I should be a wedding planner.

Sometimes I think I'd love to  be a wedding planner. I love coordinating colors and styles. I love creating desserts and appetizers and full course meals. I love designing formal clothing and accessories. I love making things pretty and I have such an eye for little details. And I love to be organized (I just wish I could afford to splurge on the best organizational items so I could do it like I want to).

My friend Jennifer is getting married in June. She asked me to make her bridesmaid dresses. Her colors: purple and zebra print with lime green accents.

Here are what the dresses are looking like:

I designed them with her ideas and suggestions. I think they're turning out pretty fun! I flew to TN over Easter weekend and fitted all the bridesmaids. All of the girls seemed to like them, and some were thrilled at how cute and figure flattering they are. It's always nice to be a bridesmaid and like the dress enough to wear it later. It also makes me feel good that I'm really getting really experienced at professional quality sewing, especially since this was the first pattern I made myself! 

Jennifer was also interested in a hair piece for her big day. After several emails full of ideas, I came up with this for her:

There are olivine (bright green) colored crystals in the center of the daisy and two types of feathers behind it. I really like how it turned out, and she loves it too! 

Now I just need to attach it to an alligator clip and send it to her. And then it's time to finish those bridesmaid dresses...

I've Been Hacked!

That's right, my sneaky and subversive husband has hacked my account, and has typed this blog post as a surprise to me. Just so y'all don't get confused, he'll be talking as though he's me, even though I, Janae, had nothing to do with this particular post.

Let's start off by setting down some basics that we can all agree on.

• I'm Janae, and I'm incredibly attractive. Also, I'm lots of fun.
• I have such a wide range of interests and talents that I can hardly keep up with them. I love to cook, bake, sew, craft with paper, scissors, fabric, glue, wood, and just about anything else I can get my hands on
• I have an excellent eye for design and aesthetics, and I love to bring that to play in organizing and decorating my home, and in all those crafty things. 
• I want to learn and do so much more! I've always wanted to go hang gliding, I love climbing but don't go enough, and I love snowboarding, but same problem there. I still need to learn to crochet and a bunch of other crafts and hobbies. 
• I'm hopelessly addicted to Halo. I wasn't very good a few years ago, but after weekly sessions with friends, I can legitimately hold my own. I've even won a few rounds. 
• I really really really want to learn metalsmithing so I can design and cast my own jewelery. Why does everything I want to do cost so much?
• Case in point, I also want to travel the globe. I want to see third world countries and the remnants of the height of European monarchies. I want to see the tropics, the tundra, and be swallowed in the vastness of the Sahara. I want to see all the different places right here in the U.S., from the Painted Desert, to the Redwoods, to Mt. Rushmore, to the Everglades, to New York City, to the coasts of Maine, to the underground Boston music scene...
• Have you noticed how cute I am? I'm seriously attractive, really! Who else do you know that could pull off any hair color, any outfit, any style? We are few and far between. Worship us.
• I throw the BEST parties.       ....E V A R R R.
•  I am one tough chick. If you had any idea all of the crap I've been through in my life to get where I am, you would probably faint. Or maybe you'd relate if you've been there, too. Respect my journey.
• A side effect of all that is PTSD, which I've written other posts about, from time to time. This makes even the most trivial of matters sometimes insurmountable in the moment. Do you get it? Maybe. But unless you've dealt with it, I doubt it.  Like I said, I'm tough. I always make it through it.
• I have an incredible amount of faith, and a very strong testimony of the Restored Gospel. Sometimes the social side of attending church is hard for me to deal with (see above), but I will always love the Savior, the Gospel, and my Heavenly Father. It's unshakable.
• My husband is better than your husband. 
• Did I mention how ridiculously attractive I am?
• Have you hung out with me lately? Why not? I promise you that I am outrageously hilarious, and a load of fun! Seriously, what's your excuse?
• I've changed through about 9 different majors in college (lots of interests) so I know a lot about a lot of stuff, instead of a little bit about a lot of stuff or everything about one thing. Except for sewing- my husband thinks I might know just about everything about that, but I don't really think so; There's always something new to learn!
• I love animals and I really want a dog! We never really got to have one growing up and now that I'm older, I want one. 
• I love my sisters-in-law and I wish I hung out with them more. What do we have in common? What can we do together?
• I'm going to be the coolest mom ever, except for maybe my mom, who is perpetually amazing. My husband has no doubt that I can live up to her legacy, though.

Well, that's about all for now. Comment on this post and tell me how much you love me, because after all, I'm not really writing this, so it's not fishing for compliments, is it?!

These are a few of my favorite things.

I really enjoy crafts and hand-making things, from hair clips to jewelry, to my day planner.

I decided to document my favorite items I've made. some of them are on my Etsy website, and some I use every day. I wanted to document them as a reference for myself and for anyone else who'd like to see crafty little things, whether for fun or for inspiration.

A more recent item for sale on Etsy. I love this lace! It's almost tacky, but still cute if used right.

This one was so easy and fun. Someone bought it off my Etsy store just two days after I posted it up!

I like this one. It's very earthy and reminds me of autumn and Thanksgiving. 

I'd seen some flowers like these before, so I tried to see if I could make them on my own. My first attempt resulted in the ones on the bottom left. I really like how they all turned out!

I actually made these for Bob over a year ago, while I was still in Tennessee and working at the bead shop. One day he asked if I could make him something other than jewelry. I came up with these. We have them on display in our front room because we like them so much.

I have always struggled to find a planner that I like. They either have too much or not enough. So I took a mini three-ring binder and made it my planner. I made my own cover just like I wanted, and I've never had a better planner! Not too big, not too small. For a while I even printed my own pages to go inside, but then I found some I actually really love.

I found these yellow and black swirled beads in San Diego over Christmas last year. I love them! But I don't know that I'd ever wear them. So I decided to at least make something someone else could wear.

 I'll put others up on occasion as I make them.

I've debated on writing up instructions or tutorials for how to make some of these. I'll consider it if anyone leaves a comment asking for it.

Which one(s) do you like?

Fabric Flowers

So with my new hobby/project room, I've started making things. I posted some pictures on Facebook, but I thought I'd put some up here too. I suppose I just really want to document all of this because I'm really pleased with most of it. So I'm going to be posting lots of blogs of things I'm making. I'm also going to try and catch up on posting past projects, so there might be several posts by me, all in a row.

Last night I couldn't sleep. So I finally got up and went into my project room and sat down at my desk. It's funny how I remember having so many ideas of things I wanted to make, and now that I have a place to do all of that I can't remember any of them. Luckily something came to me.

I've recently seen some cute headbands and barrettes with fabric flowers on them. I thought they looked simple enough, so I tried it. I cut out some paper patterns and they worked perfectly--first try! That doesn't happen very often. So here they are:

The red one on the top right was the first one I made. They just got better from there. I finished the edges with Mod Podge so they won't fray.

Now I just need to figure out where to get a bunch of headbands or barrettes.