Tag Archives: cha

more on the CHA trip

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The Orlando CHA show was probably 80% scrapbooking related, at least. Scrapbooking is not really my thing, but I still managed to find some booths that caused me some serious crafty supply lust.

When I saw this booth, I literally gasped. Why do I love this stuff? I have no idea! It has no application for the work I do, but… I just love it!

The Clover booth was the only sewing related company I saw at the show. There were lots of fun gadgets to think about. One thing I was intrigued by- a light to attach to your rotary cutter. Sounds like a very good idea. I watched a demo of their new rose making devise. Can’t have too many fabric flowers!

And then there was the May Arts booth. Please, can I have one of each?!

You see these spools? 100% silk. Sigh. I have got to find a place that sells it in the Boston area.

Other fun happenings- I got to say hi to the famous Crafty Chica.

It is strange how you feel like you know someone after you’ve listened to a few podcast interviews. Hope I didn’t come off as too stalker-ish. She had a photo box (not sure what they are called?) in the iLovetoCreate booth-

Mimi as Chica- not quite sure it works.

And speaking of podcasts, I also met and talked with Margot Potter, The Impatient Crafter, who was recently on Craftypod. Carol Duvall was somewhere in the building, but I missed her.

That will be all for now on the Florida trip. I was hoping to have a finished doll to post today, but instead I have one shelf and 2 bulletin boards hung up in the new studio. That took me all day!

I’m home!

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I got home yesterday, but no rest for me here! There is lots to be done here with studio organization and filling up my Etsy shop, but first things first.

Tomorrow is my birthday and that means a give-away. I will post details tomorrow instead of doing the drawing on my birthday like other years. See you back here then!

Also, there will be a few days of CHA reporting. It was all new to me, I met lots of interesting people, and wow, was it exhausting. I am simply not used to being out and about with loads of people interactions for 5 days in a row. I need more practice at getting out of my studio!

That is the hotel restaurant on the first night, before any of the work began. I went to Orlando with my sister-in-law who was showing Twisteez, an art wire that her family has been making and selling to schools for 50 years. This was her first venture into finding retail outlets for the product.

This is what things looked like when we first walked in-

soon, we were getting the booth put together-

and here is how it looked on Tuesday morning, opening day-

We kept ourselves very busy. In between talking to people, we played with the wire. Here are some of our creations-

Sandy made a dragon-

I made a dragon slayer-

together-

I made an articulated little girl-

We both made flowers-

Sandy made a horse-

And I cut out a bunch of elephant shapes and we tried different approaches to them-

Mimi-

and-

and Sandy-

As I said at the beginning, there are no retail outlets for Twisteez yet, but I am going to help my son set up an Etsy shop to sell them- soon! I will let you know when they are available, in case you are interested.

oh, so exciting!

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I am at CHA right now. Here is the most exciting thing that happened-

The keynote speaker at the convention was Maria Thomas, the CEO of Etsy- speaking at 7:30 am (!) so we had to haul ourselves out of bed and over to the conference center very early yesterday morning. She spoke about social media, what it is and how to use for business and marketing.

I met her last March and so knew it would be an interesting speech. I sat in the front row. When she came on stage, she glanced over, saw me and said hi- I was so pleased. With all the people she must meet every week, I was surprised she remembered me. So, she is talking away, all very interesting, and this slide came up-

And she says, And these dolls are by Mimi Kirchner who is sitting right over there! I almost fell out of my chair! What a thrill! Really, after that, no matter what happens, this has been a great event.

When I get back home I will report on some of what I saw on the convention floor- in case you need a preview though, it is mostly a ton of scrapbooking related stuff. See you soon!