We're getting closer...

...to our wedding day.  This means I'm covered in chalkboard paint most days, I now have multiple wedding binders (day of binder, anyone?), and we're following up with vendors left and right.

Because it's been a while since I've posted (but I'm hesitatnt to post because all my projects are for the wedding and there needs to be some surprises), I thought this would be a nice opportunity to share some of my favorite engagement pictures...

These pictures were all taken at Potter Lake in Lawrence, Kansas (on KU Campus).  Earl Richardson is our engagement/wedding photographer and he's awesome...http://earlrichardson.com/.

I Spy With My Little Eye

Eeesh...color me embarrassed!  It's been well over a week since I posted on my blog (in fact I think it's getting close to two weeks).  I sort of hit a wall - at work I was running a large orientation event for over 140 students.  It was 5 days long and kind of involved.  It's done...I think it was successful for the most part (just a few hiccups which I'm told is to be expected for a group that size and my first year handling it).

Compile on top of that wedding planning, etsy business, community garden...basically I just got completely overwhelmed and threatened to just curl up into a ball for the next 2 weeks (until the wedding).

The orientation program at work is over, wedding planning is proceeding nicely (a big thanks to Mr. JG for doing a ton to help with wedding stuff), and I have just one more week of work before my bachelorette party, then the next week off, then getting married!  Woo Hoo!

Anyway, before I went crazy and got overwhelmed, I had a bit of inspiration and made something new.  So I'll focus on that for this post (instead of the crazy stressful stuff).  This is my first project that's really intended to be a kid-friendly item...

Without any further ado...the I Spy Bag

So general idea of the I Spy Bag is a bag full of rice and various trinkets.  I took a picture of everything in the bag, labeled them, and printed it on cardstock.  I laminated the picture - so now kids can look to the card, pick out an item, then move the rice around in the bag until their item shows up in the clear vinyl window.

I used my serger to sew all the edges.  I figured it would eliminate the need to finish edges and it would also hold the strongest.  I added a gromet to the corner, then used a binder ring to clip on my card.

Here's a close up of the card:

I still need to give this one to some kids to test it out and see if they seem at all interested in it.  I figure it's a good way to give them a quiet toy/activity when you're at dinner, etc.  Perhaps my nieces can be my test market :)

I've been invited to participate in the Leawood Craft Fair on September 28 - it's an outdoor family friendly event so I've decided to try to come up with some kid crafts to sell.  I think I'll have two full weeks after we get back from our Honeymoon for me to finish any projects and have some ready for the craft fair...we'll see how that goes!

Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite part of this whole I Spy Bag story.  I spent a lunch break a few weeks ago at Dollar General and the fabric store getting everything I needed for this.  After work I was walking to my car (sort of speed walking because I was super excited to get home and start making my I Spy Bag) and I bumped into a co-worker, Leah.  She looked at me and said "You have that glimmer in your eye like you're going to go bedazzle something."  It was hilarious, completely true, and proved that my co-workers know me all too well!

Alright, well that's all for today!

Babies, babies everywhere!

Everyone I know is having babies, which is awesome.  I personally am scared of children, but my friends are all brave and aren't scared (or if they are, they're masking it pretty darn well).  Someday I won't be either, but for now...terrified. 

JUST A NOTE HERE: I was fully planning on titling this post "I'm pregnant" and then linking it to my facebook with the thought that I would get readers, but I chickened out.  I wasn't ready for the combination of congrats and OMGs that would follow.

My friend Marie just had a beautiful baby girl named Chase.  Marie and I were friends in high school and thanks to the wonders of Facebook we've managed to stay in touch.  The best part...neither of us crafted a lot in high school (we were too busy going to prom, looking really...awesome)



I'm the one on the right with the white girl fro.  Impressed???

Anyway, while neither of us crafted in high school, we both craft now!  It's sort of like twins that were separated at birth and raised in different towns but then ended up still being completely alike.  Uh, ok...it's nothing like that at all...but we do both craft.

Anyway, I thought I'd send her a little something as a congratulatory "hey you had a baby!  yay!" gift.  And here's what I came up with...

Thanks goodness I've properly honed my Facebook stalking skills because I was able to figure out the date the baby was born, the weight, and where she was born ALL via Facebook. 

Here's an up close pic...

I used a fiskars heart punch to punch a heart out with the portion of an atlas where they checked in on Facebook while they were at the hosptial.

I'm super excited to get it shipped off to her! 

Oh, and taking a picture of a frame with glass and trying not to get a reflection is HARD people...any tips???

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

I LOVED that show...and that game.  LOVED.  So, in honor of Ms. Sandiego herself, I thought I'd see where in the world I've sent birthday boards to!  I always get excited when I send a birthday board to some place that seems really hip, like New York or California...but I also have lots of love for everywhere something I've made travels!

So, I looked back at all of my orders since I started selling birthday boards in March to see where in the world all of my birthday boards have gone.

The grand total...31 States!  Pretty impressive really for 5 months of Birthday Board love!  And the coolest part...this week I'm sending one to Australia!  I've had requests for a few other places around the globe, but the shipping is pretty pricey so many choose not to order.

Me personally, I'm a visual kinda gal...so let's see where all these birthday boards have gone...

There are a few gaps (including Missouri..come on folks, I live 30 minutes from the state line) but overall I'm pretty impressed.  It's neat to think that there are things I made hanging all over the U.S. right now.  And soon...in Australia!

Jane's Girl Designs is on Facebook!

I don't normally post twice in one day...but this post isn't a real post, it's fake.

Jane's Girl Designs is on Facebook now!  Like the page to keep up with all the happenings and get special discounts, coupons, good knock knock jokes, who knows...sky's the limit!  So go!  Like it!  No really!  Please?!

http://www.facebook.com/JanesGirlDesigns

And every post needs a pic, right?



Love this!

Bridal Shower Games!

This post is all thanks to my little sister, Lauren.  We played some amazing bridal shower games at my shower this weekend....and now my sister is going to share them with all of you!!!

We played "Why do we do that?" - a game of bridal traditions (many are from a LONG time ago so it's harder than you may think).

We also played Famous Marriages match where you have to match the famous couples...we added bonus points if you got their names correct as a way to solve any ties. 

Oh, and bonus points for people who knew which of these couples Mr. J.G. and I had dressed up as for Halloween...



I kept telling him to say "LUUUUUCCCCYYY you've got some 'splaining to do!" and speak in Spanish all night while acting like I was crazy.  He said the acting like I was crazy part was easy...

Then we played a cute Candy Match game where you had to match candy games with parts of a wedding...some of them you have to say out loud to understand...(Twix, etc.)

All three games were super cute and very PG (we had grandparents there, ya'll).  Do you want your own set including answers/further explanation????  Well thanks to Lauren they're all yours!

Click here to view the PDF file and print your own copies!  The answers are also in the PDF link - woo hoo!

I highly recommend printing them onto card stock - that made it easy for us to write on them in our laps!  Enjoy!

P.S. have you liked me on Facebook yet?  Do you want to?  It would make my day...seriously.  Check out my Facebok page here: http://www.facebook.com/JanesGirlDesigns?ref=hl

The Best Bridal Shower...EVER!

So I mentioned that we had a bridal shower on Saturday - my sisters hosted it for me and it was amazing!  Seriously, I've never been to such a great bridal shower.  They went all out and made it very personal to me. 

Here's a peek:



So here's the spread of the shower - it was amazing!  They had a cute table setup with all of the desserts, I'll go through them one by one.  Oh, and don't mind my super pale legs...I had no idea they were that pale until I started looking at pictures.  Note to self: don't wear a skirt until your legs see some sun.



So they made these awesome mini-fruit pizzas..they were heavenly.  And I mean heavenly...




I think I ate about 42 of them by myself.  My sister got the recipe off of pinterest...they just used a log of store bought cookie dough and rolled it into little balls, then pushed them into paper-lined mini-muffin tins.  They baked them, then filled them with cool-whip and fruit.  They were so pretty and so yummy!  I still have leftovers at home that I'm eating...and I'm also looking for an excuse to need to make them myself.  Here's the website with the original recipe: http://bannerboutique.blogspot.com/2012/04/easiest-mini-deep-dish-fruit-pizzas.html.

They also had a bowl of ring pops which was super cute (and a big hit among pretty much everyone).

Next...fruit parfaits in champagne glasses:



These were delicious and pretty darn classy due to the champagne glasses!

There were a mix of sandwiches - some on rolls and some pinwheel style.




They were both super yummy and a nice mix to all the sweet stuff.  I loved the sandwiches in rolls...very simple and very yummy.

Finally...the cutest thing and I had never seen anything like it before...a cupcake bouquet:



The cupcakes were also wonderful (and I'm also eating leftovers...as is Mr. JG).  It was such a cute way to display them too on the flower stems!  I'm not quite sure what they did with the flowers....

Oh, and did you notice all of my old pictures mixed in?  That was a really nice touch - it was fun for some of my friends to get to see childhood pics of me they'd obviously never seen before.  It was also nice to remind some of my family that I used to be cute and sweet :)



My mom made this Hershey kiss costume - it was pretty awesome.  As were those glasses.  My mom made a lot of my Halloween costumes growing up and they were super involved!  In fact...that makes me think we may need to go back through some of those pictures around Halloween for a dedicated costume post...hmmm...  Oh and in the picture above the costume pic, yes...I am laying out posing on a rock, in hiking boots and socks.  Pretty hot.

Oh, and they had some super cute party favors!!!



They were individual little ceramic pots filled with bags of Hershey kisses.  The best part about these were the details...



They used different colors of bakers twine (which is my favorite) and little hand-stamped metal charms that said thank you.  I mean honestly...this is the kind of stuff that made this party so wonderful!  All of these little details that made it 100% me...every bit of it.

We played games, and they were really involved!  We played a game where we had to match some really old school (we're talking B.C.) wedding traditions with the reasons behind them.  There was another where you were matching up famous people with their spouses - and my sister had pictures of all of the couples together for me.  My younger sister spent a LONG time preparing these games and they were amazing!  I'll see if she has digital copies of the games so that I can share them on the blog...because I can tell she put a lot of work into them.

See, look at all the concentration going on...



Then...the gifts for the game winners were great!  It was a jar of Rae :)  A mason jar (because they will be used all over the wedding) wrapped with baker's twine (because I love it), a JoAnn's gift card (because I'm obsessed with JoAnn's...obsessed), a handmade key chain from my etsy shop, and then some candy.  It was so sweet...another really personal and thoughtful touch that made the day so wonderful!

And did you notice those cute pom pom decorations?



They were off of Etsy, and they were adorable.

And a few more highlights from the shower...



A few of many wonderful gifts!



My future sister in law (who is becoming a blog regular...this is her second pic on here) holding the plate bouquet.



My mom and I.  I love this picture of the two of us...we matched.

And last but certainly not least...the two wonderful sisters that planned this event:



I honestly have been overly girly and emotional about the whole thing.  They are so amazing and thoughtful and while planning a wedding can be really stressful, it's also a really great time to have such wonderful people around you.  I know every single day how lucky I am to have found a wonderful person to spend the rest of my life with and that I am surrounded by an amazing family and wonderful friends that brighten each and every day.  I've never been happier to have all of these amazing people in my life and to be in such a good place in my life.  So thanks, blog reader friends...for coming on the journey with me. 

Sharing the Blog Love!

Hi guys!  Did you have a good weekend?  Are you excited to be back at work? 

I had a great weekend - a super fun bridal shower which I will definitely post about this week!  Let's just say I have the best sisters/maid & matron of honor ever and they threw an amazing party!  I didn't realize how much I just needed that day of relaxing and enjoying myself until after I got home and thought about how much fun I had.  I can't wait to show you all the pictures and tell you all about it.

Coming back to work was about how I expected it to be...stressful, tiring, and not the most fun (but not all that awful either because I've gotten a lot accomplished!).  I'm still gearing up for the orientation program I'm running - it happens next week but I'm finally starting to feel like I'm in good shape and just about ready.

For today's blog post, I just want to share the blog love.  Remember how I told you about the book I bought and started late last week:



It's written by www.thebloggess.com, Jenny Lawson.  She's hilarious.  I stayed up last night and finished the book - literally couldn't put it down.  One of the best books I've read in a while (I'd put it up there with Tina Fey's Bossy Pants, and that's one of my favorite books people).  It was completely filthy in parts, wildly offensive in others, and overall really touching and poignant in a very honest way.  Life isn't perfect and most of us aren't the perfect people we'd once hoped we were.  But, we learn from all the crap that happens to us along the way.  So, I highly recommend it.  It's a New York Time's Bestseller...so I must not be the only one loving it.  I have a feeling I'll share mine with a friend or two, then re-read it once I get it back.

And guess what, I'm not the only one sharing the blog love!  Marissa over at Hadley Lane featured Jane's Girl Designs in a blog post this week!  Say what?!?!  Needless to say I was embarrassingly excited and of course had to post it on facebook.  So go look at her post!!  It's great!

http://hadleyslane.blogspot.com/2012/08/etsy-feature-janes-girl-designs.html

Share the blog love ya'll.  Check them out.

Alright, alright...

So I know I need to blog...it's been a few days. 
Here's what I've been up to...

(1) Orders on etsy!  I've gotten a pretty steady stream recently so I've been working everyday on filling orders.  I just made an orange classroom birthdays board that came out super cute!  I may need to make the orange board one of the main pics on my etsy shop.

(2) Olympics watching, kind of.  I love the Olympics but Mr. JG does not.  So we compromise.  I watch the sports I really care about (like women's gymnastics and all swimming events) and then he watches Big Brother anytime it's on.  I missed the all-around women's gymnastics (at least the last half of it) but I was ecstatic when we I heard USA got gold.  Good job ladies.  Oh, and P.S. don't go onto CNNs webpage at all today if you want tonight's gymnastics individual all arounds to be a surprise.  Thanks a lot, CNN.

And while I'm on the topic of Olympics, can I just say that I've heard/seen enough of Michael Lochte to think he's kind of a douche.  Sorry, I know douche is not a polite or appropriate word...but there's honestly no better word I can think of to describe him.  I saw a picture of him in a flat billed hat and plastic white sunglasses.  Then I read an article where he said that he only has one night stands because he's such a stud.  And when he wants to get a girl's attention he just winks at her then comes back to her in a while because that's all she's thinking about in the meantime.  Shit. You. Not.  That's what he said.  See, the words douche and shit make sense when describing this crap.  But, I'm sorry you had to read that.  Please read on...it gets less filthy from here on out.

(3) Stress.  Wedding planning stress.  Trying not to stress.  But, still stressing...a little bit, or a lotta bit.

(4) Really busy at work planning the orientation for our new group of students.  I'm really excited to be planning it and also a little nervous because I don't want to screw it up.  Let's just go with excited on this one.

(5) I bought a book, and can't put it down.



So here's how I came upon it.  First I was on a friend's blog and I noticed that she followed a blog called Friend of the Library, which I now follow too.  And that blog recommended this book, stating that the author also has a blog - www.thebloggess.com, which I now also follow as well (because it's super funny and sounds like things I think in my head sometimes too).

So far, this book is hilarious.  It's also super filthy...drops the f bomb in chapter titles.  So, not for the faint of heart, but definitely for someone that appreciates some potty mouthed humor.  It's also a pretty candid look at life and how at times, it can be awful, but that's what makes you who you are, blah blah blah (seriously though, it can be touching).

(6) My bridal shower is this Saturday...yay!  I'm pretty excited about getting to see some friends and family that I haven't seen in a while.  I also think my sisters have planned some games and stuff too...and I love a good bridal shower game.  There's also something nice about going to a bridal shower, and it's your bridal shower.  Pretty crazy!

Alright, well sorry...I know this was a bit of a lame blog post.  No half naked men or craft projects.  I promise I am working on things at home and eventually I will have some pictures ready to share! 

In the meantime, keep it real player.