11.11.07

Oh. my. word.

I don't even know where to begin to describe how incredible Silver Bella was this weekend. It was an amazing 3 days full of inspiration, girl time, complete eye candy, and a common love for creating. It was even better than I had hoped for and I've been looking forward to sharing it with you thru my photos! I didn't take photos the entire time, but took enough that I can share a lot of what happened. I'll also pop on at a later time and share some links to other people's photos. It helps when you've got 100 cameras going. :)

Note: I have started a list of blogs and Flickr groups that have Silver Bella photos. List is at the bottom of this blog post.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon and upon walking into the Hilton hotel, immediately smelled the Starbucks. Ahhh...a Starbucks in the lobby. This weekend was going to be good.

Thursday night all of the Bellas had a private shopping event at Second Chance Antiques, a cluttered, vintage, wonderful store. It was hot and crowded, but OH so fun to be elbow to elbow with people who love the same things. I mean, where else would you be simultaneously grabbing for old children's books, vintage lace pieces, and chandelier pieces?

Here is a photo taken outside of Second Chance Antiques -
Jana, Carolyn Peeler, Heather, and me
(sorry it's blurry, but it was taken by someone else..more on that later!)


Here's another photo taken outside of Second Chance.
How fun it was to look over to the right and see most of our instructors relaxing with their bags of goodies! (that's Rebecca Sower and her daughter on the far right; Charlotte Lyons is sitting next to Rebecca)



Outside of another vintage junky store that stayed open for the Bellas...



On to the classes!
These are the projects from two of them...
A gorgeous felt tree (Charlotte Lyons) and Bella's Bracelet - velvet stitched flowers with velvet ribbon made into a bracelet - precious! (Teresa McFayden)



One of the things we needed for the Bella's Bracelet class was a vintage brooch. This was Leslie's box that she brought. It was so pretty!



Loved this project with Kim Kwan! We paper mached (soooooooo messy!) a wooden star with vintage papers, we glass glittered, ink jet transferred on canvas, painted, and finished it off with a chandelier crystal.



On Friday afternoon we had a Bella luncheon. The tables were decorated so beautifully!



Here is Candice Carpenter and her sweet mom, Suzanne.
Candice had the most fabulous retro Christmas projects for vendor night!
We ate dinner with them on Friday night..lots of fun.



Our lovely hostess, Queen Bella - Teresa McFayden!



Who are these two ladies? Well, one of them took the photo that I mentioned above.
They joined the Bellas all weekend along with two photographers.
They walked in and out of classes, shopped on vendor night, antique shopped with us...
Who are they?
Oh...just two of the editors from COUNTRY LIVING magazine.
When Teresa introduced me to them in Second Chance I about fell over.
So...be watching for a spread all about Silver Bella next Fall! WOW!



Ok, back to class...
Here is the class kit from my class with Rebecca Sower - "Life Is Lovely" Art Collage.
I loved how she packaged them. :)



This kit turned into this beautiful piece.
I just love it so, so much.
I loved learning how to do something in HER style.
(These are individual beveled glass tiles)


And here is the lovely Rebecca showing us some techniques before we started on the project.



A shot of the beautiful vintage glass glitter we used.
So much sparkle in every single class!



Working on my project..



And a photo with my biggest creative inspiration.
A perfect word to describe her is gracious.



And now....Vendor Night!
I couldn't believe how GORGEOUS the tables and displays were.
I told Jana I was going to cry...and I think I did a little, ha.
Here are just some of the vendors' tables...

Rebecca's - so lovely.
It was all white and silver. I bought a lot at her table. :)





And just a SMALL sample of the other vendor tables. There were over 40!




















Jana and me in our Cowgirl Bella duds...
I love this chick and had SO much fun hanging out with her.



Some of my purchases from vendor night. Now I can't wait to decorate for Christmas!



And one of the art pieces I bought from Rebecca. How fun to have this. :)



And just one of the tables during the Swap Hour!
These were the bags stuffed with all of the ornaments we traded.
There were almost 10 other swaps, I think. So much talent in that room.



I feel so blessed that I was able to attend this weekend. Not only was it just pure fun, but I feel creatively energized. I made new friends, laughed with old friends, and just felt so thankful that God gives us talents. Thank you to Teresa, all of the instructors, and all of the Bellas for a weekend I'll never forget.
Can't WAIT until next year!

OTHER BLOGS/SITES with Silver Bella Photos
(I'll keep updating this!) -
Megan
Jill Assman
Hope - Paper Relics
Kari - Artsymama
Amy Powers - Inspire Co.
Candice Carpenter
Julie Baxley
Jenny Holiday
Jana Perenchio
Kim Haynes - the official Bella photographer!
Debby Schuh

Oh, and a prerequisite if you're thinking of signing up next year...you must love glitter. :)


"Chase down your passion like it's the last bus of the night." ~Glade Byron Addams