CHA is Over

So CHA is officially over. It is sort of a sad day, but a good day all the same. I went in, I shopped like a crazy person, and I left feeling pretty good about all the great stuff we will have coming to our store.

With all the business of the show, I haven't really had any time to appreciate where I am. Matt hung in through the entire show, only going back to the hotel room for 1 afternoon. He hasn't really got a taste of anything but the Convention Center. Tomorrow we will head out and I will show him what it is like in this beautiful state.

It is winter here and I only wish that winters back in Waterloo were this beautiful. Here is a photo of flowers blooming outside the Convention Center.

They have a beautiful fountain that is splashing in the sunshine.

I have a slight obsession with palm trees.

There are many different kinds of palm trees. These were a shorter version of the usual tall thin variety. The tops on these are huge and the trunks are very thick. Matt is standing at the bottom of this beautiful tree. I took the photo of the whole tree so you would get an idea just how big it is.

Here is an up close photo of my tree hugger!

These flowers are blooming in the gardens around the Convention Center. They look like the head of a bird.

In Waterloo we plant flowers in our pots.......in Anaheim you plant Palm Trees. These are still quite large........the pot is really big.

I made Matt jump up there for a photo. They only reason he could hop up there was because this pot was placed next to a cement wall that he could use as a ledge to get up.

After the show was over we headed to an outdoor mall and walked around for a bit. We went to a restaurant called Johnny Rockets for lunch. It is like a 50's style diner, complete with little juke boxes by every seat. You can insert a nickle and choose a song to play.


We grabbed a seat at the counter and got to watch the cook make our lunch. Matt enjoyed it very much.

We shared 3 mini burgers, onion rings and fries.

We didn't really do much else, as I was super tired and needed a nap in the afternoon. When I woke up, the sun was setting and this is the view from our hotel room. The photo does not do it justice, but you get the idea.

I do miss all my family and friends at home, but this is a nice little treat. Check back again tomorrow to see what we are up to on our first full free day!

Little Red Wagon #13

It's Wednesday and that means another great challenge from Little Red Wagon. I am participating all the way from sunny California! I miss my girlfriends and I can't wait to get home to see what everyone creates this time around.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, Avril wanted us to show our love and use hearts on our creation. I created this card for a recent Cricut class at Two Scrapbook Friends. It was perfect for this challenge!

Pattern papers are from Crate Paper and Bella Blvd. I used Core-dinations cardstock for the hearts and then sanded the edges for more definition. I think the ribbon is from Fancy Pants!?
I took the photo using my new floral frog that I recently purchased. Enjoy!

Be sure to check out what the team created and play along.

Day 2 in California

It was another really busy day at CHA. Matt stayed with me for the entire day again. He has been a great help and quite a hit at all the booths.

On the walk to the Convention Center we pass this really huge tree. I have photos of Jason in this tree and I wanted to get some of Matt.

You can see in the first photo how big the tree actually is. The branches are super thick and the bark is really smooth.



After a really exhausting day we headed out for dinner and ended up at the Rainforest Cafe. I asked the waitress to take a photo of the two of us together.

The restaurant was located in Downtown Disney, so afterward we went for a little walk (I don't know what we were thinking......I think we walked 1000 miles already). We ended up in the Disney store and we found this pile of stuffed Eeyore's. We have always nicknamed Matt Eeyore! I made him sit right in the middle of the pile so I could get his photo!

That was the extent of our fun today. As I type this, Matt is sound asleep. I think CHA is just way too exciting for him........not!

Day 1 in California

Matt and I have arrived safely in California. We had a great flight (well, Matt's TV didn't work half the time and I didn't have any sound on mine......but other than that it was fine) and even arrived a 1/2 hour ahead of schedule.

Each time I rent a car for our stay, my kids always request some sort of sports car. Last year, Jason begged me to rent a new Mustang. I explained that it was a lot of money to spend on a car. He accepted that and moved on.......until he found out that we ended up with a FREE upgrade to a 2010 silver Mustang!

Matt is thrilled that we get to spend the week driving around in a very cool car. He says it makes him feel very important. I told him he was important....to me! He happened to be carrying my camera when we left for the show today and he snapped a couple of photos.



He also snapped some shots of the palm trees on our walk to the Convention Center. Aren't they beautiful? The sun was shining, but it was a bit chilly (I know, not like there!).

I thought the show opened at 9am, so we were up bright and early to be there as soon as they opened the doors. I found out when we arrived that it didn't open until 10am so we had a bit of time to kill. Matt was sure he was going to pick up a wireless internet connection. He tried all day, but was unsuccessful.

He lasted the entire day. He was my bag boy......and my secretary. He entered all my notes into my Blackberry as we went from booth to booth. He was quiet popular with all the exhibitors and even helped out with a demo (I have a video to show you how well he did).

Off to get some rest to prepare for Day 2!

Little Red Wagon #12

It is my turn for the challenge this week at Little Red Wagon and I just want to say how excited I am to see how much our little blog has grown over the past few months. We are only 12 challenges into this adventure and we had over 40 people participate last week. A big thank you goes out to everyone who has been playing along and I hope you are having as much fun as I am.

For this weeks challenge the girlfriends put together a little giveaway to kick off the new year. All you have to do is participate in the challenge and your name will be entered into a random draw to win an amazing collection of goodies.

My challenge this week is to use snowflakes........they can be in the paper, an embellishment or simply the word.

For my card I used pattern paper from Basic Grey. I thought it looked a little like a snow storm. I embossed the white strips using an embossing folder and my Cuttlebug (love this little tool). I added some clear die-cuts from Deja Views, matching ribbon that my BFF bought for me and finished it off with a snowflake brad.

Dive into your stash and see what you can come up with and play along!