Leslie Hall. Words cannot describe. You may have seen her around; she's been all over Des Moines lately and she and the LYs will be performing at the
Iowa State Fair this summer.
You may have heard her songs
How We Go Out,
Craft Talk or my favorite,
Blame the Booty.
Or you may have seen her glitter hands/razzle dazzle guest appearances on your favorite kids' show (and mine)
Yo Gabba Gabba. 
Friday night, I spent the evening at the Des Moines Art Center with 16 of Leslie's fellow successors to her central Iowa time zone, learning the ways of the diva and receiving the gift that is Leslie Hall.
(My photos are terrible but I will share them with you anyway.)
Without giving away too many details about my secret and sparkley education and initiation, there were arts and there were crafts. Gem sweaters. Still life drawings. Over-sized fruit.
Hair coiffing and accessory-making.
(These are my two new bff's, Paige and Susie.)
Poetry readings. Supervised snack and beverage breaks. Drive-by makeup application. Ramona and Scrappy.
Leotards revived from 7th grade dance recitals.
Hip rotations. Dance lessons.
And a graduation ceremony with hand-drawn diplomas.
Graduation = gold pants. Gold handmade
spandex pants.
(Me and my matching pink and black shoe twin.)
And then? Gold pants graduation dance party!!
Which carried over to a group field trip to The Garden.
(The whole thing was kind of a blur to be honest.)
And I emerged a new girl altogether.
A girl who is unafraid of spandex. With a new understanding and appreciation of dance moves, gem sweaters and dollar-store blue eyeshadow. (A girl who doesn't get embarrassed as easily as she did before.)
Last weekend, crafters all around the world celebrated Etsy's 5th birthday. My pals Leslie and Erin, who I had met through the local craft fairs and such, were kind enough to host a fantastic party for us Des Moines girls. I got to hang out with the lovely Sarah and Stacey and meet lots of other awesome girls who were just as stoked as I was to just hang out, chat and make stuff for an evening.
Carefree Patisserie made this amazing cake for the party (and it was seriously so tasty.) Check out that fondant glue gun with a cord and glue dripping out! (photo by David Poyzer)
Our hostesses did such a fine job making delicious beverages and all kinds of summery treats to snack on.
After we had indulged in some snackiness, we all managed to make a few things! There was lots of knitting and sewing going on.
These two made adorable corsages for a prom/party event that they were attending.
A Design Sponge tutorial was in the works with felt, embroidery and buttons.
And Erin provided lots of really cool scraps of paper and photos to make cards or word art. (I totally stole one of her collages at the end of the night!)
We honestly had such a great evening. We gabbed right through our viewing of Handmade Nation, shared our favorite blogs and talked about craft fairs. (Sarah and Leslie of Urban Posture – both of the girls in red above – just returned from Renegade in Brooklyn and will be on their way to Chicago in September.) It was so rad to hang with so many creative local girls and I'm pretty sure we'll getting together again soon. Thanks to everyone for the great time!
