I am so excited. I just arrived in Chicago and staying at friends' home. We plan to do some sightseeing in chicago and visit restaurants our friends recomment.

We will be driving to St. Charles and staying with another friend in Geneva.


I'll keep you posted about ICES convention Thursday.

If any cc members has the time to give a short recap of the day this would be great for the other cc members who could not attend.

I'll have computer access while I am gone, so I'll be sure to join in and add my experiences as well.

I'm so ready to get on the road! I'm arriving Wednesday at some point.

I will be in Wednesday afternoon!

Chicago is a great city! We were there last June.

I love Chicago! Monday our chicago friends took us out to local pizza restaurant and we walked around the neighborhood to relax.


Today we are taking a walking chocolate tour my girlfriend's husband scheduled for us. It should be alot of fun. In the evening we plan to Adler visit planatarium.


Wednesday We are going on our own to visit bakerie and walk around downtown chicago

Thursday- My friends drive us to St. Charles. I have classes all day. We will spend the night at another friends house near Geneva.


Friday - Have breakfast at Geneva friends home. Geneva friends drops us off at Pheasant Hill in the afternoon for more classes.

Geneva friends pick up up around 6:00 p.m. go for dinner.

Saturday - Dropped off at Pheasant Resort for morning classes until 5:00 p.m. Friends pick us up. Spend the evenin sightseeing and dinner in St. Charles. Back to Geneva

My husband and I have and our group have 4 banquet tickets to sellbecause we will be unable to attend. I will check with ICES if it is okay to sell - if not at least we will have a great time visiting with friends and sightseeing in St. Charles


Sunday - Back to Chicago. Stay with Chicago friends and visit the The Art Institute. Drive back to New York late sunday night.

I love Chicago! Monday our chicago friends took us out to local pizza restaurant and we walked around the neighborhood to relax.

Today we are taking a walking chocolate tour my girlfriend's husband scheduled for us. It should be alot of fun. In the evening we plan to Adler visit planatarium.


Wednesday We are going on our own to visit bakeries and and tour downtown on our own- visit Navy pier

Thursday- My friends drive us to St. Charles. I have classes all day. We will spend the night at another friends house near Geneva.


Friday - Have breakfast at Geneva friends home. Geneva friends drops us off at Pheasant Hill in the afternoon for more classes.

Geneva friends pick up up around 6:00 p.m. go for dinner.

Saturday - Dropped off at Pheasant Resort for morning classes until 5:00 p.m. Friends pick us up. Spend the evenin sightseeing and dinner in St. Charles. Back to Geneva

My husband and I have and our group have 4 banquet tickets to sellbecause we will be unable to attend. I will check with ICES if it is okay to sell - if not at least we will have a great time visiting with friends and sightseeing in St. Charles


Sunday - Back to Chicago. Stay with Chicago friends and visit the The Art Institute. Drive back to New York late sunday night.

Our Chicago friends will be visiting us in October in New york so I don't mind having friends staying at our place. Saves money on Accomodations.


When I go to ICES san Diego - I will be staying with relatives in San Diego. Best way to save money!

Welcome to chicago

I'll be there Thursday afternoon.

I'm so excited I can't stand it.

Finished one cake and just need to fine tune the second.

Biggest problem is to get it down 3 flights of stairs without trippigng

I am just so darned clumsy.

Well, this girl is currently in Marion, IL where we have stopped for the night. We have another 350 miles to go tomorrow. Boy am I ready to be there. This morning about 30 mins after we got on the road I was able to breath a sigh of relief and be like yes, we are finally heading that way. Then of course by 10 I was ready to just be there already and my excitement faded. Of course part of that was cause I was in a car with a 14 year old with ADHD. He was good until this evening when his med wears off.

Some how we fit all 4 of my cakes (they are all in metal boxes that measure 18.5x18.5x25.5 times two, one is 16x16x25.5 and then one is 15x15x10) plus 4 suitcases and other various bags all in the back of my parent's Yukon.

We decided that if we end up picking up any big suvoiners that we will just have to start leaving cakes behind. My brother suggested we take pictures of the cake with a state sign then leave it.

We did have one moment where I thought the cakes had gotten damaged. It was after we unloaded our bags for the night and went to go eat. We ended up hitting a bump during a tight turn. I checked two of the 4 and from what I could see they were fine, so I'm hoping it was just the boxes we heard moving and not the actual cakes inside. With the suitcases in there they were pretty tight and didn't move, so I'm ready to get them back in there to help protect my cakes.

Good luck Nannie with your flights of stairs. These cakes are ackward to carry even if they are on the lighter side than what a real cake is.

I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Well we are here! Tonight we are at the Hampton Inn, but we were mislead and told that our suite would have 'seperate' rooms. Unfortunetly it wasn't and with 4 of us we needed a little more privacy than just the bathroom. So tomorrow we are moving over to the Hilton, which happens to be across from the Resort. Guess who will be walking to the resort in the mornings? Guess it is a good thing I brought comfy shoes!

I am registered and my cakes are now in the cake room. I'm glad to have that part taken care of. I didn't get a chance to look around any, so I'll have to venture out and do that tomorrow. I'm crawling in bed soon so I can get up in the morning in time for breakfast then go through everything in my new bag and get all my stuff in order.

I did run into another CCer tonight, AuntEm when I was registering. Hopefully I'll run into more of you soon.

Attended Susan Carberry's demo Designer Fashion Sugar Cookies. VERY interesting. She was very sweet.

The vendor preview was PACKED with people. A sneak preview of lots of goodies. Got given a sample package of cupcake sparklers. Can't find them at the moment. Must have fallen out in the car. Wanted to check them out tonight cause I think they would be really cool to have if they work as claimed.

Didn't see anybody today, but saw the note about CCers meeting for the breakfast in the morning. I have a t-shirt with my logo (which happens to be my avatar) which I'll wear tomorrow. Hopefully that will help people spot me. If not, look for the very pretty teenager tagging close by. We're having fun. Hope everybody else is having a good time!

I saw two demo's today. One about chocolate and the other was making butterflies and flowers. Both were good and I enjoyed them. I've got my demo list in order for tomorrow, now I just need to sit down with the vendors coupons and my list of things I want, so I can get my game plan done.

I left a note about meeting for the breakfast, so maybe/hopefully we will be able to. I will be wearing a bright yellow sweater, so maybe that will help people see me. I'll probably walk over there by 7:30 in the morning. So look for me everyone!

I ended up standing in line with DucanHinesGirl this afternoon.

Has anyone seen or heard anything from Lucinda??

Hi all

cake survived both the stairs and the drive.

I met lucinda in the nic lodge class and got my button so cute

I can't be there for breakfast . It was a 1 1/2 hour drive home and nic/s class rann really long so I'm exausted.

I'll be in Bonwien's class tomorrow. Hope I see some CC buddies

Nannie, have a save trip back and forth! I'm glad your cake survived. Can't wait to see it.

If you happent o see Lucinda again before we do, please ask her to let us know where we can pick up or name tags!

hopefully she will see this or the note about breakfast

How am I going to get to meet you

tomorrow I'm volunteering in the vendor room from 3-4 then bronwens class

come look for me.

I wanted to look for your cakes but I so ran out of time. I didn't even get the pictures taken so now I don't know if it's too late. I was parked at the other end, walked thru the whole place to register, went back and got car to unload cakes, parked again only to find demo was back at the end where I started so out to move the care again.


now I'm off to bed

I have a pretty full day tomorrow. I will do the look around the Vender's room when they open it after breakfast. I won't have alot of time between my demo's to check it out to much tomorrow. I have bigger slots of time on Satuday to do some more shopping, I hope.

I have demos from 2-3, 4-5, then hands on from 5:30-7:30 tomorrow. The demo's are:
Simple Rose Cutter Making Fantasy Flower (Zane Beg)
Isomalt Bouquet & More (Lonnie Cato)
Baby Cake (Hands on with Zane)

I see my hands on is the same time as Bronwen's so maybe we will catch each other before (though I'll be cutting it close getting there from "New Orleans") or maybe after before I get picked up. Keep an eye out for a short girl with reddish hair and a yellow sweater.

What a day! Great demo's and great shopping!

Here are some pics of me and DuncanHinesGirl and our brushes with famous people....

another...

last one...

I am so jealous!! I was planning on going and my husband agreed but stupid me took on a wedding cake and 3 other cakes this weekend. Please keep sharing your stories!!! Maybe someday I will get there!!!

Boo hoo hoo, I haven't met up with any of my fellow CCers. yet. I want my button. THey are adorable!! I'll look again to see if a note has been posted as to where or how to pick them up. Good pics Texas sugar!

Bought several goodies at the Vendor's today. Will be trying to check them out again tomorrow. Been trying out all the fondants we find. So far, I really like the Ice & Easy by Baker's Craft. They're giving out sample bags with enough to do a cake. And the Choco Pan is very good. From working with it, I'm not a big fan of Satin Ice. I do like the Pettinice, but wanting to nail down the one I like the most.

Bought some of White Stoke's Piping gel in several different colors. Pretty cool stuff to work with. Looking to pick up some candy melts tomorrow. There is so much to look at that it's amazing.

Look on the message board, cause Loucinda did say she posted her name and number there! I finally met her and Nannie today as well as Betty (sorry if I got the name wrong, I wasn't quite awake yet this morning).

Oh keep posting pictures. I wanted to be there so badly. I feel like I am not quite missing out so much when I see the pics!

Anybody else going to be at the shop owner's breakfast? I can't believe I'm up this early for this. It had so better be worth it.

texas sugar that is so cool that you got to go to the show. Thanks for sharing your photos

Hey, TexasSugar--Great pictures! It's so fun too see people from the shows, and see how very nice they are!

I'm still looking for CCers, but what busy days! I've learned so much in the classes and demos I've had, spent a little time shopping yesterday, and hope to go back today just to enjoy demos at the boothes. I have a demo w/ Nicholas Lodge and Mike McCarey today--which I'm very excited about.

The Cake Room last night was overwhelming! Over 600 cakes on display! Thank goodness for digital cameras now, because I just had to take lots of pictures. (TexasSugar--Are those your cakes posted under Friday Highlights on the convention website?)

Still looking for Loucinda. If you see her, please have her pm me. Have tried calling her; her voicemail is not set up. Pheasant Run desk told me they had no such room number.

I'm so jealous I cried.

Please , please , please , keep posting comments and pics of the convention and other cc'ers.

I hope I will be able to go next year.
Tam

Wow, Konfection Konnection we were so close & yet so far away! I was at the Nicolas Lodge demo. Wasn't he amazing? For those of you that weren't there, he gave very clear, concise & detailed directions with lots of practical hints for the flowers he demoed.

If anybody wants to say hi, I'll be at table 121 at the banquet.

I also attended Domenic's demo. Found it very enjoyable. My head hurts right now with all the possiblities. It wouldn't be so bad except I'm down to the point I'm really having to pick & choose what to buy. The Make Your Own Mold stuff offers such wonderful opportunities for personalizing stuff but learning how to do a better job at gumpaste flowers is always a good thing. Decisions, decisions.

This morning's breakfast was so disappointing. They hadn't made it clear that it was geared only towards people with shops that also sold cake pans, etc. At the point I left (I was NOT missing Nicholas Lodge for ANYTHING. ), it was nothing but an infomercial for Wilton, So it wasn't the least bit painful skipping out early.

I did make a connection with 2 lovely women at the breakfast. Very enjoyable talking to them & hopefully we won't lose each other's card.

Almost forgot, I did learn a few interesting tidbits from Color 101 so that was also a very useful demo.

Conference very good - very well organized, venue is great and it even rained a bit today (that's manna for us Californians!). Last night we went on a guided tour of downtown Chicago which included a reception at the French Pastry School, 1.5 hrs exploring Navy Pier and drive bys of Soldier Field, Buckingham Fountain, Aquarium, Harpo Studio's Willis Tower and Hannock Building. Downtown is stunning at night with all the lights.

Vendor room full of tempting goodies. Tonight is the banquet. If you didn't have a chance to come this year next year's conference is in San Diego with venue close to airport, Sea World, the zoo and much more.