Five, Six, Cha, Cha, Cha...

Well, I've got to wrap this up, so I thought I'd post some of my favorite photos with friends - old, new and newly met.

CHA was a complete and total blast!! I had all the fun with none of the pressure of being a store owner, buyer or having to watch a budget. As you have already seen, it was great to get there and already know someone there, my friend Tracy, and to see her designs displayed at the Dream Street Papers booth. I even met her friend, Audrey, who has a new book out Paper & Pixels, Scrapbook Layouts (which just may bring me into the digital scrapbooking age). Dream Street has done tremendously over the last two years and it's such a kick to Tracy's dreams come to fruition as a design team member of this new and growing company.

I also met a new friend, Stephenie at the Fiskars booth. Stephenie is a Fiskateer, one of the original and we have in common another friend, Kelly Edgerton. My biggest hope for this CHA was that I would get to meet Kelly in person. We're Internet friends, connected by scrapbooking and other things we have in common. My biggest disappointment of CHA was that Kelly could not attend this year - I was bummed. I had so hoped to finally meet her in person. In talking with Stephenie I found out that she also e-mails and is friends with Kelly. I did a great M&T at the Fiskars booth, got my name engraved on my own personal pair of Fiskars scissors (Alexa don't take or you WILL be on a slow boat back to China!) and made a new friend.

I did know another person at the show, Debby Shuh. I've tried repeatedly to turn this photo around and it just won't turn! It's right side up in 'My Pictures' files but as soon as I import it into the blog is just lays down! I'm so sorry Debby! Debby was my first scrapbooking contact, friend, here in Buffalo. I walked into Michael's, not a month into our move here and saw the most fabulous layout on the wall of the store and saw it was a class you could sign up for! I was in paper heaven! Debby is known nationwide for her creative scrapbooking, is a member of the design team and works for Anna Griffin Papers, has done more CKU's than I can count and teaches at stores all over the country and has recently taught a class in Florence, Italy!

I also got to meet someone who I know, but didn't know me (until I blabbered and stammered my way through introducing myself to her!) Nora Griffin. Nora lives in California and was working in the Maya Road booth when I stopped by. I love Maya Road! Nora is tremendously talented, has the cutest little boy, Mac and the sweetest husband on the planet (giving mine a run for his money), Sean. A little over a year ago, Nora and Sean were at the end of their quest to have a baby through adoption when the birth mother changed her mind - after the little girl had been given to the Griffins. Nora shared her story with the scrapbooking community and as the mother of an adoptive daughter, I was immediately caught up in their story. I admire Nora's ability deal with adversity, accept what she cannot change and embrace the blessings she has and make the best life she can for herself and her family. Plus, she is so darned organized and always planning and doing for others. She makes me dizzy just reading her blog!

Now, could I say what I just wrote coherently, to Nora at CHA - NOPE! I embarrassed my way through introducing myself and anything else I attempted. Nora was most gracious and even took a picture with me.

A couple of posts ago I introduced you to Tim Holtz.

Tim is a fabulous designer for Ranger Industries. Tim also has his own line Ideology, Distressable, and containers for his products with Cropper Hopper. Tim is a natural teacher, tinkerer and has a fabulously inventive mind. My second biggest regret is that I didn't get to do something with him at CHA or see any of his demos. If we are really lucky, Sharon might get him to come for a class at Buffalo Stamps and Stuff. Elisabeth was so excited to see him and watch him work and wanted a picture. It was the end of the day and I was afraid he'd walk away so I dived in and asked for a picture also (even though my camera was out of battery power) to stall him until Elisabeth was ready.

That's it for now. I think I need one more CHA post with photos. Maybe some more food, me and Oscar, we'll see...