A Beautiful Winter Wonderland !!

Oh the weather outside was frightful, but inside it was delightful, at Kim Caldwell's Winter Wonderland Event!! She planned the event at the Belamar Hotel in Manhatton Beach. The ballroom was filled with Winter Wonderland  table decorations including snow globes made by Kim Caldwell and Terry Frias. 

Kim dressed her Mani which sat at the entrance to the room. The chair covers looked like pillow covers with a little bling added. It gives me ideas for the next party I have!

We even had a Wonderland candy bar, Kim thinks of everything! As you can see close up, the snow globes are adorable. I think she got the jars at Target and she used german glitter to top everything off.

It was so great to spend time with friends that I haven't seen in so long, and fun to spend time with pals from home!

Andrea's stocking swap with Vickie,  Jo Ann with Suzette and the ever so adorable Tara with her sock swap! This was Jo Ann's first event and she had so much fun!!

That Terry Frias knows how to make you smile, she's such a cutie! I got to sit next to Roxie, who is shown here in the middle of Jessi and Cheryl. Roxie went to the Terry school of contagious smiles because she had me laughing the whole time!

This is a Christmas tree where several people made swap ornaments to fill these beautiful little trees. It was amazing to see all the work that went into each ornament. I wish I had made one too!

I took lots of photos of Andrea Villarreal because she was Charlene Gray's Stocking partner. I finally got Charlene in the corner shot! I think Andrea really enjoyed her stocking, it really turned out well and was filled to the brim with goodies inside!

These were from the sock and glove swap. They were all so different and incredibly creative! What's so great about these events is that you leave with so many good ideas!

This was of course the cell phone cover swap! I loved making my cover, it's in the middle. The one I received was from the grand master of ceremonies, Kim Caldwell, it's the one on the right. Isn't it just amazing! Every time I pull it out of my purse everyone just gasps and wants to know where I got it. I have now gotten two offers from people to buy it! I politely said hell no, MINE! Thank you Kim!

I love PJ parties! We had the ornament swap that night and just sat around and gabbed about anything and everything! The volume coming that room made it sound like there were 200  people in there. We were having a large time!!

Kim had warm milk and cookies for dessert. I think she thought it might make us sleepy and quiet.......it didn't work! After caffeine and the candy bar we were all wired like little kids on sugar crack!!

This super fun car was sitting in the entrance of the 
Vintage Marketplace. It's an antique fair that was wonderful. It was drizzling all day but the vendors endured, smiled and seemed happy to see a bus load of 33 women all eager to shop! 

Vickie and I were bus mates! Kim would get on the bus and always say,"Does everyone have their buddy?" mine was sweet Vickie Orlando! I'm the other photo I'm in Lisa Loria's booth where I found some adorable Christmas bling! I also spent a lot of time in Wings of lace. I would have taken a photo but the booth was so crowded there was no way to get a shot!

These photos are from Mitilda's Mouse. They were so sweet and patient. They waited for us, we were running late because out bus had a flat, so it was almost dark when we got there! We stormed that place like a hive of bees! We were all grabbing and nabbing as fast as we could!! I know when we left they looked at their shop and thought,'we need more stuff! Those women stripped us clean!'

Ahhh, Charlene's mermaid! If it didn't weigh 9000 pounds she might have bought it but I don't think it would fit in the overhead bin! Did I buy the doll? Nope, he didn't wave a whole head! I guess I could have made a chia pet out of him but I thought, nah, too much trouble.

I think this was the American Home and Garden Shop in Ventura. Right next door was the Agoura Antique Mall. Between the 33 of us we were all over that shopping area oohing and aahing over all the Christmas decorations. The front table was exceptionally beautiful with this white Christmas display. The vendors in all of the shops had drinks and snacks for us all. Like we all needed to eat........again!

These were all over the front table and throughout the store. My favorite was the white peacock. I was afraid she would be to fragile to pack so I left without her! Great ideas though!
But, all good things must come to an end.

So we packed it all up and headed over to Vickie's house to spend the night before heading back to Texas. She is THE hostess with the mostess!!! She spoiled us rotten!

And with that I wish you all a wonderful holiday!
Merry Christmas!

An Affaire at Tiffany. It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

Have you ever dreamed of a palace covered in pink and teal blue where you could be silly, be creative, learn new projects, laugh until your stomach hurts and make wonderful new friends?

Well then this was the place!! Kim Caldwell's event ,"An Affaire at Tiffany", had a theme based on the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and she did everything perfect. From the decorations to the vendor night where everyone put on their finest Audrey attire, we all felt so special and pampered, no one wanted to go home.

I got butterflies in my stomach just seeing my place setting.

My bestest friend, Charlene Gray was my roommate and partner in crime for this event. We made great roomates! She's the reason I went to this event and I can't thank her enough. We had the best time and didn't even get tired of each other! She didn't even mind my over use of hairspray!

Holly and Karla have been coming to this event for years. They're both very talented and so fun to be around. I have been to several events with Karla but this is my first with Holly. She's now in my good friend roladex for sure!

Ah, and there was Vickie who just charmed us all! This was her first time to the event as well and just bowled us over with her swap projects. We would all wait and wonder who would get her swap because they were so beautiful and over the top. Her jewelry box was to die for!!

Adorable Tiffany Dixon spent the entire time taking photos of us crafting, acting goofy,(which we did a lot), and posing of course. She is one of the sweetest most down to earth women I have ever met and her photographs are fantastic. After photographing over 60 wild and crazy women for days on end, she went home where she has her photography business, The Fancy Farmgirl. Her photos of girls in petticoats and cowboy boots are precious. It gives new meaning to senior photos!! I would love to have her take my photo any day!

Elaine Smith and Lauren Conrad were so much fun. They both live in Austin so I plan to drive down and spend some more time with them. Elaine is known for her doll creations and has been teaching for years. I'm hoping we can talk her into teaching a class for us!

This was our scrapbook/journal project. Our instructor was great and gave us the freedom to do what ever we wanted, and she made this so much fun! We were slapping paint, putty, and everything else we could find onto our books. Mine didn't quite look like this when I was finished, but close enough!!!

This was our lampshade class and it too was a lot of fun. This was my table mate's Rochell's. This photo does not give it justice! She used a vintage teal and white hankie on one side of the shade, and the panel in this photo had her grandmothers glove sewn on. She was so creative and imagineative and she sat next to me so everything I made paled in comparison to hers!

This was one of the evening bag swaps, this one was made by Karen Hillman, so no wonder it turned out so cute. The bag was plain when she bought it and she added all this bling!

Just adorable

This was the jewelry box that Vickie made! I told you she was over the top. Is this not beautiful! You should have seen the box that she had this box in, we were all in awe! Elaine was the lucky one to recieve this swap, lucky lady.

Another jewelry box masterpiece. Everyone put so much effort into their swaps and Kim made sure everyone could enjoy the excitement of each swap being opened.

This is Rita and Michelle swaping their evening bags. Michelle slipped a monogramed "R" flask into Rita's purse and it was filled! Michelle said it would be just rude to give someone a flask without something in it! 

This is one of the bottle swaps. This one was made my Michelle Duke as well. Talk about BLING! It looked even better in person.

The tiera swap was crazy. Everyone was going crazy to see what everyone got. I grabbed Molly to get a photo of this one, isn't it grand!

Karen Frances and her dress form swap. It was almost as big as she was!

After all of our classes and the mess was cleared we had a pajama party and watched,"Breakfast at Tiffany's" and ate two tons of candy! Kim had set up in a beautiful blue and white candy bar. I wish I had photos but once the doors opened the candy was gone in a flash!

OK, m-a-y-b-e Charlene might have been getting tired of me by now. But it was too fun just to mess with her anyway.

Our fearless leader, Kim Caldwell. 
I'm sure she went home and plans to sleep for a week after putting together the event of the year! I cannot thank her enough for a beautiful event that I will remember and cherish the memories forever. If you have ever considered going to this event, don't hesitate next year when she has another one. It was perfection! Thank you Kim!