It's beginning to look a lot like a Relay Christmas!

Hey Everyone!!! We are well!! Life has been crazy busy and that is a good thing! I have a folder full of pictures to share with you in post format. I am hoping to get a few posts done tomorrow! I miss you! How is everyone? I hope you are well!!!

I believe I mentioned (and if I didn't, I'm sorry) awhile back that I am now on the leadership committee for our local Relay For Life event.  I am the "online chair." This is part of the reason I haven't been around. I work in front of a computer all day, I come home and catch up on email, news, Facebook for myself and then do some Relay stuff.  I have to walk away from the computer and that generally happens before I make it to Blogger. Don't worry. We are still taking pictures of our projects and I am still pinning ideas on Pinterest. In the three or so weeks since my last post, there has been a lot going on. My Aunt and Uncle came in from Florida, so we decorated for Christmas... a little early :). The house is beautiful and we had a lovely time (despite the reason for their visit not being an upbeat one) So there are Christmas photos to come. There are also some recipes coming. I had even taken pictures of us cleaning out the gutters and downspouts as Sandy approached. I did delete those pictures off the camera, I don't feel those need to be shared this far after the event, but I did think about you as we were in the rain. I had a great post planned, it just didn't happen. I do apologize.  Alright, back to Relay.

One of the churches downtown hosts a Festival Of Trees. That festival of trees started Thursday night. Wednesday night, Jim and I went to this church downtown to set up the Christmas tree. I will admit that I think it turned out quite lovely! Before I get to the decorated tree though, we have to make ornaments.

Having never decorated a Christmas tree for Relay For Life before, I bonded with Google and Pinterest.
I found this picture and it started as some inspiration.

{source}

I contacted our Staff Partner with the American Cancer Society and asked her if she had some "printables" we could use for decorations. She did and I picked those up at our last meeting. Our Event Chair had some miscellaneous purple and silver ornaments/decorations/etc that she gave to me to use as well. We were moving along. I liked the tree top on this one but wasn't sure how I was going to copy it. I showed the picture to Jim and he disappeared. A little while later he comes up stairs with what you see in the picture below. My tree top problems had been solved!!!

The Relay crescent moon and star! Now all it needs is a coat of purple paint and we will be good to go!

Somewhere along the line we had a tree donated to us.

Christmas tree -- check

Tree top -- check

Purple and silver decorations -- check

Relay themed ornaments -- at the drawing board

In the box of stuff I received from our ACS Staff partner there was more than just printables.

She had given me event specific stuff, American Cancer Society stuff, Relay stuff...in many forms.

Some of that "stuff" came in the form of pins.

I had gone shopping and found a small tub of snowflakes. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the snowflakes, but I was pretty sure we could incorporate them into a Relay ornament....somehow!

I thought  these pins would make GREAT centers for the snowflakes.

I got out the Martha  Stewart craft glue out and went to town.

There were different kinds of pins and trinkets in the box.

There were some other pieces that were adhered to the snowflakes using hot glue. 

The snow flakes and the other trinkets and Martha Stewart craft glue didn't work together.

Once the ornaments had been put together and other pieces had been adapted to work for us...

I put everything on the wreath over our mantel. (Good thing I hadn't decorated this wreath for us yet!)

I posted this picture on our Relay Facebook page. The snowflakes all have a Relay trinket or pin attached!

WE NOW HAVE RELAY THEMED ORNAMENTS!

This was the picture I posted our Relay Facebook page Wednesday morning, the morning of the day everything would be moving to the church. The tree was donated so I hadn't seen it before. Yep! We acquired and made ornaments/decorations for a tree that had never been seen before. The lights were some we had picked up on clearance on year or two ago. We were pretty sure it wasn't going to be enough, but decided we would get the tree up first and go from there.

The tree is up and the lights are on!!!! 

Yep! We ran out of lights.

We left the church to come home and make some dinner and then on our way back to the church we picked up some more lights!

THE TREE IS DECORATED!!

YAY!!!

It looks pretty good for not knowing anything about it!!!

Our Relay event is in July. We wanted our tree to be a "save the date" sort of tree.

Here is the tree top with a coat of purple paint!

Pretty cool huh?

A daffodil bear and a purple ribbon help trim off the top of the tree!

THRILLED! Yes, I am THRILLED with how our Relay tree turned out.

Hopefully someone will tell us they are joining our event because of this Christmas tree.

If you are near us, the Relay Tree, along with many other trees decorated by the community, are on display at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Sharon, PA. The Festival of Trees will be available for viewing through Christmas.

Our Relay Facebook page is HERE

Our Relay page through the American Cancer Society is www.relayforlife.org/pashenangovalley

Do you Relay in your community?

Do you decorate trees for organizations in your community?

Thanks so much for stopping in!!! 

(I will do my very best to make sure it isn't three weeks between posts)

Partying here:

A favor please. Let's help scare cancer away for this little boy!

Hey Everyone! I am asking for a few moments of your time to send a card to a 9 year old boy who is suffering from a recurrence of brain cancer. See the story and information below. His address is included to send him a card. His family needs this support as much as he does!

I do not know this little boy, but he's a  member of the Relay For Life family. That is close enough for me! This information was copied and pasted off facebook. The blog world is a great place and I know a number of you will drop a card in the mail for Seth!! Thanks so much! If you want to share  your card you can always share on our facebook page!!! You will find the address below! Let's give this family some HOPE!!!


Please help to brighten a little boy's day! Here's a request from another Relay event: Relay For Life of Western Berks (near Reading):

A local boy - 9-years-old was diagnosed with a brain tumor right after Relay this past June. He had the tumor removed but has now suffered a recurrence. He is scheduled for surgery aga

in on Halloween. We have set up a safe place for him to receive cards and we would LOVE to lift his spirits.

PLEASE HELP.

I am sure you can all imagine what this family is going through. And the outpouring of support from the community would be such a comfort to this boy! We are organizing a drive to send cards and well wishes to:

HOPE FOR SETH
PO BOX 2355
SINKING SPRING, PA 19608

Please re-post and let's get this thing all over facebook and stuff that post office box with cards before his surgery on 10/31!

HERE  is the link to my local Relay event. You can learn more about Relay For Life there!

Hugs and thanks!

Jen

Halloween cards...round two!

I am hoping to do a 3rd round as well. That depends on how many of the cards I took to work have sold. I forgot to take pictures of those cards before I took them to work and put them on the craft table. I will be happy as ever though, if I have to report back to you that there isn't a 3rd round! {just saying}

There are many different cards here. I am not going to say a lot about most of them. This isn't going to be one of those this is how I made it posts. This is a "this IS what I made" sort of post. If you have questions on any of them though, I will be glad to answer them!

Let's have a look shall we?

These first three are made with die cuts from a K and Company package.

(got in on sale with a coupon at JoAnn's)

The witch was a huge hit.

I like the pumpkin man!

There were some fun shapes!

I used paper and other embellishments from the stash.

The picture above and the picture below were made using stamps from a set or two I found at TJ Maxx.

Is Stampingista a word?

(I sure hope someone chuckles at that)

I had this spider web embossing folder (along with many others)

I think they look cool but I am not necessarily sure what to do with them

I think these turned out cool.

More die-cuts from the K and Company set.

This last one was made from a set of stickers.

We were walking down the sticker aisle and he just jumped in the basket.

Do you ever have products just jump right on in to your baskets or carts?

That's all for now!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

~Jen

Have you repurposed lately? A photo door? Yep!

Hey everyone! I think this just might be our favorite project yet!!! Today's project stems from looking for ideas for our photo wall that one day will be complete in the dining room. I was on that crazy site called Pinterest and saw this picture:

This photo is from At Home with Sweet T

Doesn't that look pretty cool.

Seeing the picture reminded me we had a door sitting in the basement.

A FREE door at that!!! The neighbors had given it to us a couple years ago.

I grabbed the "upstairs" measuring tape (because I knew where IT was) and went downstairs to do some, well, measuring!!! The door was in this pile inventory!

 Of course, the door I wanted is the one actually leaning against the wall.

Go figure!

So I measured! I came upstairs and measured the dining room wall. The window part of the door would fit on the dining room wall. However, the more I thought about what I want that wall to look like and how much I love this door, cutting the door and using it on the dining room wall didn't seem like the best idea.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! 

(you know you just laughed at that!)

Back downstairs I went and measured the WHOLE door and back upstairs I came to measure this decorating PAIN IN THE BOTTOM wall in our bedroom.  Soon Jim hears "WE DON'T HAVE TO CUT IT!! IT WILL FIT ON THE BEDROOM WALL!" 

Um, the neighborhood might have heard that too, but hey!

I do love the door as a door and would really like to find a way (someday) to use it as a door, so cutting it really just didn't seem like the best way to use it. We talked about painting it antique white and hanging it on the bedroom wall.  When we pulled it out we discovered that one side was already painted.

 SO! A girl now has options.

I took a picture of the painted side and I took a picture of the unpainted side

Back upstairs I go, camera in hand this time.

If you were here, you would have seen me standing in the bedroom turning the camera this way and that and flipping back and forth between the pictures. After getting a small idea of what the painted door would look like, I decided that I didn't want the door painted. (Thank goodness for it already having a painted side!)

Life just got a little easier too. No need to paint and wait for the paint to dry.

Get out the Murphy's Oil Soap and some window cleaner! This puppy is going on the wall today!

(As soon as we figure out how to do so!)

So we got the door all washed up and windows all clean!

While cleaning it, Jim suggested we just turn the hinges around and hang it by the hinges.

This thought frightened me a little bit since we would be hanging it on these awesome old plaster walls!

But hey, don't know unless you try right?

Try we did, and success we had!

Here is the wall the door was going on.

I would show you a picture of the ridiculous shelf that would laugh at me every night because it knew it was hated, but that is how much I hated the shelf. The shelf was a classic example of "This will be sooooo cool" and then it is about the furthest thing from cool possible. Problem solved now! Goodbye little shelf.

Jim's Dad happened to stop by about this time. (thank goodness too)

Jim asked him if he would mind helping hang a door on the wall.

Yep! He said Hang a what where???

The door is up. The wall didn't crumble. No one got hurt. Jim's Dad said, "Wow! Who knew a door could look so good on a wall! I don't know where you guys get all these ideas, but I would never think of them, or do them!"

I used a wreath/door hanger and hung a basket on it and filled the basket with some wheat/oak looking filler.

It looks pretty cool just like this don't you think?

This was the color of the door on one side, just as we got it!

Now we have to wait to get the pictures printed.

Pictures have been printed.

Pictures have been put on cardstock 'mats'.

Glue dots were put on the front of the mats and then stuck to the glass on the back side of the door.

I thought I had photo corners, but I didn't. Glue dots did a fine job too!

The next time we do a project like this, the pictures will be adhered BEFORE the big heavy object gets attached to the wall. Just sayin'

I love it, love it, love it!!

Don't you?

Alright so, I wish I could take all the credit, but like I said earlier, I was inspired by "At Home with Sweet T.

Her door has more windows than mine. It looks very cool where she hung it and she put more work into hers than we did. I hope you will stop over and check out her door and the other cool projects she has!

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you will leave some comment love!

Hugs

~Jen

Linking up here:

Wooden Witch

 The weekend is almost over. Why do they go so quickly?? I hope you have had a good weekend.
My weekend has been pretty good. The canner has been put away until next spring...YAY!!!!!!!
We will definitely enjoy all that hard work, but I was grateful to see the thing leave the kitchen and know it won't be on the counter for awhile!!!

A couple posts ago I shared this picture with you and told you to wait and see where she ended up.

She was originally cut from paper using the Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge.

Jim took her downstairs and cut her from wood.

I think she's awesome!

Here she is in her new home!

This was one of those "by chance" sorts of things.

I set her in the middle of all these plants because this corner needed some Halloween.

I wish I could say I set her here because it would look like she was flying by the moon, but I can't say as though that thought crossed my mind until the light was turned on.

Pretty cool though huh?

The big plant/tree is the tree my friends from work got me when my Granddad passed away.

The little cactus like plant is from my Grandmother and violets were from Jim.

Isn't the witch cool??

Thanks for stopping in!

Hope to see you back soon!

Hugs

~Jen

A breast cancer Halloween card

Many of the cards I make, I sell.

There are Gals from work that have learned they can ask for a card for most any occasion and I will "whip" something up.  I never would have thought it could have happened, but I love it!!!!

Thanks Girls!

Anyway, one of the "girls" that has bought cards in the past, asked if I had made or was going to make breast cancer cards. I told her I had plenty of thoughts in my head, but hadn't made them yet.

 (That is one of my goals for the weekend)

I came home that night and thought some more. 

The thoughts in my head are based off Cricut cuts.

All the Halloween stuff is EVERYWHERE around my house and I saw this stamp.

I put this card together.

The "Gal" that asked about the cards is a 24 year survivor!

That is AWESOME!!!!!!

I made this one FOR her.

I didn't expect she would cry when I gave it to her, but she did.

A good cry, but I hadn't thought about my card making her cry.

The stamp is one from a set by Inkadinkado that I picked up at TJ Maxx!!

The sentiment was computer generated.

The card base is a 5x7 base.

The rest was in "the stash."

The inside said Happy Halloween and I wrote her a note.

Have you made cards for those in your life affected by cancer?

Are you a breast cancer survivor? If so, this card is for you too!!!!

Are you a cancer survivor?? That is awesome!!! HUGS!!!

Speaking of cancer. (blech)

I haven't shared some exciting news with you.

I'm now a volunteer on the committee for our local Relay For Life event. I was asked to be the "Online Chair" If you ask me, that is a pretty boring way of saying the Social Media Chair.

I'm guessing this means you will be seeing Relay related posts and projects in the future!

Happy Weekend Blog friends!

Hugs!

~Jen

Halloween around the house

We've looked at the mantel and at the witch's potion table, it is time to look at some tidbits around the house.

 There is a future post in the works about china cabinets. As some of you know, I am still needing to share my Grandmother's china cabinet. It hasn't happened yet, because I'm still pondering how to do so and now those ponderings have taken a new twist. We now have three china cabinets in our home. Each with a story.
Those stories will come one day.

I am sharing the tops of each china cabinet below:

Some "bubbles" were added to his tureen since this photo was taken and the display enhanced a little,

but it is enough for you to get the idea. The "twigs" in the vase are dried coriander stems.

There is a little spider living in them. I told him he's allowed to stay until Halloween is over and then he's getting evicted!!! This china cabinet is in our dining room.

This china cabinet is one of the first things you see when you walk in our front door.

Are you creeped out by the spider on the wall? Me too!

This is the top of my Grandma's china cabinet, also in our dining room.

Looks like someone had an unfortunate time.

Jynx helping decorate for Halloween!

Please pardon the messy floor.

This was the day that my Great Grandmother's, Great Great Grandmother's and my Great Great Aunt's recipes came. Yep! You read that correctly. Those recipes have possibly added a twist to the china cabinet reveal. We are trying to come up with a weekly post idea. A name that would allow posts about recipes, family treasures, wisdom etc. Please stop over to the FACEBOOK PAGE and get in on the conversation about what to call these posts.

Thanks for stopping in and checking out some more Halloween.

How is Halloween going in your house?

~Hugs!