~meet Zelda & Darnell~

Good morning bloggy friends!

Happy Monday

&

Hello rain!!!

it was soooo blustery here yesterday!

it's a good thing

the leaves haven't changed much yet because

the wind & rain definitely would have blown

them all off the trees!

I guess fall has officially arrived??

~*~

I'm so excited to introduce you to

Zelda!!

finally got her all finished

and just loving her!!

and her scary black cat

Darnell

I know I confessed to you all last week

approximately just how long

I've had this pattern.....sitting on a shelf....

in fact I think I thought about throwing it

away about a gazillion times.......

but this is proof that it pays {on a rare

occassion} to hang onto stuff 'til

"someday when I have time"  :) 

so you wanna see the process???
I've got lots of pictures so

hang tight!

the pattern

is downloaded & printed

and comes with a little grid to put together



there's about a million pieces to print, so

make sure you've got plenty of ink you don't

mind using!

the graph is all labeled so you can see where to put

each piece A1, A2 etc....

I got smart after doing the big one &

got my kiddos involved!

they love helping me do this kind of stuff!

in fact after we were done, Kenzie (the one

in the floral top) said ....

"Momma, it's gonna look like a huge

halloween bomb went off by the time

we're done decorating....and I'm gonna help you!!"

{seriously, bestill my beating heart....music to my ears....what a sweetie!}

Once the pattern is all cut out,

the directions recommend using spray adhesive

to glue it to the plywood, but

I found outlining the pattern on the plywood

worked better than sawing

all around the edge of the paper.....

{the paper would get all bunched up under the saw

and it just made it annoying & difficult!}

use your trusty ol' jigsaw to cut her out

....you might need more

than one blade (I broke one in the process)



then once you get her all cut out

grab yourself a spare kiddo

and some black paint

and paint her up real quick!

I didn't even bother sanding at all

in fact, I just barely wiped off all the sawdust.....

easy peasy lemon squeezy!

ah, Mr. T & T was so darn sweet

on Saturday!!!

he did tons of gardening, cutting down,

yanking out & digging out all sorts

and manner of various overgrown

vegetation Mrs. T & T has had no time for....

and he still wanted to help me

with Zelda & Darnell!!

I was basically glee-ful!

completely thrilled at such generosity! ;)

.....no seriously, I was!!

can you tell he was soooooooo

excited to get his picture taken?

I mean who wouldn't after working in the

yard all day, all hot & sweaty

and feeling nasty........

right?? hee hee hee

so what do you think of her?

you like??

I do!  And you know what?

it wasn't really that hard at all!!

and the total cost of the project was

less than $20

$12 for 1/2 inch plywood from Home Depot

and $2.50 for the insulation pole to stick

her in the ground

and less than $3 for the insulation clamps

and I already had paint on hand!

for complete details & directions go

here where Martha Stewart

will give you the supply list, templates etc...

{but I wouldn't spend the extra on the 3/4 in

plywood....the 1/2 inch worked just fine!}

well girls, I'm off for my run....

*update*

30 minutes running.....no walking....

yep......crazy huh.......?

we'll see how it goes in the rain....

haven't done that yet....

sure it'll be awesome! ;)

have an awesome week!!

xoxo,

Shellagh