I'm back home from one of my favorite teaching and growing experience of the year. Silver Bella. You may have read posts already from my fellow instructors (Kim, Pam, Rebecca, Charlotte, Jenifer, Aaron & Jenny, and Sassy.) Not to mention the Queen Bella Herself, Teresa McFayden. My wrap up is a day late as we had a huge windstorm here in Vancouver and I was without power for 36 hours. In a way, I was actually secretly happy about the outage, as it gave me the perfect excuse to relax (and take a heavenly nap) Monday afternoon. But back to the important stuff. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank some wonderful people to whom I owe a huge debt of thanks.
First, I want to take a moment to thank Teresa. If you are a regular reader of Teresa's blog, you know that she is witty, clever and creative. You night also glean from her Paper Bella business and Silver Bella art event that she is a mini mogul in her own right. What you might not know from reading her blog is how much she is loved and appreciated by her friends (as Teresa is never one to toot her own horn!). As someone who feels incredibly honored to play a small part in her Bella events, I am always amazed at how gracious and competent she is. I know, without a doubt that Silver Bella is a colossal amount of work. There have been months and months of preparation, planning, conundrums, challenges and even a few tears (not to mention the rooms of her house that had been relegated to storage areas as almost 100 boxes from teachers and vendors needed to be stored before the event!). However, none of that was visible as the weekend got under way. From all outward appearances, it was the easiest thing she's ever done. And that, my friends, takes talent. To have something, so intricate look so effortless, Teresa, my hat's off to you. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. (smooch!)
To my fellow Prima Bellas. I know that when I was explaining this event to one of the 'new' teachers, I shared that the reason I loved this event so much was the tight bond that the teachers build/have together. It is rare in this industry to have such a strong bond between teachers. I can truthfully say, that my life would be much lonelier without the friendships that I have with the other Bellas. Although I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked with a few of you, I was pleased to see that overall the camaraderie that bonded the team together so well last year, was still there again this year.
To all the students, I don't know what else to say, that to simply say Thank you. Thank You from the bottom of my heart. There is something SO special about a Silver Bella student. You are kind, creative and gracious. You play well with others (it made my heart happy to see so many of you sharing supplies and vintage this-and-that with your neighbors!), you share a love of pretty and glittery things, you are CREATIVE (yes, capital letters creative. You seriously continually blew me away with your awesome twists on class projects) and you were kind and lovely with your sweet gifts and feedback. I hope that the Silver Bella weekend was everything you hoped for (and more!). To Heather, a huge pat on the back and 'well done' for all the work you put into organizing an amazing Yahoo group for the Silver Bella students. It enhanced the event so much to have all the swaps, chit-chat and helpful hints that the board offered.
There are oodles of others who played parts, large and small with the success of Silver Bella. Thank you to each of you. If you took either of my classes and want to offer any feedback, or have any questions, I would welcome your email. (there is an email me link just below my photo at the top left of this page.)
In closing, I'll leave you with one of my collages that I sold at Silver Bella. It's titled 'Friends' and the caption says: 'They shared secrets, laughed and drank mint juleps'. Those are the kinds of friends I made this weekend. I trust it's the same for you!
