Hold Dear

Happy Thanksgiving...

Wishing you and your family a happy, peaceful and safe Thanksgiving!

And just for you...

Courtesy of icanhascheezburger.com 

: more : silver : bella :

Well what do ya know...I have more Silver Bella to share! I don't quite have pictures of everything but I thought I'd keep this going...

So I know Silver Bella tends to be Christmas themed but I sure wasn't expecting all the presents and treats that I received! Wonderful, thoughtful gifts from very special friends and amazing gifts from the gorgeous talented ladies that participated in the fabric fatbook.

Here are some pix...

I don't even think this is all of them...there was some toffee that Kana gave me and that already got opened up! :-)

This is a gift I received even before I left for Silver Bella. My sweet friend Genevieve made it for me and gave it to me when we were both at ComePlay: Portland! It sat on top of a jar of Hersey Kisses but those disappeared when my daughter came over for a visit. :-)

From Cheryl...

FromSandy...

From Kari...

From Marie Jenkins...

Seriously...this hat is amazing!!!!

Oh my oh my there's so much more. I wish I could give a shout out to everyone but truth is, I messed up and some of the stuff I received I separated from the card of telling who sent/gave it to me! I'm such a dork!!! I just LOVE everything so from the bottom of my heart, thank you each sweet darling who gave me a gift. It was SOOOO like Christmas! :-)

So there's more...the bounty of goodies that were in the bag from the Silver Bella sponsors was bottomless...

Wow wow and wow!!

So on to the classes...they were all SENSATIONAL! My first class on Friday was creating a Cigar Box Shrine with Rebecca Sower.

Then I had Jen Murphy's Snowman Clip Ornament class. I LOVED this project!!! This is a new medium for me too so I was super happy!

Next up was Kaari Meng's Vintage Rosary Necklace but that was the only project I didn't finish. I left class early to go set up my vendor table! :-)

On Saturday, my first class was another Rebecca Sower class (I can NEVER learn enough from her!). The class was HodgePodge Journal which is SOOOO up my alley!

Then my last class was another Kaari Meng class...vintage charm bracelet. I finished this project but haven't found the bracelet yet to take a pic! Here is a pic of the project which I lifted from Jodie LeJuene's site which she got from Teresa McFayden.

Okay so I gotta go boogie and finish up some stuff to prep for the week. It's a short week so yeee-haw!! I still have lots and lots of swapness to share so I'll be back very soon!

silver bella...

This week has been a whirlwind! Settling back into the routine as best as I can after another fabulous trip to Omaha for Silver Bella! Just so much goodness and so much to marvel at! Glen has been out of town and so I've been taking lots of time unpacking and just taking it easy.

Despite all my best efforts to keep ahead of everything I needed to do and stay organized, I STILL worked right up until the last minute packing and finishing up swaps! I still have to unpack my swaps and take pictures so I'll share all that in another post very soon.

I realize that I really didn't take very many pictures at Silver Bella this year. I worked so much on the swap I hosted and prepping goodies for my vendor table that I, literally, packed my supplies and clothes the night before. Sheesh...I hate operating like that but my bout with a flu that lasted for about a month put me way behind schedule in just about every aspect of my life. So I was a little low energy the whole weekend. But all that said, I had such a blast!

I arrived Wednesday absolutely full of anticipation. While hanging out in my room waiting for my roomie to arrive, I snapped this picture from the hotel room window.

The first evening was a wonderful dinner at Upstream with Kari, Hope, Amy, Carol, Elizabeth and several other wonderful friends. I also got to meet and sit next to Marie, one of my Bellla Little Sisters! Seems it was the happening spot because just about everyone who made it to Omaha on Wednesday was there!

Bright and early Thursday, the Bella Bus Tour that the ever-so-fab Scrappy Jessi hosted got on it's way. It was absolutely marvelous! Thanks again, Jessi!!!!

We went to The Brass Armadillo, Archivers...

...and Hobby Lobby!!!!

The whole group...

 
Sweet Jessi had prints of this picture made for everyone on the bus and gave it to us before we got back to the hotel. What a special treat!!! I'm in the door of the bus waving "hi" to you! :-)

Thursday night was the BIG group dinner and swaps! Kari and I were chit chatting away and so we didn't get find seats near each but as luck would have it, this led me to an empty seat between the super fab, Amy Smith and Carmen Wagner. Amy is from Portland and I absolutely can not believe we found each other! What a treat!!! And Carmen so very kindly brought a fabulous vintage hat box to use for the fatbook swap! Thanks again, Carmen!!!
 

Kari, Jen and baby, Claude...

 

 

Here's the pile of fatbooks from the Bella Holiday Fabric Fatbook swap I hosted. There were 30 participants and I split the group into three books. Each person received a book with 10 pages (except one of the books only had nine pages because of a mysterious serial swapper situation...sorry again girls!)

Our fabulous host of the Silver Bella event, Teresa McFayden, received a book with all 30 pages! Here's Teresa and I and the book...

You cannot even believe how huge the book turned out. Once I finish binding mine, I will dedicate an entire post to showcasing it and each of the pages. GORGEOUS!

Me and Cheryl...

 

Another pic of cute Cheryl and me in Rebecca Sower's Cigar Box Shrine class...

Me, Hope, and Kari...

 

Check out this adorable picture of Hope in Rebecca Sower's Hodge Podge Journal class. See inside her little train case? It's a picture of her and her sweety...she's a newlywed and I just LOVE how in love she is! :-)

 

Friday was vendor night and I tried my hand at vending! I have a lot of collections and I decided it was time to start sharing so I can make room for new stuff! I completely sold out of the vintage ledgers and frozen charlotte's I brought. Very soon I'd love to restock my Etsy shop so I can keep making room for new stuff! :-)

Picture by Jessi Nagy

I did pretty good considering it was my first time as an official vendor. I absolutely could not have asked for a better spot. Kitty corner to Jenni Bowlin, across for Willow Nest and back to back with Charlotte. SOOOO lucky!

This evening I also got a picture of the official Portland Bella contingency!!!

 

Me, Denise and Amy! 
 
 
I didnt' take this picture, but I sure wanted to have one of these three girls. I was SO happy that I got to spend time with Jen, Cammy, and Kelli. So special and oh so fun!

 

Me and Cammy...

One of the highlights of the whole affair was the last evening. Several of us met up in Hope and Amy's room for a show and tell. It was so perfect.

Believe it or not, I have lots more pix to share. I was gifted with so many treats and treasures from some amazingly kind and generous women! Seriously, it was like Christmas!!! Plus there's the swaps and my class projects! I gotta get caught up with a few other things and then I'll be back!

I do have one last little pic to share...just as Kari was headed out to catch the shuttle, I took this picture of her, newly purchased vintage reindeer safely tucked in her purse for her two little cuties. :-)

Take care and see you soon! 
  

magical...

Okay...so I'm slowly trying to make my way back to reality (and blogging!) I'm home from Silver Bella...another absolutely amazing time. This was my third year and it just felt SO good to be there again.

Connected with so many treasured friends. I feel like I especially got to spend lots of time with this dear friend (and roomie!) and this very special newly-wedded friend! So happy about that. I also made so many new friends...and each one is a keeper!

I'm utterly exhausted but woke up so feeling fulfilled and renewed. Glen is out of town so I have the whole day to unpack, go through my pictures and go through all my projects, treats and treasures! I slept in (I have the day off) and my two furry companions let me know how much they missed me by how sweetly they cuddled up with me the whole night. Yep, life is good.

Will share more later...big hugs to you!