How do you summarize such an amazing whirlwind of a week as CHA? The process of getting out the door exhausted us before we ever got there! We arrived Friday afternoon and picked up my friend Karla Dornacher (www.karladornacher.com) at the Ontario airport and had so much fun catching up, that we missed our turn onto the 57 freeway and had to take the long way around to get back. A trip that should have been 30-45 minutes took an hour and a half! Friday night we connected up with Stacey Thomas and Andrea Wainscott of The Daisie Company for dinner. None of us recognized each other even though we had seen pictures. We realized how far short a single picture goes in capturing the essence of an individual… their smile, their laugh, and especally their sense of humor. We deeply enjoyed getting to know one another and shared our vision for where we're headed with The Daisie Company. Saturday we took a single class on Photoshop for designers. It was totally an overwhelming experience even though the instructor tried very hard to make it relevant from beginner to the intermediate level. In retrospect it was a feat that I'm not sure could be accomplished by anyone. Perhaps next year CHA will have her do two classes instead. We took Lina (the instructor) out to dinner afterwards and talked late into the night. We seemed to do that a lot of over the week, much to our dismay later on when the sleep deprivation began to accumulate. Lina will probably be doing online private tutoring on Photoshop for artists once I get her hooked up with my Techie guru Bill Findley. She is an outstanding teacher with a vast knowledge of the program and its application to fine art. We'll give it some test runs and when she's open for business I'll let you know in case you'd like to have some individualized instruction. We began to see the trade show floor on Sunday and by Wednesday we still hadn't seen everything! If you know the Anaheim Convention Center, it filled every hall and a good part of the lower basement as well. There were art materials mfgs., scrapbook companies, craft supply companies and crafting equipment mfgs. There were software companies and craft organizing and storage mfgs. I can't even list all the categories let alone all the products that were there. Later I'll write posts with in depth reviews of some of the products we saw and trend observations of note. For anyone thinking of attending next year or this summer in Chicago, I highly recommend it. It was a wonderful time of creativity and discovery. Finally, we participated in the Designer's Forum which was a time where I was finally able to meet some online friends and connect name, face and craft together. I've only known names from the Society of Creative Designer's discussion group emails (which then became the Designer's Transitional Group of CHA). It was fun to see their work exhibited for the CHA members to enjoy. There were some absolutely amazing displays of talent there. Alright, it's time to turn in for the evening… thanks for stopping by!
Audrey Jeanne Roberts