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!

A Witch's potion buffet

We have looked at  this year's Halloween mantel. Are you ready to take a look at what was brewed up in the dining room? I hadn't really thought about what kind of feel the dining room was going to take on and then I did some sightseeing in Blog World and saw that little kick I needed!

I stopped by DEBBIE-DABBLE. I ended up sitting quite a spell. This photo to left is from her blog and was the inspiration for the buffet in our dining room. I do hope you will go sit a spell (again, only after leaving comment love here) She has plenty of pictures to inspire you. You have to at least go and check out her "Minerva." I think I need to work on getting my own "Minerva." She's pretty cool!!! Of course the witch sitting near this table is pretty cool too!

DEBBIE-DABBLE's decorations are just the right amount of fun and spooky. I do hope you will pay her a visit.

If you read the mantel post then you know there was some spray painting that took place. Not all of that spray painting was for the living room. Some of those made over  items were headed to the dining room.....for the witch's potion table...of sorts!

 If you read about the mantel, then you know I used some
graphics from the Graphics Fairy. She has great graphics and the ones I used can be found here. I ran out of spray paint so I used some craft paint. The glittered bottles are empty Simply Lemonade bottles. {LOVE THAT STUFF} We reuse the bottles for any number of things, but these two have been given a different purpose. Both bottles and the old bbq sauce jar you see here, were painted with craft paint and then I sprinkled some of my Martha Stewart glitter on them. Super sparkly. I sprayed them with a clear coat so the glitter wouldn't end up EVERYWHERE like glitter has a way of doing. If I make more for next year, I will take the old labels off and then cover them in glue and sprinkle the glitter on...only after I have cut the bottoms off them. A friend suggested they would be cool with twinkle lights inside them so they looked like a bubbling potion.
That won't work for these bottles since they were already painted black, but I did learn from it!!! They grey bottles are from a Starbucks product! I think we have a whole shelf of those bottles in the basement. They work great at Christmas time for gifting tasty sugary confections from our kitchen. They don't host tasty sugary confections here, but I think they turn out pretty neat!
                                                               

The label on the purple bottle is from a set of labels I picked up last year or the year before. 

I don't remember where they came from. (so sorry)

The Love Potion label and the Charmed Morsels were part of the set from the Graphics Fairy.

The Charmed Morsels are some chocolate chips that didn't really like the heat of the summer :(

(have no fear, new chips have been purposed and Jim will be making cookies soon!)

The bottles were spray painted grey - from a can of spray paint that was here when we bought the place.

The labels came from here.

I put some cheesecloth  over the top and wrapped some jute around it to hold it in place.

Then I used the jute to hold the labels.

I am happy with them.

These bottles were sitting upstairs waiting for a purpose. I love it when I can give something that "I will use someday" a purpose, other than to sit upstairs, or downstairs for that matter, and collect dust and cobwebs. I added water and food coloring to these bottles. They each received a label from the above labels. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of them individually. One became Frog Oil. I used green food coloring. The other one became Vampire blood. I used one of the darker colors of food coloring. It looked pretty cool.

I found these beakers at the Salvation Army.

It would be way cool to put some dry ice and food coloring in them wouldn't it?

 Here it is all put together! The picture on the right even includes the black cat in the window. Yep, it was a nice fall day here in Western PA the other day. I did turn the mirror so it was straight, but it was still missing something ANDDDDDDD, every time I walked in the room I wanted to straighten it!

Added some cheesecloth to the mirror.

Better, don't you think?

I do know that I am not as tempted to straighten the mirror now!

A closer look.

I strung some purple lights and then put cheese cloth over them!

The picture frame in the left picture was one that had a date with spray paint.

One of the beakers is holding the SILVER spoons from my Grandparent's silver set.

I'm guessing this isn't how my Mom figured I would use the silver. You?

Halloween just happens to come before all those dinners, so they spoons are on the witches table!

I do believe I pillaged every room of the house to decorate this buffet.

Mortar and pestle, spoons, bottles, vases, etc. It was kinda fun to go "shopping" around the house!

Here is a better look of some of the "stuff"

Take a an extra close look at the photo in the frame.

HA!!! Kinda creepy huh?

Jim thought these pictures (from the dollar store) would have a cooler effect in regular frames and that is what I did. Painted a bunch of frames and put these hologram pictures in them. HA!!!!!!!

I think this tray of fun is my favorite part. Of course I had to include my Witch Hazel bottle.

This tray is sitting on a cake plate.

The tray contents include bottles, empty and full; vases, candles, feathers, sticks etc!

Under the tray you can find measuring cups, a jar of spiders, skeleton parts, mini pumpkins and who knows what else in tucked in there!

What do you think of the potion buffet???

I'm pretty happy with it. I have yet to take a picture of it that makes me happy, but I like the real deal!

Thanks for stopping in and sitting a spell!

~The J's. Did you see Jynx in the last picture???

partying here:

The Halloween Mantel

It seems I have this crazy inability to sit and do NOTHING!!! Seriously, if I sit still for too long, I think I start to twitch. Maybe someday...

It took the better part of a week, due to all that life has to offer, but the Halloween decorations are up! I'm pretty sure I'm in love with them too! You ever have one of those projects that just seems so much better than others? I think this year's Halloween displays fall in to that category for me.

The mantel started out a little something like this.

I wasn't happy. It didn't matter how many times Jim told me "The mantel is looking good Babe."

 I WASN'T HAPPY.

The skeletons spent the night on the mantel, while I thought about their future and that of the mantel display.

There was a trip to the local Goodwill store to see what sort of inspiration might be found there.

This is what we came home with.

That trip must have done the trick.

That awesomely (yep a word!) tacky orange, but very classic, pumpkin did just the trick, or is it a treat?

Isn't the gargoyle cat cool?? She is super cute and with a black cat in the house it seemed fitting.

She was a little scuffed up in places, poor thing. A makeover came a few hours later!

Alright back to that awesomely cool plastic pumpkin.

It reminded me of a picture I had "pinned" onto my Halloween board on Pinterest.

{source}

I did look around while I was there. There is plenty of vintage greatness to be found at 

Very Merry Vintage Style. I hope you will stop in and give a look around and maybe even say hello.

I knew I had a couple other similar pumpkins. I was hoping I could pull something similar to this off.

What do you think? Is a mantel full of these pumpkins for you?

To each their own, but I'm going for it! Or as close as I can get with the 3 pumpkins I have!

But first...spray paint!

The Gargoyle kitty needed a makeover!

Much better don't you think?

Ah, the joys of spray paint!

Between Jim spray painting the gargoyle and the thought processes going through my head for the dining room, I broke out the spray paint the next night. I wish I had taken a photo of my hand with spray paint all over it. I didn't, but my left hand was showing several shades of spray paint. /sigh

Armed with some spray paint and bunch of "stuff" to paint, outside I went.

I started with two pumpkins from the dollar store and an empty Magic Eraser container.

Magic Erasers might have score a few more points, because their container was suddenly cool for more reasons than just functionality.

Yep, black spray paint....

Lots of it!

Even these frames would receive a spray paint makeover.

All of them had been sitting upstairs feeling completely and utterly unloved!

Do you like my fancy pumpkin drying rack?

Hey, it worked!

Alright, back to the mantel!

The other thing I did was download this cat

He came from HERE.

There are plenty of great printables at Free Vintage Digital Stamps!

He would find a home in one of those frames that were spray painted.

When it all went on the mantel it looks like this!

I played off the black and orange theme.

I think it worked out pretty well.

The only thing that wasn't in the Halloween stash was the fabric draped across the front of the fireplace and that came from the dollar store. Have I ever mentioned the dollar store is right next to where I work????

What? You want to know what I did with the Magic Eraser container?

Okie dokie, lets have a looksee!

I downloaded some more graphics. This time from the Graphics Fairy. If you haven't been to this blog, YOU NEED TO GO AS SOON AS YOU ARE DONE LEAVING ME A COMMENT! 

(and not a moment sooner!)

This is the direct link to the post with these graphics.

I have been wanting a project where I could download something from her blog.

I'm hooked! I will be thinking up more projects for her graphics. I love looking at them.

I used some adhesive to put the Web of Spider of label onto the Magic Eraser container.

This meant there needed to be some cobwebs and I added a little spider from the card stash to help accent the container. What do you think? You think the big spider coming out of the container is too much?

Here's another look at the whole mantel.

I'm pretty pleased with it!!

Ooooh! Aren't you curious about the fireplace?

Ah, ha ha!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Do you follow us on Facebook? You never know what sorts of crazy things I might share on the FB!

I hope you will leave a comment and then run off to check out those blogs, OR sit a spell here!

Speaking of sitting a SPELL! Wait until you see the dining room!

Hugs! ~Jen

Linking up here:

A Bowl Full of Lemons