DIY Apothecary Jars

I didn't realize how popular apothecary jars were until I started reading creative/DIY blogs! And I knew I had to get some! However, I wasn't sure I wanted to pay the price I was seeing for them!

Then I came across this project that I mentioned here in an earlier post about my planned projects!

Ashley's Apothecary Jars

I pretty much used all the same supplies from Hobby Lobby that Ashley used here......... (and it just so happened ALL were on sale when I got them- use coupons from the paper or online if they aren't on sale for you!)

(Ashley's pic not mine!)

I didn't take pics of my pieces before but I used all the same supplies except for glass candle sticks from the Dollar Tree instead. I just spray painted them Heirloom White, then black so that a "wood" like color appeared through when I distressed them later!

Check out her tutorial for details on how to DIY this yourself! Like I said all I did different was use the glass candle sticks since they were cheaper (the small ones were 2/$1!), and I spray painted everything instead of using regular paint.

I loooooove this project!!!

I actually finished them quite awhile ago, but Hobby Lobby was out of the finials for awhile, and I only had one!! Now it is finally done!

Only one is filled with "fallish" stuff, so I'll probably replace the pine cones with little Christmas ornaments instead of acorns soon. The other two are filled with wine corks (Yes, USED wine corks, although you can buy just wine corks at craft stores- don't worry that is YEARS worth of wine! Glad I hung onto them!), and beach stones that I've mostly collected at NC beaches on trips there with my BFF.

I have these sitting on the edge of my kitchen counter, that hangs over into the living room, so they almost seem like more of my living room decor than kitchen! (although you can see the knife block back there!)

For now, I have it with a beach sign I got for $5 at Home Goods- on clearance because the clock is broken. I think I may replace it with a picture or something else because the clock is paper and kinda cheap looking if you look close! I liked how the gray of the sign goes with the stones, and it is slightly distressed. I may distress it more, if possible or maybe rub on some blackish stain.

And I found this little set of African spice pots in my storage that I got years ago in West Africa and thought it would look cute here! They sort of have the same rough, distressed look of the jars.

Now, that I'm taking a look at pics of mine and Ashley's together.....I think I used smaller jars! Her finials don't seem to overwhelm the jars as much as mine do! Oh well! I still like it!

And let's be real for a sec.....this is what it looked like before I moved all the crap to take pics! :)

I'd just had company for dinner and used my china at my fall table scape seen here, so there's some dirty china waiting to be washed, an oddly placed telephone (still trying to figure out where to put that! I may just put it away unless needed for power outages, since we have handsets in the bedrooms!), a bucket filled with Baby Girl's bottle parts, on top of a recently purchased cake stand that I still don't know what to do with, and our randomly placed glass fruit bowl that I don't know where to put right now either!

But let's imagine this is all that is there, and it looks gorgeous!

Ahhhhhhhh!



Linking up this project at these lovely linky parties! Visit them for more great inspiration!

Baby Girl's Flowers

Every day, I rock Baby Girl to sleep and see this across from me.......

And I love the shelves I re-did, and love the flower pot, flowers and butterflies from Hobby Lobby (whose colors never show right in pictures, I promise they match well with her bedding!).

But the flowers and butterflies have been bugging me lately! It just needed something to tie it all in! So, as I sat in the rocking chair every day for the past month or so, I thought up this......

At first, I thought about doing green stems and leaves for the flowers, but there is zero green in her room, so I thought up this black vinyl project!

I used black Cricuit vinyl from JoAnn's- at 2 sheets for $9.99 it isn't cheap, but they always put out 40% or 50% coupons in Sunday's paper, to help make it cheaper! I can handle about $6 for this project, which took up less than 1 sheet and some other projects I have in the works!

I don't have a Cricuit cutting machine though (I really want a Sillouhette one!), so I freehanded all of this!

I drew the stems and leaves on the back of the vinyl, cut them out, and placed them over and over and over until I got them right! :) Thank goodness you can do that with vinyl!

I used a chalk marker to write "Watch Me Grow." It can wipe off with a damp cloth, so I can change the words whenever I want!

Oh, and I must confess......I did this....while she was sleeping, over top of her! Yes, I climbed on a step stool and leaned over the crib while she slept through the whole thing! And took pictures while she was sleeping!

See......

Never moved a muscle! She is her father's daughter and can sleep through anything! Normally I wouldn't do a project over top of her, lol, but I knew I'd be interrupted if I did it during the day! So late at night it was!

Now, I can rock in peace with out the wall yelling at me to fix it, and this is my view instead!

One more number to mark off the list of Baby Girl projects! Projects #1, 5, and 11 (this one!) are complete! Eight more to go! Half of the materials for other projects have been gathered, I just have to order some more fabric! Hope these can get done along with all my other projects, PLUS Christmas is about to hit!!

Sharing this project at these linky parties! Visit them for more great ideas and inspiration!

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A Month of Thanksgiving!

I'm a little late in writing about this since we are 5 days into November....but what else is new!

Lots of people around the blogosphere, and some of my friends on facebook have been doing posts on what they are thankful for, or doing something each day to give to others.

Last year the hubby and I took up this 30 day giving challenge from Kingdom First Mom!

While we enjoyed it, it was a stressful month for us for lots of other reasons! We were in the middle of moving (which both distracted us, AND helped since I was gathering stuff to give away while packing!), and I was unknowingly pregnant and starting to feel some symptoms.

I thought a lot about it and decided that this year it might be too much with a new baby, but I wanted to do something!

So I came up with this idea-

I'm leaving "Thankful" notes in the hubby's lunch cooler, everyday up til Thanksgiving, then planning to give them all back to him in a scrapbook for his birthday (a week after Thanksgiving!), along with pictures! I'm stealing the old ones back when I put the new ones in!

I've been writing them on plain old computer paper, but cutting them out with fancy scissors and writing nicely, so I can later mount them on scrapbook paper!

It's taking me just a few seconds everyday to write something I am thankful about him, and he has been LOVING it!

(I just now had to shoooo him from the room because he doesn't know about the scrapbook idea, nor does he know I'm planning to put in notes for a few more weeks! Can't have hi, see me writing!!)

They've been little notes that say things like how thankful I am he helps around the house, that he gave me a beautiful daughter, and that he loves me just the way I am! I haven't thought out all of the things I'm going to write yet, but he's such a great hubby I'm sure I won't run out of ideas!

What are your ideas for giving thanks this month?

Even in the midst of chaos, there is always *something* to be thankful for!!