My unhealthy obsession with mason jars and finding the usefullness in them!

 

A vision of beauty.

I love these things! Kev brought a few boxes of them homes to me from an old house they were refinishing. Believe me, this is a better gift to me than a pair of nice earrings or a bouquet of flowers! Not only are Mason jars nice accents to my house as is, they have so many uses! You can re-purpose this heck out of em!
Here's a link with a bunch of ideas : What can I do with all these mason jars?

Lovely, right?! Ok, so maybe adoring the versatility of a jar maybe not be everybody's 'thing'. But I love em, and i'm sure that I inherited this from my mother.

Besides simply setting them on random shelves and tabletops around my house,

 

I've done of few re-purposing projects that are super easy and darn cute!

Dying Jars!

My friend Kandess and I dyed the inside of jars to add a splash of colour to our homes with only a few simple ingredients!
1)food colouring
2)mod podge
3)an oven

We just took a clean, dry jar and squirted a tablespoon or two of mod podge into the jar along with a few drops of your food colouring of choice. We swirled it around in the jar until with some covered and disposed of the rest. We simply 'baked' them in the oven until they were dry ( were clear and colourful!)

 And TADA! Pretty jars for all!!

We put the colouring mixture INSIDE of the jars, however, if you want to put candles and whatnot inside of them, you can paint the mixture on the outside of them. This colouring is NOT permanent, and I don't know what the heat of a candle will do to the inside if burned too long!

That being said, here is a list of slight mishaps and lessons we learned...

Mishap #1

There is absolutely NO NEED to put half a bottle of food colouring in a bottle, no matter how rich of a colour you want you bottle to be!

It's hard to tell exactly what colour your final product will be without some trail and error. Just keep in mind that the mod podge is WHITE before it dries, so the dye you mix it with will appear very light and pastel until it dries. A couple of drops is PLENTY! If you put too much your bottle will be super dark and not clear anymore! I made what i thought would be a beautiful purple bottle.. but once it dried, the finished product with BLACK!

Luckily, if you make a mistake...this colouring is not completely permanent! You can wash the colour out with warm, soapy water and start again!

Mishap #2

Baking them in your oven takes A LONG TIME! Which is not big deal... until the stench hits you! We had, about a billion bottles drying at one time, so the smell of all of that mod podge got to be a little much. They dry just as easily outside on a hot sunny day... it just may take a bit longer than in the oven!



Picture frames!                      

EASY! pick our bottles you like and display them upside down or right side up with photos inside of them!

I could have used a lot nicer bottles.. these are run of the mill walmart ones... but you get the idea!

Candle Holders!

Throw a tea light in a few of them and set  them around either inside or outside your house! Easy Peasy, lemon squeezy!

Storage!

We use them around the house to store tea bags, spices, herbs, grains, left overs, bouquets of flowers, anything in.

Kevin used them in his workshop to store nails, screws and all that stuff in. He has nailed a bunch of lids under a shelf and just screws that jars on and off as he needs each item. They are see through, not cluttering his work bench and keep things neat and organized.

ANYWAY... the link above shows a whole bunch of uses... I don't suggest you necessarily need to go overboard like my family... but hey... they are easy to come buy at a good price and add a little 'rustic' chic look  to the house!

Let me know what fun ideas you come up with!

Homemade Fertilizers and the Escapades of Starting a Veggie Garden!

Being our first summer at our new house, planting a garden was a lot more 'involved' than throwing a bunch of seeds in the dirt and doing a rain dance. We had to pull up the sod ( which we gave to Kev's boss ) and create a place to till up for our garden. We rented the sod cutter from Home Depot.  I'm not going to lie that Kevin did the majority of this. (I'm waaaaay too free spirited to make straight lines when shaping up our rectangular garden! HA!)

 

 Hayden and I did, however, help roll up the sod and pile it on the trailer. TALK ABOUT A WORK OUT! I was a visual representaion of a hot mess after that was over! Each roll of sod was about 50-60 pounds, and beleive me.. I made it my goal to search for the smallest piles to carry each time! Here are some picture of that process.

And that was just the beginning. Once it warmed up... the tilling began. The tiller only dragged me off the garden patch a couple times in an out of control frenzy. One more year and I think I will have control of that thing!  WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!  I till in my bare feet. Sometimes I feel like a less devoted Cody Lundin from 'Dual Survivor', I prefer bare feet to foot wear.

 

Arkansas dirt does not look fertile in the least. It's dry and balls up in chunks. It looks like clay. I never in a million years would have expected a seedling to break through the crackly hard surface.. but our broccoli proves otherwise!

 Being that this is the first year gardening in this soil....we don't know how things will turn out. There are a bunch of fertilizers that you probably have at home already. We did till some store bought fertilizer and lime into our garden. As well as some home made things! Not to mention about a ton of cow manure...
Benefits of Cow Poop!

Kevin knows one way  to garden... mostly revolving around chemicals and man made stuff... I am slowly
  introducing him to other, more natural ways to fertilize.

Some great fertilizers you have at home include:

I got these from a frugal living website... they explain things a lot simpler than me!

Instead of lime... use egg shells! Way cheaper!

 What You Do:
1. Save your eggs shells, and allow them to air dry.
2. Then, place the dried shells in the blender, and pulse until they are powdery-fine.
3. Sprinkle in your garden.
Why This Works:
Eggs shells are made up almost entirely of calcium carbonate – the main ingredient in agricultural lime.

Instead of regualr fertilizer, use epsom salt!

What You Need:

• 1 Tablespoon Epsom Salt
• 1 gallon water
• A watering can

What You Do:
1. Combine the Epsom salt and water.
2. Use the solution to water your plants.
3. Repeat once a month.
Why This Works:
Epsom salt is made up of magnesium and sulfate – both vital plant nutrients
. Some magnesium-loving plants to try it on: houseplants, roses,
peppers, tomatoes and potatoes.


And lastly, a good compost pile!  We have started one this year and hope to use that, along with the salts next year in our big garden.

Here's a good link and starting a compost : Make a compost pile!

For now, I'm going to try the salts on my seedlings I just planted and I will keep you posted on how that goes. I'm trying to keep away from miracle grow... It works so well though! But with my little one running around... I just worry he will take a swig... or two. I'm still trying to keep him from guzzling his bath water! And what kid can resist bright blue 'juice' sitting outside in a bucket.. calling his name!

Although we have taken less ' natural' means to growing our garden, I'm proud of it so far!

If anyone has any tips on great, natural fertilizers, please let me know! I can read until the cows come home, but I will some proof from people who actually had some success!

In the beginning...

     I have been thinking about starting a blog again for a while now. This time, however, I was thinking I would try to make it somewhat relevant to reality.. not just about half witted quotes I find hilarious, weird private jokes I can barely make sense of anymore, or stories about the shenanigans a bunch of single girls get into after a couple bottles of wine.
     I thought that this time, I would focus on something I am striving hard to make part of my life, something that I think someone else might find interesting besides myself and a few select friends, and most importantly, something I am passionate about.
     It's taken me a few years to get back in the swing of things. Life 'got in the way' for a while... until I finally realized that that is no excuse for not trying to live as naturally as I can, within my means. Not only would I have been saving money all this time, but my family and I would have already built healthier lives for ourselves.
     The lucky thing is, every little change for the better makes a difference. I have a long way to go, but i'm striving to better myself,... and the environment, one compost heap at a time! 

Some day I may make it to the mountains (or create my own commune ;) ) and I want myself and my family to be prepared, capable, happy and healthy!

This blog depicts my journey thus far and beyond,

 naturally delicious and healthy recipes,

a bunch of DIY stuff I have had a blast creating from a bunch of rubble my Fiance has dragged home from work,

and my attempt at proving I CAN live off the land! Even in an urban landscape. ( with the help of my darling Fiance's AWESOME green thumb!)

     I will no doubt gush about my love of Dr. Bronners products, tea tree oil and aloe.... NO ONE should live without these items! No one CAN live without these items! I will probably drive you crazy rambling on about my unhealthy obsession with mason jars and re-purposed wood! But hopefully, amidst all of that, I hope this will be a place to post and share easy, achievable ideas to help us all live a little more 'off the land'.. not just for survival, but for the beauty and fun in it all :)