Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Silver Bella & Plans

Picture: Delphiniums in my garden.

Silver Bella 2008 is fast approaching, set for November 13 - 15th. Last year's event was such a fabulous time and I had the opportunity to meet so many creative and talented women. The classes I attended were so inspiring and I came home with oodles of projects, some I must admit are still unfinished and lying in a drawer-a winter project maybe? I will get to them one of these days, I promise!

I won't be attending this year as my priorities have changed however I am tickled that so many of the great women I met will be in town again. I do hope I will get to see them all! Of the priorities I mentioned, one is to to get my arm back into tip-top shape. No news on that front yet, I still have to see a hand specialist and I think I will need surgery but that isn't a definite either.

We'll be heading to Florida for a vacation soon and I am SO excited, I can hardly wait. We'll be going to see my brother and SIL and it's been way too long since we last saw each other.

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posted by "Maggie" at 8:50 PM 2 comments

Monday, November 12, 2007

Happy Silver Bella Weekend Continued

A group shot-what a fun bunch of girls! Next to me is Teresa McFayden, our Bella Extraordinaire. She really knows how to throw an event! She is such a sweetheart and is so warm and genuine and so talented! She really went all out for us and made us feel so welcome, I can't thank her enough. You could really feel the bond of friendship between all the women who attended this event. One I know will continue on for a long time to come.

Me and Pam Garrison. Pam is so talented and has been such an inspiration to me this past year. I took her Bella's Banner class and had such a great time. Thank you so much Pam!

And me again with Debby Schuh. Debby really touched my heart this past weekend. We had such fun and I hope we'll be able to have many more good times together. Shall we make this a yearly get together Debby? I hope you don't mind, I snagged these photos from your blog-my camera was for the dogs this past weekend! Ok, so you made me cry...it's the least you could do! :) It was a good cry, not a bad thing so I guess that gets you off the hook for today!

See the cool black vintage style t-shirt I have on? I bought it from the sweet and talented Heather Bullard (my photos of her didn't turn out). Thanks so much, I just love my t-shirt Heather!

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posted by "Maggie" at 8:26 PM 6 comments

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Happy Silver Bella Weekend!

What a whirlwind and exciting weekend at Silver Bella, an event I have been waiting to attend for months. It was more than I imagined it to be and today I am enjoying happy exhaustion from all the hustle and bustle of activities. The event oozed with creativity and talent and the bonding spirit of each of the women was incredible. Everyone was so passionate about what they do and what inspired them to become part of this incredible event that set our town on it's heels, literally boot heels! I've so many photos it will take several posts to cover everything.


I met so many wonderful women and I will try to post additional photos from my friends who happily agreed to send me the photos they took with their cameras as my camera was being very tempermental.


From left to right above: Elaine, Me and Debby.


Above: Me and Pam Keravuori.

My constant companions at the event were Elaine Prosser, Debby Schuh and Pam Keravuori. I met Debby through her blog and we have so much in common. She works for Anna Griffin as an instructor teaching paper/scrapbook project classes around the US and is so very talented and genuinely warm. We decided to attend the event together along with her good friend Elaine-who I am after to start her own blog. They introduced me to Pam, another friend of Debby's and a creative consultant and instructor for ScrapbooksPlus. The girls were all so warm and friendly, they immediately set me at ease. The rest of the weekend we were pretty much inseperable. They made me laugh and cry (yes cry!) and entertained me with stories from their adventures and made me let go of my temptation to adhere to perfectionism. And guess what? It worked! By the end of the weekend I just rolled with the punches-and let all those perfectionisms just lift away!




Me and Becky Sower, who's work is incredibly inspiring. She is so sweet and gracious in person and I was so happy to have the opportunity to take her Life is a Lovely Collage class and will post the project once I have photographed it.


Kari Ramstrom and I. Kari is just as delightfully sweet in person as she is on her blog. I was so tickled to meet her and I just love her creativity and talent.



Miss Molly and I. Molly is a true sweetheart who works at our local Archiver's. I was so surprised and delighted to see that she too was attending Silver Bella.


Me with Jennifer Hayslip. Jennifer has such a beautiful decorative style and it is evident in everything she does. She is a busy mom with 3 children and I don't know how she finds the time to do it all.

I am still on this incredible high from the event and from all the amazingly creative and talented women I have met. I know this will stay with me for a long time to come. Now it's off to look at my table covered in precious treasures from Silver Bella! To view some more fun photos from Silver Bella stop on by Jill Assman's blog. I don't have a photo of her but she was so fun to meet in person. Her post of the Queen Bella miss Teresa McFayden (first photo) was the hostess and creator behind this grand event. She really knows how to throw a shin-dig!

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posted by "Maggie" at 4:06 PM 4 comments

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Marathon Maggie

What a weekend! Have you ever put some things off until the last minute (due to so many other things cropping up at the last minute) that you kick yourself into the car and back out again? THAT would be me today. And yesterday and the day before. I can count 5 trips to Archivers (2 in the same day) in the last 4 days and maybe one still to go. I am working on a project which turned out to be more than I anticipated yet a fun project none-the-less that I have to finish in the next few days. Of course, I have never done one quite like this so you can imagine everything that could fobile my plan has, thus the extra trips to Archivers. With today's gas prices I've added a pretty penny to this project as it's a good 5 miles one way. I wish I had a set up like Debby, where everything is at your finger tips. Here work space is incredibly well organized and full of everything one would need. I need to start buying organizers to set things right in my studio, that would help immensly.

The great news is that I am officially going to Silver Bella hosted by the lovely Bella Teresa herself and I can hardly wait. I'll be attending along with some of my favorite artists, crafters and business people. The very talented Debby who teaches for Anna Griffith and who's work (& work space) I admire, will be attending and I look so forward to meeting in her in person. I'll also get a chance to meet Heather from Present Past Collection who will be a vendor at the event and Pam Garrison who will be teaching some of the classes. I'd say that's the beginning (as Debby would say) to a Bellafabulous time! :)

On top of this I have been feverishly planting today and yesterday and still have some to go. I've had the flowers 10 days now and just haven't had the time to plant them due to other priorties and rain. This only includes the current flower beds. Last fall we finished building a deck and put in gardens completely around it and the back of the house. These have yet to be filled and landscaped, another project to do when we return from our trip. It always seems the list of to-do's gets incredibly long prior to a trip. I feel like I'm running a marathon and time is running out!

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posted by "Maggie" at 12:49 PM 3 comments