And That's a Wrap- CHA 2014!

Well, I guess it's time to dig myself out of my post show hole and explain what we've been up to the last week. We attended our biggest trade show of the year, the Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim, CA. We are so lucky it is a local show for us. It makes things so much easier to transport but it also allows us to procrastinate until the last minute to get stuff done. We started set up on Thursday and the show ran Saturday through Tuesday so it has been a long week. Everyone who has ever done a trade show knows you need about three days to recover after you get home. That was especially true about this show- people were dropping like flies from what we dubbed the "CHA flu." Despite our best efforts we came home exhausted and fighting off the bug. This year we went with a mid century modern theme. It was easy because we borrowed most of the furniture from our living room. 

 It was comfy, cozy in our booth. This was the first show in thirteen years that we have ever had seating in our booth!

 

  The cabinets held up our canvas walls which Brian painted in the garage.

 The catalogs looked great. Thanks Brian!

  

 We had lots of displays to show off the projects with the new product!

We introduced two new shapes- the Chevron and the Butterfly! People loved them both!

Chevron Project

Butterfly Project

We had lots of fun seeing old friends and making new ones!

We were lucky to have Mandy Koeppen, one of my favorite people, design all of the project layouts in the booth. Her work is amazing! 

After four days we were ready to wrap it up! Tear down was pretty quick since we were in the back of the hall and didn't have to wait for a crate.

Then it was time to celebrate a successful show!

I haven't really recovered yet. My goal is to be back up and running at full steam on Monday! We have a lot of exciting things in the works that I can't wait to share! Have a fabulous weekend!

-Tricia

Christmas is Officially Over!

The last event we were waiting on was Davis' Christmas party with her best friends this Thursday. We had to keep all the decorations up in anticipation for the party. I threw the party together in a day because I was still so worn out from Christmas I just didn't have the energy to plan anything. So I cheated a bit and got Panera catering for the main dishes.

Brian made the labels for the "Melted Snowman" water. Thanks Pinterest!

Reindeer root beer because they needed more sugar!

I did make all of the desserts. Reindeer cookies and reindeer noses!

I used my aluminum tree as the centerpiece since I figured none of the kids have ever seen a color wheel before!

Even though it was eighty degrees outside I made homemade hot chocolate in the crock pot. Totally worth it- it was so good!

The kids had planned a gift exchange. My the time they all arrived there was three times the presents under the tree!

Dani opening her "gag gift" that they all found hilarious...except Dani, lol.

Of course, Davis gave Peter My Little Pony stuff.

Gino opening his DVD from Davis.

There were lots of laughs to go around!

Molly received a unicorn mask from Davis. She already had the horse mask!

Davis received her favorite movie on DVD Coraline.

These are the greatest kids. They all accept each other for their quirkiness and weirdness. I'm so glad Davis had friends that are so accepting through those awkward junior high years. I was so impressed with their gifts for each other. They really put a lot of thought into them. It was really amazing to see how much they care for each other.

The aftermath.

The party lasted from 1:00-11:00 when I finally had to kick the boys out. They were having so much fun playing games and talking. If I could have stayed awake I would have let them stay longer.

Davis is so blessed to have such great friends!

And with that our Christmas officially comes to an end and we can look forward to whatever 2014 brings for her!

Happy New Year!

-Tricia