Old Jars ..New Purpose

  Today is a day to try and get some things done. It sometimes seems to be a losing battle. I can think to myself , "okay today I need to get this, this and that done today", but in the end, only one of those things may actually get done. While the kids are at school I make a decision everyday to get things that need to be done..done. Then I stop and think again, "hmm, do I really want to work more while the baby is taking a nap or do I want to take a nap too?" I usually opt for the nap too. Today though, since the baby is refusing his nap and I can't mop the floors with him up and about, I thought I'd come here and share what I did the other day. Lucky you!
  This is a easy easy craft you can do with kids or not. Don't get me wrong, I love to do things with my kids, but sometimes I just have an idea and want to get it done without a dozen other helping hands. These are so cute, cheap and easy to do. Let's start with supplies needed for this project. Oh, wait I'll show you first what the project is. Please excuse my very poor picture. I took it with my phone, since moving I've yet to find my camera.

Now onto the supplies needed.

• Start saving old jars, any jars as long as they're glass ones.
• Tissue paper (the kind you buy to put in gift bags) I bought mine at Hobby they have every color you could imagine.
• Some people use modge podge but I use plain old elmers glue and water, So much cheaper and works great!!
• black paint for faces

Some kind of spray sealer. I bought a satin clear finish at Walmart for around $3.00.

-First wach and dry your glass jars and set aside.
-Then I decide what type of face I'm going to make. Obviously for these I did Halloween faces so I'm sticking to orange, purple, white and green tissue paper. Here's a tip. cut a long strip and hold it against your jar to see how long you will need it, then cut only what you think will cover the jar. If you cut all the same length then they may not cover the length of your other jars..make sense?
-get a old bowl and any old paint brush and mix only what glue you think you will use. You can always mix up more if needed, it only takes a minute to do. I mix apprx. 60% glue with 40% water. No real measuring of glue and water, just till the glue is somewhat runny but still able to keep on your paintbrush.
-With your paint brush dip into the glue mixture and make a strip of glue and add a strip of tissue paper on top of that. You can smooth it with your fingers and just keep going around the jar til it's covered in tissue paper.
-Once the jar is covered let it dry completely. Don't worry if you can see glue..it dries clear!:)
-Paint on a face and spray with clear spray..Thats it!! Super easy and very cute at night drop a tealight in and watch it glow.
 

Autumn or Fall either way...

  It appears to be peeking it's head out. Me, I love the 'fall'. The colors, the smells, and yes Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favorites! It's days like today though that I really don't care for. Rainy a drizzly type of rain, just cold and drizzly. No sun, no breeze, nothing, makes it a day to stay in and keep the windows shut, so no fall breeze flowing thru the house today.
  It's been some time since I've blogged about anything, family and moving took precedence for quite some time. Now though I believe I'm ready to begin again. I will be expanding my blog beyond just baking, as it seems I have so much more to talk about..some will hate me and some will understand where I'm coming from, but either way 'it is what it is' and I hope you enjoy reading and seeing what is happening here regularly.
  I am undecided on whether to keep my blogs name 'The Thankful Cookie' or  to go ahead and change it, but since I cannot come up with something that I find appropriate just yet so I will go ahead and keep it for now.
  As some here know I am the mom to 17 of my own biological children. I am by far from the 'perfect' mom, but who is, right? My oldest is 26 years and my youngest is 2 years old. No, I'm not a certain religion and I was born and raised right here in the United States. I just had a lot of kids and although like most moms, if I had that magic ball or time machine I would definitely go back and do some things different. I'm not referring to the number of kids I have, but to how I handled certain situations, things I said, things I've done or didn't do, whatever it may be I believe there is things we all wish we could go back and get a replay, but life doesn't work like that so it's all Live and Learn, I guess. I'm 43 years old now and my pregnancy days are done. I have no desire to have any more children. I'm still not at a complete 'happy' place with things the way they are but it's a work in progress. Some people take longer to learn and as it appears I seem to learn things the hard way. I'm hard headed, stubborn, bull headed, call it what you like, I'm at least one or maybe even all three of those terms. I'm still learning with my kids, my life, my decisions and everything in between, like most people.
  Right now I am down to one home all day now (my 2 year old son Gus). All the kids are back in school and the house is pretty quiet..what am I saying, it's extremely quiet! No fighting, arguing, can I or I wants for about 5 and 1/2 hours a day. I really thought it would take some getting used to, but I seem to be adapting well and frankly I'm enjoying it. Should I feel guilty for that? Sometimes I think I should, but by the time I really start thinking about it again, more time has passed, I look at the clock and see that time is flying by and think I better get busy and get some things done. The quiet will end as the school bus approaches, so enjoy it for now and enjoy my one on one time with Gus Gus. (I call him Gus Gus like the little mouse in Cinderella, love that movie). Who by the way is very pre occupied watching Barney at the moment.
  Well now that I have informed and filled you in a bit, you can see why I haven't updated my poor little blog in some time. My hope is that it will change. I still bake, craft, etc  and I will share the things I've done and provide you with recipes, tutorials and great deals on some things. Oh, did I mention I also coupon now, but we won't get into that just yet. In return all I ask is to read from time to time (and not just the 'how to' parts), because I believe I can give valuable information to tired mom's, stressed mom's, mom's who think they can't do it one more day, but still  muddle through somehow and I'm always open for advice to on how to handle this or that. I've learned that one day you'll blink and your kids will be grown and you'll wonder (when did that happen, I feel like I missed it). Time sneaks up on us and it's gone, so pick and choose your battles and your time wisely with our kids, because before you know it. they're all grown up and you'll be the one wishing you could've/would've done this/that differently.
  This is my entry for now here, I have a diaper to change. 26 years of changing diapers! I wonder how many diapers I've changed? Wow the thought of that, lol.