Mason Jar Love

Melody went down to the States last weekend and when I found out that she was going, I asked her to pick me up a box of these beauties from Target.

It is the 100 year anniversary of the 'perfect mason jar' and to celebrate, they are selling vintage style jars. They are gorgeous!

I thought I would put together some ideas how you could use mason jars, besides the obvious use of canning. If you type in 'mason jars' into the search bar in Pinterest, you will come across many different ideas, but here are a few that I really liked.

First up, drinking glasses.

Pour some water, add a few sprigs of peppermint, maybe some lemon, add a striped paper straw, and now you're drinking your water in style.

Use them as a vase for your flowers.

I think peonies and these mason jars were made for each other. How perfect are the colours!

Next up, I used some vintage jars from my great-grandmother to store dry goods on the bookshelf in our kitchen.

I love these jars. They are perfect for rice, oatmeal, popcorn, and whatever else you may want to store!

Here are a few other ideas I collected off of Pinterest.

Store your cupcake liners in mason jars so they don't get smashed like mine do. Mason Jar Crafts // Transform one of your jars into a soap dispenser that you can display on your kitchen or bathroom counter.  Love Grows Wild //  Wrap some lace around some jars and place a tea light inside for a beautiful centerpiece. Style Me Pretty // Hang a jar from a bracket in your kitchen to hold wildflowers so you can see them as you are washing your dishes. The Created Home //

There are many other ideas that you can do when you think outside the box. How do you use mason jars in your home?

Note: You can buy these jars in Canada when you go to greenmunch.ca

Birthday Party!

Two weeks ago, Gavin turned two. This was my sappy mommy post on Instagram the night before:

 

His birthday was the first really warm day in a long time. It was nice to be wearing shorts and t-shirts again! I bought a helium balloon from the dollar store the night before and had it waiting in the living room when Gavin woke up in the morning. Best $1.25 I've spent. He carried that thing around the house all day.

We had hamburgers for supper and donuts for dessert. He only ate the sprinkles.

A few days later we celebrated his birthday with my family. Even though it was suppose to rain, it actually ended up being a nice evening, so people could be outside if they wanted, which was great, because our house is small.
We chose to do things simply and had pizza, veggies and chips for supper. I covered our coffee table with kraft paper, put our basket of crayons on the table and let the kids colour on the paper as they ate their supper.

 

I pushed our table, which I covered with kraft paper, against the wall and had the food and drinks all laid out, waiting to be devoured. There isn't a picture of the table filled with food, because by the time I thought about it, all the food was gone and just crumbs were left.  

Since it was such a nice evening, we did the presents and cake outside.

It was a simple party, but it was fun to celebrate our little boy! 

You can read about Gavin's first birthday party here. 

Move. That. Tree!

We have lived in this house for 3 1/2 years now and in that time I've done a lot of projects. I've taken the deck off the back of the house (read about it here), I've updated the kitchen and the bathroom (read about it here and here), renovated the whole basement (read about it here) plus dozens of other projects. I've never tried anything when I was 9 months pregnant though. Last night I had a sudden burst of energy and since my husband was home and cleaning stuff up around outside, I decided to do something that has been on my "wish list" for a while. Cut down a tree and bush at the front of our house.

The front of our house has looked like this for years:

There was a random Manitoba Maple (I don't know what you call it in the U.S.) that was growing up out of a scraggly bush. It blocked part of the driveway and the walkway into the house and just looked terrible.

Here it is from another angle:

The tree was growing nice and straight and tall. Just in the worst place possible.

I set up my sawzall and got to work. There was no way I could've cut it down with an axe. There were too many parts of the bush. I basically cut it down piece by piece. My husband dragged away pieces of the brush as I cut them off and in about 45 minutes I was done. I don't know what I put it off so long.

Here are the afters:

Now you can actually see the front of the house! There is still a bit of work to be done with pulling up the root system so I can plant grass there, but that can wait for another day when I have some more energy. In the meantime, every time I look out the front windows, it looks so much more bare! And clean!

And because we all like the dramatic side-by-sides:

What have you been up to lately? Any big projects that you've finally tackled?

5 Best Rainy Day Activities for Toddlers

It has been raining here constantly! It feels more like April than June and my kids and I are starting to go crazy with cabin fever.

Because of this, I thought I'd post my top 5 rainy day activities that seem to work the best for toddlers and don't require huge prep or clean up.

1) Play dough. Such a classic and my girls love it. It takes about 5 minutes to make play dough from scratch and it is a 30 minute to 1 hour long activity. Can't beat that! Here is my favourite recipe.

2) Mess free finger painting. I love finger painting but hate the mess that my kids seem to make. This idea uses a ziploc bag. Genius!

3) Read books. Discover some of your books that have gotten lost in the shuffle. My girls usually pick their favourites to read and forget about the rest of them. Start reading all the other books that you have!

4) Let them help you clean. You can never start too young with kids helping you clean. Even though things take so much longer, let them help. When they're teenagers and know how to clean their rooms properly, you'll be thankful you took the time now!

5) Make a tent or fort for them. I made this tent out of a hula hoops and old curtains and it worked wonderfully for the girls!

I hope some of these ideas help!