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!