Vacation Crazy

Jason and I took our first vacation in 6 years to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We left the kiddos with my folks and we were off...

So in order to save money I booked us a flight leaving at 5:30am out of Flint which is about a 45 minute drive. Being the procrastinators we are, we didn't finish packing until 12:30 am, passed out for 2 hours then got up, hopped in the car and drove to the airport. We landed in Atlanta at 7 am and had a ridiculous 3 hour layover most of which I slept on the benches. From Atlanta we flew to Denver.

My good friend from high school was getting married the next day (saturday).

Ok so from the airport we rented a supposedly compact car I reserved but it really ended up being an SUV so that was funny. Drove to my friends house, said Hi for like an hour then drove 3 1/2 hours north to Glenwood Spring Colorado. Totally the most beautiful drive I've ever been on! Overwhelming a bit on my 2 hours of sleep but beautiful. We arrive in town to meet the suppliers of my hemp fabric.

Hanging out with them was so amazing and informational I can't even explain. There's nothing I love more than knowing my fabric comes from good people doing good work. We ate dinner at the Hotel Colorado nestled in lush gardens with mountains towering everywhere! I crashed early cause I thought I was gonna die if I didnt.

The next day, Jason and I explored the town, took pictures and ate breakfast at a tiny little diner. We went back to the hemp compound for some more awesome conversation with our host and then hopped back inthe truck to go to a wedding!

We had exactly enough time to get to our hotel, check in, change and get back into the car for wedding. We arrive just as they are saying the last of the vows. Everyone cheers then we hit the reception (it was literally that fast). Do all the fun reception things like drink and dance, then get back to the hotel and crash.

6 hours later...we hop back in the truck, get to the airport for the second leg of our journey...

We land in Seattle at 9am where my cousin and her hubby pick us up. We explore Pike Place market for a few then head north to Anacordes, Washington. There we hopped a ferry to San Juan Island. My cousins hubby's family has a condo on the island. There we just lounged, ate too much, explored the island, ate more and drank wine.... for 4 days. Just the perfect way to ease out the insanity of the first half of our vacation. We even saw a whale fin!

We had so much fun. I forget how fun exploring is! You can see pics from the trip at www.holidazy.blogspot.com

They are camera phone shots so the movies are a little low res. If you go to the oldest posts first, its in chronological order.

All of you who support us through my business and otherwise made this vacation getaway even possible...So a huge thanks to you all!

Wedding Bliss

I had the joy and pleasure of making my first wedding dress. My best friend Carmen asked if I'd do a dress for her reception and I agreed, albeit a little nervously. Normally brides scare the crap out of me. They are all tense and angry and generally scary. Carmen on the other hand was none of those things. She wanted only a dress created by me for her most special day. We talked about design, bouncing ideas back and forth till we came up with a great general outline. From there it was up to me...

Carmen loves shiny so I chose hemp/ silk charmeuse...absolutely amazing fabric. Soft shine on one side and raw silk looking on the back side. I wanted to try dip dyeing for this dress in the worst way. The trick was (A) I had only enough fabric to make the dress once, (B) it had to be finished before I dyed it so there was no weird lines, and (C) me being the big chicken procrastinator I am, waited till it was 3 days before she was showing up for a fitting :).

All went amazingly perfect. This dress was made for her, fit perfect and was flattering. Best of all I got to put all the love for my best friend into it....







I also made the little flower girl dress that Ari is wearing. There were 2 of those sweet little girls walking down the aisle. They made sure to get every last rose petal out of that basket.

The bride and groom took care of their guests with lots of good food and great music. But best of all, they took care of each other. They wrote vows that brought everyone to tears. Peter (the groom) had all of Carmen's friends records love songs for her on her wedding day. Each guest got a cd to take home. And my little Ari, who is extremely shy, got up on the dance floor and sang a song she made up on the spot in front of 100 people! Truly the perfect wedding....

My Peaceful Warrior

I put my kids in Taekwondo for some good old fashioned discipline as well as some exercise. They LOVE it. If we did calculating right and Kiran keeps it up he'll be an 11 year old first degree blackbelt and Ari will be around 8 when she gets her black belt. This is Kiran competing in the school's form competion. He won first place.

Next I'll have to show you Ari's work with the Bow Staff, I won't mess with her when she's got that thing!

More Anniversary Goodness

Kirsten summed it up perfectly...plus she got some amazing pictures...
check it out...
10 years

Thank you once again...thank you cards are going out shortly I promise!

Happy Anniversary

I've been meaning to post about this for week now but I'm slow. Jason and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary at the end of May. I was marvelling the other day that there are very few people we hang out with who knew us when we were single. I'm really proud of this. We are young, I'm 33 and Jason's 35, and we made it this long. Of course there's been ups and downs but we are still madly in love with each other...but I digress...

So my friend Kirsten and her boyfriend Dan wanted to take us out for our anniversary which I thought was really nice. They live in the Detroit area and I thought it was awesome (if not a little weird) that they wanted to drive all the way up here for dinner with us. She told me to make sure we got someone to watch the kids so we could go get drinks and just relax...

A few days before she's like um are you ready for this weekend? did you get someone to watch the kids? Oops of course I'm forgetful and did not. I call my mom and she agrees (rather quickly I thought).

Kirsten and Dan show up to take us out, we're just relaxing on the couch watching Terminator 3. We mosey out the door to Beggars Banquet (which Kirsten picked).
We walk through the back door and Kirsten steers us into the banquet room and "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!" everyone yells (well it sounded like everyone but it may have just been Carmen).

I honestly don't recall ever being so surprised. I don't think anyone got pics of us but I can honestly say my jaw was to my chest.

My amazing friend Kirsten has orchestrated the most amazing surprise party every. All of our friends, my family, Jason's work friends are there. Nothing makes me feel happier or more complete when all my loved ones are in one room.

Kirsten made the most amazing cheesecakes, Carmen made tiramisu and blueberry pie and there was more I'm sure. The food was beautiful. The extent to which this party was planned still amazes me. Kirsten actually contacted Jason's work to make sure he got out at a reasonable time (yes she scheduled his work day) as well as made sure they got invites there. She contacted my family and made sure my kids would be watched (which caused some panic since I forgot and called so late). Dan made this beautiful Happy Anniversary sign by hand because he thought we deserved and would appreciate it being handmade. They made a box for cards and asked for donations for us to go on our upcoming trip out west. She thought of everything.

We ate, had drinks (too many I think, for some, *eh hem Kirsten*) and we had the most fun in forever. My gratitude is so huge its overwhelming. I have thank you cards coming to everyone I just have to figure out what to say (sometimes that takes me a while).

And Kirsten, you are the best, most kind generous soul, and most organized person I know. You should honestly be an event planner, you'd kick ass.
Me and Kirsten
This picture is ridiculous but see how much fun we're having!

I got Press!!!

I recently was asked to submit my Ginkgo Skirt to Belle Armoire magazine, an art to wear publication. I automatically thought it was just a small zine or something until I spotted it on the magazine rack at Joann Fabrics. Come to find out its distributed world wide and is the publishers most popular magazine. I just received my copy in the mailbox this morning! I'm so excited..Here's some pics...

I'm featured in a blog

Things are going really great (and ridiculously busy) here at Jennifer Joy Creative. I've surpassed my goal on Etsy of 450 hearts for the month of May, and its still only the middle of the month! I've started dyeing fabric to sell too which is very fun as I've only dyed it for my own creations before. Here's a sample...


I just got a really nice email to let me know my Cherries Skirt has been featured on the Rare Bird Finds Blog...check it out.