More mason madness

Just like everyone else, I am obsessed with two things- burlap and mason jars. I want everything in a jar, wrapped with burlap. lol. This should be a tiny hint as to where this post is headed. After I did my own Mason jar lotion pump, my sister was quick to inform me she liked it and wanted one. Since she had already verbalized wanting a toothbrush holder mason (some day I will take a picture of the simplicity that it is) in my downstairs bathroom, I decided I would be super duper nice sister and give her a set of not 2 but 3 things- soap dispenser, lotion dispenser, and toothbrush holder.

Since my sister now lives with 3 sons and hubby and is clearly outnumbered, I thought I'd make it a tad girly just for her!!  They are nothing fancy but I know she will love them.

 Ironically, all the materials to decorate these came from my stash. The stars are from a garland that my sister actually gave me that she no longer had a use for and didn't sell at her yard sale. The purple is an old tshirt that was cut into strips and the burlap was left from another project.

  The whole gang- I did pre-fill the lotion bottle because I found a big old bottle at Walmart that would fill this one and the other lotion dispenser I will show you shortly.

These soap pumps are actually from Bath & Body Works and only cost $1.50/each. I did get a bunch free essentially with holiday coupons of $10 off a $30 purchase so not too shabby. And yes, I said a bunch meaning, I went into one store and bought all the non pink ones they had (purple, red and black).  They are actually meant for the shower gel but sincce you don't have to match up the tracking, it really doesn't matter.  So overall, this set cost me less than $10 since I reused scraps/leftovers from other projects. How do you like that??

I also made a lotion pump for my mom, but out of totally self-ish reasoning. Every time I am there, I ALWAYS need lotion in the kitchen but there is none my friends. Even though they live in the house I grew up in, a little 3 bedroom, 1 bath rancher, and it takes 2 second to walk to the bathroom, I hate it. We will be in the middle of a conversation and I have to walk to the back of the house for, of all things, LOTION. I was so excited about this one because in a stash from free-cycle, I found this great mongram ribbon!!

  And in another stash of stuff given to me from my sister, this red zigzaggy (lets not get too technical) trim (which I think was called something else). I thought it might be weird that the monogram is sideways, but crafting doesn't always have to be an exact or perfect science, so I went with it.

And here it the finished product. I still have to make one to put on my desk at work, but that will have to wait until after Christmas I believe.

What projects do you have going on right now? Do you have 10 going like me??

ITS OK

First timer on this whole ITS OK thing, and I definitely need to tell myself this today.. its OK.

ITS OK

.. that today was my first run in a week

....that I had to take walk breaks because I just wasn't feeling it

... that I have a million things to do and don't feel like doing a thing

.... that I was a few minutes late to work because I just couldnt get moving

.. that I have to take deep breaths to keep myself from crying today

..to cry

... that I have to work this weekend because I get off Monday and Tuesday

... that my Christmas tree still isn't even purchased let alone in my house and decorated.. YET.

... that I accomplished literally nothing last night.

... that I need to work on my Christmas cards

.. that I really wish my family all lived closer because it would be so comforting right now

... that I want some little kiddo hugs from my adorably sweet nephews

... that I need to read my sewing machine manual before I sew a project for my nephews

... that I haven't sewn since middle school, or maybe high school, but either way its 10+ years ago!

... to take time to myself to get my mood back to the Merry Christmassy one I had just a few days ago.

I hope this was not too negative nancy of me- just been a really tough week. Even worse than last I think. The weather has been grim which doesn't help- ever. Because of the dark weather it has been so hard to motivate myself to get out of bed more than a half hour before I leave for work to do things I love like run and craft or take pictures of my crafty things. So here's to hoping for it to be OK.



Felt Acorns

There is a lot of acorn themed things around this year, which is so incredibly ironic to me. It is ironic for my family because acorn was the placeholder name for my youngest nephew born at the beginning of October. My sister and BIL went back and forth on names and although they had kind of decided, they didn't really tell any of us for sure. The joke kind of formed that they would just name him "ACORN." So it is working out fabulously that there is literally acorn stuff EVERYWHERE even with Christmas items. We are having a blast with it.

This being said, I began following a site called, The Gunny Sack and one day while stalking her old posts, found this super easy tutorial for making felt acorns and I decided I would make some holiday color themed ones for my sister to hang at her house. And that I did. Now, today I am just posting the acorns themselves, becaused I haven't quite made it to making the full banner project but they are awesome and just so cute that I had to share. So, BOOM.

 Just storing in an awesome mason jar until I am ready to make the rest of the project. Some are a little pudgy because of all the stuffing, but I think they are just plain old cute!!

 Aren't they so cute?? I had so much fun taking pictures of them in the jar, yes this makes me super dorky, but whatev. I have no problem admitting this.

This is my favorite- roll away little acorns :) But not too far, I still have a project for you!!  Check back later this week to see what these acorns turned into.

I did cut out some more circles to make additional red and green acorns so I might save the extras for myself, can you blame me??

Linking up @

Holiday-inspired repurposing

Ok I am back!! Although it was hard to take a break and I still checked in on some bloggers I follow here and there, it was definitely something I needed to do. It was important to spend time with my family after the loss of my grandmother who was a truly wonderful woman. She was laid to rest on Friday and then I quick had to pack and go out of town for a friend's bachelorette weekend. It was lots of fun and a nice distraction from the emotional week I had just been through. Thanks for all the kind words and well wishes while I was gone. That being said, I give you a holiday inspired repurposing!!! Enjoy :)

A few weekends ago, while I was out at Target with my mom, she was looking for a table runner for her old sewing table in the kitchen and while we were in that aisle I saw this really cool PLACEMAT. It's the little things. But seriously, they were on sale for $3 and some change and just so cute so I bought one. Yes, one. I had no idea what I was going to do with or where I would possibly put it, but I knew I needed to add it to my Christmas, wintery deco.  You want to see it, you say?

Well, I will show you step by step what I did.

1. I think one of my photos didn't get uploaded, but you get the picture. I used a Mary Kay box to cut my sturdy portion out. Since starting my business with them, I have been hoarding boxes and this seemed like a great thing to use one for. (and a real quick Holiday plug if you visit my site www.marykay.com/jstuber and put in an order of $30 or more and recieve 20% off with code OHSCRAP.)

2. So after I had my rectangle cut to fit my placemat, I made I used this awesome and fun spray adhesive to attach it. 

3. I sprayed some of the adhesive on both surfaces to make sure it wasn't going to slide off or anything goofy like that.



4. Again, I think I lost a picture here, but FLIP the placemat over and place onto the cardboard and VOILA. Picture below is phase 1 of my trying to find the perfect placement. I used a small plate stand to keep the placemat upright, but I kept looking at it and it just felt a little blah.



5. I decided it needed a little festive funk so I found some berries in my Christmas deco stash. (by the way, did you notice the placement kind of has a glittery burlap feel/look to it??? YES!!)



6. And I still just felt that something was MISSING. I hate that feeling that it just doesn't look quite right. So I kept digging through my Christmas boxes and found some fun items from after Christmas clearance 2011.  It took a little a lot of manipulating, but with the use of some school-day style poster putty I was able to get these fun sticks to stand up tall and add some festive color to this little area.



So I ask you- have any of you taken an item and used it for something other than intended for the purpose of holiday decorating? I have seen some pretty cool ideas out there so please share :)

In loving memory

Saturday evening I purchased these 3 mason jars because I was just dying to do the whole "epson salts" look like snow candle thing. Sunday afternoon I added the epson salts and then the candles but did not have the time to decorate them before an afternoon appointment. In fact, it wasn't until almost 9:00pm that I decorated and lit these little guys.

Sunday evening I had come home and begun a few things aroung the house and decided to do an inside workout since it was misting and dark outside by the time I got home. In between excercises, I checked my phone nad saw that my mom had called. She didn't leave me a message so I quickly called her back. She pretty quickly asked me if I was alone and I immediately knew- something happened to my grandmother. My mom had informed us last Monday that Grandma was and had been fighting a respiratory infection for a few weeks and not much was helping her. Grandma lives in a nursing home and they were going to try mucinex and some other additional things to try to help her. My mom had gone to visit her on Tuesday and reported that although she was on oxygen she was dancing (bobbing her head) to the music from her dear Hallmark plush Christmas  things. Back to Sunday, December 2, 2012. My mom went over to see Grandma as this day was her birthday- her 94th birthday to be exact.  Only a few hours later, my mom got the dreaded call that Grandma had passed away at about 5:30pm- not even an hour after my uncle had been to visit for her birthday.

So why 3 candles, you might ask? Well, I began to focus on the irony of me buying 3 mason jars on Saturday and the next my Grandma passing away because she makes the 3rd of 4 grandparents that have passed. Sunday evening I lit these candles for not only my Grandmother who passed on her 94th birthday, but also for my Grandfather (her husband) who she lovingly called her Dunny, and for my other grandfather (my father's father) who have been gone since my 6th grade year and Freshman year in college, respectively. So with Grandma's passing, she is able to dance with and enjoy her Dunny again after all these years. My grandma, although she has not been mentally at 100% for quite a number of years, will be deeply missed by my family. She was most often in good spirits and loved to bob her head to the radio or some good old fashioned tunes on old TV shows. She loved seeing her great grandchildren, Adam and Aydan, but only ever got to see pictures of Aldyn. Even just pictures of these kiddos could make her grin ear to ear.

With this being said, I will be taking the rest of the week off from blogging as today is my last day of work for the week as well. I am grateful to have an employer that allows us a generous grievance leave and will be taking the time to spend with my parents, sister and her family and my husband. The service is not until Friday and I just thought it would be best to take the time leading up to it to spend with everyone.

I hope you all have a great week, and I will be back to blogging next week as I have quite a few projects to share :)