springtime with jane & friends

This past weekend, I had another craft fair!

I've only done a small handful of these, so each one is a learning experience.

I'm still in a state of non-commitment, because I borrow a table, don't have a tablecloth of any sort, and I totally wing my table setup the night before.

Doing these types of events is always hit and miss.
Will the weather be good, will people come, will I make up the participation fee, will the hours I spent preparing turn out to be worth it...

Business Card Holder by More Than Colors on Etsy

All in all, I feel that the amount of time and effort I put forth into these types of events is usually way more than the benefit.
And yet I still strive to make it work.
Practice makes perfect, right? I've had some utter failures and I've had some really great experiences.
While this fair didn't work out for me (it was cold, windy, I spilled my coffee, the crowds were small, I got sunburned...) I did happen to meet some lovely other crafting women, pass a few business cards out, and I had a boosted inventory.
I was also able to trade a few Posies for some local creamed cinnamon honey, which is delicious.

Brooches 

Headbands

Custom Magnets

Harry Potter Studs

Happily, I had a very fun day date planned for later that afternoon.
I went home and freshened up, jumped into a tea-drinking-worthy dress, and headed downtown to the Ploughcroft Tea Room!

I've only been there once before, which is a shame.
It's a darling little downtown treasure, and I hope to visit more often throughout our last year here.
Whoa. Our last year here.
Although even so, I won't be visiting it as much as our table mate does, let's just call him Bernard. But I'll get to him later.

I went on this lovely day date with my friend Angelica.

She's also leaving me, in case you were wondering.

She has been such a blessing to me. She's the co-leader of Dusty and I's life group at church. She's sweet, funny, smart, artistic, and has a way with words! (See her blog here). 

She has a passion for the Lord that is both refreshing and encouraging to me, and is one of the best people I know. It's an absolute tragedy that she's leaving, but also a complete victory. She's packing up her bags to go back to Canada (her home land) to go to an Art Therapy Institute. But that's after she's traversing around Europe for a month. Girl after my own heart!

We gathered on that fine Saturday to nerd out together and celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Which as you know, I absolutely love (and if you read Angelica's blog at all, you know she really loves it as well!).
The tea room put on a lovely event with live music, a free copy of Pride and Prejudice, dramatic readings, and of course, the Afternoon Tea with assortments of goodies to eat.

They even played a song from one of the best parts of the 2005 movie version:

(Which of course, caused Angelica and I to start quoting the lines from this part of the movie). 

A local company provided the entertainment, which was a very abridged version of the book, dramatically reading various excerpts from beginning to end.
They were extremely entertaining, but my very favorite part was stealing glances at Angelica as she silently mouthed along with them!

Now...lets talk about Bernard.

When Angelica arrived she had been informed that a man would be joining us.

Little did we know, it would be...a very peculiar sort of man. 

Button-up, vest, plaid, pocket watch, soft southern voice. Disapproving glances. He was an expert in all things Austen and all things tea, so watch out, y'all.

A woman from the tea room sat with us periodically, and at one point he revealed to her that in college he spent 2-3 hours every Thursday at Ploughcroft. 

Dedication, people. And most likely cavities. Sugar cubes.

Anyway...he seemed unimpressed. Even though he and the tea room were BFFs, once the dramatic readings finished, he looked around seedily and huffed, "what...is that it?"

Angelica and I enjoyed giggly eye glances throughout the afternoon. 

All I know is that I will not be having Bernie over for tea any time soon.  

It was such a great day.
I'm so happy for Angelica, and her future is bright and beautiful. I can only hope we meet again someday.
But for now I'm glad I get the chance to be in her life for a little while!

After the tea room, I went and grabbed Dusty and we went to bring some dinner and dessert over to the Earls, who just had their beautiful baby girl, Brooklyn.
I'm so happy we got to meet her before they move! They leave next week.
Basically this post is mainly a pity party for myself.

But truthfully I'm in the depths of sadness over the friends we're losing. I'm so grateful I get to hold Brooklyn in her very first days. Meeting her for the first time this weekend was so exciting.
Last year, we were sitting in a frozen yogurt shop with our friend Heather, who was pregnant for the first time. There were four of us: me, Erica, Heather and Allison.
As we sat there eating our mounds of yogurt and various toppings, Heather made a comment: "Goodness, our babies are going to be fat!"
Then Allison smirked, "Yes, our babies are going to be very fat."
Erica was the first to catch it.
"Wha--what!? OUR babies!? What!"
Then Erica and I continued to shout nonsensically as Allison and Heather just basked in the glory of the surprise.
And thus, the first knowledge of little Brooklyn came to be. It was a beautiful and hilarious moment. And now both Heather and Allison have their little girls, within weeks of each other.

Meeting Brooklyn!

Dusty chose to have a super creepy Study Stache for this occasion. It makes me laugh out loud.

I just love her.
As we visit them over the years (and obviously when they visit us, like all the time), as Brooklyn gets older, I can tell her how I was her favorite from the very beginning.

storybooks and well wishes

As you may already know, our wonderful friends Greg and Allison are getting ready to leave us.
Greg will be graduating from Liberty Law in less than a month, and they'll be taking their little family back to Illinois to start the next chapter in their lives!
We are very excited for them, but also very sad for the loss we will feel without them here.

My friend Stephanie and I worked together to throw a little baby shower for Allison, who is having her first little girl (her son Aidan is 2) any day now!
(My fingers are crossed for today...I really wanna meet her asap!)

Not only is Allison a wonderful friend, but she's also been incredibly involved in the law wives and is beloved by everyone she meets. She has invested so much of herself into the law wives ministry, and I know I would have been lost without her, and I'm sure I'm not the only one!

With that in mind, Stephanie and I wanted to create a bubbly, girly, intimate get together for loved ones to come and show their love and appreciation for Allison and little baby Brooklyn.

Stephanie's home was absolutely perfect.

We were thrilled because it was such a gorgeous day, and we could open the blinds and the front door and just let all the natural light in.

She has done such a wonderful job of decorating their house, and it's kind of what I imagine my future house to look like...someday, when I grow up...

She's also a wonderful cook, and an exceptional baker, and she took care of all of the goodies for the shower. I'm still in awe over the marvelous stuff she made!

She made a gorgeous cake, frosted to perfection and topped with fresh flowers. It was a coconut cream cake with raspberry filling. Yeah, yeah, I know.

She also made three kinds of tea sandwiches: cucumber, caprese, and tuna salad. 

She made mini coffee cake muffins, and had an amazing display of cheeses with bread biscuits, grapes, and prosciutto. I'm a sucker for cheese, so I kept hanging around that end of the table...

I really can't get over that cake. Right out of a magazine, amiright?

I helped with the decorations and took on a few crafty projects for the cutesie factor.

In the kitchen, Stephanie set up the drink station.

Mint infused water, some various sparkling ciders, and of course, coffee!

She ordered a box of coffee from Starbucks (so cool) and transferred it into the silver carafe for serving. 

We were both really pleased with how everything turned out. :)
It was really fun preparing something for someone whose friendship has meant so much to both of us!

Once it started getting close to 11, I set out to go and pick Allison up.
It was a "surprise" shower...although a few days before we had kind of had to tell her about it...so she knew what was going on, but there was still an air of mystery.

Walking in with her was fun: "Why are there so many people in there??"

 I'm pretty sure this is her reaction to the cake, and I really, really love it.

We had a really great group of women come out for the shower!
The first game we instilled was that the word "baby" was off limits. I think someone slipped right off the bat, and our friend Rachel was the first to shout "AH!" as soon as they did.
I'm telling you, she was a mastermind. We each had little paper hearts taped to our shirts, and if you said the magic word, whoever caught you could steal it...
Rachel was stealing hearts all over the place.

We snacked, and chatted, and eventually played a second game.
It was actually a game I had seen played at my sister-in-law's baby shower!
I had loaded up a tray with baby-related goodies, and brought it slowly around the room.
Once I had made my rounds, I put the tray away into the back room and had everyone write down as many things as they could remember from the tray!

Definitely not easy! It was packed!

Victoria won, and received the first prize - a fun Bath & Body Works candle!
(PS - I just went and spent way too much there yesterday on all of their Spring scents. Strawberry candles, fresh flowers, scents of Italy... love them all!)

Allison actually won the other prize, which was given at random to the one who grabbed the dessert plate that I had drawn a little heart on the bottom of! :)
(Rachel, obviously, won the "baby" game!)

Allison and Victoria

Allison and Emilie

A few girls had to leave early, so we cut the cake and all ooohed and aaaahed.
We also grabbed a group shot before anyone else left, although Emilie had already had to leave to go babysit her niece :) such a good-looking group.

Opening presents is my favorite part.
I loved some of the pictures I got at Heather's shower of her opening little Audri's new things, and having both Heather and Allison having little girls so close together is really fun.

I loved watching Allison's face at each new item (and writing down the things she said, which I used later for a "things you said at the baby's conception" log...hehe!).
She's just so darn cute.

The cuteness overload pout.

 This next reel of pictures is from Allison opening the best gift ever: a baby book of Pride and Prejudice.

It was one of Stephanie's gifts, and we had talked about it beforehand, so I knew how excited she was to give it to Allison!
But it was way more fun seeing her tell everyone else the story of how and when she found it in a store in Charlottesville.

 I'm not gonna lie, I want all of these books for my future children.
They're adorable.
But the first one I must have (listen up, my-future-baby-loving-people) is Pride and Prejudice.

She passed it around so we all could see.
Hands down, the cutest counting book of all time.

The "I <3 Darcy" shirt!

Baby things are just too cute.

Allison has a super cute pair of red pants - and now they can match!

Before everyone left, they were encouraged to grab some macarons and Posies for little to-go favors.

Right - Stephanie also made incredible chocolate mint macarons that were absolutely scrumptious.

After the shower, we grabbed some coffee to go and the three of us amigos headed off to a vintage market that was happening at Dusty and I's church.

 It was the perfect way to end such a girly day.

It was honestly above and beyond what I had envisioned!
Allison and I went to this vintage market right before Christmas, but it was hosted in a warehouse downtown.
This time it was at LFCN, and was so well done. Everything was spread out and each vendor had an awesome display of their items. I wanted to buy everything! It was a problem.

It was such a beautiful, perfect girl's day!


Allison: I hope you feel loved, today and every day.
You are an amazing woman, an amazing mother, an amazing friend, and Brooklyn is going to be so thrilled to belong to you every single day of her sweet life.
I'm so happy that we'll be friends for always, and Dusty and I promise to come to Chicago whenever we can, as long as you promise to come and have Arizona time with me. I guess Greg can come, too. :)
We love you!