I went to the winter Craft and Hobby Association show in Anaheim last weekend, which was amazing (I’m going to write up lots more about my favorites at the show itself over at West Coast Crafty), but exhausting! I walked the show for three days, and had lots of meetings and get-togethers throughout. The best part of CHA is definitely getting to see crafty friends there, and it was so much fun to hang out with Natalie Zee Drieu and Kathy Cano Murillo — both of them are Bead Simple guest designers, and I got to show them their gorgeous designs on the page for the first time!

Here we are at Kathy’s craft table at the Duncan booth, where her beautiful new Crafty Chica line of craft supplies made its debut. It is an absolutely fantastic collection — look for it in stores and online in early summer. I’ll be posting more about it (and using it for tons of projects!) for sure.

I also did my first Bead Simple event as part of a party for CraftStylish, a new crafts website and magazine from Taunton (my book publisher), which will launch next month. I’ll keep you posted — I’ll be the contributing editor for the beading and jewelry-making section, which I am very excited about! Meeting the other CraftStylish contributors (Khris Cochran, Tina Hilton, Jennifer Stern, and Mary Ray) was especially nice. I can’t wait until the site is up and running, just a few more weeks…

Did I mention over here yet that I’m seven months pregnant? I guess it is getting pretty obvious!

Here’s my jewelry table with lots of projects from both the book and the last few issues of CraftStylish. The CS team put together some nice promo instruction sheets for guests for making the Vintagesque Necklace, and even sent a box of books for me to sign!

It was so cool to show people the advance copies of the book now that it’s (almost) out in the world. I’m getting really excited for the end of March when it’s in stores — so soon! If you are in Portland, please save the date for April 7 — I’ll be doing a book event at the big downtown Powell’s and would love to see you there.