Silver Bella...before and after & my family reunion

My first day was spent with Jessi and a bus load of Bellas.
We left the hotel at 9:00 and spent a full filled day with
our wonderful Omaha hostess. Here's a group shot that I
borrowed from my roomie Sharon,
snapped by the lovely Tiffany.


Our first stop was the Brass Armadillo, a large antique
mall. It was great and we shopped for 3 hours.


Sharon captured a beautiful photo of vintage Christmas
ornaments. The mall was a feast for the eyes. Both
photos courtesy of Sharon.


Jeanne and I stopped by this pretty store front on
main street in Omaha. This was Saturday night after
we had completed all of our classes.


Sharon and me playing in an old red phone booth!


We ate at Upstream and enjoyed a nice post Silver
Bella dinner. My new buddies, Megan, Jeanne, Jana,
me and Sharon.



The Saturday after Thanksgiving always brings my family
reunion. We have been doing this for many, many years and
I really look forward to the special time spent with
extended family! My cousin captured this family photo,
including the cute Juju.


I also took several shots of my children with Juju, in
hopes of getting that just right photo for the Christmas
card.

And saving the best for last....the 2 patriarchs of my dad's
family. My Uncle Jay, who is 88 and my uncle Hall, who is 87.
Both of them are always in attendance and I realize that at
their age, every year may be the last. So, I wanted to remember
them happy and laughing and that is just what I got!

Counting my many Blessings..

Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
I plan to enjoy a relaxing day with my family and
eat a few of my favorite Thanksgiving treats. Also
planning on counting my many blessings and being
thankful!

Silver Bella...issue 1

Finally, I am getting around to posting about Silver Bella. I will
plan to do it in a few different "issues". There is so much to share!
First off, I attended the Glitter Lounge, hosted by Karla and Carol from
Raised in Cotton.


The decorations were very pretty and done up in Karla's lovely
"sugared" style! We got to meet Bellas and enjoy some
snacks prior to the opening night dinner.


Here's Karla toasting all of us. It was so nice to finally meet
her face to face. She is truly a wonderful and creative gal!!


Here I am with my most wonderful roomie, Sharon. We emailed back
and forth for several months and finally met up in the Denver airport
and talked nonstop on our flight to Omaha. We had a great weekend
shopping, eating, talking and creating!


Now for a few swap photos for you. This is one of my swaps, all
packaged and ready to trade. Thanks to Sharon for the lovely wrap.
She traced and cut out the envelopes for me!!


Several of the swap hostesses made pretty bags for us to hold
the swaps. I am bag rich now and loving all of them! Heather
made this pretty hanky bag.


Here's a little peak of the holiday fabric fatbook swap, hosted
by Michelle. This book is really pretty and I will share more detailed photos soon.


Check out my loot! The bag on the left was the Silver Bella bag
that was full of lots of goodies from several different sponsers.


This is my favorite photo of the swaps. I love that the swaps are
pouring out of the top of the bag. Isn't this altered bag just
wonderful? Lonnie is the hostess and seamstress for this one!


I leave you with a dreamy photo of my hostess gifts. Instead of making
a gift, I decided to buy boxes of yummy chocolate covered toffee
from Nashville. I hope they enjoyed it! To be continued....

It's SILVER BELLA time!! I am headed to Omaha tomorrow!
So excited and I will share many photos when I get home!

Frosty banner for Silver Bella and a little friendly advice...

This little winter cutie was one of six banners I made for
the vintage frosty banner swap for Silver Bella. Everyone
makes six similar banners in winter colors/theme and will
receive six back on swap night.



I took a papermache snowflake and painted it with blue
and white paint. Then attached my little winter girl
and covered her with glossy accents and glitter to
give her a pretty sugared look. Of course, her coat
needed a little wintery blue bling!



I used vintage sheet music and ledger papers to cover the
different banners and was lucky enough to find this old
piece of silver lace with jewels. I am excited to see
what banners pieces I will bring home.



We are having a cold and rainy day in TN today. Juju has the
right idea cuddling away in her dad's sweatshirt. She sure looks
warm and comfy!



Now for the friendly advice. This is my husband Mark. He is shown
recuperating on the couch with Juju as his fast friend. I mentioned
in an earlier post that he had surgery. Tomorrow will be 5 weeks since
he had open heart surgery for double bypass. Even as I type these words,
it still doesn't seem possible that he had to have this procedure done.
He had NONE of the risk factors: he does not smoke, he works out weekly,
he has a good diet, he is thin.....what we didn't realize, was his genetic
predisposition. His father was adopted and we now are assuming that this
is what lead Mark to this diagnosis. Mark came home from the
Y complaining of chest discomfort 2 times in an 8 day period.
I told him that he had to call the doctor and the rest is history.
So, if any loved one, especially the male type, confesses to any chest discomfort....please make them call the doctor. We are very blessed,
as my husband had no heart damage and no heart attack. We are now
on the mend and happy to be on the other side!

Meet JuJu and Silver Bella fabric pages

Please say hello to JuJu. Yes, she is as cute in real life as she is in
the photo! She climbed into Macy's overnight bag and made herself at home.
She loves to snuggle with anybody who will have her.


As you can see, she is a BIG hit with the kids. After waiting their
whole lives for a dog, she is a welcome addition!! Now for some swapping stuff...


The theme of the fabric swap is holiday. We all made 11 fabric pages, 6 x 6 in size. We were allowed to pick any color theme. I loved this vintage image of Santa with the 2 small girls. So, I built the page and colors around the image. I love
the look of the linen fabric, with the textured fabric, lace and velvet ribbon.


This is the backside of my fabric page. The photo doesn't show how pretty the metallic mesh is over the crocheted doily. I had to have a little vintage bling on the page, so I added the short row of diamonds to the bottom. Our hostess plans to sew the pages together into a fat book. I will share the book in late November. I am off to bed for now.

Cha Cha Cha Changes....

Sorry to be gone for soooo long! We got the puppy,
I started a new job and my husband had major
(and unexpected) surgery. It has been a wild ride
for 2 weeks now, and hopefully things will be returning
to normal soon. I will post a little longer later.

PS: Hope you like my halloween banner, made by Kris Hurst! I do!!