CHA 2008 - A Wonderful Memory

I'm home again and quite happy to be here. Hubby met me at the airport with a dozen red roses and I was so glad to be with him again. I was a little travel weary, having been on the go for over 12 hours, but was happy with my choice of layovers. Going from any airport in California direct to Tampa may cut out a couple of hours, but it does seem a lot longer than stopping just about half way in Dallas and stretching your legs and getting your adrenalin going hoping you make your next flight. At least, by choosing not to go through a northern city I didn’t have to worry about snow delays, LOL! (BTW the picture is of Helen the very talented owner/designer of the "My Little Shoe Box" company).


CHA was a great experience and visiting Amy and Eli in San Francisco was even better! I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat, well maybe not today or tomorrow, but certainly next year would be just fine with me! Right now I have a lot of catching up on a number of fronts. Imagine two weeks of junk mail; two weeks of laundry; a whole new line of products coming in that you need to find a place for and add to inventory; a house that truly needs a thorough cleaning; and the fact that you have to get ready for a big crop next week! Plus a number of customers that have called in about products and albums that they are having made by yours truly! Fun, definitely but it's all just a little overwhelming right now, which is probably why I'm hiding out in by Blogger's haven!


What I'll take back from CHA is the incredible talent and ingenuity that crafters have and need to keep going. I'll keep with me always how gracious scrapbooking people are even at a show like this. And I'll also take with me the fact that the scrapbooking market takes up a lot of space in the craft world and touches many lives. I'll also keep with me the fact that not everyone wants or needs to be a star and that there are different needs out there. Many people are just happy to put their pages together with pictures and a just a few embellishments, they don't need or want to spend days making pages that are as they would put it artsy craftsy!


I got to meet and speak to many people while at CHA: manufacturers, store owners, designers, teachers, demonstrators, buyers and just plain old happy crafters. They were all tied together by their need to create, to pass on a part of their reality and spirit, to share with others present and future a little of the world through their eyes. I think that from time to time, we all tend to forget the beauty that surrounds us. I speak here not just about the beauty of art, but also the unimaginable beauty of the human spirit. Whether it is CHA or my local scrapbook store or Michaels, I will endeavor to take a moment to savor the wonderful creativity that allows such things to be. After all each moment of my life, my reality, only comes once.