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??? 

iPhones and Vows

No, this is NOT a post about the new fancy pants iphone.  I have my iphone4 and I heart it.  I'm sure the new one makes pot roast and will create world peace, but I don't care...I like mine.

This is a post about how we used a great new iphone app at our wedding!  A few days before the wedding, I found this great app via pinterest: weddingpartyapp.

Photo Courtesy www.weddingpartyapp.com

First, go onto their website, here...https://www.weddingpartyapp.com/

Then register your wedding.

Once you register you can download free place cards to put around the room that tell your guests how to download the app...here's a pic of one of our tables (before flowers, table numbers, etc) with the wedding app cards on it.



The app is 100% free and seemed to be pretty easy for our guests to use!  As a result, we got a great website full of awesome pics all taken by our guests.  It's pretty much like disposable cameras only much, much better.  It's great because while we wait for our professional photos, we get a chance to see so many photos of the day!

Here were a few of my favs...



Wine glass party favors (and escort cards)



Chris' bar sign.  That bar was his baby, folks.



Us getting ready.  One of my favorites because of Kim lurking behind the door...



Cool as a cucumber...on our way to the wedding



Contemplating his last few moments as a single man...



My sister's hair.  So pretty!



God this cake was good!



First dance...and the only physical record of Chris dancing, ever.



The moustaches were a hit...right Aimee?  :)

So this is my piece of advice for future brides.  Seriously, register for the wedding app and put the cards around your reception.  You'll be so happy you did!

The Bathroom's Bigger Than the Blue Banana

So I thought I'd spend a few posts going over my honeymoon experience.  It was pretty fantastic, and I have a ton of pictures (and didn't craft while I was there) so I figured I'd share.  PLUS if you're going to Maui anytime soon, this is helpful stuff here. 

So this post is all about our (first) hotel room.  We stayed at the Four Season's Maui.  It was the fanciest hotel Chris and I had ever even seen, let alone stepped foot into.  We felt instantly out of place from the first two minutes but the people there were pretty nice so we just pretended like we belonged.  On the way to Maui Chris wanted to tell the airline gate person that he was Michael Phelps and I was his wife, Kelly Clarkson, and it was imperative that we be moved to first class.  Well, once we got to the hotel he would walk around saying "well we have google money" or "I own Apple."  Basically, we were completely ridiculous.

Here's us getting our picture taken in front of the sign.

Now you may be thinking "wow, how embarrassing that you asked to have your picture taken in front of the hotel sign."  My response to you...yes, it was.  But you only live once and we're never going to afford to go back, so dammit, we got our picture taken.

 

When we arrived they gave us leis, ginger mint lemonade and (no shit) chilled lavender towels.  Chris looked at the woman and said "uh, what am I supposed to do with this?"  She said "refresh yourself" and I was really tempted to wipe my armpits off with it.  We had been traveling for like 15 hours...don't judge.

 

Then they had a guy take our bags up to our room while giving us a tour of the hotel and explaining our room amenities.  Of course, I asked him to take our picture :)

 

 

Look, fancy pants leis.  They wanted $18 for them at the airport!  I was glad I didn't buy one there...

 

Once the guy left our room we spent the next 15 minutes taking pictures of it.  Seriously.  I had my fancy pants camera and Chris had his phone...and we just lost our minds.  "LOOK, there's a radio built into the bathroom!"  "Free champagne!"  "This balcony area is HUGE!"  "FREE SLIPPERS!!!"

 

Here are the highlights...

 

Chris told them it was our honeymoon (with the hopes of getting free stuff, duh) and it worked.  They left a rose, two glasses, and a bottle of champagne in the fridge.  I really should have gone around calling it "champs" a la Real Housewives Orange County Heather.  But I was too busy going "whoa, this is free?"

 

Here are some other pictures of the room/bathroom...

Slippers!

 

Yes, the bathroom was bigger than the Blue Banana!  (hopefully I'm not so old that no one knows that movie reference anymore)

 

Remember how I said this was our first hotel room at the beginning of this post?  Well...here's the thing.  This room was pretty awesome.  Garden View with a huge courtyard area to walk out onto grass, lay out, etc.  BUT it also had an adjoining door to the room next door that let noise in and some people came into that room halfway through our stay.  I guess they were still on a weird time schedule because every morning at 3am they would wake up and start loudly watching TV and talking/laughing.  We didn't want to complain (well, I didn't want to complain) but it was a pricey hotel to not be able to get much sleep.  So, we complained.  And by we I mean Chris said something while I refused to even go near the desk as he did ("Uh, I need to use the restroom, and take pictures, and stuff...I'll come meet you after").  And they moved us...

 

I guess the new room was supposed to be pretty fancy pants.  It was an ocean view and clearly out of our budget.  Here's the view...

 

 

Honestly, I just liked that we could sleep in and not get disturbed by noisy neighbors in this one.  Oh, and of course the hotel was just laying it on thick at this point...
 

 

It's kind of hard to tell...but these are chocolate covered strawberries with an accompanying "sorry for the trouble with your room."  The woman at the front desk also said to call her directly when we come back and she'll upgrade us for free.  I tried not to laugh...IF we ever come back it will be for a 50th wedding anniversary or something and she'll probably not be there anymore.  But alas, it was an awful nice thing to offer.

 

Moral of the story: it must be nice to have money and think this is a normal vacation.

More to come!!!

Bridesmaid Survival Kits

As promised, now that the wedding is over I'll be bombarding you with wedding projects that I completed months ago and couldn't post until after it was all over.

One of my favorite gifts for my bridesmaids were survival kits that I made. 

They also came in super handy that day when I (a) cried like a baby, (b) got a little headache by the end of the night, and (c) asked if anyone had any mints handy.  So basically, I probably utilized them more than my bridesmaids.

Here's how I made them (you should make them too!)

I found these great makeup bags on Etsy...you can customize your fabric and rosette colors (and the rosette comes off if you want).  Here's where you can get your own...http://www.etsy.com/shop/allisajacobs?ref=pr_shop_more.

Then I went to Walgreens and found all sorts of great things to put in them.  They weren't super big, so here's what I collected:

• Kleenex
• Shout to go wipes
• Sewing kits (with scissors for my local girls and no scissors for the girls that had to fly home)
• Burts Bees Chap stick
• Travel Size Deodorant
• Altoids Smalls (a nice little mint tin)
• Emory Board
• Advil

I would have liked to add more to the kits, but the small makeup bags were pretty full with just these few things.

I also made a little card to go in the kits as well.

Now go!  Make your own!

P.S. Have you liked me on Facebook yet?  Do you want to?  Pretty please!  Check me out here: http://www.facebook.com/JanesGirlDesigns?ref=hl

AND....I'm back!

Sorry about the longest non-blogging time period ever in the history of blogging and time.  In my defense, here's what I've been up to...

That's me gettin' hitched.  I plan to write a ton more blog posts with wedding projects and a complete recap of the wedding titled "The best day of my life..and the snottiest" - I'm talking actual snot.  Basically I was a complete mess walking down the aisle.  I got so overwhelmed and happy and just hit with all the emotions that I started crying and by the time I got to my man, it was a full out ugly cry, complete with snot.  The good news is he still married me.  It was amazing.  Best.  Wedding.  Ever.  I may be biased.

And then I did this!




That's us on our honeymoon in sunny Maui.  It was beautiful and pretty perfect.  Just like the wedding (only less snot on the honeymoon).

Alright, more to come.  Just wanted to assure the cyber universe that I was alive and well!

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???