My inspiring friend

I finally got to catch up tonight with my sweet friend, Jen :) She moved to Chattanooga this past May when her husband finished his first 4 years of med school at Marshall and now they're down south for his residency. Oh, how I miss her!!  Jen was my very first real exposure into the world of crafting. I hope she doesn't kill me for this, but I need to show off some of her amazing creations (because she's too humble and would blow it off as if she's not incredibly talented). She's not just crafty though- she's a serious artist!!! I had to stalk facebook pictures to prove it :) I mean, really!!! Look how gorgeous her paintings are!!

This one is one of my favorites :) A Jen Fox original!

Look at that amazing picture over the mantel!!! I wish you could see the entire thing up close, because I truly can't describe how beautiful it is. I told you she was awesome! I love though that this picture shows off not only the painting, but also her cute home, her cute decorating (notice the fun festive ornaments dangling in front of us), and her cute self! (Well, some of her- she's the one in the middle with the streamer in front of her face).

Here's a picture showing why she had us all over to her house that day. She had a gingerbread house decorating party- too fun! She pre-made all the houses for us (notice the detailed shingles on the roofs!) and then provided us with tons of decorating candy!

One last one- this is when she made some of her paintings into cards and this is one of the first places that sold them!! {And for the record, I'm the one who made her pose like this and take a picture. I was so excited for her!!!}

So I think you can see how creative she is! I'm so sorry, Jen, if you're mortified by this!! I'm just in awe of your talent! :) So, that all being said, she mentioned a blog tonight that she's in love with- and I knew I had to check it out. It's called graphicsfairy.blogspot.com and it's FULL of so many great ideas!! And to make it even better, it's all free!!! Here are just a few of her ideas:

I love these DIY placemats.

And this flower bucket.

And I'm sort of obsessed with these luggage tags. One of her bloggy friends made this using an image from Graphics Fairy.

Those are just a few examples though. This website has over 1,700 images to choose from!  I just need to go stock up on some transfer paper now!! Thanks for sharing, Jen! {And please don't kill me for bragging on you!}