All in a day...and a half

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for your sweet comments for our anniversary yesterday. We had a nice dinner out (a real treat for us!!) and a quick trip to Anthropologie. My hubby had never been there, can you believe it!? He said he could definitely see the influcence in my style. I bought a neat bowl, a K mug, some gifities, and some perfume. I'm not a big perfume girl, but I thought it might be fun to pick out some with my hubby there, so that I could make sure that he likes it:) I'm not really into floral scents, so I found some fabulous warm, yummy scented Vanilla Blossom perfume by Sula. I'm smitten.

This morning, Thanksgiving morning, we woke up to beautiful big, fluffy snowflakes falling to the ground. The kids were thrilled and couldn't wait to get outside and play. Once the turkey was in the oven were out the back door. Chloe loved catching snowflakes in her net and Lowell just loved running around in the white fluff!

We came in and set the tables for our company. The flowers are from my hubby for our anniversary. Gorgeous! So fun to set a festive table as a way of saying thanks.

My parents, my husbands father, sister and her family all came. I ate entirely too much pumpkin related treats. My parents brought wonderful pumpkin pies and my sister-in-law brought Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. Yum!! The kids played, we talked, everyone had a nice time. So much to be thankful for. After the guests left, it was growing dark and Joe and I were beat, but the kids still had some pep left. I decided a nice activity would be to put up the Christmas tree....tonight. Granted it's a very small tree and I knew that Chloe would enjoy helping me. So we went to it like little elves.

She loved putting all her bulbs on the tip of one branch. Then of course they fell off and one of the vintage ones broke. All in all, we had a fun time. Ta da...here you go...our tree for 2007! So thankful for my energy. Thankful that I have all of you, my lovely blog readers to share my special memories with at the end of the day. Thank you for sharing yours as well. Now I'm sitting down to a glass of wine. You won't find me getting up to go shopping tomorrow. I'll be home with the kids since Joe is working. See Keri's list for 10 other fun things to do instead of shop. And stay tuned for my grand adventures with Ulla on Saturday!

So much love...

My heart is filled with gratitude. My life is so very blessed. My health, my family, my friends. Thanks to all of you...your wonderful conversation, support and endless stream of collective creative inspiration (Nina puts it all into words so eloquently here). My home, my job, my free time. So many things that warm my heart. One of the things I am most thankful for is the nine amazing years I have spent with my husband, my best friend and my love beyond love. We celebrate our anniversary today. I am so very thankful for you, honey. xoxoxo

Harvest bling...

Ah yes, things are beginning to get a little sparkly around here:) I'm all about metallics lately. Very strange for me, I must say. Mixing tarnished silver, platinum, brass, whatever I can get my hands on. I'm going to go with it. I found this neat beaded wreath at the thrift store the other day and these wonderful vintage game letters at an estate sale. Love the size and the font. They will be used in many projects to come! Hope there are some good estate sales this weekend, because Ulla is coming to town!! I admire her so much and am always so inspired by her work. I can't wait to spend the day with her on Saturday. Lucky me:)

No, I'm not trying to burn my house down. It's just so dark here before 5 pm, I like to keep it cozy and warm:)

Natasha is having a virtual prom over on her blog. So if you never went to prom, like me...or even if you did, now is your chance!

Sweet things...

We're slowly getting our groove back here. Thanks for all the well wishes. I wanted to make some of my favorite Thanksgiving "appetizers" with the kids. Almond bark pretzels. Soooo easy and just the sugar rush you need.
Here it looks like Chloe is belting out Christmas carols. She's actually just hamming it up for the camera:)
Gotta pick your fave....
...and examine it thoroughly before taking a bite. She's looking at the pretty side:)
Here they are with lovely lollies I bought from Amy at Silver Bella. Hope you're doing something sweet this weekend!

Sick week....

Well, hello!! It's Friday already, can you believe it!?
I've been home with sick kiddos all week, so I've just been doing some odds and ends. My whole house is in transition mode. The Halloween decor is down, not quite ready to put up Christmas yet. So this is currently what my studio (read: dining room) looks like. I added pictures to my Silver Bella accordian book. The picture to the left of the Inspire sign is by Emily, aka Inside a Black Apple. Love her work!

Heather Bluhm is hosting a 12 days of Christmas swap that I'm a part of. It will be fun blogging about the little gifties I receive each day. Here's a sneak peek at mine. I really need to get these in the post this weekend.

Other areas of my home are beginning to see a bit of holiday sparkle!

Have a great weekend!!

A Very Bella Weekend: Part III {Class projects}

I certainly had my cake and ate it too this weekend at Silver Bella! Now to show off the class projects. The above cake was made in Jenny and Aaron's class. The ballerina box on top was given to me by Heather of Speckled Egg. I thought it made a great cake topper for this piece. Thanks, Heather!

This Peace on Earth fabric collage was made in Charlotte Lyons class.

This Magical Glittery Village was made in another of Jenny and Aaron's classes.

A cone from Jennifer Pagnanelli's class and festive snowman from Pam Garrison's class.

Isn't he a cutie?!!

A girl can never have enough cones!!!

I filled my home display with a cutie pie stocking from Melissa, a gorgeous sign by Hope, another cone from Jennifer's class and a lovely cone from Kimla.A new cover for my Silver Bella journal. A lovely tag made by Kris Hurst given to me by Jessi Nagy. I will be working on putting all my mementos into the scrapbook and will share that with you when it's complete. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. There are two more Silver Bella posts if you continue to scroll down. It was such a magical weekend! I hope these pictures capture even just a little bit. Thanks for looking:)

A Very Bella Weekend: Part II {Shopping}

The Bellas sure do know how to shop! An antique store, Second Chance, in Omaha was open especially for us on Thursday night and Bellas took it by storm! What a fun, vast store full of one-of-a-kind vintage goodies! They told us they'd be in business an extra five years because of the Bellas!! Here, Julie Collings and I are soaking it all in!

The girls out shopping!

Love this wreath at the entrance of Fairmont Antiques.

So many pretties!

I LOVED this painting!

Lilli loved this hooked piece. Gorgeous!

Then we had to get back for the fabulous and fun vendor night!!

Sweetie pie Tammy Gilley was in her junk gypsy best!!! The goodies at her table were divine!Melissa of Little Melfie's World and Hope of Paper Relics had a table together. What delightful art!
Julie and I had a blast going from table to table, inspired beyond belief!

Dede Warren was having a ball!! She is so much fun:)

So glad that Maggie Summer's found me. I adore her work and it was so fun to meet her in person!

Amy Powers was as cute as her sweet as sugar booth!

Danielle Muller looking very sassy!

Heather at her candy pink Speckled Egg booth. Loved all the supplies she had!

Heather Bullard's PresentPast Collection booth was like heaven!

Keep scrolling down for part one of my Silver Bella weekend. Next will be my class projects!