the ongoings of my life

the lulubellas are hard at work!

Silver Bella is fast approaching and Kim and I have been busy little bees getting all of our goodies ready! We can't wait to show you everything we've got up our sleeves! Speaking of sleeves...check this out... we've designed a custom hoodie just for Silver Bella! (Of course it has the required bling!) Click on the photo so you can read the information! Don't forget - we need to have all orders by October 6 so we can hand deliver them to you at the event!

OK, I can't wait until then to show you something else. Here's a little sneak peak at some of our goodies for the event (and you can get them here). Aren't these ephemera packs just yummy? The possibilities...

  I'll try not to tell anymore secrets, but if you know me, then that's a hard task. Let's just say, I've got machines humming and irons steaming!

Back to work!

I did it!

I was creative again. A couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to be in attendance at Sparkle Bella, held by the most wonderfully creative women...Kim, Teresa, Carolyn and Marilyn. While there, I met some amazingly talented women, too many to list. However, I will single out one individual...Tina Higgins. She was so incredibly generous. She brought a trunk FULL of junk jewelry, all sorted out by color. We all got to snag a few pieces to incorporate into our own creative masterpices....well...not only was she generous, but her creative sense is to die for. Sure...I've been known to stray from the class instructions, but this girl (and her buddy Teresa Moses) was after my own heart. Not only were they blowing each project out of the water, but they were enjoying a little bit of the fermented grape product as well. Best of all...she lives in my hood! Ha ha Kim!

Anyway...I finally had an hour that it wasn't absolutely necessary for me to be doing anything else (my husband may disagree) and using the jewelry that Tina donated...I came up with these...

  I'm hoping to be able to make some more over the next few days...comments? Suggestions?

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July...ours was sublime. Around 5p we headed over to the club to enjoy some pool games and food. The just opened up the new clubhouse about a month ago and every event has been fantastic since. The kids had a blast...and thankfully they opted for a coin toss in the pool rather than releasing hundreds of goldfish as had been done in the past. And even though it was 118 degrees outside, we managed to stay cool between margaritas and dips in the pool. The only thing missing...my baby, Grayson, who really isn't a baby. He's still here, but he comes home tomorrow afternoon!!! Here's a shot of some of the spectacular fireworks that felt like they were going off just for us (and Lindsey informed us she wants them at her wedding...)

Monday...

Even though my daughter decided 4am was a good time to rise today, I still feel like it's been a productive day -- just because I'm posting these photos.

In my last post, I discussed the sweatshop I've been working in. This is the original prototype. Newer versions are adorned with Swarvoski crystals, but this will give you the general idea. (And of course everyone has wanted pink shirts, not brown.) The next photo is a close up - you can see that I stitched the heart on the back - and then you can see the bobbin thread shape from behind.

Oh yeah -- I had all these really nifty comments posted with the photos I added in my albums yesterday, but apparently you are supposed to publish the comments and I forgot to do that. So, I will add those today.

In other creative news, I recently co-hosted a baby shower for a close friend and one of the elements of the shower was to create a circle of "birthing beads". I had never heard of this before, but the general idea is for each shower attendee to bring a bead that means something to them and then everyone adds their bead to a string and it becomes something for the mom to focus on during labor. Well, of course I didn't just want to grab any old bead in my collection - I had to run down to the newly remodeled Scottsdale Bead Supply to choose my addition. That is my long story that leads me into this --- I'm now addicted to beading. And..holy cow...it's expensive. I don't even want to think about how much plastic surgery money I've spent on beads in the last couple of weeks. I've only really done some simple wire wrapping and stringing, but I'm aching to do more. Is there a 12 step program to help me out?

Lastly, my friend has already tooted my horn, but here I am in all my glory.

Tootle-loo!