overwhelming. I was taken aback! So much so that I hardly knew how to behave. It’s just an amazing honor to be able to share ones work and to have it make people smile. Really. You can’t ask for anything more than that.