I'm sitting in the amazingly nice hotel at the 2009 International Polymer Clay Guild Retreat in Chicago. Hubby and I arrived around 9 p.m., after spending most of the last two days in the car with our (thankfully) usually-happy 5-month-old.

I went down to the main retreat workroom last night long enough to check in and do some preliminary set up. Having never been to any claying event larger than a guild meeting, I was wowed by everything. I picked a table halfway between Christi Friesen and Lisa Pavelka, thinking how fortunate I am to get to see some of my clay "heroes" in action. The goody bags were awesome — filled with clay (Studio by Sculpey, Premo and Pardo), clay tools, and a few samplers I'm not even sure what to do with.

Our car was packed pretty full (how can a little baby require so much stuff!?), but I'm already wishing I'd brought a few more supplies to work with — especially my alcohol inks. I suppose I could use this as an excuse to buy more... but everything has to fit in that same car for the trip home!

The schedule's busy, but I'm planning on tweeting as I go (look for the #ipca09 hashtag).

Also, a question for you. Polyform (makers of Sculpey, Premo, etc) will be sending one of their chemists for a Q&A session tomorrow. Do you have anything you'd like to ask? Leave a comment, and I'll try to pass your questions along.