Chi-Ca-Go!

I am writing this at 6:33AM CST in Chicago*, but me and my computer are still on California time. I woke up at 3:30AM PST when I heard my nephew and brother-in-law leaving for work this morning. I am a little tired trying to adapt to the time change, but this is nothing….I am used to little sleep, and plus this is what CKU is all about!

This is day two and for me, my album track day at 2008 Chicago CKU. I will report more on my all-digital album track, which I am very much looking forward to. But this is what I have been up to thus far:

I arrived Wednesday night in time to pre-register and attend the Sneak Peek and Mingle. I loved being able to pre-register the night before – no long lines and time to review everything in our student bags. I was also in charge of distributing our custom name badge holders from the Yahoo Message Board for CKU Chicago. I was toting around 100 of these and was anxious to distribute them all. The best part of this task was meeting everyone….I wore light-up Minnie Mouse ears to be identifiable, and everyone came running at me. It was great! By last night, everyone had theirs except one person….where is the elusive Cindi? ….I can’t find her! But who DID I meet? I have made some fun new friends (that includes one "old" friend from the OC - and fellow Anaheim alum), and we are all pie-eaters (sorry, our inside joke) and members of the message board. There is Sarah from Oxfordshire England, Victoria from Santa Ana, Nicole from the Land of Lincoln, Mary from Minnesota, and Cheryl from Sitka, Alaska. Kim Hvarre is not in this picture...but she is one of "us" too, and she resides in Dixon, Illinois.

Our student registration bag contained supplies which included a 12X12 paper pack from Wausau, a Tonic craft knife, a Fiskars cutting mat, stamps and ink from Inque Boutique, various adhesives, and all our class kits for the Inspiration Stations – which was the all day session of mini classes (formerly known as the demo hall of CKUs past). This was a new format for CKU, where we all stayed in one “home room” while the teachers ran from room to room. They were all very organized, and even had “runners” who picked up the teachers and their TAs and pushed them along to be on time. We had classes from Ali Edwards (LOVE her), Luxe Designs (Fun paper and cute project. But Emily Adams is home sick following CKU Japan and a fall at home which landed her in the hospital! I was looking forward to seeing her – she is “on fire!”), Tim Holtz (new techniques and lots of hands-on with Ranger products), Inque Boutique (lotsa stamping), Margie Romney (lotsa Making Memories product and she is a HOOT!), Piggy Tales (nice teacher named Brandon Brazal), Michelle Van Etten (blingy), and Lance Anderson of Rusty Pickle (what can you say about Lance – he can be “bought” with food”). All of these projects were 6X6 layouts for our CKU memories mini album.

Last night was the kick-off bash and keynote speech from Ali Edwards, plus two mini bonus workshops from Rusty Pickle (2-page layout) and a card class from Stacy Croninger from Paper Crafts. These were easy fun projects, but this is where I started to get tired. Watching the dorms perform was great….there were the Chicago Bloomers, Scrap Lightening, and the Real Deal (song winners! ….I have to get hold of their lyrics sung to the tune of “The Gambler”). But I have to say that Ali’s speech was really inspiring. I knew she was cool, but I didn’t really know how cool until I heard her speak for longer than a make ‘n take. The theme of her speech was “Embrace” and I am too tired to explain it all, but trust me….she is cool. She also introduced all the instructors and included a childhood photo of them, which we all got a kick out of!

So, more tomorrow after digi and more fun times!

*but i didn't post until 11pm that night since i didn't have time or pictures :)