Recovery

Have you been rocking and rolling this weekend? I know Lori has. And she has a different take on the Inspiration challenge. Her card does both. And with STYLE! (cue the harps)

I'm still recovering from yesterday's Rubber Stamp Convention in San Jose. I was working the American Art Stamp/Gourmet Rubber booth. And I brought our Fall Collection and our line of CutUps Dies. Of course, I forgot to bring the Big Top CutUps. So those of you who prepaid for your Big Top CutUps at the show, they are ready to be popped in the mail as we speak. So I'll make this post a short one.

At the show, I remembered what made going to rubber stamp conventions so exciting. Not only was it was a great place to meet up with friends who actually know what I'm talking about when I say "masking" or "distressing" (in a good way) or debate with me about the whole unmounted versus mounting thing.

But, I realized, it's all about the discovery. Discovering new stamps and stamp companies and discovering new techniques.

My friend Robert, the owner of American Art Stamp and Gourmet Rubber was actually working the demo table. It was only the third time he demoed in his life and he was having so much fun playing with the stamps and Smooch spritzers. And he was good. He was all about discovering how they worked and sharing with the stampers who gathered around his table what he was discovering while he played.

And as I was watching him I realized that our times for discovery at stamp conventions could be at an end. With so many stamp companies having to tighten their belts, it's hard to shell out the money for the booth fees and traveling costs, so the shows are getting smaller and smaller. It's so important to support these conventions when they come to your town, otherwise, not only is there a possibility the conventions might disappear, but the stamp companies, too. And our time with friends and our time for discovery.

So if there is a stamp convention coming to your town, go to it. It just may make to remember how fun it is to discover new things.

Virtual Convention

Be there, or be square!

Virtual Convention

It's time for the Rubber Stamp Chat Virtual Convention!

Tons of vendors! Lots to buy! And do it virtually in the comfort of your own home!

Just go to the convention hall, and check it out. The Cat's Pajamas is going to be there too and awesome deal. Be there or be square.

Sacramento Convention

Just finished packing for the Sacramento, CA convention on Saturday.

When I go to conventions as a shopper, there never seemed to be anything different. So, I really try to bring a real variety of super cool product at each convention. Stuff you won't see in 5 other booths. KWIM?

So if you have a chance, come and see us at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center at 6151 H Street in Sacramento on Saturday. See what wonders Tracy will do and what magic Bin will make at the demo table.

And, get an opportunity to get your hands on 2 NEW Clearly Swanky Sets that will be available before they go on the website on May 30th. They are mighty cute. And see the cards and projects the Cat Pack made. They will make your jaws drop, I must say

See you there. Doors open at 9:00am.

Off to Boston

I'm off to Boston for a couple of days for my East Coast sales rep show. I'll be hooking up with the Supreme Creatress, Leigh O'Brien and Holly Powers for a couple of classes and crazy stamping goodness.

We'll hook up with Emily from Stamping Bella, Joanne Basile and my BSF, Kim, the MFT Lady.

Here Kim and I are at a dinner at CHA compliments of the wonderfully talented Carolyn King.

San Jose Convention

Well the San Jose Convention has come and gone. And it was exciting, being the first convention of the year for me. There was some extra excitement, behind the scenes.

A Stamp in the Hand, which runs the show, had reserved a different hall for the convention. (It was the one that we were in last time) Little did they know that the hall had been reserved previously, for a wedding reception. The Hall's peeps had been notified to cancel the reservation for the reception when they took ASITH's reservation. So you can imagine the turmoil that ensued when the bride came in to pay off the hall. CHAOS. ASITH scrambled around to find a new hall just a week or so before the convention.

Luckily, they found a new hall that was nice and big, with better lighting and parking. SCORE!

It was a busy day at the Cat's booth and I got to meet some people I had been wanting to put a face to an email. I met Carol C. (whose last name I wouldn't say for fear of butchering), Makani Lew, who is as warm as the city she lives in. And two mischievous Swanky Stampers, Michele and Tracy. Tracy, who in my head, was like 6 feet tall, because I figured that someone is as cute as a model, must be super tall to complete the package. I was wrong. The gal is cuter than her picture and around my height! And she is a bundle of energy. Yay for short people!

Our next convention is next month in Pleasanton. Come by and say hi!

What do you like?

This last February The Cat's Pajamas was in San Mateo doing our 2nd convention of the year. I like to stock our booth with things that you won't normally find at conventions, but things that you can find online without having to pay that naughty shipping fee. (Yes, those are hinged tins. No, we don't have any left.) I mean how many booth can carry the same inks and the like?

This time around we were lucky enough to get both Tracy and her mom, Bin doing a sort of tag team thing. Tracy demoed the Scor-Pal, and her mom demoed the Pearl-Ex mini cases. Then Tracy did Quickie Glue pen and Stardust Glitter Pen and then her mom did the Spica Glitter pens. These two sure kept the ladies' attention.
At CHA I found a lot of super cute things to fill the booth with. And you may just get to see what I mean in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, the Design Team have been working on some really great designs and we'll be unveiling something really fun on April 1st. Hope you can play along. But in the meantime, have you seen anything that we should carry?

By the way, Leigh was telling me that she could never really get her Spicas to be really glittery and stuck them point down in a pen can. Since they tell you that it is best to store your Spicas flat, she was a little anxious when she tried out the pen. Then miracle of miracles she got lots of glitter! My guess is that the pen needed to be in that positon to get the ink primed and ready to go. Who woulda thunk it?

Closed, BABEEEE!

Woohoo! You heard it! We are closed until February 18th!

We are off to CHA where we'll be smooshing and smooshed. Most of the time I'll be hanging with Robert and Gayle at the American Art Stamp booth and bothering the MFT crew at their booth.

The rest of the time I'll be roaming the aisles, like a caged animal, ready to pounce on the next great product I see.

Then, we'll be at the San Mateo Convention, with Tracy and Bin making magic. Come by and see us if you can.

Then we will be back on the 18th filling all those orders that came in while we were closed. And, I'll be working on the new Summer line.

Ahh! The life of a stamp company owner. No rest for the wicked. And there will be photos....

I'm Back

After driving 10 hours in the snow, Anthony finally arrived at the Riverside Convention Center in California. Now driving in the snow may not be such a big deal to the lot of you, but to us Californians, it's a big deal. The snow closed the main highway from Northern California to Southern California, so we had to detour through the desert, where it promptly snowed. A lot.
We got to the hotel and turned on the Weather Channel and they were predicting tornadoes in Malibu.

Yup. That's tornadoes in MALIBU, CALIFORNIA! Crikey!

The next day we drove on over to the convention center and saw this.A big freakin' snow capped mountain. In Southern California. You know that song that says it "never rains in Southern California"? Well look at that SNOW!

Anyway, we set up and when we were done, Gayle came and set up for her demos. She was demoing the Avery labels on the chocolate nuggets for all the world to see. With The Cat's Pajamas DT doing such a great job with the samples and Gayle demoing, it was kismet!

Here is the left side of the booth. We were next to Heritage Makers. What a great idea. Online digital scrapbooking and card making all done professional like.
Here is the left side of the booth. The two towers on the left aren't TCP, though. It's Tessler. Ellen from Tessler is a doll! To our left was Sunday International. Dee Gruening was there, but since I always seem to take pictures of her, I didn't want to give the impression that I was stalking her.

We were right across from Carmen's Veranda. MaryJo McGraw was demoing.
We also met up with a brand new company, Daily Window. This company features bags and backpacks and lunch boxes and the like, with a window that you can slide pictures, cards, scrapbook pages. Whatever you'd like. I love that you can change the insert to feature what you want to show off. I had to get one. Now I can't decide if I want to do a scrapbook page with Mocha or Anthony first.

Now I actually was planning on taking a lot more pictures, but then I started getting this look from Gayle.

Okay Gayle. Stopping now. Next Convention? San Mateo, February 15-16

San Jose Convention

Last weekend we were in San Jose doing our last stamping convention of the year. We revamped the booth a bit. There is still a litte tweaking to be done, but I think it is coming along. Here is what it looked like before the doors opened.
We were lucky to get Tracy Falco, one of TCP's oh so talented design team members and her Mom, Bin demoing for us. They were amazing, as usual. Hi Tracy! Hi Bin!When the doors opened we were SWAMPED! Here is a picture of the booth in the late afternoon. The convention was held in a new venue this year and there were so many happy stampers! I didn't get a chance to shop much, but I did get to meet up with some old friends and make new ones. And isn't that what conventions are all about?

Ventura Convention

So many things happening over here at The Cat's Pajamas. Some good, some bad. Soon, soon, I'll let you know what is going on. But to tide you over, Anthony finally downloaded the pics from the Ventura Convention. Here are some of the highlights.

This is the calm before the storm. Right before the doors open, there is still time to polish up the booth a bit. I like the shabby chic look of the booth, but I feel the need for a change. Next time you see us, we'll be even chicer, and not as shabby.


That's Hilde from Stonebridge Creations in the booth. What I love about conventions is meeting all the stamper's, but also meeting the other people in the booths. Plus, at this one I got to see all my old friends again. Gosh, darn it, I miss Ellie, Nina, Charmaine and Christie already.

Here's Gayle! She's a member of TCP design team member and demo person extraordinaire! How can so much talent and knowledge be in one person? Ya got me!? Hi Gayle!


Here I am, looking much larger than life. This time we gave out yummy cherry lollies. Gotta keep that sugar up for some serious shopping. Note the signage? Unfortunately, no one noticed that someone had walked away with one of our wonderful samples. Next time we are cementing them down.

Even though it was a small hall there were a lot of shoppers and great vendors.
And great demo people. Here is Anthony and Dee Gruenig at the Sunday International Booth. Dee is always so gracious when we see her, and this time was no exception. She is one of Anthony's favorite personalities and luckily I didn't mess up this shot of him and Dee together, or he would have killed me.

It's Showtime!

While I was on vacation I took a couple of days off to help Robert from American Art Stamp do his MIT and demo at the Joan Mills vendor show. I got to hook up with the owners of a lot of my favorite companies. I don't know about you, but I tend to get a little starstruck when it comes to celebrities. And in my world the people who head up stamp companies I admire, are celebrities. Here is Robert and Helene from Magenta. She is absolutely charming. And I was humbled when she actually remembered my name from our last meeting a year ago.

The MIT had a hawaiian theme going. In the middle of it all, the doors closed and then swung open. Much to everyone's suprise, in walked four men (!?) all dressed in Hawaiian garb. Some even had the whole coconut bra thing happening. Don't believe me? Well, here is proof.

And for you Tim Holtz fans, he was dressed up too, sans coconut bra thing. He, alas, was not prone to posing for the cameras on my side of the room. So you just have to take my word that this was him. Note the distinctive hair and earring. Yup. Tim Holtz.

Good times.

Brrr!

The balmy, warm weather has left San Francisco. I was getting used to the constant sunshine. Even though I know it's because of Global Warming, I must guiltily admit I enjoyed it. Now the temperature is back in the 4o's I am feeling less guilty and preparing for my trip to Boston where the temperature is 36 degrees. 36 degrees? Do I even have a winter coat?

*An aside: I can't believe this! Is it rumor? Or is it true? Say it isn't so, Emma.

Big Sigh!

Well The Cat's Pajamas very first convention has come and gone. It was a lot of work, but so much fun!

Here I am on Friday, setting up. Looking around, confused, wondering what I should do next. Looking down the way a bit at all the other vendors. We were given tables at the very end, across from Polly's Pals, (Polly rocks!) and on the other side of Hanko Designs. (Hi Norman!)

Still fiddling around. Setting up the small accesories side of things.

After a couple of hours here is the booth in all its glory.

Here is a full booth shot on Saturday morning before we opened. Where am I? Having a last sit down before the doors open.


The fabulous Tracy worked the demo table like no one's business. Together with her oh-so-talented mother, Bin, they made a formidable team. Shoppers prepare to be awed. These ladies are demo goddesses.

See the red arrow? These stamper's pre-bought their tickets and were allowed in a half hour before the doors officially opened.


Soon they were at The Cat's Pajamas booth. Shopping. And shopping. And shopping.


I'm not ringing up yet, but I will be shortly, and non-stop for the rest of the day, I'll have you know.

Thank you all who came by and said "hi". Thank you to my great design team, Jessica, Toni, Janis and Tracy for all the great samples that people o0000-ed and ahhhhh-ed over and took photos of.

Thank you, Karrie, for sending in your inspiration cards which I had to plunk on the sample board, too. Thank you, Tracy, Bin and Anthony for all your help in making The Cat's Pajamas first convention a success.

Going to lie down now.

To do list

After working feverishly to get ready for my first convention ever, my "To Do" list looks like this. Just 3 things left and it's not even the middle of the week yet. I need to get a 10 or 12 gauge extension cord. Does anyone know what that looks like?

I'm woikin' ovah hea!

Yeah, yeah, I know. Bad blogger. STILL getting ready for the San Mateo Convention! So little to do, so much time to do it. Wait. Stop. Reverse that.

I spent all day traveling yesterday after I dropped Mocha off at the vet for her teeth cleaning at 9:30. I was hoping to make a quick trip to Sacramento to pick up some store fixtures and finally meet Stephanie and Kelly at The Paper Garden Boutique.

And, of course, I got lost. And it was raining. So an hour and a half jaunt took 3 hours! But let me tell you, meeting Stephanie and Kelly at The Paper Garden Boutique was worth it. What a cuuuute shop. So fresh and fun. And they are soooo nice. I really must learn to bring my camera with me because if anything was worth taking a picture of it was this shop.

I couldn't stay long, but it was a good thing I left when I did because with all the rain and the accidents on the road. I finally got back into the city at 6:00! That's just crazy, I think. Oh well, now I'm just hunkered in , ready to make more stamps.