Get Wacky and Crafty with Pattiewack!: California Fun!

The CHA trip was amazing. I took my vacation to head to Anaheim for the Crafts and Hobbies Association trade show, and to hang out with friends in Southern California where Scott and I previously lived for 10 years. The trip began at the show where the corporation I work for, Simplicity Creative Group had a nice booth representing tons of eco products to support the theme, “It’s Easy Being Green.”

My position as the New Product Development Manager has been especially fulfilling as I have developed sustainable products including appliqués, transfers, biodegradable water bottles & decals, keychains, and non-woven recyclable bags. I also had fun coordinating one of the show stoppers; a trash bag tutu, made by Stefanie Girard. We caught several peeps standing behind the magazine clippings bustier and tutu for snapshots.

For the past 5 years, Scott and I have been shooting video for our video series as Craft TV Studios, which is sold to Creative Home Arts for their craft club. We also upload the videos on the web for the companies we choose to shoot. Being registered as Press, we were also able to shoot video for a documentary Scott is working on. We interviewed CEOs, designers and manufacturers in the crafts industry about how the new eco standards and green movement is impacting them. We spent some quality time with industry giants such as Robert Workman at Provo Craft and Bill Gardner with Craftrends, as well as Mike Harnett with Creative Leisure News. The documentary will be edited by Scott and eventually submitted to Current TV Network.

I finally got to meet Cathie Filian, who hosts with Steve Piacenza on Creative Juice, which airs on DIY and HGTV. She was so excited to finally get to tell me that she’s an Oklahoma gal, too! She has so much energy and filled up the room with her giggles and bubbly personality. We were all at the same party hosted by Carlos Garcia at Scrapblog.com.

What a party! Everyone was there. We got to hang with Traci Bautista, who is a fabulous collage artist and has her pic on every bottle of Aleene's Collage Pauge in the craft stores. She’s a sweetie, and so talented. Oh, and Stefanie Girard was there too. She’s one amazing fashion and crafts designer, and the sassy chick who made the tutu for my display in the Simplicity Creative Group booth. She has several crafty blogs, and you can go check her out to see what fun she had at the show with her new book, “Sweater Surgery.”

Deborah Norville was there, pushing her new yarn line for Premier Yarns. She is an avid knitter, and Deborah is an award-winning journalist, a bestselling author, and anchor of the television newsmagazine, Inside Edition.

Not to be upstaged, Paris Hilton made an appearance to promote her new kids craft kits in the Wooky Entertainment booth to promote her new Paris Creativity collection of crafting products.

The paparazzi were thick, and as you can see, she caused quite a stir with the curious onlookers. Scott got some great footage as she snuck in from the back of the building.

It was an absolute madhouse. If you are interested, you can go to Allison Orthner's blog to read all about it.

I ran into an old friend from my days as a host on Aleene’s Creative Living. Joann Pearson is an absolute doll, and has been the lead Craft Designer at Michaels for 20 years. Her knowledge, skill, ability to follow the trends and her amazing creativity make her a guiding force in the craft industry. It was great to see you, Joann!

I also met up with Vicki Howell who is the knitting expert at LifetimeTV.com and she looked beautiful as ever, even as a glowing expectant mom. I hung out in the press room talking to 2 amazing designers, Joan Fee and Lauren Johnston to talk about projects we are working on together. I can't believe I forgot to get pics!

I was stunned when I went to the EK Success booth and saw all of the Swarovski crystal designs in the glass cases. Check it out! And, if you click on the pic, it will be much easier to see.

Okay, the trade show was fun, but Scott and I were happy to leave and get into the vacation groove. Santa Barbara was absolutely GORGEOUS! Yeppers, Scott’s in his hap,hap,happy place.

I love shopping in Santa Barbara!

This public post is turning into one giant staple. I just think it is stunning and almost becomes art when you take a pic up close. The local bands and nonprofits as well as the stores, post their info here. I wish we were going to be there on February 7th. You can bet we would be at Reds to hear Inez and The Redemption band.

We met up with old friends and shopped State Street, checked out our old hangs, noticed the grafitti on the public post, and ate some of the best sushi in the world. Kat Shannon who is a host on KZSB 1290 AM Talk radio in Santa Barbara, Jen Fullerton, Susan and Peter Levin, Gloria Tracy, and even the bartender at Joe’s made it feel like a homecoming week.

Ahhhhh, Santa Barbara will always be a beacon to me and this sunset made me feel like I’m back home.

Speaking of home, the gang from Santa Paula threw a cocktail party for us at the Iron Horse, and we couldn’t stop laughing and telling stories. Peggy Kelly, Reporter from the Santa Paula Times was there, and our good buddy Frank held down the stools and brought us up to date on the local scoop.

Scott talked tourism promotional videos with John Blanchard, on the Board of Directors for Limoneira. Connie Tushla, former Chamber Board President, and Jeanne Orcutt, Curator for the Santa Paula Oil Museum brought their charm and sophistication to the party.

We had a hilariously fun time. Barbara Kroon, President of the Soroptimist International of Santa Paula was a blast as usual. I didn't get a pic of Sam Hishmeh, President of the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce, but he was as suave and GQ as usual. It was so fun. It was just too short, that’s all!