Jewelry making, birthday celebrations and vintage shopping – it just doesn’t get any better!

Miss Charlene came to town again last month to celebrate her birthday and attend Diana Frey's Petite Retreat in San Luis Obispo.  And boy did we have a good time or what!  I scooped her up at the airport on a Thursday & we shot right up to SLO where we met up with new and old friends for an absolutely FabUlous weekend that we might just make an annual event.

We started with dinner at the Cracked Crab in Pismo Beach that evening with Joy and Vickie where we had 2 buckets for two of delicious seafood and wine selected by our personal sommelier, Joy.

Friday was all about the Birthday Girl and our B&B hosts served up a special waffles with fresh fruit breakfast before we headed out to Diana's studio.  Our first class was the Briar Rose which is a soldered box containing a dress you design and a vintage doll head that’s cold joined on top.  We had our choice to make either a necklace or place the box on a pedestal.  Here are Diana’s samples.

I came prepared and all set to make the pedestal version in vintage cream and then I saw the orange Dupioni silk Diana had to share for the class and I quickly switched gears cuz I just had to use it!  Of course, she also had some orange stones for sale that just happened to go perfectly and my necklace was in progress.  Everyone got the cutest pair of vintage shoe charms in their kit and I choose to add some bling (of course) on the toe and dangle them from the box.  Everyone did such an amazing job.

Diana had a special lunch for us in honor of the birthday girl with a crown, a cake and some FabUlous presents.  Little did Charlene know this was going to be a full blown birthday party and she loved every minute of it.

Saturday was our Remnants of the Past shopping day and we were up & out early so we could be at the front of the line.  We got to see Judy Watkins, the organizer of the event, who came by holding the amazing crown she had commissioned from the talented designer and author,  Brooke Giannetti from last year.

This year, Matthew Mead and Jo Packham were the guests of honor.  We also met up with our pal Cynthia and ran into Shawn Street, who lives not too far away.  There were vendors inside the Madonna Inn Convention Center as well as out front and our group immediately spread out. 

We met back up for a quick lunch break where we got a great group photo.

I didn't have anything in particular I was looking for except for vintage bling, which is always on my list!  And I just happened to get quite a few FabUlous pieces.

Diana graciously opened her studio that afternoon for us to go back and complete our pieces so we would be ready for the next day's class.  And ya know we all showed up and some stayed until 8pm!  A group us us went to dinner at Novo in downtown SLO where we ate on the patio that over looks a creek.  It was FabUlous and you would never know about the patio seating from the street side of the restaurant.  You’ve got to check it out if you’re in the area.

Sunday was our Bird in the Hand necklace class that Charlene had been drooling over ever since she saw Diana's piece a few years ago.  This class was packed with techniques and we loved every minute of it.  We spent the entire day making soldered components, bird nests and a trapeze for the hand to swing on!

Here’s Diana’s sample

We had THE most talented group of kind and sharing women at our Petite Retreat.  Diana just brings out the best in her students and we all just keep coming back for more.  That's why we're headed back up this weekend for Queen's Ransom.  This class is to make a statement piece and we're all GO BIG OR GO HOME kinda girls so ya know we were all over that when we saw the class samples in February!

Stay tuned for photos of my finished pieces and more jewelry adventures with my gal pals and the FabUlous Diana Frey.