Random Bits

It’s been a busy week, heck, a busy November. I’m not sure I’m ready for December but Miss Gracie sure is.

Last year, fall came early in September, but this year it really didn’t arrive until November (as far at the foliage is concerned).

When I left for Silver Bella on November 11, the trees were still green.

Imagine my surprise when I returned four days later to this. The trees were aglow in golds and reds and the ground was filling up with leaves.

Last weekend, we went out to Nick’s Rockaway Beach restaurant for crab sandwiches. The establishment has been around since the 1920’s and was quite the place in days past.

My mom and I always like to get out there for their famous crab sandwiches each year.

My sister Tina always gets a hot chocolate before her crab sandwich. Or sometimes, like last weekend, two hot chocolates.

My older sister Joanne, and younger sister, Tina pose for me across the table. Last time, the waitress asked me where I was from. I guess she thought I was a tourist.

Before they serve the lunch, they put hot garlic bread on the table. Very yummy, but definitely filling on top of the crab sandwich!

Silver Bella Friday

 

More on Silver Bella… On Friday, we started with our workshops. My first one was Rebecca Sower’s Altered Cigar Box. This was one of my favorite classes. The altered cigar box was fun to create and we had ample time to complete this project in the three hours. Rebecca was very sweet and mellow; it was such a nice way to start the classes.

My second class was Be Our Guest with Anna Corba where we made a book that can be used in any way. Anna had an assortment of beautiful ribbons to choose from to adorn our book, as well as lovely papers.

Immediately after that, I took Anna’s other class, French Country Holiday, where we made a cone and a wooden hang tag collaged and layered with beeswax. Mine are not quite finished just yet but I’m almost there!

 

We had a short time before before the vendor market was to begin. The theme for the evening was “Aprons” and just about everyone had on an apron during the evening. Most were embellished with ruffles, ribbon, tulle, or other artsy pieces. From fufu to vintage, there was a wide assortment of fun and fanciful aprons, handmade and purchased, but all unique in their own way.

 

The Vendor Market was a like a holiday wonderland. There were so many vendors with beautiful booths. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos during that time as I had my hands full and there was just so much to see and I could only scan many of the booths.

I was happy to meet Jenni Bowlin, whose class I had taken last spring online. She had some great finds in her booth including lots of vintage papers, buttons, jewelry and decor. I found some great baubles.

 

Very happily, I got one of the fabulous Kim Caldwell supply totes in my favorite color, pink.

 

Heather of the Speckled Egg had so many things in her booth to create with. I found a ton of ribbons and flowers that were just scrumptious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I went home with lots of bits and bobs, including vintage flowers,

soft and fluffy crocheted flowers (won’t be these cute on scarves and hats?),

and velvet ribbons.

Finally, I could not resist these two cute bags from A Bushel and A Peck. I must say the shopping was fab!

Next up: Saturday, our last day.

Velvet and Rhinestones, Oh My!

This Silver Bella recap is temporarily interrupted to bring you... blingy rhinestone buckles with vintage velvet. I still have more photos to post and more to tell about Silver Bella, which I'll follow up with tomorrow. For today, I wanted to share my flea market/antique store finds just because they're so pretty.

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.