Collecting or Hoarding?

I have a habit slight obsession of collecting empty jars and containers. I'm not quite sure if it qualifies as collecting or hoarding though...where do you draw the line? Anyway, I find myself keeping lots and lots of empty peanut butter jars {they are perfect for gifting cookies in}, empty pasta sauce jars {there are so many mason jar type crafts out there that I want to try}, and empty trail mix containers {because we might make our own trail mix one day}. 

 They usually sit by the sink for a few days until I decide to finally wash them. Getting the labels off some of the containers is difficult sometimes so I procrastinate cleaning them until I get a small collection going:) 

 I had been storing my collection in one of our kitchen cabinets, but it started taking over a little bit {I think this may be where my collection is borderline hoarding}. We are in the process of moving Eli out of the nursery, which will be turned into my craft room...so I moved my collection into one of the emptied-out drawers in the nursery/craft room. They are out of the way for now which makes me feel like less of a hoarder:)

 The point of this post isn't to embarrass myself with pictures of my jar collection, but to share the awesomeness that can be made with said collection! This is the happy that I sent to school with Grant today for his assistant teacher's birthday. Sorry for the not so great pics, but I forgot to snap a shot before we left home so these are iPhone pics {with Instagram which I LOVE} that I took in my car when we pulled up in the school parking lot.

 This was a trail mix container {probably from Target because we love their Monster Trail Mix} that I cleaned up, added some polka dot paper over the stickiness from removing the label, added a tulle bow, and a chalkboard label to the top with a little happy birthday note. And it turned out really cute. It is the perfect way to gift some yummy goodness like homemade peanut butter cookies {which is why we have so many empty peanut butter jars}.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who collects random thing that other people throw away!?! What kind of collections do you have at your house?!?

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I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts

Eli and I are heading to library story time today. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that my poor neglected third child has never been to story time. I took the boys all the time when Henry and Grant were little, but for a million and one reasons I've never taken Eli. A friend has invited us a few times over the past few months, and I had planned to start going in January....but I got sick, and it rained, and I had laundry to do...a million and one reasons! So we are going today! And today just happens to be the special Valentine party, which means if I'm going to show up for the first time I have to bring something cute with me:) Actually I probably don't have to take anything, but I bought these cute heart shaped marshmallows at Walmart a few weeks ago and I was kind of excited to have somewhere to take them!

So here are my SUPER simple, less than ten minutes to make, and really really really yummy

I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts!

 I started with a bag of pink and white heart shaped marshmallows, melted chocolate candy coating, and a handful of toothpicks.

 Stick the toothpick into the side of heart shaped marshmallow and then give it a good dunk in the melted chocolate. Carefully shake off any excess chocolate.

 After dipping, place them on foil...

 ...and add a few shakes of some pretty Valentine sprinkles.

 After the chocolate hardens, carefully pull out the toothpick. You can dip another toothpick into the melted chocolate and covered up the hole where you pulled out the dipping toothpick, or you can just leave them as they are. 

Place your chocolate marshmallow hearts directly on a serving tray, or put them into cute papers cups like I did. They fit perfectly into mini baking cups that I picked up on clearance last year at Target. These were a big hit at our house yesterday {my boys begged to eat the extra chocolate marshmallow hearts last night after dinner}, so I'm hoping they will do just as good at story time today. What preschooler doesn't love sprinkles?!?

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Project Airstream: A Shelf, Updated Bathroom, and All the Walls

We are still working on our 1977 Airstream Ambassador. Things are going slowly, but they are going. I honestly didn't think it had been so long since I had updated about our progress, but my last post was in July! Apparently last year flew by without me noticing. If you want to take a look back at where we started with this project, you can check out these posts here, here, and here. 

The outside of the Airstream hasn't changed much. Jason has repaired a few of the outside vents, and all the windows have been repaired and rescreened. Most of our time has been spent working on the inside though.

 This is a view of the front part of the Airstream {this will be the living room/mine and Jason's bedroom}. We actually started working from the back so this is the least completed part of the whole camper...and it has become a bit of a storage space to hold all of Jason's supplies and tools:)

 This shelf is the one big thing that has been done in the front though. There was originally a big plastic shelf here that had a few cracks and was a lovely aged yellow color. Jason pulled it out and repaired the wall around it, then built this wooden shelf in it's place. I just painted it this weekend with the green paint we picked out a few months ago. I think it adds a lot of fun color to a space that has pretty neutral so far...and it kind of reminds me of the 70's:)

 This is the space that will soon be our kitchen. Jason gutted the whole area and reworked the plumbing. We bought a big butcher block slab yesterday to make a countertop out of of and we bought a new sink and stove top. Jason is working on reassembling this section of the camper right now, and hopefully it will be done in the next few weeks.

 We bought a new fridge for the space and all of the camper walls are back in place. There was originally a big shelving unit attached to this wall. We are planning to putting a flat screen tv here with a small shelf underneath it to hold dvds and books.

 This is a view looking down the hallway towards the back of the camper. You can see that all the walls are back up. The closet is past the fridge on the right hand side, and the bathroom is on the left hand side.

 The bathroom was completely gutted, but Jason kept all the parts and refinished them. Reusing what was originally there was a lot more cost effective and a lot easier to fit into this really small space. The countertop and shower stall was repainted with a special plastics paint. We bought new fixtures and a new toilet. Jason has also been really busy spray painting all the trim pieces white {they started out a nice bronze color}. We still have to find lights and a mirror for the bathroom, but all the plumbing is fully functioning which was a big step!

 This is the refinished shower stall....if you look back at the older pictures you can see how far this space has come. I didn't even want to look at the old bathroom because it was so gross, but now everything is new and shiny white!

 This is the boys bedroom. We reused the bed bases, mostly because Jason liked the sleek almost airplane look of the original storage cabinets. Everything got a good cleaning and a couple coats of white spray paint. We have foam mattresses for the beds, but I am still working on sewing covers for them. 

 Jason rewired the old speakers and bought new covers for the electrical and 12 volt power outlets. Our plan is to add bunk beds above the two bottom twin beds, but that is still in the planning phase right now:)

 This is the view from the very back of the camper looking toward the front. It may not seem like much, but we have come a LONG way from where we started....and there is still a ton of work to do!

Next on our list of things to do is getting the kitchen completed. Then hopefully we can work on installing the vinyl wood flooring. I am going to try hard to keep you a little better updated...and be better about documenting our progress! Hopefully I can share a couple pics of the kitchen and new floor before February is over!

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