Silver Bella day 3

It was hard to get up on Saturday morning, due to our late bedtime after the night's festivities. I had an 8:00 a.m. class with Jenny & Aaron, this time a darling project with a great big cake! (go to Jenny's blog to see what the final project looks like--mine's still unfinished!) Such a fun class, and such a treat to be able to have some of their fab artwork in my home, only with my own little twists on it! I think I'm going to make mine into a birthday banner for Miss Maren.

My class ended at 10:00 a.m. and as my next class wasn't until 7:45 p.m. I had the whole day free! I had anticipated this and actually brought a project for the Sweet Sister Swap with me to work on, but the lure of Second Chance was too great and I hopped on the shuttle with these cute girls and headed over for more shopping. Ever since our initial visit to Second Chance on Thursday night, I'd been itching to go back when it was less crowded and I was less overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of STUFF and could focus a little. I wandered in when they opened at 11:00 a.m. and I was there for about two and a half hours! I didn't intend it to be quite that long--I ended up waiting for my mom to meet me after her class ended at noon--but I spent a long, leisurely time sifting through the piles to find a few more treasures. That place is so packed that even though a horde of Bellas had descended and shopped like crazy over the previous two days, the amount of inventory was hardly diminished at all! Yikes.

We left for lunch and looked around the Old Market a little more until it was time to catch the shuttle back, as my mom had class at 4:00 p.m. I joined her on the ride back to the hotel, but once I got back I realized I still had hours until my next class, so I impulsively hopped the shuttle back to town. :) I looked around a little more but didn't buy anything else. What I did find was a whole bunch of ghost signs. I have no idea why, but I love ghost signs, though I'm rarely in a position where I can take photos of them. On this day, the afternoon sun was hitting the buildings just right so I wandered around taking pictures until it went down. I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I took more photos of ghost signs than I did of anything else at Silver Bella! Duh. Anyway, from there I walked the five blocks back to the hotel instead of bugging the shuttle driver again.

My last class of the evening was with the darling Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom designs. The class was called "Sweet Schultuten" and we learned to make those cute little cones that are so popular right now. Jennifer also gave us the kits for her other class, a cute Christmas Wish banner! She is just an absolute sweetie and it was so fun to be in her class; it was very relaxed and fun which was perfect because by that time I was hitting the crafting wall.

When classes ended that evening, people stuck around and took photos and hung out for a while. We dropped our bags back in our room and headed down to the bar to get something to eat. By this time it was 10:15 p.m. and though we were all tired, I don't think anyone was ready for the fun to end. We sat and visited with some more darling Bellas, I ate a ridiculously huge plate of the most divine mac & cheese, and we just missed seeing some celebrities who were also in the bar. And although we didn't want the magic to end, it was really late and we were exhausted!

Sunday morning we were able to sleep in before attempting the Tetris-like task of fitting everything into our suitcases for the trip home. We caught our flight at 1:30 p.m. and I was back home by 3:00 p.m. Even though it has been more than a week since I returned home, I still feel inspired and motivated by all of the creativity and sheer eye candy that I saw during Silver Bella. The whole weekend was SO wonderful and I am so thankful that I was able to participate this year! After I read about it last year on Teresa's blog I knew that it was something I dearly wanted to do, so when registration opened in June I was at my computer with nervous fingers, afraid that it would sell out in minutes and I'd miss my big chance! It did sell out, though not in minutes, although I'm a little nervous about next year! I definitely plan to go again. It was all such an incredible lift to my spirit that I don't think I could pass up the opportunity to do it again. I so appreciate all of the teachers and the vendors who put so much time and effort into making things special for us, most especially Teresa, who was like our Fairy Godmother for the weekend. It was amazing!