Twine jars!

So I always seem to find these great ideas for decorating/crafts late at night. But, instead of putting them on my to do list, I get out all of my stuff and do it right then.... Crazy, I know... SO- last night, I found these SUPER cute ideas on how to recycle glass jars old and new!

Find the inspiration to this project and a TON more good stuff here . I love her stuff!

So, go get your jars (or start saving those spaghetti sauce, jams, jellys and pickle jars) and join in!

These jars sit in my bathroom on the back of the toilet. Boring? Yes. But now, I love looking at my toilet. Ha.

 

 

BEFORE. See? Boring!

So to jazz them up a bit, all I did was take some binding twine (or jute) put a dab of hot glue on the bottom of the lip of the jar and started winding around. The downside of doing super awesome crafty things late at night is that....sometimes I forget to take pictures... Sorry! Sooo... This is how it looks after the winding.

Put another dab of hot glue to hold the end in place.

After the initial binding is done, I wanted to add a little something to pull it all together. I swirled a piece of twine together and made this 'rosette'.

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Glue it in place over the seam of where the twine ends were on the lip of the jar.

I didn't really like how you ended up with this ugly hole in the middle and could see the glue. Solution? Knot! Just tie a small knot into a separate piece of twine, cut to size, put a dab of glue in the center of your swirl and place knot!

So that's it! So super easy! I love these jars now! (And so does my husband!) What's greater, is that it didn't cost me a thing. I had all of those things at home already. If you don't have twine, try ribbon, yarn or some sort of recycled clothing item. t shirts?? Let me know what you do!

AFTER. Not boring!! Yay!

Happy Crafting!

Homemade Granola!

So- a couple weeks ago, I realized that I didn't want to have to buy much of anything anymore. 

Especially if I could make it myself! Example: jewelry, food, clothes, accessories, decorations... you get the point... 

My favorite breakfast cereal was no exception, so I started searching and found this GREAT recipe! 

Thank you to my friend Tracy for letting me re-post her amazing creation!! 

So here we go. Homemade Granola. (No High Fructose Corn Syrup- Bleck!)

Ingredients: 

• 4 cups Quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup Flax seed (ground, OR you can grind the whole seeds yourself with a hammer. Just kidding- use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. :) 
• 1/2 cup Sliced Almonds
• 1/2 cup Pecans (chopped) I used store bought pieces.
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (I used shredded)
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• pinch of Salt

• 1/4 cup Honey
• 1/3 cup Vegetable or Canola Oil 
• 1/2 cup Brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

*Next time I make this, I am going to add dried fruit.

Put all the dry ingredients (first section) in a large bowl and mix it really well.

Put all the 'wet' ingredients (second section) into a small pot, except for the vanilla. 

Stir while you bring to a boil. 

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. 

Pour mixture over the dry ingredients and Stir like crazy!

(keep it in the bowl, but I mean stir it really well...) 

Try not to eat yet. :)

Cover a pan (I used a cookie sheet with edges) with parchment paper.

Bake @325 F for 20-25 minutes. I stirred mine about halfway through baking to make sure it didn't burn. After it is cooled on the pan, store in an air tight container in refrigerator. 

I like mine just like cereal- in a bowl with milk, and topped with fresh fruit. 

(Raspberries, bananas or strawberries are good) 

 Mark likes his on top of vanilla yogurt- parfait style. :) 

Either way, ENJOY!