Faerie Enchantment

The Magic of Silver Bella Nov.13-16,2008
There is nothing in this world that can compare to the friendships and fun that you can make and have in the heart of the U.S. in Omaha, Nebraska, that event is called: Silver Bella, the sisterhood of enchantment, of artful magic! It all happens here.

I would need to write a novel of at least 500 hundred pages to describe my whole Silver Bella Adventure and a whole website dedicated to the many pictures I took of Omaha, The Old Market, Shoppes, Friends, New Friends (Bella's), The Silver Bella Event, Mary Engelbreit and the mastermind behind it all: Teresa Mcfayden, her hard work, dedication and desire to conjur up such an event is un-believable, pure magic.

The best part of this whole adventure was it took place on my Birthday and Glenny's Birthday weekend. I encountered airport delays with Tri-State Pals: Meleen Dupree and her Family and Cris Cunningham, as a result, we met Mariano Rivera, The Yankee's Baseball Closure, the best ever.

Caroline (Meleen's Daughter) and I walked over to his Mom and aksed her permission, and well she was super sweet and said Okay, then Mariano signed my Hotel Room letter and Caroline's Newspaper, here is the result, my one arm single shot picture.

Once in Omaha we greeted our shuttle and headed for our destination: The Embassy Suites in the Old Market District of Omaha, which is on the tail end of Iowa, believe it or not.

After settling in we headed for lunch and shopping, once I entered Second Chance Antiques, I never left, was there oh I say 4hours, LOL, I told Meleen to go on without me, LOL. Seriously by the end I was ready to rent a room there. During the beginning, I first met up with miss Sandy aka Sandbeech, fellow Faerie zine moderator and fabulous artist, whom I just adore visit her site at:
http://www.sandy-sandyscreations.blogspot.com/ and the utterly amazing Natalea who is super sweet and nice visit her site at:http://www.kandeland.typepad.com/my_weblog/

After an exhausting shopping extravaganza, I headed back to the hotel and got ready for Opening Night at Silver Bella, where all the Bellas meet, greet, eat, drink, and swap precious delights to all, where we begin our artsy experience with a wonderful group workshop where we were given the best goodie bags ever! Here are some Opening Night Previews, the first is a picture of Me, the super sweet Kim-Artistic Bliss http://www.artisticbliss.typepad.com/ you have to visit Kim's Blog, she is brilliant and Miss Jessi aka Scrappi Jessi, the sweetest gal ever visit her blog at: http://www.scrappyjessi.blogspot.com/ the next picture is one of Jessi, Me and Sandy Now here is a picture of my new pal Tiffany aka Shabby Scraps http://www.shabbyscraps.typepad.com/ This girl is the best ever, super sweet, we bonded instantly!

So many fab memories from Opening Night, now off to Day 2, well guess where I headed the Old Market, Second Chance Antiques, Fairfield Antique Market and Scooters Coffee. I snapped some beautiful and interesting images of the Old Market District, before I headed back to the hotel to prepare for vendor night, here are some fabulous photo treasures:
I took loads of interesting photos, but these were some of my faves, to see more visit my flickr silver bella album at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonfaires16/sets/72157609551827484/ or the full album in my Picasa album of over 200 pictures at the bottom of this post. Now off to the Bella Prom and Vendor Night!
Since I was missing my huge parcel filled with my 1950's prom dress, handmade silver trees, props and inventory, I stayed up making new and finishing items for vendor night with the help of Miss Caroline Dupree, the best helper ever, she cut, and paste perfectly, a true Bella. I received more help from my vendor neighbor's mom: Marybeth (Princess Lasertron's Mom) who offered her assistance, The Dupree's and Teresa McFayden was also extremely helpful with my situation, but I didn't crack under pressure, I went foward and worked with what I had, selling most of the inventory I had with me. My greatest experience was about to occur, my first sale in the very, very beginning to my artful idol, Mary Engelbreit, who bought My handmade Charlotte Doll: Sierra, The Mermaid, can I just say Faint comes to mind, I was speechless.

Here I am with my art idol, Mary Engelbreit, on my birthday, at my booth, with my doll: Sierra the Mermaid, which she just bought, my first sale/hers.
How can you top this, you can't, you really can't. My head is still whirling!
She is beyond words brilliant, amazing and too sweet, nice, a pure doll!
Hugs!Lisa!http://www.maryengelbreit.com/
Now that I'm speechless here are some other fab highlights from Vendor/Prom Night! Here is a photo of Jen Hayslip http://sweeteyecandycreations.typepad.com/, Me and Cheryl http://roseyposeyconfections.blogspot.com/

Here is a fab photo of Natasha Burns and Me http://www.natashaburns.blogspot.com/ Natasha is the sweetest gal ever, Just love her. Isn't her gown just gorgeous?
Now Here's My Pal Rosanna, Love her to pieces, here she is with my doll, we shared the flight home together, with a 5am shuttle, to the airport back to Newark.
Here is Miss Analise(Sugar Sugar) and Me at her incredible booth filled with sugar and spice, and everything nice! http://leesiebella.typepad.com/ visit her blog for more sweet eye candy. I bought a gorgeous ornament from her, I love it!
Posing for the Papparazzi with the coolest Bellas on vendor night!

Here is a great photo of Moi, Holly Abson (Holly Doodle Designs) http://www.hollydoodledesigns.com/shop/and Andrea (One Hundred Wishes) http://www.onehundredwishes.com/ These gals are amazing (I'm saying amazing alot aren't I?, well everyone is, its my new word right now Amazing). I bought some goodies from both them, so excited!

Sally Jean and Me at the end of Vendor Night, Sally is what can I say, brilliant, her works are beyond words, just AMAZING! She is just so sweet! http://www.sallyjean.typepad.com/

After a wonderful Vendor Night and Bella Prom, I didn't have too much to pack up, since I sold most of my inventory, still I was exhausted, but well worth the tired sensations, it was truly a magical night, after dinner and lounging with other Bella's, I headed off to bed, for some early shopping around town again.

I ran over to Fairfield Antiques and Joe's for some more goodies and then I ran over to Second Chance to http://www.oldmarket.com/directory.aspx?id=480 buy my pixie tea set, some more ephemera, valentines and a special valentine for Mary!
Now I'm off to the luncheon, pratically running there, LOL! Meleen saved me a seat, then I was off to give Mary her special Snow Queen Doll I made and vintage goodie, After chatting with the wonderful Mary Engelbreit (once again I was feeling a fainting spell, LOL) and with Charlotte Lyons, http://housewrenstudio.typepad.com/charlotte/who is truly wonderful and so nice :
I worked my way over to visit with the great Kim, aka Kim Kwan: http://www.kimberlykwan.typepad.com/ Can I just how amazing Kim is, she is super sweet and just outright brilliant, she is my new bud, we bonded instantly, when you get a moment check out her blog, you might not leave., Did I mention we had breakfast together, well now I did, aren't you jealous! LOL! I'd be!

Miss Meleen Dupree and Me, I just love those Duprees, Meleen and Charlotte are the reason I found out about Silver Bella, they told me about it and I knew I had to come and I'm so glad I did.http://passionatedetails.typepad.com/my_weblog/ Can I just say Meleen is multi talented, you have to visit her blog to see the fab vintage spoons she made for a bella swap, incredible! Here is Meleen and I at the Luncheon, followed by the sweet Heidi of Birds of a Feather who sat on the otherside of me, she is just so nice, and surprised me with a package of vintage goodness: Crepe paper ruffles, left at my hotel door, what a nice surprise to see when you go to your room. Visist her fab blog at: http://hkwdesign.blogspot.com/
After lunch, Mary Signed Bella Prints and other items, she signed my matte for framing and my Mother Goose Book, My mom aka Aurora-tique http://www.flickr.com/photos/31727305@N04/gave me as a birthday present!Could my birthday have gotten any better, Silver Bella, My Birthday, Mary Engelbreit, and Me, it was such a wonderful time, I could cry with tears of joy! My year was made!

After this, I ran down to Kim's Class: The Faerie Shrine, leave it to me to be late, but Mary was worth the tardiness, LOL. Here are some fab highlights from Kim's Class:

Above is Kim and Me with my Box, below is Liz Albrecht(Artist Cellar) and me, she was my partner for my two saturday classes, back to back, I wish we had met earlier, I felt like we were friends since school, she is super nice and even treated me to some rhinestones and Stewart Gill Glitters/Paints http://www.artistcellar.com/ She is the best!
Here I am working, on my Faerie Shrine, its still not done, but will be.
Now on to the last class, Pam Garrison's Secret Santa Book, in this class, the amazing Shea(A Gilded Life) surprised me with a Birthday Tiara, which I wore pretty much the rest of the time, I loved it so much, its sitting on my dress form right now, http://whathappensnext.typepad.com/here is a fab picture of Shea and I with my tiara.

There were so many wonderful people in my classes, how do you pick all the names to highlight in a post, you can't, but I can't forget Geralyn

Greetings From Geralyn

My buddy from NJ, we both almost fell over when we found out we both lived nearby, so cool and Wanda

Wanda Mai Blog

another fab bella who made creating a pleasure.

After Class I ran upstairs, touched up my make up and headed over to the lobby, met up with a large group of bellas and started our walk to the restaurant, Sandy and I quickly detoured to Second Chance which closed at 9pm, to snatch up last minute goodies, like dolls, I bought three and she picked up a few, the ladies of second chance toasted with us to my birthday, some wine and we were on our way back to the restaurant. After dinner a few of us decided on some dancing, at a country bar, our waitress husband Josh guided us there, here is the picture I stole from Sandy's Blog of us crazy dancing chicks:Gina Grabel, http://embraceyourbliss.blogspot.com/Julia Hackney, http://www.mizjuneytalks.blogspot.com/Josh (LOL), Sandy and Me! Gina and Julia are positively wonderful, I wished we had hung out sooner, those girls are wonderful, my glitter pals. After that, we headed back to the hotel, where Sandy surprised me with this beautiful gift called a faux cupcake This really touched my heart, its just beautiful and sitting in my studio right now!

Once all our goodbyes were said, I went upstairs, packed, and layed awake utnil my 4:30am wake up call from Rosanna, ugh, I was tired, we grabbed the shuttle at 5am along with: Sally, and Rebecca, then waited for Cris and boom after an annoying airport check we were ready for take off too Newark airport, 2 hrs 15 minutes, a beautiful flight, all this would not have been possible if it wasn't for the fabulous Teresa McFayden: http://teresamcfayden.typepad.com/
Here is another one of Sandy's Pictures: This is of the Sweet Teresa:
She is the true Prom Queen of this event! Thank You!

Thank You to everyone who dropped by to say hi to me, supports my work, supports me, introduced theirself to me, surprised me, and made my birthday and first encounter at Silver Bella an unforgettable and amazing one! An experience I will never ever forget, all of you are the true meaning of a sisterhood, Thank you!
Magic and Joy!
Lisa!

P.S. If I forgot anyone I apologize, If I didn't get your picture, I hope to next time. For more pictures(the full album of over 200) click on this Picasa Photo Link:

Silver Bella 2008