Announcing The Pink Cabbage Web Store!!!!!

I'm please to announce that our Karen of Glad Nest has created a wonderful web store for The Pink Cabbage. Please visit it by clicking onto: http://thepinkcabbage.com/. Just looking at it is eye candy. Although she's just started it and is still in the process of getting it going, there are items for sale on there and it will give you an idea of what's to come...fab things! Be sure and bookmark it and check back often as soon it will be a full-blown web store and great way for especially our out-of-town fans to get to us. Thanks for your support!!!!!

How lucky can one girl get?

Just exactly this time last year I was feeling this same way...about to implode. My whole family was coming here for my birthday; everyone from Oregon (my mom, sister, nephew, niece and her husband and baby) and my oldest son, Lucas from Texas. It was the first time we'd all been together since Maya and Eder (niece and hubby) had gotten married and our first time all together without my dad. First time Justin and Paul met Ben, Maya and Eder's baby and the first of our newest generation of family. I was about to burst more and more as the time got closer. And the plans were for my mom and I to drive to Nebraska for me to attend my first Silver Bella workshop on the heels of the family returning home. Then we were going further west to see where her parents were born and raised and both families had gone back many generations in Nebraska; my first trip to that state. Well, as you may recall from the posts, all went very well and it was a soulfully wonderful time. I thought nothing could get near it but here I am feeling the same way. First Stacy, my college roommate, above doing her magic match trick (you had to be there and be...ummm...altered, no, not as in altered art although we did have it down to an art!) which still sends us into hysterics. The matchstick was stuck to her glove...we must have laughed hysterically for half an hour...did I mention that you had to be there and be...umm...altered? Fun, did you ask if we had fun during those years, durrrr? Wow, and 32 years later we are still bff's. We did okay with the guys too as you can see; these were just drops in the buckets. So, my point is here somewhere...oh yeah...Stacy is coming to town on Monday!!! We've not seen each other since we went through Houston on our way moving from The West Coast to The East Coast 12 years ago. I can't believe it's been that long. We keep in pretty close touch thanks to this wonderful invention called the computer. I'm not usually into the latest electronic thing; I'm the only one who doesn't have ear buds or wi-fi on my phone; but this computer thing I've loved for years. Anyway, the implosion is brewing as I can't wait. She's flying into DC and we are spending two nights in McLean, an urban suburb of DC. I promise to take lots of photos and post all that I can without getting anyone arrested or in trouble. Then, as you know, unless you've never been on this blog or met me, I'm going to Silver Bella again this year, driving by myself but going early to see the ancestors AND the friend I've had the longest in my life, Julia, is meeting me there with a friend of hers!!!! I know that the term "bff" has been way overused but this is a time when it's so true. We've been friends since grade school and have been in touch almost all this time. She just did a post on her youngest turning 18 and if you go on her blog you can read my funny little story about the timing. Anyway, it's been over 18 years since we've seen each other; I CANNOT BELIEVE IT, and I'm bubbly bursting about seeing her the most but at Silver Bella is almost more than a girl can stand!

Here we are two hotties as freshmen in high school.

As you can see, Julia, left, looked way more normal than me even then except for that big dot on her forehead-truly not a pimple- just a little boo boo on the photo. She'd already gotten her braces off but I still had mine...smiling funny so as not to show them. Below we are part of the large cheer group, The Lasso's. "Lasso's"? The Lasso's what? Never noticed that before...I've got some calls to make, excuse me...

See what I mean? Is this amazing or is it just me? I don't care if it's just me, I'm over the moon to see them both and both within a month's time. I'm telling you that I can barely contain myself. Of course there will be mega-photo ops in Omaha and beyond so no need to worry but you'll be seeing Stacy first. Until then, like Christmas, I just want to get really drunk on eggnog and sleep until Santa's been here. Can a person do that for three days? I think I'll just try to get through it the way a person's supposed to...I have to make some calls...

An Optical Illusion?

I wish. The show house ended on Sunday and, well, the things that don't sell have to find new places to go. Most of the furniture in the room didn't come out of the shop, it came out of our warehouses (a.k.a. garages); they were things we hadn't gotten around to fixing up and selling before, so there were no empty footprints to plop the stuff back into in the shop. I way overdid it on Monday; about 12 hours between stuffing FIVE pieces of display furniture into the tiny closet I have in my shop room and hauling most of the pieces from the show house to the shop. It's not that it's so much or so heavy, it's those ****ing stairs. Second floor at the show house, second floor at the shop.

Yesterday was "bag and tag" for the items that we sold at the show house. It was the only day that Karen, Janine, and I all had off together this week. I really can't complain about a thing, I actually sold a lot at the house. With the economy being what it is no one sold much furniture there, Karen and Jody sold pieces in our room but most of our "smalls" sold. Since this was our collective five years of doing show houses we knocked out our many bags fast. I went back today and spackled, touched up, finished picking up my leftovers, and cleaned so I think we are done. There are folks who haven't even been there yet but we've got lots of other things to do(and getting paid faster would look great on our to-do list: must be out, cleaned, and inspected first).

For instance, I'm working the next two days then working at home on Silver Bella art then...stay tuned for the next post...some great stuff is coming up that I'm about to burst about...stay tuned.

I think the shop looks pretty good which puts a positive spin on having leftovers. Sure, sure, you're right, it's easy to say now that it's pretty much done but I was in bed at 6:30 last night and at 4:30 this afternoon-not the best time to have a 4 day (thus far) migraine.

But did I mention that great things are coming up and to stay tuned? The next one is on Monday (that I know of; I mean I could win the lottery which is not likely since I never buy a ticket, or who knows...) and I think that it will include some down time and relaxation but that's not at all the best part...stay tuned.

The timing is really good. As I was moving EVERY SINGLE ATOM in the room around on Monday it gave me the chance to pack up some of my favorite art pieces that the folks around here like but just don't really know what to do with but they so do at Silver Bella; they buy it, take it home, and-I hope-enjoy it like I do other's art in my home. So I'm really getting organized...oh man...I didn't say that out loud did I? Curses. Jinxed myself again.

So the show house stuff need space, the shop need stuff (well kinda like another hole in the head, but let's look at the glass as overflowing not empty), and I've got a little head start on packing. To quote a very wise man, "It's all good!".

Thanks for looking. Oh in case I forgot to mention...stay tuned for upcoming great things happening very soon...I'm about to start imploding!!!! The guy is coming to look at the broken dryer tomorrow morning but that's not it, in case you were wondering. Until then please pray for Mary Engelbreit getting a new publisher. I just read it on the Silver Bella website today that her publisher dropped her (what an ignat that dude must be) so the next issue could be her last. It's on her website if you want to click on her link to the right. Boy it's times like these I wish I had money. Well there are some children I would house, feed, and give health insurance to but business-wise I'd be going for this publishing opportunity big time. I can't live without it...and she just started the second one...I can't live without them...help! The good new for her is that she gets to meet me in a couple of weeks, I know I've looked forward to this for 25 years, I'm sure she has too!!!

Trip to O.C.

We, well mainly I, had been needing to get away lately-a change of scenery. With a failed attempt to get to Oxford a couple of weeks ago, I was determined to get us to Ocean City for Paul's birthday weekend. School was out on Friday, Paul's day, so we left that morning and had until Sunday to relax once there. Above is a photo of someone else on the beach as we were leaving on Sunday, the first time the whole weekend that the sun had come out...so this was NOT the weather we experienced...it was cloudy and mostly raining the rest of the weekend.

This is NOT where we stayed but it looked nice...

...this is NOT where we stayed either but I thought it was cute...

...cute too but NOT where we stayed.

We stopped off at The Boardwalk on our way out of town but we did NOT ride a cart down the walk.

We did NOT go to any of these places but we did get a kick out of the names. So that's it on our "vacation" to Ocean City...highly recommended.

Who are these folks?

If the pic of this group piques your interest check out : http://byronpalmersblogversion2.blogspot.com/ . They are doing some really cool stuff. Byron is the nephew of a co-shop owner of mine and was telling me about what he's up to and that he has a blog. When I went onto his blog I was blown away by what they're doing. Check it out! I love this guy, here's a little something else to ponder..."Blowing up more people in the name of blowing up less people has never really been a successful strategy for the ceasing of the blowing up of people" - Byron David Palmer 11/7/2007 What's not to love here!!!!

Don't Vote for Pedro!!!!

Don't vote for Pedro, go here and vote your heart... http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=374154&altf=Tufqibojf1Hfpshf&altl=Ijstdicfsh . This is the candidate I think we can all get behind; she wants women back in the kitchen where they belong. She wants dinner on the table when her man gets home. She wants to sell her car so she can be a good example to other women that they don't need to go anywhere. They can use hubby's car to go grocery shopping on the weekend. She's got all the values that all free, white men-a.k.a.-Americans have been waiting to get back to for decades. She's your woman! (Although there's talk that she may be a man dressed as a woman but that's being investigated currently...) But, dont' forget to vote!

Who knew?

Who in the world would have guessed that they have football in Maryland? I guess I did know; I've watched enough Ravens games with Justin, washed enough Ravens jerseys for Justin, have a friend who is a former super star football player from University of Maryland, and I did grow up knowing about the Colts. Actually, normally very unlike me, I'm exaggerating a bit. A few years ago when the Ravens played the Colts here I wore purple all day. And I really appreciated Justin's hometown outlook on sports being all Ravens and Orioles. But I don't think that anyone does football like Texas, still don't, Nebraska being a close second. How many times have I told the story that the doctor swore my Nebraska born and Uof N alumn, Texas transplant in her 30's, 92-year-old grandmother lived through New Year's eve and passed away on January 1st just so she could watch Nebraska play their bowl game. And I still haven't given up on my childhood dream of being a professional quarterback when I grow up. Hey if Brett Farve...

Okay, I think you've got my perspective down now and I'll say they do football here pretty well. My youngest of 4 "adopted" sons, Alec, 9, started football this year and, luckily, he's on the Ravens! Daddy is one of the coaches as is big brother Andre'.

I'm not sure why we'd procrastinated about seeing a game...Matt's not into team sports...he's being forced to take Karate finally...but we just hadn't made that step to see one of Alec's games. Yesterday Alec made it clear to us that he was disappointed that we'd never come, so we did it and it was great. They do it up so professionally. The area where they play has several fields and all the local teams, divided by age, are Ravens and it's a sea of supportive purple. Daddy is the one on the left, above.

Here's "our" Alec. He weighs about 20 pounds (slight exaggeration), plays defense and does a great job doing it. Alec getting a little encouragement from Daddy.

Did I mention the ASTROTURF!!!!!??? Or the whole, new nice area with bleachers, announcers, music, electric score board, concessions, the works?

But the coolest thing was at the end after the Ravens won, of course. All the team parents and supporters go out on the field and form a winners tunnel that the players run through. Even the hardest critic, Matt, said he wants to go to the games every week now. Good, 'cause so do I.

Pink Cabbage Night at the Show House

Even though there are 13 of us at the shop at least we got this group together Thursday night so Karen and I could take our fellow shop owners on a proper tour of the show house and especially our room. We had a nice, long, relaxed tour through the house then the shops then off to dinner. Dinner was special because I hadn't gotten to know our newest members of the shop Linda and Jacque and, although Jacque couldn't make it (bless her heart, she had already been a hostess in our room much to our gratitude), Linda did and it was great getting to know her. It ended up being the group that I don't need any censoring in front of (at least they pretend that) so we had let-'er-rip fun. Linda's great and she has a spot-on fab outlook on life, via the hard way, but easily inspiring. Thanks for such a great time "ladies"!

Red Alert!!!!

Well I'm just now catching up after a week or two of being behind in the Silver Bella website and messages, etc. And today I caught the Country Living news! They were there the whole time last year snapping pics and saying that it would probably be about a year until the article came out. I panicked when the October issue arrived practically ripping the pages to find it then went on to the website and someone said it wasn't going to be in until the November issue. Then today, on our SB website there was a link to Country Living website with photos of last year's SB. It's at http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/shows-and-events/silver-bella-craft-workshops-1108?kw=ist and too fun to look at. I still can't wait for the mag to arrive so I can see it in my hands. Wow, how fun! Enjoy!

Borders Booty

I just happened to be in the shopping center near home today where Borders is housed and I remembered the advert I'd seen about Somerset doing a mag on where women create so I steered the truck over there to look for it. I couldn't find it yet; may be too early still, I just know it said October. BUT, to my delight, there were some surprises I had not counted on......the must-have staple of Somerset Life...

... and Somerset Memories; I actually buy most of the Somerset issues of whatever comes out. But...

...there was also this new issue of Romantic Country which I think our Bellas are in-oh I hope so!

THEN, look what I found! Mary has a new mag. I thought I remembered something about reading about this coming out but it was still a complete surprise to find it there. I don't know how y'all do it but I find that between the magazines, the blogs, email, a shop, the laundry and cooking, homework, and Karate I have to make time to make things which is really what I want to do most. But even if I'm not "borrowing" ideas I just get so inspired by it all that the creative juices start bubbling over. I do believe that if Warren Buffet wanted to invest in something really worthwhile it would to pay all of us to read and create and have housekeepers and cooks so that we have proper use of our time. I'm sure most of you will agree that it'd be money well spent! Well off I go to my workroom to find the floor but first I have to call my mom...P.S. After racing right out to your nearest Borders be sure to tell them where you heard this; remember, I've applied for a job there and still haven't heard yet. I'll be hounding the poor manager when she works next on Friday-that gives you plent of time to email or tell them who sent ya'.

Warning for Bellas!!!!

It's official-I'm back. Thank you all for the wonderful words of support and encouragement. Between that and changing back to my old meds, I'm back to my old...ummm...sassy self. You see the root of my mystique to the right. Soooooooooo, last year, right before I came to Silver Bella, I changed medication. It's the good stuff I'm on now but at the time it was the first change I'd made in too many years and it had only been a few days. And, you know, I drove all the way from Maryland and with my mom. Take that last one any way you want. BUT I'd not had enough time to become adjusted so I was feeling pretty out of it. Either one, the drive or the new meds, could have made me feel out of it but I had both. I walked into the lobby of the Hilton barely knowing my name or what day it was and Julie Baxley came bounding over full of energy saying, "Hi! Your Doojie, I recognize you from the website! I'm Julie Baxley!". Okay. What state are we in now? I mean I'm from Texas and you know when you leave it but we had been in Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, then Nebraska, and, did I mention, new meds I'd not adjusted to. Wow, and then she tells me the bus to the first event is in 45 minutes. P.S. Julie turned out to be my favorite person there and how sweet to be greeted as soon as we walked in!, I just couldn't react to her wonderful ways appropriately at the time (Jules, I love ya', you are too fun and I can't wait to enjoy you properly this year-just don't throw me under the truck for using you in this post). So Mom and I have to check in, get our bags in the room, and I've got to look human by then and I kind of did it although I thought everyone on the bus was from Silver Bella and I was talking to them as if they were, introducing myself even to the two guys sitting behind me who I finally found out were engine salesmen after I asked them what kind of artwork they did. I was confused the whole time during the workshop trying so hard to remember who everyone was and all that I had known before I got there from keeping up with the website and blogs and members, etc. The first I finally felt normal was Sunday morning when everyone had left and my mom and I were headed further west to see our family history. I had even missed telling everyone goodbye the night before because I went to bed at 7:00. I'm not sure that too many folks noticed anything amiss as y'all didn't know me before and I tried very hard to hide my idiocrity (new word). Sooooo, yes Virginia, there is a point here somewhere. You gals did not see the real me last year. Aggie Linda was a little suspicious; she's obviously seen enough drunks come out of The Dixie Chicken to recognize something in my eyes. Now I don't want to scare anyone, I can be very appropriate and normal when I try really hard. I'm just saying that I'll at least be a lot more with it this year which I hope will translate to more fun and tuned in and even if you don't enjoy me more, I'll certainly enjoy y'all more. Plus I'll have Julia there who's known me most of my life and she can translate or explain (or cover if needed, I hope). And I can't wait!!!!!

Yeah, a little mojo back...

Looks like my funk is lifting. I went off the new meds, back on the old and I'm mostly bad to my old self again. I even got motivated to take on a little bigger project; the desk and chair. "Before" desk above, pretty bad condition; needed hammer, nails, sandpaper, and soap.

"Before" chair above. Needed paint (had been black), lots o' glue, I'm getting ready to get after it with my saws-all on just a couple of small places, and, of course, a seat.

Voila! Above and below the "after" chair; mo paint, remnant fabric, and wide wired ribbon I've had forever. I thought it was kinda cute.

And...

...voila! All dressed up and in the shop. It was only there one day, well, not even a day. I took it in Friday night and it sold Saturday morning. Now if that happened all the time I wouldn't have the time to have a funk. I should say that the price was quite reasonable but still did well. The folks liked the vignette so much they even went for the lamp too. Time to do mo searching...

Jewels of the Sea Swap

Wayyyyyyyyy overdue are the photos from the Jewels of the Sea swap. I received the box the day before we left for Oregon. I didn't even have time to open it, totally extreme for me, before we left. I opened it as soon as I got home but have still forgotten all this time to post the pics of the beautiful gifts. There are a couple missing as they are in my work room where I'm also searching for a full sized elephant. As soon as they surface I'll include them. In the meantime...

Wow, from Julie of Area 51, even the box was decorated inside and out.

From Margo Phillips, a beautiful message in a bottle, the back of her card is a beautiful as the front.

Soldering, ahhhhh, I'll be taking the Soldering for Virgins class from Sally Jean at Silver Bella and I can't wait to be making beautiful designs like this one, sweet and whimsical.

This is from Heather from Speckled Egg who hosted the swap. Fab, classy bling that adds wonderful sparkle hanging out in a special place; not just on my craggy-getting neck!

I love the bottles on these including this one. I'm going to add a little of Dad to this one so I have a wonderful way of taking him with me along with the company of this beautiful mermaid. Sorry gals whose are hanging out in the work room. There was a big start in finding that elephant a few days ago and it's on the calender to find most everything tomorrow so I'll be adding then...