CHA-VEGAS!!!

What can I say!!!!!! We DID Vegas! The view from the Eiffel Tower, the Bellagio fountains, the SHOW, the PAPER LINE!!! Parties at the Tao (Venetian), PF Changs, the Hilton, the Convention Center. (I ate way too many hors d'oeuvres). I have so many photos...I will be adding more photos the next few days as we swap our favorite photos around. I haven't blogged yet, simply because I have been sleeping! Can you say EXHAUSTED!?! Two hours of sleep in 36 is NOT ENOUGH! There is just so much to see, so much to do and so many people to talk to at these shows that it's almost impossible for me to describe it. I totally LOVE shows-the excitement, the hype, the people and the over stimulation, but then I have to come home and just DECOMPRESS for a few days. I am not the “party every weekend, hit the town“ type and then to go to Vegas where you walk miles every day and have 2 parties every night-well, this gal needed some serious unwind time.
"Fuzzy photo alert" I think my photographer was so excited the camera shook!
I have to tell you that it was totally cool to see my paper line hanging on the wall in the Sugar Tree booth. The guys did an awesome job featuring the papers front and center and it was just so wonderful to meet so many people as they came to the booth. It is just really an unbelievable thing to see something you have worked so hard for, dreamed about so long, and then to see it "live and in person". Oh–one of the other TOTALLY COOL things was to see the Sugar Tree catalog. Ed (bless you Ed!) picked my design for the front of the catalog. They put together a beautiful 2 page spread of all 16 papers on page 2 and 3. I couldn't have been more pleased with how they put it all together!

I also got to spend some time meeting with editors from magazines, meeting fellow artists, catching up with my 2 Peas friends, and checking out all the awesome new scrapping stuff. One of my favorite things to do at these shows is to spend some time buried in the booths of the paint companies that come to the show. I LOVE paint and I learn so much everytime I walk in a booth and ask them to show me what's NEW. I was so inspired and can't wait to show you all some new painting tricks and supplies.

I'm in the midst of planning and gathering all our needed supplies for the JDFC Crop for the Cure in Des Moines. It's coming up-only 3 weeks away and I can't wait to meet the likes of Donna Dewberry and hang with painter extrodinaire (who is organizing this feast of creativity, scrapping and painting) Laurie Speltz herself. I had the awesome privelege of taking a painting class from Laurie last April-this girl ROCKS! My mouth drops when I see her work (and the great thing was she actually taught ME how to do some of it!)


Entry into the Tao restaurant where we went to a party thrown by Sterling-book publisher.

Close-up of the gorgeous floating flowers and candles that lined the entry.

My highlight-going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I "know" it's not Paris, but it's as close as I've come...unbelievable view!

Me-pretending to be in Paris!!!