Ginormous post about my week in Chicago!

What a whirlwind trip I had! I spent a week in Chicago working for Punky Sprouts at CHA and had such a great time. I was only able to get into the city for one day, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute! The time I spent at the show was full of crazy, silly adventure and I had the opportunity to deepen friendships with some very special people.This picture is from my very first night in Chicago. We went to dinner at Giordano's, home of the world's most famous stuffed pizza. You should know that pizza is one of my favorite foods in the whole wide world and THIS was the best pizza I have EVER had! We giggled and laughed till we cried throughout the entire meal. I cannot tell you what in the world Sarah and I were laughing at, but we were definitely enjoying ourselves.The look on her face here is absolutely PRICELESS!
Suzy and Arantza, (aka Kiki). These two are trouble, for sure!
These are some pics from the first day of the show.Suzy and I are acting a little silly. What's new, right?I swear she is the one who starts most of the madness! lolThis is me drooling over some of the new October Afternoon releases.
We wrapped up the day with a class taught by Suzy using Bella Blvd. We had more fun than should be allowed and the class was a huge success. Suzy is such a great teacher! She also had some awesome helpers, and I am not just saying that because I was one of them. lol Her best, and by far most popular helper was Norma's husband Damien (pictured below)! He was such a trooper and stepped up to help out in the class and let me tell you, the ladies LOVED it!After the class we to dinner at Gibson's Steakhouse. The food was delicious and the company was even better. There were moments during dinner where we laughed so hard we cried and were literally falling all over each other.

The second day of the show was a little crazy. Shelly, owner of Punky Sprouts, had been rushed to the hospital the evening before during Suzy's class. We knew that she had been feeling very ill all day and that evening was taken to the hospital by ambulance! We were one person down in the booth, but all did our best to fill in for Shelly while she focused on her recovery. These girls were so much fun to hang out with: Sarah de Guzman, Norma Kennedy, Suzy West and Carrie Ferrier. I had such a great time with these very special ladies and know that I have made some life long friends.

Me and Suzy O! She has been an "online" friend for quite some time that I met a few years ago. What a sweet, fun girl she is!Me, Suzy, Laura Funk of Glitz Designs and Stacey McElyea of Shimmerz at the Glitz booth. I LOVED every single one of Glitz's new releases!
Hoopla is a fun birthday line that could be used for either gender using non-traditional "birthday" colors. Love Nest is a soft, romantic collection that I was immediately drawn to.My absolute favorite new release by Glitz was Scarlett. I adore the distressed, vintage inspired images combined with a bold color palette. Swoon...We went back to Gibson's Steakhouse that evening and had another great time. This time the group included Suzy, myself, Andrea Deer, Tina Albertson, Julianna Michaels & Carrie Ferrier. These women are some of the kindest, most genuine people I have ever met and it was a pleasure to be able to spend a bit of time with them.This is a piece of GINORMOUS cake that I believe was bigger than my whole head. It was delicious! Even after we split it up amongst the whole table, we had still barely made a dent in the darn thing! I ended up taking the rest of it back to my hotel and sadly leaving a large portion of it behind when I left Chicago. I wish I had some of that cake now! lol
When I finally made it into the city, I am sad to say that I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked. I was so busy trying to take it all in that I completely neglected my camera. Even if I don't have pictures of everything I did, I still have some very wonderful memories. Here are some shots of some of the highlights.
This is the stunning Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. It is constructed of Georgia pink marble and is one of the largest fountains in the world. The fountain features four sea horses which represent the four states that border Lake Michigan, (Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan) while the fountain represents the lake itself. The design of the fountain was based upon the 'Bassin de Latone' at the garden of Versailles. No wonder I thought it was so magnificent. It was a real treat to get to see it at night with it's animated computerized choreography of 820 colored spotlights.This sculpture, located in Millennium Park,is called "Cloud Gate", but is more popularly know as "The Bean". It is pretty stinkin' cool. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high.
The Crown Fountain is another cool attraction in Millennium Park. The fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images from a broad social spectrum of Chicago citizens. As a reference to the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, where the faces of the mythological beings would open their mouths to allow water to flow out, the images on the towers do the same. It was so fun watching children playing in the water and actually interacting with the art.Some of the beautiful Chicago skyline. The architecture is amazing, but I don't have any detailed photographs, so you are just going to have to believe me. ;-)So those are a few of the highlights. I really loved Chicago and can't wait to go back! I am already looking forward to January and CHA Winter in Los Angeles!