art with the girls

what a fun girls night out! and look at this beautiful, fun heart i made. my good friend L invited me to a girls night at art in the attic. we had such a fun couple of hours....doing art, drinking wine and hanging out with the girls. miss carol, who's attic space is to die for, was so sweet to teach us how to paint these beautiful hearts. i hung mine on my front door and just love it! hanging out in the attic was just what i needed....it's such a cool, tiny, cozy, filled with color and tons of creativity space...oooh i loved it!

healthy snack

my 5 year old attended a cooking class this week. the topic was breakfast. he absolutely loved the breakfast banana split! so much that he is making them at home now. chopped up banana, strawberry yogurt, sliced peaches, and topped off with granola. it's nothing new really, but it's new to him and he loves it. it's easy for him to make himself too which makes him feel all grown up. easy-peasy, healthy and yummy!

black and white trays

i finished up a batch of black & white trays today. i think they turned out oh so beautiful and would like to keep all of them for myself! this always happens....i love every tray i make so much that i want to keep each of them. how silly is that??! i thought these black & whites would make such fun 'chargers' for my dining room table. but i have packed them up and they will be delivered to the shop on thursday.

a new look for the smaller tray...paper on the inside as well as the outside. this one has appetizer plates and a kitchen towel. add your own bottle of wine or olive oil for a great gift. a great use for the tray would be to place it by your cooktop and fill it with olive oil and spices that are used for cooking. or, maybe a lucky someone would be served a yummy muffin and cuppa coffee in bed. this small but useful tray has a million uses.

soups on

one of my favorite soups....

homemade country cheddar soup.

a yummy soup for a winter day. and instead of my usual 'grazing' while the boys eat, i treated myself to something special today. my lunch on a tray. i love when i remember to do this for myself. it seems that time slows down for a minute and the food, for some reason, tastes better. i'm going to make an effort to do this more for myself.

happy new year!

happy 2008! what a great year 2007 was. i always get a little sad to say goodbye to the past year but challenge myself to reflect on the good and not so good times and learn from it all. a clean, fresh slate always starts the new year and this year i've made no resolutions. and it feels great! i'll just continue on my mission of personal growth from years past.

this clock table was one of my first projects of the new year. a raty old table i found at an estate sale finally got a face lift. i painted the legs black, stained the top and then hand painted the clock face on the top. i felt it just needed something ... it looked so empty with nothing on it. this large clock takes center stage and i don't even feel like it needs a table scape of any kind on it. ok...maybe it needs a tray! it lives in my basement family room and i love it.

i'm so in love

with this paper! (click on image to view larger) i just found it last night at bed bath & beyond. and only at $1.99 a roll i scooped up several rolls. this will be wrapping paper for next year gifts. it's a bit of a thin paper for a tray, but i'll mess around with it and see if it won't work for some holiday trays for next year.

cute shoes!

i'm really just a flip flop kind of girl. but when it comes to shoes for my kids it's hard for me to pass up the really cute ones. like these new shoes for cooper. oh how i love everything about them. even the box they came in is so cute. i'll no doubt have to recycle it by covering it with paper and turn into some adorable storage container. i know what you're thinking...does she ever stop??! not when it comes to recycling and cute cubbie, box-y things.

teacher, teacher

a christmas gift for my son's kindergarten teacher. i put paper on the outside of this tray because i thought she would use it on her desk. once she got it full of stuff she wouldn't be able to see the paper on the inside. might be the start of something new...stay tuned!

feed the soul

i had my annual cookie party yesterday. oh how i love this event. a couple of hours with dear friends and lots of yummy and oh so beautiful cookies. either the girls don't take home their alloted cookies, or everyone brings extras...because every year i have a bunch left over. so i box them up and take them to a nearby assisted living place. they are always so excited to receive this box overflowing with beautiful cookies. share the goodness and share the calories! what a sweet day.

wrapping things up

i'm taking my last few trays to Now & Then tomorrow. and i've finished all but two trays for a special order. that will be it for this year. i'll take a much needed, although short, break over christmas. and then come mid january i'll introduce my new line of black & white trays. they will make their debut at Now & Then and they are turning out to be oh so beautiful! i can't wait to get them all finished and i think they will make a striking display at the shop. stay warm, stay healthy and stay creative.

tray as a sit-upon?

silly silly cooper found yet another use for a tray! i'm not sure if he thinks it's a sled or if he thought that his little bum would just fit so why not just sit in it. like every day, this little guy makes me laugh!

ice storm = no school = craft day!

an ice storm hit kansas city last night and today. we were lucky that we didn't lose power. so we spent the day in our jam jams and worked on some fun craft projects.

maguire was excited to make this match box car. (found at www.soulemama.typepad.com). we decided that a few of his friends would enjoy making them too. we found some white boxes (in mommy's stash, of course) and got started on a fun homemade present. each friend is getting a kit on how to make these little match box cars. all the pieces and instructions in a cellophane bag wrapped up with a pretty ribbon. also they are getting a small bag of magic noodles (email me if you don't know what these are....they are sooo fun for kids!), 4 pencils wrapped with a ribbon, and a few candy canes. the box ended up being full of fun things to do and maguire is so excited to give these to his friends. he also decorated the top of each box with a race car and the friends name.

while cooper napped and maguire worked on his friends gifts i did a little project of my own. i've been wanting to try and make these cute sock pets from a book called Sock and Glove (by Miyako Kanamori). this is dog and he's made out of two gloves. not bad for my first try. he was easy to make and he looked cold so i wrapped him with a scarf. dog is a christmas gift for cooper. and he is simply named 'dog' because at 16 months that is one of the words that cooper can say. maguire says he wants one now too.

i make this face everytime i draw.... it's my drawing limit. i can visualize anything/everything but can not draw to save my life. the boys have always liked this guy.

it's so fun that cooper is now joining in when we do art projects. i just love to watch his little chubby hands grab the markers and scribble away. he likes to pull the lids off of every marker and try them all out. nice mess to clean up in the end, but what else have we got to do today?

maguire. my car freak....always has been and always will be. every time he gets to draw, he draws a car or a train. he can play cars and trains for hours. here he has drawn a race track for his cars to race on. ready, set, go!!

mr. cooper all happy doing his little art project. what a fun day we had just hanging out and playing. and in between all the projects i even managed to make a pot of soup for dinner. all in all a great day, i will definitely go to bed feeling fullfilled tonight. i love no school snow days. thank you , can we have another!

Christmas gifts

don't forget to shop at Now & Then in downtown OP for all your tray bella Christmas gifts. She has a good assortment of trays for Christmas and otherwise. And after Christmas hit Now & Then for my new line of black and white trays!

and the stockings were hung...

i kept my decorating simple this year. this is the table in my entry way. i love that it sparkles and the simplicity to it.

again, trying to stay simple. i just added to what was already on top of my entertainment armoire. some lighted greenery, a star in a jar and a candle.

a small little old dresser that i picked up at a garage sale. it was orginally pink and i've redone it. having boys, i have a little collection of baseballs. they look festive placed in a silver bowl.

our tree. never can seem to ever get a good photo of it. but i love the leopard packages under it!

i decided on a brown, white and silver color scheme this year for christmas. i was getting tired of the traditional red and green and am thrilled with the results. it's simple and soothing and fits more with the colors of my house. my decorations look more like they belong this year than in the years before. so out with the old green stockings and in with these new handmade, by me, stockings. i love them! they are created out of white denim and have a soft flannel lining. i love the weight of them and think the fun, fake, fur cuff sets them off nicely. it's times like this that i'm glad my mom was insistant that i take sewing in junior high. my old trusty sears sewing machine doesn't get much use, but i blew off the dust and was glad i have it tucked into a corner of my basement. i'm also glad that my local walmart has a fabric department with great but inexpensive fabrics and notions. these beauties only cost $5 each to make. and with only 2.5 hours of time to create them, i think they are my favorite addition to my holiday decor this year.

the mantel in my family room. i recycled some small brown urns that i had and used them to hold some green trees. lots of glass, silver and the brown pinecones add a nice natural feel to the ensemble.

my dear friend christine was going to sell this sled that was in her family in a garage sale. i don't think so! she gave it to me and i'm thrilled to have it front and center on my dining room table. i wrapped some boxes with brown and white papers. an inexpensive way to continue my color scheme.

santa's watching! one of my all time favorite christmas decorations. i picked him up at a summer garage sale one year for a mere $4. he's big and he hangs with some greenery and vintage ornaments on a mirror in my front entry. i should keep him up all year....the kids behave better when he's up there.

christmas on manor...dec 1st!

another event that i'm participating in. it will no doubt be a fun few hours with creative friends. my favorite way to spend my time lately! hope you can make it. (click on image to actually read all the details).

black & white

black & white is hot right now. i decided to do a line of trays in just black & white. and i was so excited when i found all of these beautiful black & white papers. they will make the most beautiful trays and i can hardly wait to get started on them.

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

of course i'm going to use a tray to create my thanksgiving day centerpiece! i had fun creating this one by using two trays. i just used an old wood yarn spool to support the second tray. load each one up with pumpkins, gourds, ect and wa-la. happy thanksgiving to all of you!

What a FUN event!

i created an entry way with shutters (two from my attic & two from a recent dumpster find). this way it felt like people were actually walking into my space. the check out table and bins full of trays and fun paper goodies were in front of the shutters. (click on photos to view larger)

so glad when i found this old shoe rack at a garage sale this summer. it held lots of trays and gave me a base to add some height.

i gained height with galvanized buckets (filled with beans for weight) and tree branches. simple silver ornaments added sparkle and looked simple but festive.

The 5th annual Gift Gallery was a huge success! with close to 600 people coming through the door it was such a busy day. i'm so thankful that my mom was there to help me. for those that couldn't make it to the event i've posted these photos. photos never look as good as in real life, but it gives you an idea. my small space was filled with trays, for all occassions, and at most times it was packed with people! we sold lots of trays and are very pleased with the results. i'm already planning my next line of trays.... a black and white line for the winter and beautiful soft creams and browns for spring. i thought i'd get some sleep after this event....but i'm on such a high that i can't help but keep designing and producing more trays! thank you to all who came, bought, supported me and just plain gushed over my space. it was a wonderful day!

I think I'm ready!

Tomorrow night is set up night for the gift gallery. This week I froze in my garage while creating my display. I've been visually creating my display for months and then it all changed when I actually started putting it all together. Thank goodness I was smart to set the space up before setting up at the gift gallery.
I started pulling things out of the house (my husband asked if I was moving out!) vintage suitcases, bookshelves, tables..ect all to make my 10x10 space look exciting. It finally all came together and it looks amazing. As I crawled into bed at 2:30am with a smile on my face I realized it's all worth it. A couple days later I found out that my space is smack dab in the front when everyone walks in. I'm glad I went the extra mile to create an oh so beautiful space. I can't wait for Saturday. I have over 100 trays (no wonder I'm exhausted!) enough for everyone to find something they like. Hope to you see you Saturday!
I'll post photos later next week of the event.

free tickets!

the 5th annual gift gallery is:

saturday, november 10th from 9am to 3 pm

at cure of ars school

(9401 mission road)

admission is $3.00

BUT I HAVE 6 TICKETS TO GIVE AWAY!

the first 6 people that contact me at

traybella@hotmail.com will win a ticket.

please provide your snail mail address so

that i can get them in the mail to you this week.

thanks to everyone who is supporting me for

this show and for this new adventure that i've started!

tower of trays

what a week! 24 trays....the most i've created in a week. this tower of trays is waiting for handles to be added to them. the other batch in the garage is ready for sanding....i'm so exhausted but am so determined to hit my November 1st deadline. i want to be completely done with all my inventory, for the gift gallery, by Nov. 1st. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel and then the real fun will start..... a trial run for my display. the booth at the gift gallery is only 10x10. i've got visions in my head of how i want it to look, and last week started collecting everything for pulling the display together. i'll do a trial set up next week in my garage. this always makes sense to me because more often than not i'll get to the show and wish i would have done 'x'. this way i'll set it up, get it just the way i visioned and then pack it up and haul it to the show. we get 2 hours next friday night to set up....i'm going to have to work fast!

tray bella babies

just a few baby trays that i finished up last week.

these will be at the gift gallery along with lots of others.

these make great baby shower gifts!

a couple more.....

i love these bug theme trays. they would be perfect out on a screen porch or for someone who loves to garden. the possibilities, like the paper selections, are endless. off to do more trays!

a few trays i finished up today

still getting ready for the gift gallery. and probably will be until the very last minute. here are a few trays that i finished up today. these baby theme trays sell really well. they are perfect for baby shower gifts. the cowboy theme tray is so cute for the littlest cowboy. it's useful contents contain a denim changing pad and reversible horse bib. a cute stuffed horse completes it. the polka dot tray is so sweet with it's white cardigan sweater, onesie, and wood circus theme memory game. vintage airplanes soar on this red tray. an airplane for a room decoration and two receiving blankets make this a great gift. next time you need a baby gift, ditch the registry and give a tray bella tray instead.

another use for a tray

my dear friend Lauri is using her tray bella tray in a most useful way. she has placed it on her staircase. not only does it fit perfectly, it looks beautiful. she uses it as a holding spot for items that need to go upstairs to her studio. i'm copying her because i think this is a great idea! thanks Lauri !

tray as a base

i had so much fun decorating for halloween this year. i decided to pull out all my black & white and of course found some fun b&w papers to create new things. in both photos i have used trays as the base of my display. this makes them easy to move when the need arises. the tray in my front entry holds b&w crackers (filled with yummy chocolates!) just waiting for excited trick or treaters. they were fun, easy to make and look so festive. the tray on my dining room table is a big one and holds the entire centerpiece. i hope i've inspired you to use trays in your seasonal decorating. and if you don't own a tray.... i know where you can pick up a few!