I'm a luminarimaniac

I've been informed that I'm slacking. I didn't think anyone would notice. I'm pretty sure the only people that read my blog are my friend Megan because she genuinely loves and misses me, my mom because she also loves me, and my friends here in Jacksonville because they are fully aware that they may be quizzed at anytime on the content or they're scared that I might become a sobbing hot mess if I find out they're not reading.  Oh, and Megan in SA because she's just awesome. But for the sake of keeping up the blog and appeasing my adoring fans, I thought I should blog about something, so here it goes, my latest obsession: jars.

I would love to tell you that this is a picture of my jar room, the room where I store my hundreds of jars, but it's not. And if it were, I wouldn't have a story to share with you.
And I guess my jar love isn't new new. I've made a few cowboy cookies since moving here and I tried to convince my husband to let me pick up a giant jar on the side of the road- I'm pretty sure if it's on the curb it means they've disowned it and you can take it, right? (The girls from bible study are laughing right now for sure). He didn't think it was close enough to the curb to count as trash and he's not so hot about my excitement for rescuing things from people's trash to begin with.  I tried to get him to pull over so I could leave a note on the jar asking them to call me if it was indeed trash, which he thought was completely ridiculous, and sure enough, the next day gigantajar was gone. We'll never know if some other trash rescuer took it or if it wasn't actually trash at all. Hmmmmmm.
Anyhow, jars, yes, we were talking about jars. So, I was asked to come up with a craft for MOPS last Wednesday. Something "fallish" and something cheap. Like $1 per person. Something I could pull together in 6 days, during which I was going to a Lynyrd Skynrd concert and making baby shower gifts and attending said baby shower and Pumpkin Palooza! Hmmm.
I was looking around google images because that's how I roll and I found these luminaries or Jar-o-lanterns!  

So cute, right?? I love them all lined up. I typically like things in 3s, but 7 is good, too! I love their nutty little faces. I also figured we could do a fall luminary with leaves. There are SO many beautiful fall leaves in my yard. And if the jars are free (they're everywhere- storing pasta sauce, salsa, pickles, jam, all kinds of things), then really, all we would need is modge podge, tissue paper, brushes, construction paper, tea lights and ribbon (most crafts need ribbon). We're looking at like $0.65 a person. Awesome. Well, except that there is no way I could eat enough pasta sauce and pickles to collect 30 jars in 6 days.
So I posted a notice on facebook that I needed my friend's jars. I expect to be overwhelmed with jars. I envisioned each mom making 2 or 3 jars. It was going to be fantastic. Except nobody brought me any jars. Sniffle, sniffle. Really people?? No jars??? Some people mentioned that there might be some in the mysterious craft room, which I had never seen, but nobody could tell me for sure or what type of jars they were. I had 5 jars, but I had to make examples, so that cut me down to 3. I only needed like 27 more! Ugh. I kept hassling people and the MOPS hancho came up with 8 or 9 and a couple more here and there. I started to panic. Poop. My first craft was going to be a bust! I started to get desperate.
My friend Erika informed me that is was recycling day in her neighborhood on Tuesday morning. Yes, the day of the mops meeting. So I got my kids straight out of bed and into the car and headed out early Tuesday to rummage around in other people's recycling bins. What I didn't count on was the moms out on the streets with their children waiting for the bus. It's one thing to rummage around in people's recycling, it's a whole other to have captive audiences of 8 to 15 people at each stop. Awesome. There are a RIDICULOUS number of children and bus stops in Country Club Hills. Seriously. What I also didn't count on was the size of these recycling bins!!!

I was expecting this:

What I encountered was this:

Talk about awkward!!! AND to make it all more fun, not all people clean their recycling before putting it out. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! Seriously???? I'm confused. I thought it was all supposed to be rinsed out. Milk cartons not rinsed out and left in a bin in the sun for up to a week. WOW. WOW. Just WOW. It's just wrong.

ANNNNNNNND- NO JARS. About a dozen bins and no jars. Am I total freak for having jars? So, I quit. I gave up. I'd just buy some jars from WalMart. I don't care about the cost anymore. Then I got a phone call from Maghan. I love Maghan. She's fantastic. 

See? See how great she is? That's a fertility guy- whole different story. But, Maghan had jars for me. Maghan had emptied the contents of jars into tupperware just so I would have some jars. That's a friend. 

So I was en route to Maghan's house when a creepy beat up suburban pulled up next to me. He rolled down his window and started smiling at me. And winking. And smiling. Ummmmm. Driving faster now. Diverting eyes. Much faster. He was very persistent. He kept right along side me, window to window. Topping off at 85 on Hwy 17 people. I finally broke as hard as I could without endangering us or anyone else and was able to tuck in behind some cars behind him. Ummm, yeah, because my morning wasn't exciting enough digging around in bins, being watched by scared moms with confused kiddos, I had a crazy man encounter on the Hwy. Of course I did. 

I picked up the jars, rushed to WalMart for back up jars and then I found out jars are only about $7 a dozen. What?? Really?? Yes really. Why was I digging around in recycle bins?? Why did nobody intervene?? Where are my friends?? 

AND, while at MOPS, which I arrived at on time and out of breath, I found the craft room. And guess what was in the craft room... JARS. LOTS OF JARS. Mmmmhmmm. 

But all ended well, except that there wasn't much time for the craft, but whatever, I give up. Here are my jar-o-lanterns or luminaries:

How was that for reading material, Sanae? I find it nearly impossible to tell a short story. 

So, if anyone is new to modge podging, wash your jar, remove the label. Using a paint brush or sponge brush,  cover your jar in modge podge (glue basically). Then take cut strips or torn pieces, whichever is more pleasing to you, and place it over the glue, working in sections, covering the whole jar. Then apply your faces cut out from construction paper or your leaf or whatever. Make sure to smooth it all out and then go over the entire thing with modge podgy glue again, covering all paper and the leave. It will look like a hot mess until it dries. I like to tie a ribbon on the top to give it a clean look. 

We had a few left over jars so I started another project. Here's a preview:

Unless I find more jars, I'll just be giving this holiday season. No thanks, just give. I need 6 more jars. Anyone?? Anyone? Anyone give a hoot? Give a care? I missed recycling day in my neighborhood. Maybe I'll finish this next week ;)