10 things about CHA

I made it home from sunny Anaheim on Tuesday. Except for the creeping crud I contracted somewhere, it was an easy trip.

Here are 10 things that happened:
1. My immune system was compromised by a shocking lack of soft drinks in general and Diet Coke in particular. I am still working on restoring my blood to the proper levels of carbonation.
2. It was down right hot in Anaheim. In January. The pool looked so good.
3. How do I know how good the pool looked? My room was in close-range shrieking distance of the pool. And the video arcade. And the self-serve laundry room.
4. There was a  Coke machine in the hall. It had no Diet Coke.
5. I spent a lot of time thinking about Diet Coke.
6. We had a duct tape make-and-take in the booth, presided over by Patti "Duct Tape Diva" Wallenfang. She's famous, made the newspaper in her duct tape dress.
7. We had book signings with Drew "The Crochet Dude" Emborsky, Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby, and Kim Novak.
8. We had Knook demos running at the same time. And it was really interesting to see the reaction to the Knook. Lindsay did a great job of showing how easy knooking can be.
9. We were included in the Innovations show, where 20 products were chosen by judges. Each spokesperson had 60 seconds to sell the product in front of the group and then 30 minutes to demo. Afterwards, there was voting. And our Knook won Honorable Mention (one of the top 3 spots). Woo. Hoo! There have been a lot of people working hard to make that a success so it was nice to win.
10. I had multiple birthday celebrations. And there ain't nothing wrong with that.
Thanks to all my Facebook friends for all the birthday wises. I was trudging through airports but it was great to see all my posts.

11. What did I see? Painted canvas make-and-takes featuring happy little trees and cupcakes (not a fast hobby, that painting), feathers (peacock, purple, real, and so very fake), bling (chandeliers, metallic papers), words and words and words, birds, dark and moody color ways featuring black line drawings and the tattoo-look, bright and clean colorways with stylized art that looked pretty cheerful, yellow and grey, orange and orange and orange, a toned down, softer turquoise and red/pink, and lots of gadgets (sewing, paper crafts, tape), and celebrity lines for just about every crafty item you can think of.