Easy Peasy Legend of Zelda Party

I didn't take step by step pictures, but really, it was quite easy!

I started with the cupcake toppers. There is very little in the way of party supplies for Legend of Zelda. My 10-year-old loves his video games and so we worked with what we could find. I ordered some Zelda stickers online and got some dark green card stock. I used 2 squares per topper and 2 stickers. Some of the edges of the squares I used crimping sheers, but frankly mine weren't very good, which is why I only did half that way. I put the sticker on the squares put a toothpick in between the squares and used some hot glue and voila, cupcake toppers!

I had some left over strips of the card stock so I decided to use the scraps to make a little banner to add some green to the party decor.

Simply cut your card stock rectangles approximately the same size and cut a little triangle on the bottom. I threaded mine with an embroidery needle and some baker's twine I had (shhh, don't tell anyone the twine was red and white and our party colors were green and yellow!)

My cupcake stand was 2 old ironstone platters with an upside down cup in between. My husband thought that was rather redneck, but I thought it was cute :) Green and yellow streamers, green and yellow balloons and 8 boys.

There you have it! Easy Peasy Zelda Party!

Printable

Free printable. Right click and save :) Should print at 8x10.

Quick and Easy Lamp Makeover!

As much as I love my primitives and the warmth they give my home, I've changed gears a little in my decorating. The deep dark colors being a smile to my face, but unfortunately they show dust. Lots of dust. Within 30 minutes of dusting, it looks dusty again :( Soo, I've been changing gears with much of my inspiration coming from blogland. One of my most recent changes was to spray paint my black lamps silver! For the cost of a can of spray pain, I've completely changed the look of my lamps!

 

 

 

 

That's just a sneak peek of the changes being made over here in the Acres ;)

My name is Jennifer and I am a...

Reese's Peanut Butter Eggaholic.

I seriously have a problem. And interestingly enough, my dryer seems to be shrinking my jeans...

Senior Night

Don't worry. I will not make this a sappy, long post about how my oldest son is a senior in high school this year. How I can't believe he is going to graduate. How I have no idea where the time has gone. How I would give anything to go back, just for a bit, to see his sweet baby face in person. When hugs and kisses were a regular occurrence. When I got to tuck him in at night. When *I* was the great love in his life, not his girlfriend. No. I will not make this post about that.

Oh. I think I just did. Anyhoo. The purpose was to show you the boards that I made for the GS Lions Hockey Senior Night. Austin was the only senior this year, so I made 2 of them :)

I started with the thick foam poster board. To make the pictures "pop" off the background I cut a brown card stock matte around each one (the school's colors are brown and gold). Then I used a black ink pad along the edges to give it a little more definition.

I bought chipboard stars and letters. I wanted them to feel a little more manly and industrial so I painted the stars in a yellowish gold and used a dark umber around the edges and in streaks to make them look like a yellow tin star that had rusted.

For the letters I layered black, russet and terra cotta paint colors to give them a look of rust. Normally I wouldn't have spent that amount of time on them, but I figured they will do double duty and can be used at his graduation party :)

I do realize you can't see all this detail in the picture, but I think you get the idea.

Valentine Project

I've made a promise to myself to start using some of my aquired odds and ends I have been accumulating over the years before I being any new ones in my house. I'm at risk of becoming a hoarder.

A scrap piece of pine. A "Cupid" print that I bought because it was in a gorgeous tin frame. A page from an old hymanl. Some red Scrabble tiles. Maybe not the best thing I have ever made, but I think it counts as decorating for Valentine's Day. Right?

 

 

Etsy Treasury

Come check out this sweet treasury I was a part of!

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, it's Thursday. I get that. And I have to add words. Which is blowing the wordless out of the water. Humor me please. Asa. "Just Say No to Crack" hahahahahahah

 

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that most of the bees that are getting into my house seem to be all DEAD now!

Somehow these little bugger have found away through the chimney (the have a nest near there) looking for warmth and have been in my house. We have probably killed close to a hundred in all.

I hate bees. And wasps. And anything that has the potential to hurt me. Or my kids. But I don't like pain. I REALLY don't like pain.

I am also thankful for Raid.

Thank you God for the people that make bug spray. Amen

I was starting to feel like Billy the Exterminator. I love that guy :)

Wordless Wednesday

Slip Covers!

Now let me start by saying this little rocking chair is so precious to me. This was my dad's when he was a small boy and I am thrilled to have had it given to me when I had my oldest who is now 17. It is in great need of restoration. The more we use it the more in need of repair it gets.



Since restoring this guy is not in the budget right now, and since I hate to have just sitting and collecting dust, I thought I'd give slip covering it a whirl!



Now for the last couple of months I have been reading about the wonders of painter's cloth drop cloths. I did try them for curtains and for pillow shams on my bed and thought that this material would be PERFECT for this little project. So off I (and of course I drug my mother!) went to Lowe's.



I started at the top and just kind of taped a piece on and started stitching it together as I went! Now it is NOT perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn't have straight pins and I am wayyyy too lazy to take it off and put it back on each time I wanted to take it to the machine, but overall I am really quite pleased with how it turned out in the end!

A Great New Blog!

I was contacted by a lovely lady named Kate asking me if she could feature me on her blog Primitive Post and of course I said yes! It's always nice to be complimented by someone other than your mom ;)

Stop by and check her blog out and read her post she wrote on me and all the other great prim gals she has featured!

Happy Birthday Austin William!

I am sadly a day late in wishing Austin a happy birthday! Now in my defense he is the firstborn, so he is usually the one that has all the pictures, all the memories saved in a nice neat little box, etc. And it's usually the 3 after him that have I have missed all the little things with. So, I think just this once, I will give my self a get-out-of-jail-free card!

This boy had his 17th birthday yesterday and just started his Senior Year. He is sweet and loving, but has always been kind of a "man" for lack of a better description. When he was 8 we were in Giant Eagle and I commented on how pretty some colored pussy willows were. He took a couple of dollars out of his pocket and said to buy myself some for Mother's Day. That kind of thing! He is smart and a gifted artist. He loves his hockey and I love to watch him on the ice!

Happy Birthday Austin. I'm so blessed to call you my son!

Happy Birthday Cheetah!

Chase Edward, my 2nd born son, turns 15 today! I love this boy with all my heart. He is smart, funny, ridiculously quick-witted, handsome, talented, loving. Willing to stand up for what he believes is right, even if it goes against what the popular opinion is.

He is truly a blessing and a gift from God. Enough so that I came out of my, oh 8 month hiatus to post a birthday shout out!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Artist Market/Craft Show..

After several years selling on Ebay and now Etsy, I am finally doing my first craft show! If any of you are local, I'd love to have you come and see me. If anyone has any tips I'd love to hear those also!

Living Room

Just in cast anyone still bothers to read my blog since I have been such a slacker, I decided to finally post pictures of my living room. I'd love to pretend that it looks this neat and tidy all the time, but in the interest of keepin' it real, it's usually quite messy! :)

So in random order, here is my new house!

As you come in the front door

Okay, not my living room, but I love this door! It was my girlfriend's in her basement and I have no where for it here, so I turned it into a gardening table. Superhero hubby just doens't get it and calls it my "door to nowhere"

Pictures drawn by my great-great grandfather Cy Loughner in 1930.

Beside my front door.

Going to the kitchen

Stairs up to the loft room. Aka Master bedroom, toy room, craft room.

Sorry about the randomness, I'm nto very good at uploading and editing into blogger for some reason.

In other news I have been getting ready for my first craft show coming in November. If anyone has any good advice. PLEASE leave me comments and comments. I'm very nervous about what I should be doing to prepare!

Help!

Okay, really no one can help. I got my self involved in all this stuff and now I'm a little overwhelmed!

I just got a call from Gage's 1st grade teacher infoming me that no one offered to be the class parent. Well Gage toldher that I am home all day, so she asked me if I could step up and here I am! She was Austin and Chase's 1st grade teacher too and is really great. Now in theory it doesn't involve too too much. 3 parties a year to organize. The problem is I am so introverted at times and am going to hate making calls to parents. I know, I'm weird! lol The other problem is the first party is Halloween and frankly I am losing it already! Our Cash Bash for hockey is October 17th, so I am trying to sell tickets for that. Then the Ad Book for hockey is winding up this week so I have been busy getting ads for that. Then on top of it I ended up being the Varsity hockey manager, so I am busy trying to figure out what the heck I am doing for that!

Pam from BoyGirlBoyGirl Design suggested this shirt!

Cats!

So it's cold and rainy and just plain yucky here today. I thought now is a good time to once again take a break from painting and housework and tell you all the tale of 2 kitties. Actually it's more than 2, but it just sounded so good I couldn't resist!





We moved to our new home the last weekend in May. Shortly after we moved we discovered a white and orange cat that came into our yard quite frequently. We assumed that she was a stray because she was rather thin and just seemed like she didn't have a home. We also saw her in our neighbors yard (we had not yet met him) and started to put food out for her. A few weeks into June much to our delight we discovered there were KITTENS over there too! Cute, cute kittens. There were 4 of them. Then there were 3. Jeff finally met the man that lived next door and indeed they were his cats, but he had kicked Momma out and they were outdoor cats. We named them Prissy (fluffy fluffy looked prissy), Morris (looked like Morris the cat) and Scamper (nuff said) He said he didn't mind us feeding them and had already given one away and wanted to get rid of them all.








We couldn't really bring them in, but have been feeding and loving them ever since. Unfortunately someone took Scamper a month or so ago. Prissy has been discovered to be a boy and now Jeff makes us call him Pouncer. They are much bigger now, but have become sweet additions to our family.

The story doesn't end there. Turns out Momma is not spayed and got pregnant over the Summer. She had started being very mean to Pouncer and Morris and thanks to the internet we figured out she was pregnant and due sometime in the middle of September. Meanwhile I had been working on a house for Morris and Pouncer. I worked really hard on finding plans online, buying materials and insulation so that they would stay nice and warm this Winter. Well lo and behold one warm evening as we were cooking out, Momma was around and being sweet as pie. Google and I determined she was in labor and she had five new kittens in my unfinshed house!!!

*Sigh*, now we have 9 cats/kittens living in our yard. Yes, I realize the math doesn't add up, but I didn't tell you about Tom. A big old orange cat that needs and wants petted constantly.


Here he is guarding our yard against groundhogs.. NOT!

So here are some pictures of "our" many many cats! Each of the boys drew a description of each kitten and named one. There are 3 boys and 2 girls, Austin's is a girl. He was bummed out because he named her Thor! lol Anyone want a kitten??????