November 2008

Amazing!  That is the only word for Marilyn's home.  Her entire downstairs is wall to wall wallpaper. And it is the pretty stuff, too!  All old, all lovely! She had  some masterpieces, it was like a museum, but without all the boring stuff.

After Silver Bella, we drove an hour east of Omaha, and took Andrea with us.  We shopped longer than we planned, since it was  so hard to get away, we could have gawked all day long! But then, we had to hurry back to Omaha and get Andrea to the airport, getting lost a few times, but getting her to her flight.  Heather and Natsha came back to my house.

Imagine the way my little wallpaper lovin' heart started to thump when Heather told me she had an invitation to visit Hannah's Treasures in Iowa while we were up at Omaha for Silver Bella! 

Marilyn (who named her business after her daughter, Hannah) sent invitations to bellas who have been customers of hers and I glommed on to Heather's invite and brought myself along with her to shop!  (Of course, I was the driver, that helped!) 

This is Marilyn, pictured with the scrappy little Aussie chick, Natasha.  Look behind them!!!  And yes, that is another room full of rolls, beyond the room they are standing in.  Plus another room to the side. 

It was overwhelming. She had over 1200 rolls on display, and says there are storage buildings full outside! 

Everyone bought quite a few, but each of us picked one really special roll to have from the more expensive pile. Natasha chose this, over the top, elegant, beautiful roll.  We were all a bit dumbstruck while shopping, it was almost too much. Did I say, "AMAZING"?  Hog Heaven is another good way to describe it. 

Marilyn had some special prices on "background" styles, like this one that I thought looked very pinky-Christmassy.

As a matter of fact, I have already used it on a hollowed out book that I am making into a holiday scene ala Teresa Mcfayden's Christmas Pageant class last week. 

My husband rarely looks at my blog, unless there are fairy grand baby photos, so I guess it is safe to say that I bought 20 rolls….. 

Many of the rolls are in this border pattern, but all different colors and styles of roses.

I bought this blue, rosy confection as my special choice, not because it was my absolute fave, but because Rachel Ashwell had also purchased the same roll!

Wouldn't you have picked it too??

Here is the info for the sale that Deb, Carol, Gwen, Beth and I are having.  I have a feeling I'll be mentioning it a few more times between then and now!

Typepad answered me with a fix on the problem with my screen. Hopefully I will get all the way through this posting without any problems. I've not been able to finish or properly edit my last couple of posts due to Typepad's "improvements"!

Still in the slow process of adding to my Etsy shop. I purposely made and prepped WAY too much to take up to Silver Bella, so I'd have an inventory of goodies to add to the shop. Plus Lollishops is opening soon and I've decided to join that. 

Now what makes me think that I can keep two shops stocked? And start a new website??? Oh, and did I mention that I have been invited to participate in a local Kansas City sale with those KC area Bellas who made me beam with regional pride with their set ups at Silver Bella!? Elite company, that I am lucky to be a part of!  

Gwen came up with the idea and Deb of Curious Sofa worked her magic and hit the ground running with a theme and artwork and ads!  Wow, it happened fast and I'm impressed as well as a little overwhelmed. But no way I'd miss being a part of it! Carol, Gwen, and Deb are renting a location today, andBeth and I will be part of the show, as well as some yet to be named artists/antiquers.

Have I mentioned that I am a lucky person??

Here is a snippet from Carol's booth at Silver Bella, cool, huh?

She has that special touch with display. Of course, she has great stuff on display, that doesn't hurt either. I'm really sorry that I have so few photos of other vendors, but as I said, it was a shopping frenzy. If I didn't have my pals who pitched in, the Super "S" Girls, Sheila, Stacy, Shelli and Shawn, I wouldn't have survived! 

Holly had some pastel prettiness going on. 

And so did Heather. (who has some Bella pics on her site too) 

Have you seen these bags that my friend, Kim, makes?  Perfectly fitted for toting all your supplies to classes. (Kim also has some pretty Bella photos on her blog now)  Of course, everything that Deb touches has that special, Curious Sofa look.  Her booth was wonderful too.

After seeing Carol, Gwen, and Deb's neutral pallet booths on Friday night, I was inspired to try something a bit more tone  on tone than what I usually do in my Sat. morning classes.  I sat next to Carol in this Pam Garrison class, and did my best to channel her Carollness and do something neutral.

It didn't happen.  All started out ok, lots of grays, silvers, tans, whites and gold papers went into the background of the pages. 

The next thing I knew, it was covered with fairies and pink silk ribbons and flowers and foof and glittering crowns and all sorts of gaudiness!  

In my next class, Portrait Rustique, with Kim Kwan, I tried even harder to go neutral and had better luck.  The frame I used started out pink, I sanded it and rubbed it with a succession of brown inks that got darker with each one.

Looks to me like it came out a little bit "Carol-ey".

Well, Typepad and its stinking "improvements" are threatening to freeze up my screen again.  I just got my warning, I'd better go!

Thought I'd give Type Pad another try, I had to cut off my last post before finishing earlier today, the screen was freezing up and I didn't get to edit, or make any links, let alone finish. Plus,  I didn't want to leave you with the impression that I was upset with sales at Sliver Bella, far from it! 

The sale was magnificent! I probably sold as much in a few hours as I usually do at a three day weekend  art show.  That is nothing to complain about. I was just saying how it is odd that at some sales, some items are hot and at other sales different things are the ones flying out of the booth. 

I'm not one to stick with one medium, I tend to like to try lots of things, so I usually have a variety with me. Which is lucky, considering some sale at one show and some do better at others.  And a lot of it is display, the things that are highlighted do better.  Subtle differences in lighting will affect sales too.  Shoppers will look at the better lit areas in a booth, and not even realize they are doing it. I think it is human nature.   

Every show is a learning experience and feedback is always welcome.  If you were at my booth last Friday night, I'd'd love to hear from you about what you thought. 

Ooops, Typepad is getting goofy again, I'd better get off before my screen freezes up again. Maybe I will have to be doing a lot of shorter posts until this glitch gets fixed. It sure is irritating, but it also keeps me from blathering on too long!

There is more Silver Bella to come, hope you are not getting tired of it!  I have photos of other vendors booths, more class projects, and the magical trip that Natasha, Heather, Andrea and I made to the land of never ending wallpaper!! My gosh, it was a collector's dream come true, thousands of rolls for us to play in.

Don't forget about the giveaway for November, I'll have some photos of that coming too. Drat this new Typepad upgrade, it sucks!

Did I tell you about the gifts? Bellas  are big on sweets and treats, from the Goodie Bags we get, that are filled with wonderful presents from all sorts of sponsors, from big companies like Fiskers to vendors to Bellas who just want to share.  Plus, swappers have extra treats, and there are hostess gifts and teacher's gifts and gifts just because. Its a generous crowd!  Kim Caldwell made up these chocolate bars and Carol Spinsky had Dove candies printed up special and both brought some to the Glitter Lounge. 

I think next year, I might be a sponsor. I love those little tiny crowns that I had bought for earrings and might get more of those  to add  to the goodie bags.   Its funny, I didn't sell as much jewelry as I usually do at art or craft shows. Now, I am far from complaining, because I sold plenty of other stuff! I have a feeling that I didn't display the hand made jewelry as well as I should have, it wasn't shown to its advantage.  The earrings on the framed display to the left sold well, but the ones spread out on the table and in jewelry boxes didn't.  I learned a lot from this sale, like maybe I had too much in too small of a space? People seemed to enjoy the abundance, but it was quite the pile, and a lot of things didn't even  gett seen. 

Then, of course, there was Luwanda, who had no light on her and I never got around to turning over the charms she was displaying.  I wonder if people thought she was selling big white blobs? Well, it was hectic, and like I said, I brougth too much, and time was short. Did I mention that I never got around to putting on my shoes??? 

And look at how cute the boots were!  Surprisingly, they are comfy too, and probably would have been better support than being barefoot all night. I went up to the room to change after setting up my junk, and had planned to put on the boots when I came down stairs to get going. But there were people around already and I had last minute things to do and next thing I knew, it was hours later and I was still barefoot. 

There was also  very little time to shop.  I managed to snag this beauty from Holly and can't wait to try it on the fairy grand baby.  Its way too big for her right now, but maybe by next summer, she'll be wearing this around the house with a pair of fairy wings.  But back to the gifts- sweet Tiffany brought these "Glitter Girls Club" ornaments as surprises (you can see the "Shabby craps" on her business cards).  And she wasn't the only one. Gifties everywhere! People shared supplies in classes, all day long, you'd hear "try one of these, you'll love it" or, "here, I brought plenty". 

I also learned a lot from the other attendees. From little hints about how to do something, to big ideas like the best way to edit a photo, or how to start a website. 

Now, I've always been so happy with the ease of doing an Etsy shop (and I added a few things yesterday, and will be adding daily till I get all this leftover crap, I mean lovely inventory, gone).  But on the advice of Heather, Natasha, Carol, and others, I bought my self a little bit of web real estate and will be starting my own store. Details to come, it will be about 6 weeks before Sara can get it designed for me.

For months, I've been hearing  about the horrid new Type Pad updates, and was glad I didn't have them. But I was finally hit with them this week, and posting is a nightmare. I think I'll have to leave for now because I just got a note that my computer was about to become nonresponsive due to script on this page! Bye!

Crikey!  I barely got Natasha to the airport in time, we got side tracked by gossiping and by her imitation of a Tasmanian Devil. She was running around the dining room in her pink flowered jammies showing me how the devils move. 

Thanks to my sweet husband surprising me by having the gas tank filled, we made it to the airport on time, after poor Natasha having to listen to me mothering her all the way there. 

"Are you sure you have enough US dollars left for tips, do you need some ones?" 

"I worry about you being short of cash if you are stuck in the airport for a while"

"Do you want some band-aids just in case you get blisters from your new boots?"

She is such a little person to be traveling so far alone and dragging luggage bigger than she is!  She brought out my maternal instincts.

Natasha and Heather both came bearing gifts and Miss Sugarwings was happy to meet them and wanted to open all the packages herself, including the boomerang for my husband.  She saw the candles I had lit on the table and figured it  must be her birthday again.

Sheila and her sister also brought gifts to the dinner party before the Bella get away.  These candles are famous in the Kansas City area, for their wonderful scents.  And they are even better, topped off with hand made gift tags and wrapped in tulle!

For our party, I made 3 kinds of pasta dishes, and Shawn brought along salads in pasta shells, how cute is that idea?

And an evening isn’t complete without Shawn’s home made marshmallows!!

We ate in the studio, and everyone pitched in and brought something.  Those are the best meals.

So I could relax and enjoy the guests, I loaded my inventory for vendor night into the borrowed truck the night before everyone came.  But when I decided to take it to the airport to get the girls that morning, I heard a THUNK. 

The tailgate flew open along the interstate and I couldn’t get it shut!!!!

I had to fly home (losing some of my vendor goods out the back!! I’m not even sure now what is missing) and get my car and hurry to the airport.

As I was toodling down the turnpike, trying not to speed, I heard a JINGLE JINGLE BANG and I realized that I’d left a huge appliance dolly in the back of the car. No way, that two passengers, each with carry ons and 2 big suitcases each were going to fit in my petiteToyota Scion, which has a pink baby seat in the back. (and is nicknamed the Toaster, or the Lunch Box, it looks like a little toy car) 

At that point, I just pulled over along I70, and got the dolly out and left it on the side of the road. So if you were the person that was driving along and stopped to pick up the free dolly, it is me you have to thank for the gift!

After the welcome party in my studio, Heather worked on getting things together for  vendor night, she needed a few odds and ends that I loaned to her for her display.

It would have been fun to have more time to play in the studio, but we knew that we’d be having plenty of time to get our glitter on in Omaha!

As we were leaving, I remembered my disco ball, how could I host a Glitter Lounge without one? And even better, this one was hand made by a good friend, Shanna.  Hand made is always better!

My BIL was able to fix the truck latches before we left, but the thought of losing our stuff kind of stayed in the backs of all of our minds. We wondered if we’d leave a trail of glittery goods behind us all the way to Omaha and arrive with an empty truck bed.

But all was fine, no worries! We met up with some other Bella pals, Carol and Shelly in St. Joe to shop and took Natasha to lunch at Cracker Barrel to show her some down home American style food. 

She liked the grits.

Then, we were off to the hotel to get settled and set up the Glitter Lounge.  I mixed pink sugar with the edible glitter to rim the glasses.  But the lights were too dim in the room for the champagne to really sparkle, too bad. Although some one told me that they carried their glass into the lobby and people stopped to tell them how pretty it was.  The light was much better there!

Have you ever thrown a party and in those minutes before it started, you wondered if anyone would show up?  That sick feeling that you’d be sitting alone with your party balloon (or disco ball) and sipping your drink all by yourself?

Well, that happens to me EVERY TIME.  Luckily, everyone, plus more guests showed and we had a blast. We crowded about 45 people into that hotel room.

Pictured- Suzanne, Debby, Andrea– I will post more photos later, when friends send some to me.

So many fun Bellas came, I was so happy to see them, and so glad to have such a COOL room mate who came up with this idea to throw a party.

But there was a problem, I told a friend the wrong room number, 2 floors off, then couldn’t find her to tell her the right room. I was asking everyone I saw if they knew where Jenny was, and then kept running down to the 5ht floor to see if she was knocking on the wrong door.  I felt like such a witch for inviting someone and sending her to the wrong place.  I’m sorry, Jenny! You were missed!!!!

That first night, after toasting the event with bubbly, we had a group class.

Sewing.

ugh.

But it was fun anyway, even if I am the world’s worst sewer. I realized how negative I was being and apologized to everyone at our table, and then borrowed some glue to finish my project. Everyone else seemed to be so good at embroidery, and I was so out of my element.

My poor Mom, (or Mum as I feel like saying, after a week with the Aussie Chick) must have been turning somersaults in her grave while I attempted to sew my project!

I discovered that globs of mica glitter can camouflage lots of embroidery mistakes.

My other projects turned out better, and I will show them later.

Including the special surprise gift that I made for my November giveaway! Remember, all comments enter you to win this, along with a bit of edible glitter for your own Glitter Lounge party over the holidays!