Well after a great week I am back home to tell the tale….
Memory Trends was an absolute blast! I arrived on Monday after a long day of airports, airplanes and bag shuttle bus rides. It was a long day. There I met the owner of Helmar and the busy schedule began. Tuesday was the first day of the show. The Helmar Booth looked great and Christy and Angela were great to work with. We decided that the Make ‘N Take would be best taught with sign-ups every hour. I was bit nervous for the first class because the convention hall traffic was a bit slow. However, once that first class was under my belt we were filled up for every class! It was a great make n’ take (thanks Maree!) and with the help of Angela and Christy each class took about 45 minutes. Then it was right into the next one. I loved it. Plus Christy made me a cute apron (my first apron!) which I will wear at home. I got a little wacky in the latter classes but with the help of Angela (a.k.a Vanna) she kept me on track. I did not walk around much that day at the show because I was at the booth all day.
Tuesday was much of the same (but a little harder to wake up). I started with 10 am Make ‘n Takes and then it was 11, 1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm (I think). Once I was done I decided to take in some of the show. Regrettably I was so darn tired that I did not take my camera around but there were tons of cool things. One of my favorite booths was Diecuts With a View. As always 
they have so much new, cool stuff coming out! I am excited for that. I met Shelby and Nancy Hill (the owner). She was as pretty and energetic as she is on QVC. I also met a fellow design team member Julie Ann Shahin. Another of my favorite stops was by the FiberMark Booth. Ola is a hoot and I loved talking to her and Danielle. Seeing my layouts up is always exciting. Can you believe I did not get pictures of that. Oh Well. Another thing I loved was the All My Memories Booth. They had a great purse there that I just have to have. I have never been a purse or shoe girl but this one makes me smile. I came home to my local store and they had it so I bought it with my remaining Vegas money (yes, I had remaining Money. Pretty easy when you frequent the PENNY slots). Now I must have the matching wallet.
Wednesday, I did not have any more make ‘n takes so helped out where I could at the booth and went on "walkabouts" (Australian for where did Mark go). He is the
owner of Helmar and is nice as can be. We decided to go out and network with various companies and introduce the line of adhesives. That was fun. Scrapbooking and Beyond Magazine came to the booth to talk to him about advertising opportunities and showed him a layout where the adhesives were listed. I peeked over his shoulder and much to my surprise it was my layout. Boy did that make my day. What a way to sell yourself. I had not seen that issue yet. It was the layout I did for the twin’s preschool teacher . It is in the Reader’s Take Center Stage Section. I have to say that it was a complete joy to work with everyone at Helmar.
After little sleep, a lot of shaking hands, and laughing it was time to go. I took my bags of loot, lots of free stuff and took a taxi to the airport. What did I love the most??……..EVERYTHING! Seeing my love for scrapbooking come full circle and living my dream of teaching it. OK, being in Vegas was way fun too and having three days of coming back to a clean room was tremendous!
The kids and Pete all missed me. He did a great job holding down the fort and the kids all loved the goodies I brought home for them. I know it was a lot for him to take over that time but he stepped up wonderfully.
I am excited to say that Helmar has asked me to work CHA for them so this is another thrill. Now I just need to work out that time. Keeping my fingers crossed.