Patriotic 4th of July Mason Jars

 Hello everyone!

I found this super cute 4th of July lantern set on Pinterest and I just had to try it out. 

Original Pin: Addicted2DIY- Patriotic Mason Jar Lanterns

I'll start by saying that there is nothing particularly difficult about this project, it just has a lot of steps. 

What You'll Need:

1-Quart Sized Mason Jar

2-Pint Sized Mason Jars

Rubbing Alcohol

Paper Towels

Star Stickers - Small foil and Large Foam

Gentle Paper Tape

Scissors

White Spray Paint

Blue Spray Paint

Red Spray Paint

Needle

1. Wipe down your mason jars with some rubbing alcohol and let dry. I believe this helps the paint to stick by getting rid of the oily residue left behind by your hands. I have no evidence for this ...I could be totally making it up :)

2. Stick the little sticker stars on the jars randomly. Make sure to leave space for the big stars later. You don't need a whole lot of the little stars.

3. Spray paint all the jars white. You could do two coats, and if you have the time you probably should. I would much rather do two light coats than one heavy coat but I was pressed for time.

4. Let the jars dry completely. I let mine dry overnight (nap time only lasts so long, I ran out of time). 

5. Use the blue tape to create stripes on the pint jars. The top of the top strip will be a little difficult to lay straight. Place the foam stars on the quart jar.

6. This is important! Paint the jars white again! This way, if there is any bleed through the tape it will be white instead of red or blue. The white paint will make a seal around the tape to make sure no bleed happens. You can skip this step if you don't care about clean lines.

7. Paint the pint jars red. Paint the quart jar blue. Let dry. My blue came out a little cracked because I didn't shake the can long enough. You can't see the defects at all when it is lit.

8. Remove blue tape from red jars. Use a needle to lift the edges of the stars from all jars. Remove stars. 

9. Grab a glass of wine, cram a tea light in each jar and congratulate yourself for being awesome. :)

I love my jars and I can't wait to use them every year!! 

-ri

Pinterest FTW: Dawn/Vinegar Miracle Bathtub Cleaner

I have a problem with my bathtub. It's never clean.

My home sat vacant for 4+ years, and during those years my bathtub 

just had a mental breakdown. The last occupants left the chain to the tub

stopper on the tub so I now have a nice rust spot in the bottom of the tub.

Also...I'm pretty sure my tub is from the seventies meaning that the finish 

is just GONE (meaning it is impossible to clean properly).

So, when I stumbled across this nice little picture on pinterest, I 

was intrigued.

Now SUPPOSEDLY this miracle occurred by the simple application of

a dawn and vinegar solution, a lengthy wait, and an easy wipe down.

I didn't believe the pin.

This is the original pin:

from: life, crafts & whatever

So I waited for my tub to get filthy, it didn't take long. The hubby loves to take

long baths and so there is a perpetual ring around my tub. 

When you see the "before" picture try not to judge...or scream.

Remember! Remember! 4 year vacancy!

And I did NOT pick out the blue tile...I just wanted to throw that out there.

I followed the oh-so-simple directions:

Items Needed:

1-Spray Bottle

1/2 cup of White Vinegar

1/2 cup of BLUE Dawn Dish Soap

Everyone seems to specify the Blue dawn...I'm not sure why. 

So! You preheat the white vinegar in the microwave for two minutes

add the dawn to the hot vinegar

pour the vinegar/dawn mixture into the spray bottle 

gently shake

spray down your filthy tub and walls

**I would like to take the time to warn you that this mixture stinks...

like really...really stinks. Like you might want to go see a movie...

as in I ran (waddled) out of my bathroom just to take a breath

Seriously, the vinegar is overpowering**

Then you wait two hours. 

I came back in two hours and my tub did not look any cleaner. I will

admit...I was distraught. I did a little bit of a wipe down and I was still not

seeing this miracle of housekeeping happening. 

I had to scrub. And scrub I did! I was 39 weeks pregnant and dying to 

get this baby out of me so the scrubbing was good for me (I think).

I took the rough side of a sponge and went to TOWN on that tub.

I was going to take a shower in a clean tub that night, by god!

After a fair amount of scrubbing I started to see progress and then

I started to realize that stains I thought would never come out...started to 

come out. 

I seriously could not get a good enough picture of how much my tub sparkled.

So my verdict:

WIN!*

*My disclaimer is that this is NOT a no-scrub solution as advertised. I did have

to scrub but I will say that this dawn/vinegar combo cleaned my tub in a way

I have never seen before. Now, to be fair, this pin was saying this solution

is for soap scum and since soap scum isn't really my problem I can't really say 

how it works against shower doors, etc. 

So take it as you will, it still worked. 

-Ri

Pinterest FTW!

I'm pretty sure that many of you have heard of Pinterest aka - the best website EVER.

It occurred to me the other day that while I have 973 pins, I wasn't DOING anything

with the information I had greedily gleaned from people more creative than me.

Except for the food...I've been cooking like crazy.

So, with my larger waistline tagging along like an annoying little sibling, 

I've decided to make a weekly effort to utilize this plethora of information and

actually DO something that I have pinned.

It's crazy. I know. 

This week is about water. 

We all need to drink it...and most of us don't.

My main issue with water is that it is bland and basically I hate

drinking it. We all know how I love to keep track of things so I believe
that this pin is going to be my salvation as far as water consumption.

This is the pin, try as a might I can't figure out where the original link is for this
pin. The person who pinned it didn't do it right and pinned this whole person's blog
and not just the post that talks about this photo.

I love this idea! I do love my non-sweating, double insulated, straw included cup
but the fact is, when I use it, I have to think about how many times I've refilled
the cup so that I can calculate if I've reached my proper intake. This idea takes
ALL the thinking out of drinking water.

You shouldn't guzzle water 16 ounces at a time and with this idea you
can slowly drink your water throughout the day without having to wonder
how much you've had. You have a hourly goal that is easily kept!

I decided to just go cheap and re-use a Smart Water bottle. I guessed as to how far
apart I should place my four hash marks and I just went for it. If you want to go out
and buy a pretty bottle and then measure it all out, by all means, go for it. But you
don't NEED to do it that way. I also just used one  1 liter bottle (which is almost 34 oz,
double it and you have your 64 oz/day intake met) because really, I don't want to carry around two
water bottles. :)

So this is my oh-so-lovely water bottle. Notice the yellow tint? That

is Pedialyte! After looking at the Mio water flavor things I said to myself "Self, 

why don't you just put pedialyte or gatorade in your bottle?"

Genius, I tell ya! Genius. So now, to combat flavorless water, I just put about a half 

cup of gatorade or pedialyte in my water and it adds just enough flavor to make the water

less boring.

Less boring = more drinking!

So far this has been working out for me. I hope that this will help combat

my chronic dehydration, especially since I'm planning on breastfeeding and apparently,

if you don't drink enough water you can lose your milk and if you lose your milk you are

done done done! There is no bringing it back.

Yay for pinterest!

-Ri