Before I show you all the pictures of my time at CHA, I want to take the time to thank these ladies and gentleman in these top two pictures!
They made my CHA experience the best one EVER!!! Seriously it was the best!!! I have never laughed so hard I ended up in someone's lap! Never have the combinations of the two words shoes and socks made me laugh so hard I cried (so did the rest of the table). Never have I built things with hammer, nails, screws, wrenches, and other manly tools with a friend and felt so empowered and confused at the same time! Never have I stood in a line for popcorn almost peeing my pants listening to a story of someone else peeing in their pants!LOL
Never have I had a "dude" be my assistant in a class and had woman yelling "take off your shirt" while the rest of the team stood back chatting and laughing. LOL
Thank you to the best crew ever!!!!
The story I'm about to tell is a true story and it's so crazy that it just makes us laugh because it's just nuts!!!
I got to Illinois last Friday and met up with Linda from
Creative Cuts and Crafts, the cutest little scrapbook store that I've ever been too! I LOVED it!!! I loved the gals I taught as well. So sweet!
(You can see some of the pictures from my classes there in my previous blog post and some down below.)
My first night there, there was a HUGE thunderstorm!!! I'm talking so huge that bridges were flooded, Cars were under water, and there was lightning so big that I think it lit up the entire state! LOL I'm from California...we don't see that. LOL
It took some people HOURS to get to my class!!! I'm so grateful they came even though it took them so long! Sarah came to assist me. She was literally 8 minutes away and it took her two hours to get to the store!!!
It was fun teaching there and when I wasn't I was at Linda's creating for CHA in the most amazing scrap room that I have ever seen!!! I had a great time scrapping, singing, and eating with Linda! Had the most wonderful experience in Hotel Linda!
A couple of days later I was in Rosemont where I met up with Shelly. Claudia and Linda were so awesome to take us to IKEA to shop for the booth. We bought the shelves, the cabinet, chairs, tables, and rug that you see in this picture.
Shelly and I started to try to "build" the shelving units but there was a problem...she forgot to bring tools. LOL Thankfully we found some but we still didn't know what we were doing. LOL the next day I got hammer and nails and just nailed the shelves together with the help of Sarah and Shelly and the dude next door who was awesome!
We finished putting the booth together and I think it looked pretty awesome!!!
Shelly wasn't feeling good so I sent her to the hotel to get some rest and I went out with Sarah, Kiki, Tricia, and Gloria. That night we laughed like freaking crazy hyenas!
The song GLORIA has been stuck in my head since that night!!! Thanks Kiki and Tricia! LOL
The next day was the first day of CHA!!! It was awesome!!! the Debut of my new collection was a
huge hit! I'm so excited about it!!! The only problem of the day? We were worried about Shelly...she still wasn't feeling good! She had not eaten in FOUR days!!! She was in a lot of pain and looked pale. I told her that I could handle it with the rest of the gang so I sent her to the hotel to get some rest. That night I taught my class. It was a lot of fun!!!
Tricia brought music and we had FUN!!!!
I had the greatest assistant ever...name....DAMIEN!!!! He rocked my class! I put him on the spot so many times...and he took it like a man! LOL
After the class we started cleaning up and my phone rang. It was Sarah. She told me that Shelly had been rushed to the hospital! We all freaked and tried to find out the scoop. Turns out that one of Shelly's intestines had twisted! YES, TWISTED! She had a blockage! the woman could have died!! We all felt so bad for her!! Shelly spent the entire show in the hospital!
So while she was there, the gang and I ran the booth!!!
Shelly knew the booth was in good hands so as she tried to get better I would send her texts from the booth telling her the good things that were happening. She was happy to know everyone loved our new products!
We ate like crazy people and laughed so freaking hard we all almost pee'd our pants!!
I kept checking in with Shelly. She was getting better thankfully.
Shelly was released the last day of the show. She was fully hydrated and looked so much better.
She came to work the booth and you could see that she was happy to be there.
Unfortunately we have no pictures with Shelly. wah!
Here are some pictures of me with peeps at the show!! (pulled all the pictures from facebook. Thanks guys!)
Picture of Penny and I
In the Shimmerz and Glitz booth
Helmar's booth
Elena and I
My girls Norma and Carrie
me and my for the luv of art team members
Tricia, Pamela, and Carrie
Look at us cuties!!! LOL
being nuts!!
more group pictures!!
Tricia and I being nuts!
So the show was a HUGE success for us!!! We were thrilled to see everyone and know that our products are going to be all over the world!!! We are excited that so many people want to work with my new collection!! YAY!!!
Want to hear more craziness? the story doesn't end here.
The last day of the show we decided we were going to just take our projects and the rest we would do the next day (you have two days for take down)
So we grabbed the projects. The rest we left organized. Put the curtains together. Pots were together. Stands were together. Everything was ready to put in boxes the next day.
The next morning Norma, Damien, and I went into the city to do some shopping. Shelly stayed back so she could go to the convention center to put the small items in a box. Damien was going to take the shelves down when we came back because he was going to take them home. He was also going to take the cabinet with him to take to Carrie.
The next part of the story just makes me laugh because it's crazy! LOL
I get a phone call from Shelly..."Suzy, the booth is gone!"
WHAT????
Someone had STOLEN everything in our booth!!! cabinet, pots, stands, etc.
The only thing left...the big shelving unit that I had nailed down like crazy! LOL
Who steals a booth?
sorry but as crazy and bad that it was...we had to LAUGH!!!!
So that's the story of our crazy and wonderful CHA experience!!!!
I'm excited about all the wonderful things in store with Punky!!! I've been asked to teach all over the world. Will be doing some tv spots. I'll be adding more designs to my collection.
I'm even thinking of adding more designers to the team!!!!
Thanks again to everyone who came to the booth!!
Thanks for the laughs!
Thanks for the craziness!
Today...I'm relaxing!!! Tomorrow...It starts again!
Wait til' you see what I'm up to!
Hugs,
Suzy West
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