Stitches Report

I realize, a week later, that I have post very little about Stitches, the Trade show. Truth be told, I was so exhausted and so many things happened in the last week that I did not have the energy to do so. So here it goes my brief recap.

This was the fifth edition of the Craft trade Show that I was demonstrating at the Kars booth.

Saturday morning, left my house, drove to the NEC. Traffic was bad, took about half an hour longer than expected. Got there and parked quite close to the hall (Yipee!, last year was an absolute nightmare). As soon as I got there I got to hang out with Vanessa and Cindy, lovely and talented fellow demonstrators who have been working for Kars for a while now. I use here the term hang out loosely. We were working very hard in order to display our samples, which had taken hours and hours and more hours to complete.

By the time we got to the hotel, we were beyond tired so we -we as in Cindy, Vanessa and I- decided to do room service in my room. Apart from the fact that they both got baked Camembert and left the room stinking of cheese, it was a great low key relaxing dinner. There are a couple of photos of that dinner but I better do not publish them otherwise my life may be in danger.

Sunday, we were up early -for my standards really, really early- and we were ready to demonstrate at 9 am. A bit early if you ask me! You can see Cindy Rapson demonstrating a perfect ironing technique, just kidding. I know she was showing the Slice and how it works with fabric and other interesting stuff that I missed because I was on the other side of the booth.

Above there is a blank photo. I know, not very descriptive, but Vanessa Noonan forbid me to publish any of her, she demonstrated the Pink Cricut and the new releases. Also missing there is a photo of the lovely Suzie Candlin, who joined the Kars team of demonstrators for this Stitches, Suzie demonstrated jewelry.

Sunday night we went for dinner with the whole team. It was fun, a bit loud and I went to sleep a bit late. So next morning I was pretty tired, but Mondays are always my favourite day of Stitches, we are still very busy but not as frantic as Sundays and not as quiet as Tuesdays. Also we are in full demonstrating swing.

This year also marked the first time that I had some of my stamps designed exhibited. Yes, I design stamps, haven't you heard? Jokes aside, it felt pretty good to pass by and see the boards with my designs up there (top board extreme left, second board extreme right).

Very talented friends from all over the country were there, some of which I only see them at Stiches, and also some big names from the crafting world from America, Tim Holtz, Shari Carroll and the wonderful amazing and entertaining Suze Weinberg.

Of course, no Stitches would be what it is all about without masses of eye candy. Craft Eye Candy that is, because of the other kind there is very little. (Mind you, we had some in our stand.)

After the show closed on Monday I had to drive home as the next day I was on air on QVC for Craft Day. Because I also offered a lift to someone and I showed him a bit around London, I got home really late. The next morning, Tuesday, is a whole different story.