OK, this may be a little long winded.. so bear with me (is it BEAR or BARE?  neither look quite right).

Nicky and I had a fantabulous time.  Flight was great.. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to find her in the airport but lo and behold, as I reached the baggage claim area, I see this pink mass approaching me with an ear to ear grin… IT WAS HER!!! How excited WAS I?????  We get our baggage and head for the hotel room.  At this point, Nicky and I were FULLLL of energy.  We check in, and get our room and take a look at this pic

[photopress image=”hallway_1.jpg”]

 ok, so you see the speck of a person at the END OF THE HALLWAY???? well that was where our room was… LOL.  Nicky said that it was too far from the elevator, I say to her NAAAHHH.. it’s good exercise.  Let me tell you by day 4, we almost CRAWLED on our fours to get there..LOL!

Well, I was OBSESSED to see a stamp store there, and go to target and go to a stamp store so we paid a taxi to drag us to all these places.. I can’t even TELL you how much that was but I almost put my house up for a second mortgage!!  We went a wonderful store called Stampology where the owner, Dave was a RIOT.. just like one of us!!  He made us feel right at home, told us to DITCH the cabby and took us back to the hotel! (I bought 2 of the new sets of twinkling H2Os there.. SO MUCH FUN!! Anyway, I could go on and on about this but I will moooooveeee on.

Lisa Strahl, who has become a close friend over the last 6 months, stayed at the hotel and called me when she arrived.. she came to our room (5 doors down from hers LOL.. and HERS WAS CLOSER TO THE ELEVATOR) and we hugged and hugged.. we were looking at eachother in awe like “I CAN”T BELIEVE WE FINALLY MET!!” and we were inseparable since.

 This picture was from the morning before I set foot at the CHA

[photopress image=”lisaandemily.jpg”]

Is she STUNNING or what?? (she is the sexy blondabella next to the brunettabella which is ME).. So talented as well but I digress.. lots to talk about. Here is a pic of Nic and Lisa and me… How can a bella put dress pants on all floofy and flowy with a pair of crocs??? LOL

[photopress image=”lisanickyem.jpg”] 

Now HOW DEELISH is my nickabella? she is DA BOMB baby!!!!Mwah to my Nicky.  I would be absolutely lost without her 🙂

[photopress image=”nickyem.jpg”]

Ok, so we went to CHA.  I was a newbie at this CHA business and all Nicky did was warn me as she saw that my patience was thin.. LOL.  I have no patience to sit at make and takes, I no likey waiting in line.. the usual TYPE A behavior.  So instead of walking in the CHA and starting to walk it, we decided to go for brekkie..LOL!  We went to the cafeteria and sure enough we meet MORE people.. Ellen Hutson (OMG can you believe???).. she is as AMAZING WONDERFUL BRILLIANT CREATIVE PHENOM as you would think.. and TALLLLL did you think she was tall?  I didn’t expect THAT! LOL , At the table there was also Karen Lockhart who has an AMAZING line of stamps.. so scrumptious and deelish and beautiful.. she draws the couture fruit and veggie dresses and she has the most amazing (my favorite actually) cupcakes you have ever seen.. and her colouring?? OMG.. Nicky and I are tempted to fly to Seattle to take a class!  Then comes MOI and then Ellen and then the gorgeous redhead Trudee Sauer, the AMAZINGLY talented Debbie Olsen and the PHENOM sistah whom I love to pieces Michelle Wooderson.

[photopress image=”ellenkaren.jpg”] (the above is in the order of appearance from left to right)

 I am gonna go through the photos first and then I will tell you my thoughts on CHA (no photos of products just ideas from the bella’s head)

next image is with Nick, me (how NICE is my lipgloss..OMG), Megan Hoeppner (Assitant editor to Papercrafts Mag)–otherwise known as DA BOMB FO’ SHO’– , Trudee and Lisa.. cute pic, no?

[photopress image=”megan.jpg”]

Ok, so we go to the show.. walk around.. and I stumble upon one of the actual companies which started my stamping ride (I think I own every one of their stamps).. They are the gang at RUBBER SOUL… Their stamps are AMAZING… don’t walk.. RUN to their website and buy!! Dani broke the ice by putting a temporary skeleton tattooo on me and then photographing me.. after that, we were BFFFFF’s.. it’s like we were one and the same?!  I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE HERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR and I want you to infiltrate her blog (on home page of site) and just keep writing her comments to prove that YES, there ARE people reading her blog..LOL .. so just write that Em said to say hi! LOL.

[photopress image=”rubbersoul.jpg”]

 

  I was a newbie at this CHA business and all Nicky did was warn me as she saw that my patience was thin.. LOL.  I have no patience to sit at make and takes, I no likey waiting in line.. the usual TYPE A behavior.  So instead of walking in the CHA and starting to walk it, we decided to go for brekkie..LOL!  We went to the cafeteria and sure enough we meet MORE people.. Ellen Hutson (OMG can you believe???).. she is as AMAZING WONDERFUL BRILLIANT CREATIVE PHENOM as you would think.. and TALLLLL did you think she was tall?  I didn’t expect THAT! LOL , At the table there was also Karen Lockhart who has an AMAZING line of stamps.. so scrumptious and deelish and beautiful.. she draws the couture fruit and veggie dresses and she has the most amazing (my favorite actually) cupcakes you have ever seen.. and her colouring?? OMG.. Nicky and I are tempted to fly to Seattle to take a class!  Then comes MOI and then Ellen and then the gorgeous redhead Trudee Sauer, the AMAZINGLY talented Debbie Olsen and the PHENOM sistah whom I love to pieces Michelle Wooderson.

[photopress image=”ellenkaren.jpg”] (the above is in the order of appearance from left to right)

I am probably jumping all over the place but hey, I am SO excited about this!!

I think I am gonna post more pics as the week progresses so now I thinky I am gonna tell you my thoughts on CHA… n’k?

 I was very excited to go and see all the yummalicious things.. there was plenty of eye candy.. lots of colours, lots of different flairs and flavors; I soaked everything in the first day.. checked some booths out etc.. second day I was ready to form an opinion.. as a cardmaker first and foremost, I appreciated all the eye candy but I felt that there wasn’t anything for me to SINK my teeth into.. YKWIM?  I was a little disappointed? (shrieks from everyone)… OF COURSE I was ABLE to find goodies for the sistahs… and Nicky and I just didn’t stop talking about our inspirations, the direction this company should go in, the diverse ideas etc.. and BOY are you sistahs in for some good times… I definitely WAS inspired at this show and really need to go to the winter show as there are more booths… became completely obssessed with COPIC MARKERS which you can read about on Ellen’s blog and I must OWN ALL 311 COLORS… ya mind? so that is something COMPLETELY worth looking into.. YUM!!  I am not about to give away what i ordered.. How could I??!?!? BUT what I can promise you is that I am gonna have a HUGE line released next week which is not from CHA but from before.. so STAY TUNED.  So those are my thoughts… the highlight of this trip was Not really the show but the bonding that went on.. I mean, having a room full of the most talented people ever?  I was in awe the whole time.

More to come tomorrow..

sorry for being long winded.. if you have any questions just post them in the comments and I will respond to you…..

MWAH TO ALL THE PATIENT SISTAHS

love love love you all

Em