Too legit to quit (heyyy heyyyyyyyyyy)

So, I'm on the road right now for my 8-5 job.  BUT do not fear...I was busy crafting before I left in preparation for my big craft fair THIS SATURDAY!  Say what?!?!  It's the Basehor Craft Fair - held from 8am to 4pm this Saturday, November 3 at the Basehor Linwood High School.  If you're in the area, seriously consider coming out to visit us!  My mom is helping me with the booth and I think Mr. J.G.'s mom, Patty, will be stopped by as well.  It's $2-3 to get into the fair so bring a little cash...and then come and look around and find lots of good stuff to take home!

Here are some of the things I'll be selling...



Tote bags made with recycled grocery sacks (and some pretty fabric as well)!  This was the first one I made and very quickly wanted to just keep for myself.  But don't fear (because I'm sure you were super worried) - I'll be selling all these!!!



I found that the target bag patterns made some really nice plastic bag "fabric" so I used those for quite a few of them.  I honestly had more supplies but just ran out of time.

I'll also have my mason jar sewing kits for sale...



And a ton of I spy bags for the kids.

Oh and of course I'll have some birthday boards for sale - family birthday and some classroom birthday boards.

And here's what else...when I wasn't looking I hit 10,000 blog views today!  Say what?!?!

You know what that means.  I'm legit...

...too legit to quit.

(I'm in a hotel room, by myself, between meetings...so yes, I'm bored.)

Wedding Directional Sign

For our wedding, Mr. J.G. did some crafting of his own and made this awesome directional sign.

Photo by Earl Richardson, www.earlrichardson.com

We bought a few skinny pieces of wood from Home Depot then I came home to this one day...

That's right...Crafty McGilicuty in all his glory.  Once he had it all built, he painted the sign to include some important places including our honeymoon location.  Did you notice he even painted a flower on there?  He's a really talented artist - his mom has a number of his drawings in her house (color me jealous...I've been begging him to draw something for a while now).

ANYWAY, we put the sign in an old milk can and held it up with a bunch of sand in the can.  It came out pretty cute and was a fun thing to greet our guests!

Want your own?  Shoot me an email and Mr. J.G. will make it!  Uh, I haven't cleared this with him at all so email at your own risk :)

Reason #165 that I love my husband

I'm getting pumped for the Basehor Craft Fair!  PUMPED!  I'm starting to focus all of my crafting/free time around preparations.  Which leads me to reason #165 that I love my husband.  I'm making more I Spy Bags...

I've changed my format a bit - they're round now and a wee bit smaller (better for little baby hands, duh).  Well anyway I spent at least an hour making that little card that I laminate and attach to the bag.  I have to lay out all the items spaced just right, take a picture, then label everything, etc. etc.  So I really wanted to keep using that card over and over BUT I ran out of the cars and bowling pins!

Are you as sad about that as I am?  You should be.  #firstworldproblems  I don't tweet but I've seen other people hash tag things so I thought I'd try it.  I'm not sold.

Anyway...today Mr. J.G. came up and joined me for lunch on my break.  Well afterward we went to the Dollar Tree thinking I could get more bowling pins and cars (Dollar Tree is where I got them originally).  Welp...we walked around the Dollar Tree for 25 minutes looking and couldn't find either!  Then when the lady asked me if I found everything ok and I told her my dilemma (complete with displaying the i spy card) she walked around with us for another 5 minutes trying to find it.  Mr. J.G. helped...the whole time....30 minutes...in a Dollar Tree.  That's love people.  I also thank his mother for it.  I'm pretty sure she did things like that to him as a child on a regular basis and he's just been broken down now.  :)

Oh, and if all else fails I know I can just find a substitute to the bowling pin and remake the card...but what a pain in the butt.  It's much easier to drive to 15 Dollar Trees and search, right???

Back to my Basehor Craft Fair prep!  So far I've made 12 mason jar sewing kits.  I think I'll have about 25 or 30 I Spy bags by the time all is said and done.  I need to start making some Family Birthday Boards, but my motivation there is a bit lacking.  I'm a little burned out on them so these other crafts have been a nice distraction for me.

This Craft Fair also seems to have a lot of old pros...a little intimidating.  SO, I'm trying to up my professionalism level.  I was pretty happy with the cuteness of my craft booth at my first fair over the summer (remember this??), so now I've resorted to getting better storage/transport containers.  I ordered a monogrammed thirty one bag yesterday.  Have you guys seen these things???  They look awesome!  Tons of room, pretty solid, and super cute.



Image courtesy thirtyonegifts.com

You have to find a consultant, so email me if you're in town because I can give you the info on the lady that sold mine to me.  I got mine in a cute turquoise and brown pattern and monogrammed with my new initials...bam!

AND I've also decided to purchase two of these awesome HUGE bags from Clever Container.  My sister has started selling it - it's a new line of products.  I'll be perfectly honest...I'm usually not a big fan of these lines of stuff that people sell (sorry).  Sometimes it can be a bit pricey (pampered chef...nice but eeesh) OR it's something I really don't use.  But, both the Thirty One bags and Clever Container have some nice stuff that I can actually use (especially as a crafter!) and the prices are really good which is a big factor for me.  Clever has lots of organizing stuff...but here's what I'm getting:

Image courtesy Clever Containers

It's slightly hard to tell (this is a picture I snipped from the online catalog) but they are these massive bags (they come up to my mid thigh...huge).  They are pretty solid too so I think they'll be great to haul a bunch of stuff to and from craft fairs.  Here's my sister's website so you can buy your own if you want!  http://mycleverbiz.com/brookeparker

Alright, I'll keep you all posted on my Craft Fair happenings as I move forward....and on the status of the miniature bowling pin search :)

Is it time for another vacation yet?

Welp, I'm in the middle of travel season at work which means I'm either gone or I'm home and exhausted.  I'm not even doing that much traveling, but for some reason it's just really wearing me out!  Last week I drove to St. Louis (about 4.5 hour drive) and then back the following day, then to Wichita the next day (about a 2.5 hour drive) and back home the same day.  This week I flew to El Paso on Monday, flew home Tuesday and got home around midnight, then drove to Warrensburg, MO (about 2 hour drive) the following day.  Basically...I'm a little pooped.  The house is a mess with my junk (and my poor husband is trying to do it all alone) and I'm stressed.  It's all just part of travel season with work...but I'm about sick of it (and I've only been traveling for two weeks).

The good things about travel season though - most of my meals are paid by work because I'm out of town.  So, that's nice.  Plus, I get to catch up on some reading!

I finished this book in El Paso:



As recommended by fellow bloggers Victoria and Ginny.  It was SO GOOD!  I almost got a little emotional at the airport as I was finishing it on my Nook (I'm sure I looked completely crazy pants). I highly recommend reading it...don't let the cheesy title steer you away.

On the honeymoon I was able to read The Chaperone:



Also pretty good and stuck with me (just not quite as much as The Last Letter).  I also read The Virgin of Small Planes by Nancy Pickard.  It was just alright...kind of an interesting story but I didn't feel like it was really well written which was mildly frustrating at times.  At the end of the honeymoon, Mr. JG said "You've read more on this honeymoon than I read in my entire college experience."  I laughed...he said he was serious.  :)

So what else is new??

I'm getting ready for a craft fair!  Woo Hoo!  This is the big time folks...Basehor Craft Fair on November 3rd.  I went last year, just as an observer and was super impressed.  It's huge, well organized, and has a ton of people that come.  So, basically I cannot screw this up...I would be embarrassed for life!

While the Birthday Boards seem to sell pretty well on Etsy, I know they are a larger purchase/commitment for a craft fair so I'm working on a few other things to sell at the fair in addition to the boards.  I've been working on some I Spy bags for the kids.  They're slightly re-worked since my original post on them.

And, I've started working on some little sewing kits out of mason jars:



I had so many leftover mason jars from the wedding that I literally just put a table number into and that's it!  So, I made pincushions for the tops of the lids, added some spray paint and embellishment, and put some sewing supplies inside!  I think these will be a huge hit (well, at least I hope so).  They'd be great for college students or those that don't have an entire room devoted to crafting...

Oh, and one more thing.  I'm thinking of planning a crafting party later this fall...Crafting and Cocktails.  Who's in???