more from the bag lady

i've been at it~like intensely~working to come up with my tutorial for my little bags. it's coming soon to bella's petit gateaux. i'm still working on it, but here's a quick pic!
abrazos, bella

can't we all just get along?

well, i've been thinking of the upcoming presidential election next week(happy halloween, by the way)and because of the race issues that have been highly publicized lately, i've had flashbacks of the press conference with rodney king and reginald denney all those years ago after the riots in south central los angeles where the phrase "can't we all just get along..." was coined from~ reminding us~ white and black, police officer and civilian, to be tolerant of each other and just peacefully coexist.
so when i saw these two(berliose and de niro) sleeping so peacefully together, i snapped a picture. i thought it was the perfect example of tolerance and how to get along(and they're two different species! berliose was asleep but he was purring so loudly and de niro was just so sweet and loving with him and ended up falling asleep too. out of all of the kittens berliose loves de niro the best(toulouse isn't far behind. marie, on the other hand, is simply not interested in getting along with de niro. which is also a fact of life~some will just not get along well with others).

so with that said, i hope you all will get out there and vote and remember what a momentous occasion this is for our dear united states of america! no matter who you vote for~the point is for us all to "just get along" and rebuild our nation! we don't have to be better than anyone else but ourselves~as the army slogan says "be all you can be..." and if we all try i'm sure we can "aim high" and achieve peace!
have a great weekend and don't forget to "fall back" on sunday morning!
abrazos,bella

boxing again!

here's a little halloween box i created with the template from stamping with sheryl.
why do i love it?! it's so easy to create, there's no adhesive involved, and i love that it's a slider box!
please let me know what you think!
thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella
recipe~
paper: ghostly greetings dsp, very vanilla cs
inks: basic black
accessories: black and pumpkin pie 1/4" grosgrain, chills and thrills rub-ons

happy halloween

i'm so excited to see the little ones getting so big! i think they look adorable in their little ribbons. the longer we have them the sadder i get because i know when the day comes i really won't want them to go!
tomorrow night i'll be going to my dear( sweet niece) skyy's first stampin' up! workshop! i'm so excited she joined my team~she's an amazing person and paper crafter! it's so nice to have found something we can grow closer with~i mean she's like so freakin' beautiful but down-to-earth and really, really fun! she's just totally all around lovely!( i think i told you all how i pushed my anxiety and agoraphobia to go down to las vegas for their wedding~it was beautiful and totally worth the panic attacks~sometimes i guess being supportive of your family overpowers your fears) and i totally had no idea she was a stampoholic/scrapoholic like me! it's so fun when we get together and now we can get together to help each other with our su! business endeavors too! ok, so i'm excited she invited me to her halloween party/su! open house! i'm going as a baby. i have no idea how long it goes for, so... i may post late tomorrow!
well, anyway, here's the kittens at 9 weeks old in "trick or treat" ribbons!
thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella

dagnabbit! back to the drawing board

well... i was trying to make a lovely bella rose dsp coffin for all of you twilight fans, but it was a horrible attempt! i got the template from my dear friend martha from one of her halloween shows.
well, i'm going try it again but with the large template and i'll post it later on this week. let me know what you think if you can type through your laughter! lol!
abrazos, bella

i did it!

ok, i'm like totally stoked because i made one of the pinwheels from the small tag punch! i cannot believe it's so lovely(well, to me, anyway)! i learned how to create one of these nostalgic treasures, with the small/large tag punch, from a tutorial on splitcoast in the stampin' stuff forum. i have to get the lovely authoress' link so i can send you all over there to take a look at it. yes, ctmh'rs that is a baby pink edge anchor! :0)
please let me know what you think!
abrazos, bella

we were boo'd

well, i was kind of upset(well, you know, bummed) because i wanted to "boo" our neighbors before we got boo'd but one of my neighbors beat me to it(darn lack of energy!)! we received a delic' plate of halloween m & m laden marshmallow krispie treats. mmmm...that is all i could say along with millE as we devoured the entire plate shortly after discovering them on the porch. we were given a day's turnaround for our boo'ing, so i grabbed the car keys and drove right over to albertsons to get a few bags of candy and some halloween novelty toys and came back home and created three little "boo bags" for the three neighbors we decided we'd "boo".

these are two of the projects i did. i don't have a pic of the third but i'll have a tutorial(yes, i said tutorial) on the third project~ a handmade bag i created from my own little idea/calculation(so stay tuned for that)!

please let me know what you think! the first project is a "box in a bag" i learned how to make from the "inking addict" blog(fab stuff, please check her out!) the second project is a "genie bag" i learned how to make those on splitcoast and at convention this year. . thanks for looking!
abrazos,bella

oh nooo! millE is going to clobber me if i don't mention that she did the random stamping on the genie bag!

ay dios mio!

i cannot believe i haven't posted in soooo long(twenty days is a long time for me on this blog~i have to get bloggy with it again!)! mostly i've just been so tired and had a lack of energy to get bloggy with it. lo siento. maybe some of you missed me?! lol! well, i've done a couple of things since i've been offline but i have lots more i need to get done. i think i'm going to have to blog mondays through thursdays and break for the weekends and then i won't feel so guilty when i'm unable to chat with you all for a while because i'm too tired to blog every single day. i think that plan may work better for me and if i have the energy i can still blog on the weekends but it won't be expected. yep, that works for me! what about you?! lol!
well...i hope you all have seen my new quotes for breast cancer awareness(you know how close to my heart this is since i still have that lump in my left breast) and halloween(bunny and sanela's "valentine's day")there are some nice ones i found. thanks for reading and being a fan~stay tuned for more posts!
abrazos, bella

one of my hobby lobby projects

here are pics of one of my 6x6 to 12x12(progressive scrapbooking) layouts. i think that's the neatest thing~from 6x6 to 8.5x11 to 12x12! it's something for everyone!~well, except 8x8 or 9x9 scrappers ;0)
thanks for looking! please let me know what you think!
abrazos, bella

ya talkin' to me?!

here are the pics i promised of our new baby de niro! his eyes are so pretty~they're hazel and blue! he's a good boy. i just adore him. he's a sweet, sweet baby. thanks for looking.
abrazos,
bella

yes, i've been boxing again!

i'd been dying to find a box i could create from one sheet of paper and it would hold a good amount of standard size cards and then i found an awesome box on splitcoaststampers . unfortunately, i do not remember the blog i found the measurements on~but i will look that up and add it to the post at a later date. i made this box the week before my bum test. i believe it will hold at least five cards with envelopes. please let me know what you think. thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella

amendment 1: yea! i found the blog in my bookmarks. i knew i had it, it was just getting through the hundreds of blogs and bookmarks i have! the blog belongs to kelli caslow and it's titled yard sale kind of luck ! you will find the template and her box she created if you hit the link!
abrazos,
bella

amendment 2: here's the recipe~

paper~ pink pirouette cs, bella rose dsp, whisper white cs
stamps~ dreams du jour, inspired by nature
inks~ versamark, chocolate chip, regal rose, pretty in pink
accessories~ styled silver hodgepodge ribbon slide, regal rose grosgrain ribbon
tools~scallop border punch
techniques~watermark, scissors distressing, blending pens

profiteroles

don't they look like little fluffy cream puffs? here are the "4 week old" pics of marie, toulouse and berliose. they're so big now! i have to get 5 week old photos! i'll be sad when they find their new forever homes :0( ! they're climbing up everything and just little explorers when it comes to my patisserie. i caught them nursing on their mom on top of my cardstock scraps! they climb out of their little enclosure and roam my scraproom! they're so stinkin' cute, though, i can't help but smile when i find them outside their little room.

ay! ay! ay! please forgive me!

oh my...i'm truly apologetic that i have been unable to keep up with you all the past couple of weeks. not to sound punny but that colonoscopy took a lot out of me! i really got very ill~the migraine i was already dealing with from the egd just got worse with the prep for the colonoscopy and i ended up having a dystonia episode in the recovery room~so...i'm finally getting to feeling much better.
so much has happened since then too! we have a new puppy de niro "blue" he's the most gorgeous blue merle aussie i've ever seen(well, maybe i'm biased because i just adore him). we'd lost abbey and that was hard on me. i won't go into the details of that, but i'm happy to have de niro. how did i arrive at that name? well, he's so gorgeous~like robert de niro so i named him de niro *cheese* !
the kittens are like sooo big~they're eating solid food now and just so friendly and sweet. working on kitter box training too! memphis and bizhan are teaching them.
i was supposed to teach my first class at hobby lobby today, but i didn't have anyone signed up(whew! i wasn't feeling well this morning). i'm excited to get to do that. it should be good for me.
ok, so that's a little bit of why i've been MIA. but i'm back now. i'll be on tomorrow to show you pics of the kittens and some other projects i was working on before the week of my bum test. i hope you all are doing just great and that your september was fabulous! i've truly missed you all! i know, i have got to get caught up on my blog visitations! ttfn!
abrazos,
bella

marie, toulouse, and berliose

these are pics of the babies at three weeks old! look at the blue-eyed ones!

lo siento

sorry all! it's been a crazy week(i know, and it's barely half over!). i did manage to post on my fairy stampin' mother blog for the blog candy contest but i didn't get to get it all decorated, so i don't have pics of the prize yet~so tune in over there for a pic of that on friday.
tomorrow is my colonoscopy, so today has been a very hard day with preparing for that.
i did manage to get pics of the little ones. so look to the post above this one.
i'll be back on friday once i sleep off the anesthesia. have a great thursday!
abrazos,
bella

mi flora es

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

coming soon...

to a fairy stampin' mother blog near you~ blog candy! tune in monday for more information on that blog candy contest on my fairy stampin' mother blog.

also, i won't be posting over the weekend. i'll just be visiting su! and ctmh sister blogs~i've gotten behind on that and i want to check up on all of them! whatever i make over the weekend, i'll post on monday!
feliz fin de semana

abrazos,
bella

102 minutes that changed america

yes, i was up late again last night! i couldn't sleep because too many awesome things were on t.v. i totally had to watch them because i missed them earlier in the day.
well, before i drifted off to sleep(after watching the replay of oprah) i watched a documentary on the history channel called "102 minutes that changed america". it was really deep and heartbreaking. it's like you can't help but cry as you watch your brothers and sisters deeply engulfed in a major tragedy and you can't turn away from watching everything unfold though you're helpless to help. it's like watching "the titanic", though you know the outcome, you totally keep hoping and praying everyone will be saved.
one thing that was remarkable in my mind as i watched the firefighters preparing to go into the second tower after the first one had fallen(my eyes couldn't help welling up with tears as i looked at their beautiful velvety black uniforms with the yellow striping and neon yellow reflector stripe patches) i thought they just looked like superheroes in black uniforms marching off to save the day~no one could have expected they'd be going in too late and the next tower would be collapsing within minutes/seconds. then as i watched the firefighters that were able to make it out after that tower fell,(huffing for air and needing water because of the gray billowing smoke~and still their then gray ashen uniforms were still beautiful to me), i cried so hard as they were just in shock knowing they just came out without some of their brothers. i don't think one ever wants to witness a person "go crazy" right before their eyes and i saw some "civilians" do just that as others were running away from the huge cloud of gray smoke, glass, and other debris. i hope we won't ever experience anything like that ever again.
sometimes i've pondered why certain stations air documentaries on the tragedy year after year since it occurred and last night it hit me that it's because we need to be mindful of it~every year so that we can stay awake and do our best to prevent that from happening to us ever again. i've heard it said that 'if you don't remember your history you leave yourself open to make the same horrible mistakes over and over again'. we should never be so vulnerable and caught off guard again.
i have a very multi-cultured family so i have christian, jewish, muslim, agnostic, buddhist and maybe even atheist relatives/friends~but the one thing we all live in is tolerance of our differences. it saddened me that so many people attacked people of the muslim faith after 9/11 because what type of mentality does that breed? we should know that not everyone that has that faith believes in the jihad in such an extreme way. i do not believe it helps to fight hate with more hate. so, i hope as we're cautious in our neighborhoods, cities, states and in this country we will not breed more hate and lose the ability to be tolerant because i was always taught that's what this country was initially built on~tolerance, freedom from monarchy, equality, and safety from persecutions of one's beliefs.
i hope you all will have a lovely weekend and remember our troops in your prayers/thoughts/meditations. no matter how you feel about the war, they still need us to be pulling for their safe return home!
thanks for reading!
abrazos,
bella

i'm a little bit country/i'm a little bit rock 'n' roll(with stamps!)

guess what! stampin' up! has teamed up with country living magazine to offer customers a fabulous deal! you can get a great subscription to country living magazine and also purchase a fabulous stamp set from stampin' up! exclusive to country living magazine readers/subscribers! take a look at the offer for country living magazine ! it's guaranteed to please!
abrazos,
bella

buenas noches

ok, i don't think i told you all that i'm taking a free spanish course online. yes, that's what i said ~free! it is so awesome, too! i'm learning soooo much! it's fabulous! my family will have to get off of my case about my spanglish because i'll be closer to fluency with my spanish.
hmmm...maybe i should've taken spanish along with my french in high school but i mean come on, when you live/grow up right by mexico(san diego) that's not where you desire to visit~i wanted to go to paris(i did and i loved it)! so i had no desire, at that time, to learn spanish. i know tsk, tsk! well, i'm making up for it now, i'm learning proper spanish very well! ok, so you have to visit the site, spanish dict. and sign up~even if you're a fluent spanish speaker because it totally rocks~like the entire community and the resources! if you check it out, let me know what you think!
gracias amigo/as!
abrazos,
bella

do you remember? where were you? what were you doing?

today is september 11th. i've been watching documentaries on the tragedy this morning and i've been reflecting on how it personally touched my family. my uncle harry's ex-wife(though they were still married at the time and she was still my "aunt" back then) lost her brother on the united flight from boston. i won't go into everything. i just wanted to take a moment of silence to pray/meditate/think about what happened to so many of our brothers and sisters 7 years ago. i mean in the grand scheme of things we are all related in this vast human family, worldwide! thank you for your participation in this moment with me.
have a lovely afternoon!
see you this evening, hopefully!
abrazos,
bella

now i'm a bag lady

if you thought my boxing was a phase~now i'm into bags! this is a pic of the little bag i made last night. i was googling handmade bags and i found this bag on lisa somerville's awesome little blog. you should take a look, she's very artistic!
so this is my tiny rendition of hers. i didn't use a box inside mine. i was stubborn and tried to create my own template because i want to recreate them w/o using a box.
ahh...takes me back to my days of collecting designer bags every time we went shopping in beverly hills when i was younger. now i'm making my own designer (series paper) bags!
ok, as usual let me know what you think!
hasta luego
abrazos,
bella

yea! woo hoo! sharing what i love 24/7 now!

my online ordering function is active on my website now! i'm so stoked! i was sad when we found out we'd have to wait until further kinks were worked out with it and only the catalog in pdf would be available on our websites but now i'm ecstatic! if you take a look at my website fairy stampin' mother please let me know if there's anything i need to do to improve it! grazie mille amigo/as! abrazos, bella

eyes wide shut!

darnit! wouldn't you know i try to get a good shot of "duchess and the kittens" with their eyes open and the flash totally robs me of that?! well, i did manage to get one pic of toulouse with his eyes open(marie opened hers first then he did~they were a pretty close tie. berliose is still trying to get his all the way open)! they're getting so big! it's so nice to see their little eyes open too~i think marie's may be blue! i love the pic of the wcwf where toulouse is wrestling berliose! toulouse is so freakin' bossy!
and guess who's been playing baby-tender?! bizhan! yes, i caught "chewy" down there babysitting while memphis was upstairs going to the ladies room and grabbing a bite to eat. he has been watching them for her when she wants a break. it's so cute because he preens them and keeps them in their little rubbermaid nursery bin. i think he thinks he may be their papa but i'm pretty sure, though not to judge books by their covers, maury would say "bizhan!...you are not the father!" rofl!
ahh, i'm so happy...my little pride is getting along well.
miabella still doesn't quite know what to think seeing the kittens nursing on memphis. i think she was wondering where memphis was, for the longest time, and then when she finally found her and the kittens it freaked her out! lol!
well, here are the the shots of the triplets at two weeks old(today!) thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella

para mi hermanita

ciao all! good morning/buenos dias! i was down in my patisserie last night! this is a little cupcake of a card that i created for my sister~i feel it's more of an "i'm here for you" card more so than a "sympathy" card. i had bunny mail it for me this morning. i hope she likes it. i'm hoping she will get a smile from it and not laugh hysterically at my attempt escribir en espanol solomente.
please let me know what you think, as well.
here's the recipe:
paper: cs~pink pirouette(new in color), very vanilla, basic gray
inks: pretty in pink, regal rose
stamps: tender toile, serena primavera
accessories: styled silver hodgepodge hardware ribbon slide, pink piroutte striped grosgrain ribbon, pretty in pink stampin' pastels
tools: scallop border punch, snail, glue dots
technique: paper tearing/folding, chalk distressing, rock 'n' roll inking

thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella

rrrippp!

well, not exactly, but this is my first attempt at the faux tearing technique.
here's the recipe:
stamps: serenity, upsy daisy(sentiment)
paper: cs~ barely banana, very vanilla
inks: so saffron, versamarker
accessories: very vanilla 5/8 grosgrain
tools: scallop border punch, stampin' pastels(so saffron)
technique: faux tearing, chalk distressing

let me know what you think! thanks for looking!
abrazos,
bella

my first card front swap!

whew! was i stressed trying to get these done and mailed by saturday afternoon before the post office closed!
well, first off, "my boyfriend's brown truck" didn't arrive until late thursday afternoon(maybe that's why he delivered my backordered stamp set early the next morning :0)
and then i just couldn't find a time, with training abbey and supervising the cats and millE's virtual school, to get down to my patisserie and get them all done on thursday evening.
so friday i started them and finished bustin' them out on saturday morning. i had a bit of a creative block for a moment then i remembered it just had to be simple and easy to demonstrate and use the "say it with scallops" set and in colors. so i think i did a pretty good job. i also made them in black, but i didn't get a pic before rushing to the post office. let me know what you think!
here's the recipe:
paper: cs~baja breeze, very vanilla, and whisper white
ribbon: baja breeze double-stitched grosgrain
inks: baja breeze
technique: paper tearing/folding
stamps: say it with scallops, upsy daisy(sentiment)
tools: scallop border punch, scallop square punch, stampin' dimensionals
grazie mille!
abrazos,
bella