Winter CHA 2011 adventures - part 1

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Ok, this is part one of my adventures to Winter CHA 2011. My trip started off with a challenge of it's own....WHAT TO PACK! lol! As you can see I got everything into the carry on bag which I put inside the larger bag that I checked. Once in LA I put my clothes in the dresser and took the carry on bag with me out onto the floor. The larger bag was to accommodate all the cool stuff I brought home with me.

I ended up shipping home stuff that weighed down my luggage; there was no way I would have been able to handle lifting the carry-on above my head with it weighed down and put a combinations of clothes and goodies in the larger bag. I've ordered stuff online that people cram into Priority Mail medium flat rate boxes and I know that those boxes will tear at the seams; that's how I "lost" a medium flat rate box of chip board I ordered (the seller sent me another box). Fortunately the post office had clear tape to buy so I could wrap that around the seams for reinforcement.

For summer CHA I think I will bring some Priority Mail flat rate boxes with me, guess (based on my LA trip) how many labels I will need, and pre-print those before leaving home. It's cheaper to do it online and the price includes delivery confirmation. If you pay for it at the post office then it's the flat rate fee, plus 90 cents for delivery confirmation. Yes, I realize it's stuff I got for free, but I'm passing it off to blog followers and customers so $10.95 or even $14.95 for Large flat rate is a small price to pay for the amount of merchandise I can cram in those boxes. Oh, and bring my own roll of clear tape so I don't have to pay inflated prices for less than a roll I can buy at Walmart. So there ya' have it, I have a plan for Summer CHA 2011. If any of you ever go to CHA (hmm....maybe that's a contest I'll have, will have to think about that one) you will soon catch on how to better organize yourself and the SWAG you take home with you.

So, while we were at CHA, the floor wasn't as busy or humming as much as I thought it would be. Blame it on Mother Nature. A lot of people didn't make it in on time, or they left early because of the predicted blizzards. The other thing I learned was if you couldn't get into a class there is an opportunity to get in on stand-by. There is a separate stand-by room to go to and let the attendant know which class you want to be on stand-by for. For both Tattered Angels classes (101 and 201) and a Flower Soft class I got in on stand-by. Twice there were almost 20 people in line and both times the attendant (after the class personnel counted empty seats) said we could all go it.

On Sunday morning Mandie and I woke up at the crack of dawn (5:30) to get ready for the day and head to the convention center. I was banking on the number of people who went to LA Live the night before and were too hung over to wake up in time for the Tattered Angel's class (101). My gamble paid off! WOO HOO! And, Mandie's chair was the chair with the gold label underneath so she won a bonus prize. The 201 class was the next morning and that morning I was hoping people would simply be exhausted. Lightening strikes twice! Double WOO HOO! And where was Kim both morning? sleeping in ;-). There were parties every night: Fiskateers, The Provo Craft Gala, dinner with reps, and the CHA evening event on the last day.

Below are pics, starting with the photo of mine and Mandie's stained hands after TA 201. Thank goodness the inks don't stain my wedding ring! There are days, not even an hour after I get my nails done, that my hands and nails are all stained up; it does eventually wash off ;-).

This was the last night of the show (Monday). I was
sooooooooooo tired by then.

It was the red carpet treatment! LOL!

We we had dinner one night while in town.

On Tuesday, Feb 1, the last day of the show, DH flew into LA
so we could spend a few days together before going home. We went to LA Market in hopes of a Nona sighting. For those of you who don't know, or don't watch the show, Nona was the winner of Hell's Kitchen last season. We tried for tickets to the show but they already filmed the next season last Fall, and their next filming isn't until May I think. The camera was back at the hotel (d'oh!) and all we had was our cell phones. We did not know at the time there is a way to force the flash to go off on a Blackberry so this photo is an enhancement from the original: