Tim Holtz

visit to norway - then back to the uk...

hello bloggers!  well we've sure been busy on this journey and i have lots to catch you up on.  our crew (alain, dyan, mario, and myself) took an early morning flight on thursday to very snowy and cold olso, norway.  this was my first visit ever to norway for a visit to a wonderful shop called bikuben.  this shop has been on my waiting list for years, and this year everything finally worked out.  when we arrived, we were greeted by ellen the owner of the shop, and one of her staff hege (aka "jenny") and took a ride into downtown oslo for a quick afternoon of sightseeing, shopping, and food.  we stopped at a local bakery for some cappuccino, pastries, preserves, and try a taste of the local "brown cheese" before heading to our amazing countryside bed & breakfast to check in for our stay...

qvc-uk what a day...

hello again bloggers!  well, the past 24 hours have been busy to say the least.  we headed straight to the qvc-uk studios from the stitches trade show monday to get set up for the midnight launch.  we had an amazing show, lots of energy and excitement.  dy was on air with me providing "creative backup" as we chatted with her throughout the hours (while she seemed to be busy altering her own copy of my new book).  then we were back to the hotel for a few hours sleep before heading back to the studios for 3 more full hours of shows yesterday.  we had some amazing kits on air and they seemed to be selling out faster than i could demo them!  thanks to the great team at qvc-uk, to jayne, mario, alain, and dy for their help throughout the tireless schedule.  as you can see from some of the pics we definitely remembered to have fun through it all.  my sincere thanks to all of you who watched, tweeted, and supported the show - i appreciated it all.  we're off for a day of shopping in london today before flying out to norway tomorrow...t!m

stitches trade show...

well bloggers today was a great day at the stitches trade show.  it was a busy crowd with lots of excitement, and they definitely wanted to see the new distress markers in action.  it's always awesome to be part of the creative buzz.  so after a long day of demoing, we headed to our annual tradition for dinner at the wing-wah chinese buffet.  always such fun, lots of laughs, and great meeting new friends.  tomorrow is a bit longer day with a 10am demo time at stitches following a 3 hour drive down to london for a midnight launch on qvc-uk. so much to do...t!m

greetings from the uk...

hi bloggers from (not so sunny) uk!  we arrived after a 15+ hour travel day from arizona to london - you can tell i don't pack light for such a long travel day.  we met up with my boss alain from ranger at the airport in heathrow and hit the road for another 4+ hour drive up to birmingham.   we arrived at the convention center and met our hosts jayne and kathy from personal impressions (one of our uk distributors) and started setting up for our workshops.  of course we also met up with dyan reaveley and worked a few hours getting everything ready to go for our workshops together.  so today we taught 2 back to back workshops packed with 130 eager retailers ready to learn and get inky.  it was a great day filled with education and creativity - what can be better?   well i also got to finally meet the wonderful kaz from the uk.  she is such a kind and talented person and it was great to spend the day together as she helped in our workshops.  then after the workshops we spent a few hours setting up the booth for the trade show starting tomorrow.  tonight we all headed into birmingham for some amazing indian food at shimla pinks where we all toasted a few beers to a job well done.  now it's off to sleep to get rested up for a full day of demoing tomorrow- this adventure has just begun...t!m

journey across the pond...

well bloggers we are sleeping in the clouds tonight on our journey across the pond to the uk!  this annual trip is always filled with great adventures.  i look forward to demoing at the stitches trade show this weekend, teaching some workshops to retailers, and then heading back into london to be a guest on qvc-uk on tuesday.  then we're off to norway for the first time ever to demo at a store bikuben there.  i'll be posting photos of our journey right here on the blog so stay tuned.  thanks for all of the positive comments about the new 12 tags, makes me happy to know i did the right thing...t!m