The Shop

Well, last night I re-opened it and I only had 29 items left...oy. :) I took some photos of some books and I just listed them. I got my last SB box last night...I just need to figure out what is worth listing. It is hard figuring out what might sell and what might not. I rarely sell anything I've relisted...other than some trim. So I might have to start from scratch and poke around the boxes here for some new things. It makes it hard to get motivated...but I didn't make 200 goody bags for nothing. Yes, I made those yo-yos...love that fabric...it is so me. I actually sent mine to the lady who helped me with the button card kits....Judi Andersen of www.pinkpersimmon.com. If you liked the design on your card..that is her doing..I had two different designs to work with and they are both from her stamp sets. They are pretty good stamps as well. :) So if you liked the button card kit...head over to Pink Persimmon and let her know.

SB- First Class

I figured out how to make the pictures go in the right order...woohoo...hey, that is a big thing for me...stop laughing at me. Okay, my first calss was "Rosary Necklace" with Kaari Meng of French General. I was a tad scared...I'd tried to make jewelry before and I just couldn't get the hang of it. She made it so easy to understand and once I figured out what the hell I was doing..it went quickly. Bianca and I had a little race going to see who could finish first. I won...she wanted to add a few extra things to make her necklace a little longer. The first picture is what awaited us when we arrived. One of the ladies at my table was a Bella I met last year....Kara Ward..who is just fabulous and so very talented on many fronts....that is her int he second picture. The third picture is of Kaari Meng and Amy Powers (who is too cool for words). The last photo is of all the necklaces from our tables (some finished, some not...one is missing). My necklace is the one with the blue beads. I have been hoarding those babies for months and I brought two saint charms that were silver and the blue went with them better than the pearls in the kit. So it was totally different...I loved that. I did share..every lady got a blue bead from me and Ali got two things- a bead and a green glass flower....you can see it on her necklace in the picture. She is so spoiled. :) Jodie's necklace has her blue bead on it.

Now something totally unrelated to SB: I took the boys to Target, Michaels, and McDonald's today all by myself. I got there and back...merging was still a tad scary, but I did it. I found Billy the cutest pajamas....yes, I have a thing for pajamas...two sets....he goes through his pajamas..messy, little thing. :) I, also, got some storage things for Billy's room..I know my parents are reading this and just want them to know that I'm working on it. :)

SB Swap Night

Lets' see...they are kind of in the wrong order. The top shot is of Ida and Bianca swapping their Bee's Knees stuff....one of the three I hosted. I know what the hell was I thinking. The next shot is of Maija and Megan waiting for me to pass out their charms. I hosted a Sweet Treat Charm Swap (bottom photo) and there were originally 23 swappers and we lost two along the way. Each lady made 24 charms and we gave three bags away....one to Jo Packham (the guest speaker) and two to fellow Bellas as door prizes ( Rachel won one and if anyone knows who got the other bag..do share). The picture above all the bags was my last swap I hosted..a fat book with a circus theme. It isn't a fat book...it's obese, but it turned out so cool. Someday, I'll take pictures of all the charms and book pages....that is 51 things...the pages were double sided. I participated in six other swaps..two tags swaps, two ATC swaps, a mini art quilt and a cool A-Z thing (where we decorated a playing card with a certain letter and got 26 cards back with the whole alphabet). Those things will someday be photographed....I hope. Everyone did such a lovely job.

29

That is how many pictures I took at Silver Bella with my new fancy pants camera...oy. It is such a quick paced weekend. I'm happy I remembered to breathe at times. :) I guess I will have to spread them out. These are from the opening night dinner....all these lovely ladies will hate me. :) I will be in for a world of hurt...I'm pretty sure one (if not all these ladies) got unflattering pictures of me that evening as well. From top to bottom: Gina, Wendy, Sherry and Nina, Alisa and Joanna. We had a great table that night and had fun making the projects from Fiskars...okay, I was too concerned about my three swaps to really get into it. The other ladies made beautiful things and I held a drawing for the freebies at our table. Their fates were in my hands. :)

From SB to Puke Fest 2009

My boys were throwing up all afternoon and night. Jr got the first wave and Billy didn't throw up until bedtime. Three sheet changes, two baths (he missed himself and his pjs the last time), spilled drink on the floor....he finally settled in for a few hours of sleep at 4:51am. Argh....I am just too tired for this shit. I already felt like I was behind, now it is even worse. My parents leave today (perfect timing). :) Oh well. The boys are home from school today. Oh, joy..what fun! :)

I'm still not right

I got home a little after 11:00pm last night and I am still so friggin tired...lack of sleep and cold medicine will do that to a person. Oh....but it was so worth it. I met so many fabulous women, got to see old friends, make some seriously cool shit, and ate better than I normally do. :) I had a cheese omelet and bacon every morning (I rarely get any of the bacon in this household). The last morning, my sister even got me a Mickey Mouse pancake. :) She is the best sister ever!!! I got a not so good vendor spot again, but I was in the best company...Megan (aka Princess Lasertron), Hope Ellington, and Kaari Meng of French General was directly across from me. I didn't think I did that good, but my sister reminded me that at my price point...I did pretty damn good. The swaps were fabulous and the ladies who joined were more so....I will try and get pictures when I can handle a camera again. I finished two out of six projects and one is almost finished. I made a dead bird and deranged muppet bird shadowbox. I gave the ladies in my necklace class a little bit of me and I can't wait to see what they do with it....some used it right away (thanks, Jodie and Ali). :) I loved spending extra time in the airport shuttle and airport with some great Bellas. I even had one on my flight back to Atlanta...we didn't get to sit with each other..that was a bummer. She warned me that flight was going to suck..she was right. I had a huge layover in Atlanta, had to change gates three times (that was after schelping my crap from C to D terminals), but met a man who was stationed at my hometown during a very interesting time (Baaa....Wendy you should understand that). The flight was even better....little ole me (all 5' 1 1/2") got an aisle seat and the man in the window seat was 6' 1"...his head almost touched the lights...too funny. It turned out he has the same MOS (job in Army talk) as my husband. That made the 30 minute flight much better. Three hour layover for a thirty minute flight...f-me. I haven't really unpacked....too much work. I did show off the work of the ladies in my two tags swap( Year of Tags and Saint Tags) and my fat book swap in the airport in Atlanta....so there, ladies, you got some more publicity. :) You have to be proud to be a Bella and shout it to the world as much as can....I am obnoxious. Thank God you all tolerated me this weekend. :)

Still sick

I'm still sick, but that will not stop my trek to Omaha this week. I need the break too bad not to go. :) My parents made it safe on Friday and have been spoiling the children. We got stir-fried noodles with chicken tonight. Woo hoo...none for Clark. :) Clark finally made it to Iraq..he'd been stuck in Kuwait. Now I can ship boxes of crap to him. I got all my Silver Bella boxes shipped off last Thursday.....five boxes. That included swap stuff. I'm finishing up my last swap. I still have to finish gathering my class stuff. I leave on Wednesday..so I better get packing. :) I'll have pictures this year.....unless my sister steals my camera. :)

Nasty, Vile, and Fourteen

That is what adult medicine tastes like..horrible stuff. Yuck! I've been sick and trying to cram in last minute Silver Bella stuff..swaps and vendor table goods. I think the boxes are just about packed. I am still waiting on one set of charms. The rest of the ladies were nice enough to take me up on the offer of bringing them with them....I think it worked out well for them....more time to work on them. I was looking for some trim for my sister for one of her SB classes and stumbled on more thifted trim...so I measured, cut, bagged and tagged it all. I almost forgot to bag and tag the tattings....I still had some that I never put up for sale in my shop....I did them individually instead of packs of five. Sometimes you just want one or two. I just need to stop looking around the house...I keep finding more stuff to sell. I've got four boxes of stuff...granted some of it is swaps and the props for the table (baskets, bins, bowls and fabric) which for the most part I will be willing to part with as well. I think there is only one prop I don't want to sell...it's good for unit functions. I am bringing some vintage jewelry again this year....one Bella had said something to me....so I can't disappoint. :) My parents arrive tomorrow...my house is wretched mess....more so them normal. I still have fat book pages to finish.....I got a crop-a-dile bite yesterday while punching holes in the fb pages. Ouch! Okay..I said worse. I'm a little behind...being sick just sucks. I have to afix some trim on my Bee's Knees project and it's done. I finished the ATCs last week. Just those fat book pages...argh. Hopefully, after I ship my boxes things will go a little smoother. The best thing about today..other than getting those boxes out of my house....today is Jr's birthday. He is Fourteen....no pictures..he is shy. I understand...so am I. I'm going to bake his favorite cake....Lemon Poppyseed Cake. He has no idea what I got him for his brithday....he is going to love it....the expansion pack for Fall Out Three. Oh well. Those fat book pages are not going to make themselves....I wish.

Five

That is how old my little Billy is today. He doesn't quite get that today is special, but it is none the less. :) He wanted to go for a walk and we did. He'll get some pumpkin roll cake later (he doesn't know about that). He got a few things for his birthday....mostly edible items and some balloons (he loves those and had me blow all of them up).