CHA - Day 2

First things first.....let's pick a winner from all of those wonderful comment from yesterday's blog post:

The winner is:

Tara

Please send an email to info@studiocalico.com with your information and we will get your fabulous SEI prize package to you!! Make sure to include all of your contact information.

OK, now to the fun stuff. Some folks here at the Convention Center in Chicago might have been rubbing their eyes and thinking that they were seeing double today....we decided to throw them a curve and bring April's twin sister Amber with us just to make things interesting. Check them out....do you think that you might get them mixed up??


Don't feel bad if you think that you might, several folks here got them mixed up today. April is on the right and Amber is on the left. It was actually kindof comical to sit back and watch Amber explain over and over again that she was not April. Several folks were really glad to see Amber until she told them that she was not April.....so if you are reading this and thought you saw April today and could not figure out why she acted like she didn't recognize you, it was probably Amber.

Now that we have cleared that up....WOW, what an amazing day!! I thought that last night was cool, but let me tell you, today just absolutely blew my mind!! First of all, the sheer size of the show doesn't register until you walk in and actually see row after row of booths. I had no idea that there were so many different manufacturers. When we walked through the doors this morning, it literally took my breath away. My first thought was, "How are we ever going to see all of this?" My second thought way, "I'm so glad that I wore my tennis shoes!" I mean seriously, we poured over a map last night and marked all of the booths that we wanted to visit, but I was not prepared for the vastness (if that is even a word) of the ground that we needed to cover. Fortunately, we brought reinforcements....Greg, Stephen, Amber and of course, "The Sandwich."

Once I gathered myself, I was able to really look around and appreciate the creativity that went into setting up the booths and the lengths that some of the manufacturers go to in order to entice you to their booth. There were all kinds....some were very elaborate, some very skimpy, some had too much product crammed into a small space, some had almost no product, some were well staffed, some were way under staffed. I decided to share some of my favorites with you tonight.

Here is one of the displays at Sassafras....notice the technique that they used to create the trees....amazing!


I also loved the way that My Mind's Eye displayed the new Laundry Line by Jen Wilson. They are truly "letting it all hang out."


Cosmo Cricket really blew my socks off with their themed die cuts and use of color. There was a mini album here that I literally drooled over! I don't want to reveal too much about it because I am going to work on getting the "boss ladies" to incorporate some of the ideas into a project kit!


The Rusty Pickle showcased their products with a rustic flair. They also had GREAT snacks and a cool chocolate fountain.


This is just a tiny peak of what we saw today, but they were some of my favorites. I will try to include more tomorrow.....I'm sure that I'll have more favorites after we cover some more ground. Speaking of tomorrow.....make sure to check back because I have a whole feature planned that will showcase my FAVORITE part of CHA. Also, we will be giving away another RAK, so make sure that you come back and visit.

I'll leave you tonight with a picture of all of the girls. Notice the new Studio Calico T-shirts that Stephen developed for CHA. It was sooooo cool to have people see the shirts and come up and tell us that they are a subscriber! It was really neat to meet folks face to face and talk about all of the yummy goodness that we have seen. If you are here and we haven't met, make sure to look for us tomorrow!


Stay tuned for more....
Goodnight,
Lorie