My Feet Are Aching!!

So much to see...so little time. My day began with breakfast as usual (thank you Hampton Inn for the great, free breakfast), a quick ride on the CHA shuttle, and then a fast one-hour run before my 10am make & take. As I approached the booth I could see the chairs filled and lines behind each one. YIKES!!! Ask me if we had fun today. Go ahead and ask. My 10 am make & take was still going strong at 1:45!!!!
Then I was off again at a fast trot, hoping to cover the entire floor from one end of the convention center to the other. Go ahead and laugh with me; we knew it wouldn't happen and of course it didn't. I'd run into friends, including new friends who'd joined me for my make & takes, and time quickly slipped away from me.

Almost all the booths had activity. Seemed like lots of people like me trying to see it all, though lots of booths are telling me the foot traffic seems slow. Cute m&t's at some of the booths. Displays were lovely, inspiring, and would sometimes bring me to a quick stop.

As in past years there are lots of scrapbooking booths, yet not as many anymore. The big guys are surviving and perhaps the little guys are as well, but they aren't renting a booth at CHA this year. There's still lots of grumbling about the summer show being moved from Chicago to Orlando, and even more discontent because it's including a consumer show. Guess we'll see if that show shrinks even more than this one has, but you know I'll be there no matter what happens.

I should mention that yesterday was incredible but hectic. My morning demo went past noon so at 2pm I combined the beads and pendants into one make & take, which was a huge hit. I also skipped the Indie Crafting booth both yesterday and today. Priorities...

Last night we dined at the most fabulous Italian restaurant right here beside our hotel. They served the food family style, meaning the small items served 2-3 and the large served 4-5. We ordered a small salad, a large entree, and one dessert for the 4 of us, and didn't finish any of them.

Tonight Kelly wanted to go to Downtown Disney so we walked from the convention center and then had to walk all the way back to our hotel. A really long walk and the temperatures had dropped but the food was good and we did have fun. My dogs are barking!

Now for some fun news....new products from Tim, Ranger and more. Not only are there now 24 new colors of alcohol inks, but they've added a new refillable pen for them. I got one and can't wait to get more. The best news about them is that you fill the pen as you count aloud 1,2,3,4,5. Seriously, not 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi,... just 1 to 5 and stop. Tim says he filled his back in June was was still using them at the show without a refill. Yee Haw, that's great! I don't think anyone will buy one for each color, but I can certainly see one for your favorite blue, yellow, pink, green and red. Tim says the first pen you should fill is one with Blending Solution so you can lighten your colors as you're applying them, but also to create your own eraser. Now how clever is that? They've also added Memory Capsules to fit the Memory Frames. Today's m&t was with Tim himself as we assembled a piece of wearable art using the frames, the capsules, and some of his hardware from the Idea-ology line.

Now in addition to his brads & washers, swivel clasps & trinket pins, he's got ornate plates, metal foilage (tiny flowers , & leaves), itty bitty paper clips that are too cute for words, and book D-rings for those fat books we love to create. There are new mini masks, new rubber stamps, a new Tiny Attacher (itty bitty staples are used in this full size stapler), and of course new grungeboard as well as grunge paper. Have mercy.

I can also tell you that the metal storage tins and the textured grungeboard are being discontinued (get them while you can).

Clearsnap has new molding mats (we used them today to rubber stamp our bangles), new Design Adhesives, and a new product called Smooch. Talk about fabulous!!!! It looks like a snazzy bottle of nail polish, but instead of bristles on a brush applicator it has a hard foam tip for painting. 8 gorgeous colors like Sugarberry & Siren, and I'm bringing them home with me from the show. So for all you gals who love to stamp an image and color it in, now you can paint it with vibrant, shimmering kisses of color. Use them on paper, cardstock, glass, clay and so much more.

7 Gypsies has so many new things I'm breathless at the possibilities. I also discovered some new products like a packaging tape with patterns and colors. I can already see my bangles inked and then wrapped with these gorgeous tapes for a finished look that will dazzle everyone.

There are new books (I got one), and I've seen all the new Stampington publications that aren't yet on the shelves. Ooh la la!!! You know how I love those.

Tomorrow is the last day of the show and it ends at 2pm, so I'll hit the ground running at 9am and won't slow down til it's time to dismantle the booth.

Time to start getting ready for bed, empty my suitcase of all today's loot in preparation for tomorrow's gatherings, and soak my poor tired feet. Come back to see me...