Chasing the Sun: May 2016

Patriotic Mason Jar Lanterns

6:00:00 AM

Alright guys, what better way to kick off Memorial Day Weekend than with a craft that can be used right now! AND on the Fourth of July. And honestly, if you're anything like our family, we're pretty patriotic all year round, but especially in the summer. So these bad boys will be used quite a bit! I've been wanting to do these for a while, so one day I got up and just decided I would try it out for myself! First things first... to the craft store.

Shopping List:

3 Mason Jars (or more if you would like!)

Painter's Tape (or something similar)

Star Stickers

Circle Stickers (or something similar)

Red, White, and Blue Chalk Finish Paint

Foam Brushes

Tealight Candles

To learn more about the process, see my latest DIY post to see pictures of what I have used and a little more detail about these type of projects!

Let's jump right in!

As mentioned in my previous posts, I use old shoe boxes to keep from making a mess. I used two separate shoe box lids for this project, with the two striped jars in one and the star jar in the other.

I started with my star jar and began to stick on a few star stickers. Be sure not to put them too close together or too many of them, because you'll need room for the white stars! After these are stuck on, you can do your first coat of white! ONE HOUR later (no earlier), do your second coat and let it dry.

After your white has dried, begin sticking on more stickers. My sticker sheet had all different sizes, so I used the bigger stickers for the white. Put as many as you wish and then you're ready to start painting again. Grab your blue chalk finish paint and do your first coat! Wait 1 hour, and do your second coat.

After you're done painting, grab some tweezers and start pulling off the stickers! **They most likely will NOT come off perfectly. Those stars may look a bit interesting, but it's fixable! Once you pull your stickers off, it should like somewhat like this. Now to do a little damage control, grab an old pen or pencil and dip it in white or blue (whichever is needed) and reshape the stars. Your star jar is now complete!

So... I forgot to take the first picture of the stripe jars. What you missed was placing the small circle stickers on the jars. (I actually didn't have any small circle stickers, so I had to get creative. You know the "to:, from:" stickers you put on gifts.. well I grabbed a few of those and a hole puncher. Worked just fine!) I stuck those all over the jar, painted the first white coat, let it dry one hour, painted a second coat and let it dry as well. Now you're all caught up :)

For this part I was supposed to use painters tape for stripes. But yet again.. I was a little unprepared. I used athletic tape and thankfully, it worked just fine as well. After the tape was in place, I did two coats of red (with an hour wait in between) and let it dry. I grabbed my tweezers again and removed the tape and stars, and then touched them up using a pen dipped in paint and they were good to go! Stripe jars, complete.

You can go with or without the rims, but make sure you keep them open! Because the last step is to place a tealight candle inside and let it illuminate the jar through the little holes we made. I know you and your family will get some good use out of these this summer, starting with THIS
WEEKEND. Don't forget to pin an image and save it to your DIY pinterest board :)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, ya'll!

xoxo
Bailey

DIY

DIY heaven... Mason jars, old windows, reclaimed wood, oh my!

10:56:00 AM

So.. I know after my Mother's Day post I said I would post a how-to on all of the items I made this year! Let's jump right in!

This was the picture I originally shared with all of the items that I made. Below I'm going to walk you through each piece.

Shopping List:

Old Window

Old Piece of Wood

Mason Jars

Picture Frame (cheap!)

Tall bottle (cheap!)

Chalk Finish Paint

Foam Brushes

Paint Brush

Twine

Mini Clothes Pins

Hot Glue Gun

Scrapbook Paper (only 2-4 pieces)

Sharpie

Alright so these were all of the items I used. Once you read through this post, you may only need one or two. So many of these things can done with different items. It's completely up to you! Just about everything listed craft material wise can be found at Michaels.

My main pieces that needed to be purchased. An old, weathered piece of wood, and an old window. Both can be found at an antique store :)

These are the materials I started with. Mason jars, a dollar store bottle, foam brushes, a regular paint brush, twine, small clothes pins, and various colors of chalk finish paint. Everything here (excluding the bottle) was purchased from Michaels :)

I'm going to go through one thing at a time. We'll start easy and work our way up! This was another thing I purchased from the dollar store that was not pictured above. Take a dollar store frame (mine was basic brown), remove the glass and set it aside. Grab a bar of soap and rub it all over the frame, especially on the corners and hard edges. Next, choose your desired color of chalk finish paint and paint over the soap, being sure to cover the entire frame. This paint is Martha Stewart, found at Michaels. Now set this aside and grab the glass you removed earlier. I used an old shoe box to keep from making a mess, but anything would work! Set the glass down in the shoe box and paint the glass with one coat of black chalk paint. Wait ONE HOUR (not a minute earlier, trust me... I learned the hard way. It balls up and looks awful and you have to start over.) and do a second coat and set aside. While that is drying, take a piece of sandpaper and lightly rub off the soap from the frame. You will begin to get the distressed look at pictured above. Rub until you get the desired effect. Place your DRY piece of glass that is now chalkboard back into the frame and ta-da! You're done with one piece!

This was one of my favorite crafts :) Sorry for the terrible picture, but you can still see. These were simple and so so cute! Starting with one mason jar, find your desired chalk finish color and do one coat. Repeat with the other jars. As mentioned above, wait ONE hour and do a second coat. Once you have two coats on and they are completely dry, grab a piece of sandpaper and begin to rough it up, especially on the hard edges. It looks SO neat. Trust me! After they are distressed, grab a piece of twine and tie around the top. For the tall jar (an old wine bottle would look great as well!) I used a hot glue gun and wrapped the twine. I chose to put flowers in mine for Mother's Day, but since then we have used them at parties for knives, forks, and spoons. So versatile!

Here they are with flowers in them :)

Doing this for the first time it was difficult, but now that I've learned from mistakes, it's so so easy! This was a SUPER old window, so first of all I painted it white. Next I painted the two panes with chalk paint, same procedure as above. For the other four panes, I used scrapbook paper, cut them the same measurements, and hot glued them on. I added finishing touches of twine and mini clothes pins, to add a cute and crafty look. You can mix this up so many ways!

Lastly, and probably my favorite of all was this old piece of wood. I'm not sure how, but it turned out looking neat. I can't wait to do more of these! So to start, I did a white wash on the wood. I had no idea how to do it, so honestly I completely guessed but it paid off. I used a little bit of water mixed with white chalk paint. Acrylic was probably recommended, but I was using what I had. I had already been to Michaels three times in two days and really didn't want to make another trip. I just guessed on amounts and mixed together. Added water if too thick, added paint if too thin. You get it. I did the white wash one night and started painting the next morning. Based on the color, you can decide how many coats you would like. Mine had two. Next, I chose a bible verse that I love, and went for it. Looking back, I probably should have measured or something to make sure it was centered, but I just didn't have the materials. So I guessed, and it didn't turn out too bad :) You can use chalk paint or sharpies. I used both.

I hope this helped.. at least a little :) Feel free to ask any questions! Enjoy getting crafty on this long weekend.

xoxo

Bailey

Birthdays

Happy Mama's Day!!!

10:43:00 PM

Nursing School

Helloooo Summer!

10:36:00 PM

Wow! Where has the time gone?! Just yesterday the semester started, and now I'm on my third day of summer break! I just now noticed I haven't posted in over a month. Needless to say, April was a busy month. Between the three exams, two finals, ATI, and everything else that gets crammed into the last month... I have been a busy gal.

Lets see, where to begin... Med-Surg clinicals were completed and after Spring Break the entire School of Nursing had a research day which was pretty neat (and a day out of clinical was pretty nice too). The next week Psych clinicals began. I can't really say much, but I really enjoyed it! It challenged me, made me be more intentional with my words and my actions, and helped me realize how blessed I truly am. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I don't exactly see a future in it. The search goes on.. :)

Mixed in with clinicals we had three exams, two med-surg and one psych. Ya'll... these were all back to back weeks. This was a fun three weeks. We had a one week test gap and then ATI came. ATI is similar to a mini NCLEX (licensing exam taken at the end of the program) that covers one subject at a time. It is apparently a good indicator of how students do on the NCLEX, so naturally we have one every semester, and some semesters 2-3. These are not fun. At all. I always underestimate just how long reading this mini textbook packed with information takes. So naturally I end up studying until four hours before the exam. This semester we were tested over Psych Mental Health ATI. I'm 99.9% positive I was having a panic attack as I submitted that exam. The minute I had to wait for my grade was the longest minute of my life thus far. Not to mention I could not get it together during the exam. Just about every exam I am superrrr anxious right before, but as soon as I get the exam I just get to work. About two questions in, I normally calm down. This exam was different. My heart was pounding the entire time. These exams are pass/fail, and you must score a level 2 or 3 to continue. This exam I scored an 80% which landed in level 2. Last semester I scored Level 3. But this girl was ecstatic. I thought the entire exam that I had failed. One big exam done, two finals to go.

Finals week came and Med-Surg and Psych were two days back to back. First was Med-Surg. I needed a 67% for an A and a 27% for a B. Pretty good odds, right? Well... let's just say the exam didn't go as planned. It was a disaster exam, and not any of the students fault. We were completely misled (to be VERY kind) and a ton of drama came about throughout the School of Nursing after that exam. Thankfully, something happened and it all worked out. I ended up making a 98% on the exam and landed an A in Level II Med-Surg. BUT, we didn't see these grades until the next day. So while we're all stressed, we had to start studying for Psych. This exam was a little scarier. I needed a 90% for an A and a 67% for a B. Turns out, I made a 100% on this exam and got an A in Level II Psych Mental Health. That means a 4.0 for Level II! I couldn't be happier! It is summer and it's time to celebrate! And here is my favorite way to celebrate :)