December Sister Swap goodies

Good grief, I should be in bed! I still have a lot of packing to do in the morning but I wanted to do a quick post to show what my Sweet Goodness Sister swap partner sent me this month. Laurie has been such a wonderful swap partner and I've just loved everything she's sent!


The first thing I pulled out of the box was this gorgeous teacup and saucer. I have my great-grandmother's teacup collection and this little beauty will fit right in! It's so delicate and I love the shape and the colors. The next thing I opened was this adorable set of hand-sewn felt items for Miss Maren to keep in her purse: a cell phone, a lipstick (which Maren calls her "chapstick) and the cutest little compact! Seriously, folks, they're so dang cute that I had to restrain myself from stuffing them into MY purse. SO darling. Laurie also included some delish Caramelized Almost Ghirardelli squares (those disappeared fast!) and the prettiest little Italian hard candies.


Laurie also included a beautiful vintage hankie and some of her favorite recipes enclosed in this neat little bag sewn from vintage embroidered linens. She tells me that she found it already sewn up like that, so I wonder what its original purpose was? Interesting. Laurie knows of my love for red & turquoise together and she gifted me with the sweetest little red felt birdie! His wings and breast are done in the most perfect, delicate, vintage-looking red and aqua fabric. I should have taken a close-up photo--I am completely in love with the fabric! Laurie's construction and sewing is so beautiful, and I feel so lucky to have some of her work! I hung my little birdie from the fabulous red & turquoise yo-yo garland she sent me in November. And last was the awesome vintage gingham apron in the background of the pictures. It is all pleated at the top and has three rows of rickrack at the bottom. Turquoise, rickrack, and pleating--How could it be more perfect?

And now it's off to bed for me to catch 40 winks before I have to get up in the morning and figure out how to stuff 3 suitcases, 2 extended families' worth of gifts, snow clothing, enough snacks and DVDS to entertain a wild toddler for 10 hours, and an 80-lb. yellow lab into our Pathfinder. I did always like to play Tetris--wish me luck!

Tagged by Rebecca

So apparently my new blogging schedule is once a week, on Wednesdays. I swear after Christmas I'm going to get back to blogging more often. I've just been ridiculously busy and I still haven't been able to shake the general bad mood that has been hanging around my head like a little black rain cloud these past few weeks. It's crunch time--we leave Friday morning to go out of town for a week to spend Christmas with our families. That means between now and I then I have to get us all packed, make sure I have enough gifts for everyone, locate and wrap all the Christmas presents I've hidden throughout the house, order and pick up Christmas card photos so I can write our cards while we drive, attend a church party tonight, and get the house ready to leave. I think I'm in denial over how much I still have to do and how little time I have left to do it in. Oy. So since I'm in denial and wasting my precious time by blogging, I present my Google Image Meme!

Age on my next birthday:

A place that I would like to visit:

One of my favorite places:My favorite object:My favorite food:
My favorite color:
My favorite animal:

Name of a past pet:

Where I live:1st Grade teacher's last name:
My middle name:
A bad habit of mine:My college major:
My favorite holiday:

And there you have it! Sorry the pictures are so tiny, I snagged them straight from the Google Image search page and I'm just too lazy to go back and get the larger images. You get the idea, anyway.

My Holiday Home

First of all, five points to Jennifer for alerting me to my copy/paste error on the last post! When I read her comment and realized what I had done I laughed and laughed! Bet you all didn't expect THAT when you clicked on the link! (Incidentally, that is a link to something I sold on eBay recently--I bought the stockings at an estate sale and sold them for pretty good $$!) Hope no one was too scandalized! ;) I did fix the link so you can check out the cookie recipe now. And do check it out--those Lemon Meltaways were delicious!

I haven't blogged in a week. I just haven't felt like it; I spent all of last week feeling overwhelmed and cranky. I'm afraid not much about my mood has changed this week, although I really am trying to snap out of it. I let go of a few more things on my To Do list; they got moved to the January list and that's just going to have to be the way it is. I had this cute window treatment all planned out involving red ribbons, vintage cookie cutters and the Martha Stewart vintage-style utensil ornaments I schlepped all the way to Kmart for. I've come to terms with the fact that it isn't going to happen either, so rather than the January list, it's getting put on the December 2008 list. I'm disappointed, but trying to be realistic.

I still have two family members on my gift list that I have NO ideas for, and that is stressing me out big time. I really do love buying gifts and trying hard to think of something that the recipient will love. I try so hard to be really thoughtful about it, but sometimes that backfires on me and I end up stressed out and slightly frantic, like I am now. DH is out of the country and so I have been responsible for all the gift buying for both sides of the family, which is especially hard for me as they are mostly men. The men in our families are so hard to shop for (DH included). Women, I can do--I just buy them things that I would like! The men are a real challenge.

I did finally get the house decorated last Friday, and I took a few photos to share. You can also hop over to Karla's Cottage to see who participated in her "What I Love About My Holiday Home" party. Lots of gorgeous inspiration there!

This year I decorated my tree with all of my vintage ornaments. They look just like jewels nestled in all the sparkly aluminum goodness. So far both the dog and the toddler have left the tree alone and everything is safe. Let's hope it stays that way! Under my tree is the vintage felt & sequined tree skirt that Vintage Hunter kindly sent to me. In the left corner you can see my vintage wood sled with its new aqua & red Martha Stewart bow. In the right corner is a chair covered with a thrifted Christmas quilt and the darling little elf my mom gave me for Christmas last year.This is the top of my china cupboard. I ended up with a red & silver theme this year, though it wasn't my original intent. It just happened but I really do love it! The wreath on the mirror is glittery and sparkly and was purchased 75% off at Michael's last year, and there's a sweet red cardinal on the top (he's from a garage sale this summer). The Santa is from an estate sale this summer. The glittery church is from clearance at Target last year, and the bottle brush trees are from Kohl's this year. I filled my (thrifted) silver champagne bucket with silk poinsettias, berries, and greens from an old centerpiece that I took apart.

Here is a closer view of the apothecary jar. It is filled with (thrifted) glittery silver ball ornaments. The glittery red key is from Wal-Mart this year, tied on with silver satin ribbon from my stash (which was probably saved from a gift). The sweet feathered bird perched on the top came from the same sale as the cardinal.

This is the centerpiece for my game table, which sits in front of the china cabinet. The glittery Santa is from Target clearance last year. I love him! He's sitting on one of my glass cake stands and surrounded by some of my favorite vintage red and silver ornaments and the other white feathered bird. When the afternoon sun comes in the window the glitter catches the light and he just sparkles like crazy! It's just beautiful. It's sitting atop a place mat I thrifted on Friday night. My mom has a set and I've always liked them. I went thrifting that night with place mats like this one in mind, so it was serendipity that I found one! Actually two--the one that is green with a red border is sitting on my kitchen island.Please excuse the poor photograph on this one--it's impossible to get a good shot because you're shooting right into the sliding glass door beyond so it screws up the lighting. This is the entrance to my kitchen from my front room. I bought the green garland on super clearance at Target a few years ago. I don't know that I've ever used it, I just thought it would be a good thing to have on hand. I was right! If you click to enlarge you can see the lights. A few years ago I bought two sets of lights that look like vintage indent ornaments, also on clearance at Target. I've never used those either, as I just don't really have anywhere to put them. This year I figured out I could put the two together! Duh. :) I have no idea why but the string on the left has quit working. I may try replacing the fuse but other than that, I'm stumped. The silver star/snowflake things that are hanging down are really neat! I bought them in the same bag as the glittery balls in the apothecary jar. I had no idea what they were when I purchased the bag, but when I opened it up and discovered what they were I was thrilled. They are made of clear plastic and mylar and they unfold like those tissue paper honeycomb decorations. I absolutely love them!


I've had this set of Santa paper dolls for a few years--I think they were in my Christmas stocking one year. I always thought they'd be so cute to frame but have never gone through with it because of the ridiculous cost of custom framing. Somewhere in blogland this year I saw a garland strung across a window, hung with pieces of Santa's clothing. When I pulled out my paper dolls, inspiration struck! I have this mirrored faux-window in my entryway and I knew it needed something draped across it. I attached a few little Command hooks (LOVE those things) to the top and made a clothesline with bakers' twine and mini clothespins from my craft stash.

One last photo--this is what my Christmas tree looks like reflected in the window mirror. I wish I could better capture how colorful, sparkly and delightful it really is!

It's beginning to look a lot like...well, you know

I just got the final tray of Lemon Meltaways in the oven, and before I go roll the truffles I thought I'd pop in and post. I'm helping to host a baby shower open house tonight (which I swear I got shanghaied into--don't ask) so although my house looks like Santa's little helpers staged a walk-out, I'm baking instead of finishing the decorating and cleaning up the boxes.

I didn't get to decorate this weekend like I had hoped; instead, I spent seven precious, irretrievable hours of my life traveling to and attending the most ridiculous, waste-of-time training I've yet had the misfortune to encounter. {cue the "Better Off Dead" kid} I WANT MY SEVEN HOURS BACK! Thus, the Christmas boxes didn't start making it up the stairs until Monday and I'm still knee-deep in the mess. I'm enjoying the decorating process. I'm trying some new things this year and when it's all done I will take a few photos to share. The first thing I put up was my beloved aluminum tree, and I hung it with all of my "special" vintage ornaments. The sun came out yesterday afternoon and when it hit that tree and all of those ornaments they just sparkled like crazy. Honestly, it took my breath away! It is so, so pretty and it makes me happy to walk past it.

A couple of quick photos to share before I go back to the truffle mines: after I complained on Friday about the lack of interesting retail Christmas stuff this year, Sarah gave me a hot tip that Kohl's had some cute vintage-style decorations this year. I hopped over on Monday and she was right! They had a whole line of very pretty silver & aqua ornaments: kugels, glass glitter shapes, and beautiful glass shapes. Since I don't do a regular tree I passed those up but I did grabthese darling bottlebrush trees (60% off! Hooray!) and these cute little photo holders,

which were totally an impulse buy but I love them! I'm obsessed with little houses this year--can't get enough of them, so when I saw these cuties with their little bottlebrush trees, I couldn't resist.

Back to the kitchen for me! The truffles won't roll themselves. :)

The Goblet of Fire has spoken!

I know I said that I would do the Silver Bella giveaway drawing on Thursday, but time & sunlight got away from me (man, I hate this getting dark at 4:30 nonsense!) so it got postponed to this morning. I printed out & cut up everybody's comments and put them in the ol' Goblet of Fire, and had my trusty assistant draw the winning name:





And the winnner is...Dawn from Oh So Pretty! Dawn's blog title is a very accurate description of the things she posts--her thrifting finds, her original creations, her home decor--everything is a feast for the eyes! Do go check out her blog if you haven't visited before. And Miss Dawn, please email me at fraulein_h at hotmail dot com with your address so I can mail out your Silver Bella goodies! Thanks to everyone who read and commented--I love reading what you have to say and visiting your blogs!

You know, I've yet to be knocked off my feet by any of the ornament collections out there in the retail world this year. Last year Target had some super cute stuff--the red & aqua snowmen, the little houses, the glass glitter figures & ornaments. I went to Target to check out this year's collection and all I could think was "eh." The only thing I couldn't live without were a pair of these giant glass glitter snowflakes. They look very similar to the Wendy Addison snowflakes I bought last year at Tinsel Trading Co. on my trip to NYC--they are the same size as the smallest WA flake but the glitter is not as twinkly. You can kind of see the difference in this photo; the Wendy Addison is the one on top and the Target is the one on the bottom.

They're a little different, but I think the slight variation is a good thing--no two snowflakes are alike, right? Unless you buy them from Target! LOL The Target version are $5.99, while the same-sized Wendy Addison was almost double that, so they're a pretty good deal.

I also braved the drive to the ghetto to visit our only local but very skeevy KMart for the sole purpose of checking out the new Martha Stewart ornaments. It was the same thing there--I had high hopes but was soundly disappointed when I saw it all in person. I did end up buying the set of ornaments that look like vintage kitchen utensils with painted handles and a new red & aqua striped bow for my antique sled, but other than that, it was all "eh." I even felt that way about Martha's Craft line at Michael's--I had seen it online weeks before I saw it in person and it looked so cute, but when I got there with a 50% off coupon in hand, ready to BUY BUY BUY, I couldn't find a single thing I wanted.

I think part of the disappointment is that I see so much amazing stuff being created in the blogosphere and elsewhere online that there is just no way for the retail world to even come close (for example, check out the gorgeous red & blue color scheme over at Fredsworld). That's a great thing, though--I'm so inspired by what I see that I want to bring to life the visions in my head rather than wait for someone at Target to fulfill my creative leanings. So thank you all for what you do and what you share--you inspire me!

I'm hoping to start getting out the Christmas stuff this weekend and get started on the decorating. I'm really excited to open all the boxes and see the things I love and come up with a new design scheme for the year!

Have a lovely weekend!

Happy Mail

Laurie, my partner in the Sweet Sister Holiday Swap apparently has mind-reading abilities in addition to her sewing skills. Just look at what she sent me for our November swap:

The theme for this package was "Tags & Swags". Laurie made me the neatest garland in my very favorite color combination of turquoise & red. She used wool felt and vintage fabrics & buttons to make yo-yos (which I LOVE) that are attached to a turquoise beaded garland. It is just gorgeous, and my lame-o flashed-out photo simply doesn't do it justice. I love that it looks festive but not exclusively "Christmas" so I can display it at other times of the year. I've thought of just the place to hang it so I just need to get a few more hooks and I'll be in business. Laurie also included some cute Christmas gift tags and one of darling handmade wool pigs (which I've coveted ever since I saw the one she made for Jane in the Pink & Brown swap earlier this year). What a delightful package, and how lucky I am to have been paired up with Laurie!

I got more good mail in the form of my order from a.bel emporium. When Amanda posted on her blog about her new Christmas miniatures, I just had to go check them out! I ordered some darling Hansel & Gretel scrap (destined for Valentines, methinks), a set of wee plastic deer, Halloween dresdens and the cutest little red & white toadstool cupcake picks, because I am obsessed with toadstools lately.

I was tickled when I got my order and found that Amanda included extra several goodies and it was all packaged up like a gift! Do go over and check out the Holiday Kitsch Samplers at her blog.

And the last bit of happy mail came from Sarah. A while ago she mentioned on her blog that she'd found an aqua Lu-Ray pitcher at the flea market. I commented on it--I adore Lu-Ray, but have only ever found 3 pieces in all my thrifting. Sweet Sarah rolled up that pitcher in a ton of bubblewrap and sent it to me as a wonderful surprise!

It is now one of my very, very favorite things and I just smile whenever I look at it. As I told Sarah, I could not be more delighted! :)

Thanks to all the wonderful bloggers I've met, the Happy Mail quotient around here has gone up substantially. :)

All is Shiny, all is Brite

Vintage Shiny Brite Christmas ornaments. They're like crack cocaine to me--I think about them, I dream about them, I simply cannot get enough! I found my first Shiny Brites back before I was even married with a tree to put them on--I had been garage sale-ing with my mom and scored several boxes of the solid colored glass balls, mostly in shades of turquoise and hot pink. When I finally got an aluminum tree (an early Christmas gift from my sweet parents), the turquoise and pink looked perfectly retro with all of that sparkly silver!

Since then, I've been on the never ending, voracious hunt for Shiny Brites. In my experience they've been hard to find so my collection is still small, but one look at the zillions of Shiny Brites for sale on eBay tell me that they're still out there, waiting to be found. The difference is that I wouldn't dream of selling them! I still have mostly plain glass balls but slowly I've been finding more and more of the 'special' ones--those that have stripes or glitter or are a different shape. When I find those at a garage sale or thrift, I don't think I could be more excited if they were diamonds and rubies! They are truly treasures to me.

All of the thrifts around here wait until after Halloween to put their Christmas donations out for sale, so I have to wait to search. Ever since I got home from Silver Bella I've been on a bit of a thrift bender, and I've been lucky in the vintage Christmas department! These were all in one big bag. All of my local thrifts just throw a bunch of stuff in a bag and price it, a dangerous situation for delicate glass balls. Sometimes I get very lucky and find a whole bag full of good stuff like this, but mostly it's a whole bag of crap and one or two good things. Not all of these are Shiny Brites but they are all vintage. I especially love the small boxes of feather tree ornaments.


For me, the graphics on the old ornament boxes are just as appealing as the contents! The ornaments inside this box are nothing special, but the box is great! The dipsticks at the thrift store had crisscrossed the top with clear packing tape and I took a chance, hoping I could use some Un-Du and get the tape off without completely destroying the box. I was mostly successful, but you can see on the edges where the red paper lifted off despite the care I took. Oh well, it's still great and once I glue down that errant flap and fill it with "good" ornaments, it will look great!



More wonderful old graphics! I don't know how, but I very nearly overlooked these at the thrift store. They should have jumped right out at me, as different as they are from all the modern boxes of ornaments they were stacked with. Thankfully, I looked again and snatched them up as fast as I could! Good thing, because there were treasures inside:

A few of these are plain glass balls, but most of them are really neat! There are even three that I think are made out of spun cotton and are quite old--need to get a close up of those to show you later. The only problem with these is that it looks like someone hung them on the tree and then sprayed the tree with that awful flocking stuff from a can, so several of the ornaments have white yucky stuff on them. I think that if I'm careful I can get it off without damaging them too much.

If you want to really drool, search "Shiny Brite" on eBay and look through just a few of the 1400 listings that come up. Whoa, nelly. I used to think that buying off eBay was cheating, but knowing how hard it has been to find the few ornaments that I do have, mostly one and two at a time, eBay is starting to look a lot more appealing. If I had lots and lots of money, I think I'd be bidding just as fast as my fingers could click the mouse. Chasing the Shiny Brite dragon. Yikes.

This year I have enough of the special ornaments to decorate my tree, and I'm so excited to get everything out and see how it looks! I'm a little nervous about the potentially catastrophic combination of fragile glass ornaments + curious toddler hands but I'm going to risk it. I can always buy more on eBay, right?

A finished Bella class project & a post-Bella giveaway

I promise, one of these days I'm finally going to SHUT UP ALREADY about Silver Bella...but it ain't gonna be today! :) Last night I finally finished my class projects from Rebecca Sower's "Christmas Vignettes" class. We made six 3" x 5" collages using all kinds of fun embellishments and vintage images. The class was so easy--Rebecca gave very thorough instructions and I glued and punched happily until I ended up with these:

Click to enlarge the photo so you can see all the pretty details up close. Each collage is made to hang so I'm going to have to come up with a way to display them all. They were such fun, so creatively satisfying and something that I think I can definitely replicate. I'm so glad I got to take the class! Rebecca is a lovely person and a pro at teaching. One down, four more unfinished Bella projects to go...

To spread the gospel of Bella, I have a little package to give away! It includes a class kit from the lovely Carolyn Peeler for her "Look at Frosty Go" class (these were selling for $40 but Carolyn graciously gave a few away as we were heading for the airport) that makes a cute little stuffed snowman, a pair of fancy Melissa Frances flip-flops (size 7/8, a gift in our Bella goodie bag), a December back issue of Country Living (since the CL editors were our guests for the weekend), a few of the tags I made for the Bella tag swap, and some chocolate, because all good mail includes chocolate. :) If you'd like to enter, just leave a comment on this post and I'll bring out the ol' Goblet of Fire for a drawing on Thursday!

In all things give thanks

George Washington's original "official proclamation," made at the request of Congress, establishing a day of Thanksgiving in the newly formed country:

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor...

"Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

"Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, AD 1789."

Little helper

I was upstairs putting the sheets on the guest bed in preparation for my parents' arrival this evening when Maren decided to 'help' me cook by pouring the entire dish of kosher salt (a small square Pyrex refrigerator dish) and a goodly part of the pepper all over the top of the chocolate cake I had cooling so I can make this dessert.

A second cake is in the oven. Her grandparents cannot possibly arrive soon enough.

Tagged

My sweet friend Elizabeth tagged me to share 6 things about myself. Since I do so enjoy talking about myself, this should be no problem. :)

1. My feet got 1/2 size bigger after I had my daughter. I was a not-so-dainty size 9 to begin with and we'd really like to have more than one child, so this is just another reason why I am not terribly thrilled at the idea of being pregnant again any time soon.

2. I love Alice in Wonderland and when I was in Oxford, England I made a special trip to The Old Sheep Shop to feed my obsession. I think Lewis Carroll was a total perv, though. Seriously. ick.

3. I am terrified of scorpions. Not a huge fan of spiders but I can deal, don't mind snakes at all, but scorpions scare me to death! I can't even watch them on TV or look at photos in books without getting completely skeeved. I think they are of the devil.

4. When I was younger my favorite dinner was Spaghetti Pie (a baked dish of spaghetti, meat sauce, cheese, and egg) and whenever I told anyone at school that, they thought I was crazy. I guess they were envisioning a pastry crust filled with noodles? I still love spaghetti pie but I haven't made it in a long time.

5. I am good at trivia games and crossword puzzles. My brain is a vast repository of mostly useless knowledge, but trust me--when we're playing Trivial Pursuit, you want to be on my team. :)

6. If I ever had a shop or a business selling the vintage crapola that I love, it would be called Magpie's Nest. Magpies are attracted to shiny things and so am I. :)

Thanks, Elizabeth! If you read this and need something to blog about (or just like to talk about yourself, like me :) consider yourself tagged!

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!

Silver Bella--what I bought

I'm not going to lie--the shopping part of Silver Bella was every bit as fun as the classes and meeting everyone! Heck, that's why Teresa arranged a special shopping night just for us Bellas at Second Chance, which I talked about a few posts ago. Second Chance was just amazing--a one of a kind type of place, and it was so fun to shop there and across the street at Fairmont Antiques. There was also some good vintage stuff to be had during our own Vendor Night! Here are photos of the goodies I brought home:

I didn't set out to buy so much pink stuff, it just happened that way. It's funny because the main areas of my home are done in reds and blues, so all the pink and aqua stuff that I am attracted to does not match at all and I have nowhere to put it. Does that stop me from buying it? Not apparently! The Moderntone sherbet cup and Ripple tea cup came from Fairmont and the Moderntone salt shaker and Ripple saucer came from Second Chance. I have one aqua Ripple saucer that I thrifted long ago and it is a dream of mine to someday have a whole set of that stuff, but I never see it. In Second Chance I found a whole stack of saucers ($1.50 each) and luncheon plates ($3 each I think) but I could only bring myself to buy one little saucer to match the pink cup I'd just bought. Someday I'm going to regret not buying the whole stack, but I just couldn't justify buying more at that point. The sparkly earrings were a splurge for me at $12, also from the magical basement at Second Chance. They are particularly enormous to be worn as earrings but the way they are made, they'll make great buckles when I get around to figuring out what to do with them! Here's a close-up:


All of these were from Second Chance. From the left, a vintage plastic tree-topper that was $2. I bought an identical blue one from a thrift right before I left. The bag of green mercury glass bead picks was $4, and I wish I could have found more. They're one of the things I'm always on the lookout for but this is the first time I've ever found any. The aqua and silver tree topper was in the box but I do not believe it is original to the box, although it is vintage and still has its West Germany label. The box is in perfect condition and may just be my favorite purchase of the weekend! It's Shiny Brite and I've never seen another like it, though I have many Shiny Brite ornament boxes. The box & tree topper were $6, which I think is a steal.

This box of Shiny Brites was $4 at Fairmont. I saw it early, before most of the Bellas had gotten there and I know it would have been snapped up by someone else if I hadn't gotten to it first! That's a great price for a whole box of glittered vintage ornaments--I'd be awful lucky to find them around here. The atomic design isn't my absolute favorite but there are a few with snowflakes and I couldn't pass them up at that price. They'll go on my tree this year. The Santa box was $3.50 and has great vintage graphics. Did anyone see the article in the newest Home Companion about collecting vintage wrapping paper and Christmas boxes? I read my mom's copy on the airplane ride to Omaha, so it was fresh in my head when I spotted this!

From left, a vintage cardboard and net stocking, $5 from Manto Fev on Vendor Night. The magazine is from Second Chance; it was also $5 and is the December 1950 issue. It has the greatest ads and graphics inside! My grand plan is to scan them so I can post them here on my blog for your enjoyment as well as using them in my artwork. The sheet of vintage metallic Christmas wrap was $2, as were the gold medallion thingies--both from Manto Fev.


From left: a November 1948 issue of Household magazine, $2 from Second Chance. I have the same plans for this as the other magazine. Let's hope I actually get that far! I do not have a great relationship with my scanner right now. The vintage flash cards were $1 each from Manto Fev. Not sure what I want to do with them but I had to have them! The old photos were from Second Chance and were less than $1 each--they show scenes of snowy houses that I think I can make into something interesting for Christmas. The little round dark thing ($5 at Second Chance) is a very old, very tarnished copper dish (ashtray?) with an image of this, which just happens to be where I got married. I'm hoping I can clean it up with a little lemon juice and kosher salt; it will go in my travel-themed guest room when I'm done. The vintage buttons are also from Second Chance and cost anywhere from 10¢ to $1 per card.

Vintage wallpaper samples from the 1950s, $1 each from Manto Fev. I may have mentioned before that I want to wallpaper the panel on the old-door-turned-headboard in my guest room. I bought these papers for that project, but this is just a start--I'm going to need much more!

Love the sparklies! The snowflake pin and the flower bouquet were both from Fairmont and I bought them specifically to hold on my sash at Bella Gypsy night--I had forgotten to pack any of my vintage brooches, so I had to go buy some, not that I minded! LOL They were inexpensive at $7 each, which is much less than my local thrifts would have charged, and I will definitely wear them again. The other pieces are old single earrings. Second Chance had boxes full of them for us to choose from--they had advanced notice that Bellas are much like magpies in their love of anything shiny. :) These were from the $1 box but they are great! Again, my local thrifts would have charged far more, even for earrings with no mates. If they see even one rhinestone in a piece of jewelry, they automatically mark it up to $9.95, with no regard to the quality--many times the pieces are missing stones or are just plain ugly. It was such a treat to be able to choose from so much, so reasonably priced at Second Chance--the jewelry selection was definitely one of the highlights of the store!

One other thing I bought but didn't photograph is a vintage feathered headband. It is various shades of bright pink & fuschia and it is slightly ridiculous, but I love it so much! I have NO idea what I'll do with it or where on earth I could possibly wear such an over-the-top thing, but I knew that if I didn't buy it, I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it and I would regret it terribly. I'll have to fix my hair in a 40's chignon and model it for you--it's a hoot! Looks like it was made from some poor, unfortunate flamingo. It's awesome.

Even with all that I bought, I've still had a few pangs of wishing that I had bought more--more jewelry and old photos at Second Chance, more stuff at Vendor Night. I'm not sure that even if I had bought more I'd be satisfied though--I always want more! So I'm just going to be happy with the treasures I did find; I think I got some pretty neat stuff!