Silver Bella Part III and a Half

Vintage Sparkle Banner Swap

Yesterday, I opened my Vintage Winter Sparkle Banner Swap items. Shannon Johnson was the hostess and she included this pretty ornament and vintage postcard with our banner pieces.

The theme colors were blue, silver and cream and the pieces match beautifully.

Banner piece by Michelle Early. German glass glitter on zig zag edges with crepe paper rosette on canvas.

Banner piece by Sabrina Sane. Flocked wallpaper bottom piece with glittered house, music paper with German glass glitter edge.

Banner piece by Valita Baxley. Canvas with tulle netting and bling across the top beneath the lace.

Banner piece by Jayne Whitney. Blue felt (double mounted) with felt bird outlined with silver stitching.

Banner piece by Kathy Jacobson. Vintage girl image with fuzzy, fur hat, blue velvet flower and glittered snowflakes.

I'm going to string my banner pieces with ribbon and hang on my wall. These pieces were just so beautiful; I really loved this project.

Shabby Bella Ornament Swap

For the Shabby Bella Ornament Swap, Heather Rowley, the swap hostess, made these beautiful bags for each of us using a vintage handkerchief, pom poms, ribbon and lace. We each deposited our ornaments into the bag.

These are the wonderful treasures I found in my bag. I have to admit though, that I have still not unwrapped them! I have still have to much to go through and am not organized yet. However, once I unwrap them, I promise to post more photos!

Bee's Knees Swap

The Bee's Knees Swap was a one-on-one swap hosted by Wanda Clark. Since I was going to bed late and getting up early, I really didn’t want to wait until 11:15pm for the last swap. I happened to see my swap partner, Joy Campbell, so we agreed to exchange our items then about 10:15pm or so. I really wanted to get to bed and catch up on my sleep! Joy made the sweetest tote bag for me. The only downside was that I did not get to see what the others in the swap had made but I heard that some others also swapped earlier.

Joy and I emailed at the start of the swaps and I told her I wouldn’t mind having a pink item (natch!). Joy wanted pink and silver or black and gold, so I chose the black and gold for the velvet pillow I made for her. Now, back to my bag! The tote base has script writing stamped onto it along with some pink and cream painted stripes.

It has pink ruffles all around it, a beehive pocket sewn on and a bee pin on a pink flower attached to the hive. I love that Joy made it into a pocket.

Isn't this bee and flower wonderful?

There is a beautiful flower with cascading ribbon and lace sewn onto the top. The large flower is just gorgeous, and check out the ruffle that goes all around the bag.

I have a thing for pink flowers so I was totally delighted to see this.

The packaging she created was just beautiful as well. It is a muslin type cloth, sewn pouch style with zig zag edges.

However, it has the most beautiful pink fabric and tulle beribboned flower sewn onto it. Even the bee tag is gorgeous. It is the sweetest bag and I just love it. It’s so girly and just totally me. Thank you, Joy!

Next up: Friday workshops plus the vendor market!

Silver Bella - Part III

Hmmm… Let’s see, where did I leave off? Oh, yes! We were on our way to the Glitter Lounge, hosted by Karla Nathan and three other Bellas.

The Glitter Lounge was truly that! They had a beautiful display set up with cupcakes, champagne, and glittered objects d’art.

While there, I met and chatted with Lisa Kettell, Karla Nathan, Donna Robinson and her best friend, Suz Reaney. Lisa has a new book coming out next year; it was fun hearing about it. Donna and Suz were two delightful gals who have been friends since their college days.

After some fun, drink and cheese, we went down to the opening dinner Thursday evening. They had a beautiful Italian buffet set up and we ate dinner before beginning the evening project (see Monday’s post for more on that). Sometime before dinner, I set out to find Jodie as I had a gift for her. Jodie made me this beautiful book marker. But look at that fabulous packaging with the blingy pink swan -- ooh la la!!

Besides my gift, she had a gift for Miss Gracie too! That was so special. Miss Gracie certainly enjoyed playing with the feathered toys when I came home. Of course, that was after Miss Gracie forgave me for leaving home.

It's really for moi?

Anything with feathers must be batted around.

Once we were through with the evening project, it was time for swaps. The swaps were supposed to start at 10pm, but since we finished the project early, the swaps began shortly thereafter. However, the schedule for the one-on-one swaps began at 10:30pm and my Bee’s Knees swap was to take place at 11:15pm. First, I went to the Shabby Bella Ornament swap to place my items into the bags of the other participants. Then I collected my Holiday Fabric Fat Book, and Vintage Winter Banners, and Inspiration Apron. All the swap hostesses had pretty bags for the participants to place their items in and many had sewn special bags. It felt very festive seeing all the gorgeous art that was created. Above you can see the little art pieces created and sewn onto an apron base for the Inspiration Apron swap.

And here are the pages I received in the bound Holiday Fabric Fat Book swap. Michelle Geller did a beautiful job of binding all the pages with ribbon and adding a fabulous cover.












So there you have the first of the two swaps. I have more to show but I am getting sleepy now and so will continue with this post tomorrow (we'll call it Part III and a half) and show more of my beautiful swaps.

Silver Bella - Part II

With much excitement and a little nervousness, I left San Francisco Wednesday morning for a short flight to Denver. Once in Denver, I met up with my roommate, Kana from Tennessee, and we flew together to Omaha. Kana and I connected several months ago when we were both looking for a roommate and had been emailing constantly since then. It was so fun to finally meet her and we got along great. She is a real sweetie and I lucked out having her as a roommate and friend. That's Kana on the left with me in one of our classes.

After checking in, we went to pick up our registration packets. We were in the elevator when two women got in and one said “Sharon?” I looked at her thinking “where do I know this person from”? I didn’t even think of the blogs! I guess I was tired already. Well, it was Miss Jodie from Everything Vintage and we screamed and hugged. I was so happy to meet her in person after emailing and commenting on each other’s blogs the past months. She is one fabulous Bella, photographer, writer, artist and person. With her was Robin Sanchez, who is also a super incredible artist. Since we were on our way to dinner, Jodie recommended the Twisted Fork in the Old Market. We followed her recommendation and I had the best fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy plus berry cobbler. After dinner, we walked to Second Chances, the nearby antique store everyone was raving about, but it was closed. The Old Market area is really quaint and I would have liked to explored it more. It has so many photographic opportunities.

On Thursday, our day started out at 9am with Scrappy Jessi's Bella Bus Tour. Jessi did a great job organizing the day, providing us with coupons for the stores we were visiting, a goodie bag with water and snacks and a door prize for everyone on the bus. 60 ladies went on the shopping spree starting with The Brass Armadillo, the largest antique mall in the mid-west. We spent almost three hours there, devouring all the bits and bobs in the many rows of booths.

The Brass Armadillo had lots of stuffed animals...

beautiful settings of home goods...

many booths with vintage Christmas ornaments...

curiosities like this suit of armour...

more Christmas items...

like these beautiful bulbs...

a collection of glass cats (of course I thought about my Miss Gracie!)...

and a gorgeous feathered Christmas tree.

There was so much, you could not see it all so I perused looking for things that struck my eye. Among my finds were a blue rhinestone necklace and a few pins. I didn't want to buy anything that I could not fit in my suitcase to take back.

I also found several old postcards from the early 1900’s that Jody pointed out to me. She had come upon a box full of these unique postcards, many with writing on the back.

They have beautiful graphics and sentiments on them. They would be wonderful to display just as they are as well as using in artwork.

Can you believe the postage stamp was just one cent on these? Almost a hundred years later, and it's still a bargain to send a postcard.

After we left the Brass Armadillo, Bill, our bus driver, took us to Sgt. Pepper’s Italian restaurant where we took our group photo (photo by Tiffany… oh, I’m so bad with last names!) and then feasted on three kinds of pasta, salad and bread. Once finished, we walked across the parking lot to Hobby Lobby. We do not have the Hobby Lobby store where I live and I have to say I was quite impressed with it. It was like a combination of Michael’s, Joann’s and Marshall's all rolled into one. The Christmas department had a lot of great items and several gals purchased little Christmas trees in fabulous colors. They had lots of home décor items and I would have loved to brought some home, but I avoided that section since I didn’t want to purchase anything that I could not carry home. I did find some beautiful papers and bought a few sheets.

Our last stop was Archivers, the mid-west scrapbook chain. I had only seen it in magazine ads so I was interested in seeing it in person. They had a lot of items in there but I did not see anything I would want or need since I have so much at home already. So after perusing the store, I went over to DSW, the shoe store, to look for shoes. They had an enormous assortment, but none that called out to me. With more time to kill, I went to Ann Taylor Loft and purchased a pair of pants on sale. Time to get back to the bus and we made our way back to the hotel a little after 4pm. It was fun meeting the wonderful ladies sitting nearby on the bus… Sandra Marotti and her good friend Pam; Miss Lynn and her sister Karla; Elizabeth Shea and her sister Carol Ryan; of course Kana and Miss Jodie and some other sweet ladies like Stephanie and others whose names kept escaping me (I am so bad with names...hanging my head in shame)! When we got back on the bus, Scrappy Jessi surprised us all with a printed photo of the group that Tiffany had taken a few hours earlier. She had printed them all up at Archivers while the Bella's were shopping!

To be continued... next up: Thursday evening including a trip to the Glitter Lounge, dinner and the swaps(!).

Home From Silver Bella

Where do I begin? So much to tell about the last five days... I am happy to be home after having a most wonderful time. I've been trying to get organized after unloading my large suitcase filled with just supplies, projects and items I purchased at vendor night and antique stores. How much fun to go through these things including some of the swap items that I've not yet even unwrapped. As I am still organizing my items and my thoughts, I'll start out of order with the goodie bag that was hung on our chairs Thursday night at the dinner. It's a lovely canvas bag decorated with blue and white fabric and bows.

Of course, when I took out all the items inside, you-know-who jumped up to see what she might get into for a little kitty fun. Oh, Miss Gracie!

The goodie bag was filled with wrapped items from several generous people including Kim Caldwell (Artistic Bliss), Lisa Kettell, Jemellia Hilfiger (Jem Jam), Lonnie Jenck (Farmgirls), Wanda Clark (The Rat's Pajamas), Oddfolies, Lori Zitzelberger (mud pie studio), Heather Rowley (Speckled Egg), Analise Sledd (the sugar sugar shop), Birds of a Feather, Paper Relics, and Whim and Fancy Designs.

Many of the items are little kits to make different pieces of art as well as art supplies including ribbon, mica flakes and crepe paper. Miss Gracie likes the ribbon in particular.

It was great to meet other Bellas at the dinner and be in the presence of so many talented ladies who run their own creative businesses. I sat next to Shelly Kennedy of Drooze Studios, a very talented artist. Little did she know that a few years back I cut out an article about her in a magazine for inspiration because I admired what she had done. At our table, I also met Marilee of Rose Briar Studio, Julie Fjell of Julie Fjell Pottery and her mom; Jeanne Oliver of A Bushel and a Peck, and Kari Ramstrom of Artsy Mama. And of course, my partner in crime and roommate, Kana of Kana Creates was there as well.

After dinner, Stephanie Hamen of Fiskers had a project for us to complete before we got to the swap exchange. The swap exchange was really fun as we finally got to see completed projects (such as the Holiday Fabric Fat Book and Inspiration Apron) and receive like items in other exchanges. More to come on that!

There was so much more but for now, I just wanted to give you a little peek into the event. Luckily for me, I am on vacation this week so I can spend some time finishing projects, putting things away, and getting caught up. I didn't take as many photos as I had intended, which I am sad about. However, I do have much more to post!

Silver Bella Bound

Bella roses for some sweet bella's

Well, here it is midnight and the day before Silver Bella. I've almost finished packing and my goodness... half of my large suitcase is filled with supplies and swap items! Inside this damask bag is my item for the Bee's Knees swap. I just finished it tonight because I kept going back and adding to it. It is a black velvet pillow, embossed with bees. I've added gold trim, a golden silk rose, a sparkly bee and a strip of golden bling. I hope Joy likes it.

In about five hours, I will arise to begin my journey to my first ever Silver Bella in Omaha. It seemed so far off and all of a sudden it's here. I have to admit I'm already a bit exhausted with all the preparation and I know I won't be getting a lot of sleep, but what an extraordinary time it will be! Now, if I can just finish packing...

Miss Gracie has been following me all night and I'm already sad for her as she is going to miss me. I'll get the "treatment" from her when I return as she lets me know that she was not pleased for me to be away. Hopefully, she'll get extra treats and mousie-pole fun to appease her.

When I return, I will post photos of the event. Sometimes I get so involved in taking photos that I miss the actual activity but I hope to accomplish both. Thursday starts off with the Bella Bus Tour at 9:00 am and one of our stops is the largest antique mall in the mid-west. I'm quite excited to see that. After that, lunch and a few more stores before we return. Then, a trip to the Glitter Lounge before the opening reception, dinner and workshop. We'll finish up the night with the swap exchanges which will be very exciting, I'm sure. The next morning we start our workshops bright and early at 8:30 am and have the vendor market in the evening. I must have willpower not to buy too much as I'm sure nothing else will in my suitcase! Well, that's all for now... lots more to come next week!

Weekend Whirlwind

This has been a busy weekend with lots happening in my fanciful life! Saturday night was a fun experience at the Daly City fire department's station house 95. I attended a dinner put on by the firemen (I would say firepeople but they happened to be all men that night). This was a dinner purchased at the Mid-Peninsula Boys and Girl Club annual benefit dinner auction by one of their generous volunteers. Instead of inviting a group of adults, he took a number of kids who play soccer at the club after school. After dinner, we all got to dress up in the firemen's gear. As it was a chilly night, the jackets were warm albeit quite heavy! That's me and my new friend Maggie sitting on the back of one of the firetrucks.

After the kids got a full tour of the firehouse, everyone got dressed up in full fire gear for some photos. The firemen got really into it and gave us props which explains why I have a large ax in my hands!

Here we are with their fire hats on to complete the whole fashion ensemble. They must weigh at least 10 pounds each! It was a wonderful evening; the firemen cooked a fabulous meal of barbecued chicken and prime rib and were most gracious to everyone. I think I can safely say a good time was had by all. Kudos to the fire department for their generosity and hospitality. They are a swell group of guys!

And so today, I started and finished my last swap item for Silver Bella. It's the Bee's Knees swap where we are matched with one other person. Our task is to make something for her with a bee theme. My item features a golden silk rose on black velvet as my partner wished for black and gold as her colors. I actually tore apart this rose and re-fashioned it into a different design. That perfectionist thing got the best of me today. So much to do, and so little time! I've spent the whole day on this swap, finishing other artwork pieces for friends, creating separate supply kits for each workshop and rounding up things I will need to bring with me. Time for a good night's rest - only three days until Silver Bella!

Miss Gracie, Laptop Kitty

We didn't let last week's event get us down. Tina got her laptop and Miss Gracie has become the laptop kitty. She loves to sit by it whenever it is on. Or pad across the keyboard.

We're not sure what draws her to it, but whenever it is on, she insists on making herself comfortable next to it.

She even reaches out and touches the keys. I might have said it before, but my Miss Gracie is one smart kitty. I truly believe she wanted to type on the keyboard, too.

For now, she'll settle for watching whatever Tina loads on the screen, such as this Taylor Swift video. She wasn't too interested in the crazy cat video on YouTube; however, we found it quite amusing. Now, back to my regularly scheduled activities...

Silver Bella Shabby Bella Ornament Swap: Complete!

Yesterday, I finally finished the shabby bella ornaments. Pink, silver and cream with glitter, a wonderful color combination.

Some satin ribbon, tinsel, faux crystal danglies and my favorite ingrediant, glitter!

Do you think I made these alone? Nooooo..... of course not. My trusty crafting companion was with me to "help", as usual.

Here is Miss Gracie as she finishes tying on the tinsel hanger. Isn't that just so sweet of her?

And here she is making sure the crystal dangly is nice and loose so it swings appropriately when it is hung up. She's great on quality control as long as she is not trying to eat the goods.

Are we done yet? Are there more? Miss Gracie is waiting for her next assignment.

So we bagged up the ornaments in tissue and glassine envelopes. I had to do this part because it's not too easy for Miss Gracie to fold paper with her paws.

Of course, Miss Gracie was able to help tie the pink rat tail and was more than happy to do so.

And so we tied up the packages and lined them up so Nipper would not get into them.

Lastly, we made little nametags for each with pink gouache on watercolor paper, trimmed with scalloped edges and glitter. Nipper tried to eat the paper trimmings so we made her leave the room. Naughty Nipper!

And then we were done. Whew! To celebrate, we had raspberry-apple turnovers. Miss Gracie loves pastry and she couldn't wait until I finished my part so she could have her pastry crumbs. She earned them, so I was happy to share with her.

I hope my Silver Bella swap partners like the ornaments made with love by Miss Gracie and me!

Not Quite the Way I Planned the Weekend

My oatmeal and I had a sad face this morning. Last night, I took my sister to the Apple store to buy her a MacBook. Her first very own computer, laptop and Mac. After we purchased it using the money my aunt had left her when she passed on, we went to the Ann Taylor store where they had a great sale and I picked up a few tops, and a sweater for Tina at Macys. We stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to pick up a bite to eat and returned home. We were totally shocked when we opened the car door and saw no packages. While we were in the market for about 10 minutes (during which time an opened Odwalla drink I picked up spilled all down the front of my top - the clerk gave me a fragranced wipe which then gave me a headache, but I digress...), someone had stolen the packages.

The police officer told me to contact Apple so they could flag the serial number as stolen. Apple told me they do not do that. Visa told me that neither card I used had buyer protection (the banks don't want to pay for it). My car insurance company told me I am not covered for theft. Perhaps my homeowner insurance may cover it, but I'm not counting on it. It just feels so violating and especially when I discovered that my full name and email address were on the receipts. I try to be careful; I have a security freeze on my credit files since my personal data was on two files stolen from my former mortgage company and a former employer just a few years ago. But, after getting over the initial shock, I realize I must keep this in perspective.

I am grateful for all I have in my life and these were just material goods that can be replaced. Granted, it's not inexpensive, but it does no good to dwell on it. I am so lucky for all that I do have and nobody was hurt. And so my day goes on...

I really feel like having a cookie right now so I think I'll go bake some from the freezer. Cookies = happy, right? And I need to finish up those shabby bella ornaments now. Oh, and I had a surprise phone call (on the beloved iPhone) this morning from my Silver Bella roomie which was so great. After emailing back and forth for all these months, we finally had a live conversation and I can't wait to spend time with her in Omaha. Miss Gracie still loves me and wants me to play mousie pole with her. My dad called to say hello and I love you. Life is good, right?

And so it goes. Just living life and taking it one day at a time. Looking for the rainbow, a butterfly landing nearby, the sun coming through the clouds. Keeping my chin up. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Got Milk? Make A Mask, Win $250!

Here it is, just days away from Halloween. And guess what? If you live in California, there's still time to enter the gotmilk.com Halloween mask contest (the deadline has been extended to Monday)! Simply make a Halloween mask from a milk carton or jug, and send a digital photo with instructions to be entered. There will be three winners and each one gets a $250 gift card to a grocery store! Hey, who can't use that today?

You can see more about my masks here and here. Just go to gotmilk.com/recycle for full details. If you don't live in sunny California, but have some crafty friends here, be sure to tell them about this!

Above mask made with recycled milk carton.