DIY Mason Jar Light Fixture

Note:I am new to writing tutorials and taking pictures for them, so I didn’t get pictures of some the steps. I am sorry in advance. I am willing to answer questions if something is not clear or pictured.

 

Thanks to Pinterest I found pictures of mason jar light fixtures. I LOVED them! Apparently, Pottery Barn sold a light fixture with mason jars (here is the one they sold for $399!!) that people reproduced for much cheaper. Here is a picture of the Pottery Barn version.

There were 3 blogs with DIY tutorials that were very helpful. I thought this tutorial was the most helpful with supplies to purchase and electrical instructions. This blog was helpful for some electrical instruction as well and also a picture of one fixture using wood. They also show how to make a wooden box. I also used Kara Paslay’s tutorial for some help. After reading all three blogs, I came up with my own idea and list of supplies.

The first and most important item was the piece of wood. I envisioned a piece of barn wood from the same collapsed barn that we made this from:

I talked my Grandpa into going down to the collapsed barn, and we went to town collecting wood. With the help of his chain saw, we came home with quite the stash of amazing wood. We have collected some of the nicest wood from this place. In another post, I will show the amazing coffee table that he made from wood from this barn. Amazing! I will treasure the memories of this day and the times spent creating with my Grandpa. He loves to work, and is so creative with using scraps and odds and ends! Here are pictures from that day:

We picked our favorite piece of wood from the wood pile. We used his table saw to cut out a space for the wiring. We made numerous cuts with the saw, and then he chiseled out the wood. I didn’t get pictures of this step, but it worked out perfectly. He then used satin Minwax Polycrilic to seal the wood. The piece of wood ended up being about 54” long. We determined that we could hang about 7 jars. We took into account proper spacing so the jars wouldn’t touch each other and what we thought would look the best. Here is a picture of the wood with the sealant and space for wiring:

With a list in hand, I headed to Home Depot and Wal-Mart for the rest of the supplies. Here is a list of what we needed:

Home Depot:

21 feet of 18-2 Lamp Cord-Go to the electrical section, and they have bulk lamp cord. They will cut you the length that you need. I used about 26 inches of cord for the short lights and 32 inches for the longer lights you will also need some extra cord to connect the cords.

7 Keyless Lampholders/Sockets-this is what I ended up using. They are on the same aisle as the switches and such. They are box sold loosely. I think it was simpler that using the keyless socket as far as the wiring part and it also felt more secure as far as holding up the jar.

Electrical tape

Wire Nuts-I wasn’t sure about the size, so I bought the bag of miscellaneous sizes.

Wal-Mart:

7 Mason Jars-Quart Sized

Krylon Gray Spray Paint-I have found that Wal-Mart has the best price.

Other items you will need:

-Wire stripper and/or exacto knife

-Supplies to attach the fixture to the ceiling

-Drill

Step 1- Cut your lamp cord to your desired lengths:I wanted four jars that were longer and three that were shorter. You will need to leave some extra cord to tie and knot and connect some wires (approximately 6-8 inches).

Step 2-Spray paint the cord. The cord will take about 24 hours to dry

Step 3-Drill holes for lamp cord. I used a 5/16 drill bit for the holes. For my 54.5” board, I started the first hole at 7.5 inches and spaced the other holes about every 6 9/16”. Drill a total of 7 holes.

Step 4-Drill Holes in Jar Lids using the same drill bit used in Step 3. Use a smaller drill bit and drill 4 smaller holes to let heat out when the bulbs are turned on.

Step 5-Feed the cord through the Jar lid.

Step 6-Attach cord to the keyless lampholders. Separate the lamp cord about 4 inches with an exacto knife. Un-screw the lid of your lampholder.  You will see two little “cone-shaped” pieces of metal (one is silver and one is brass). These will “pierce” the wire to make the connection. I know very little about electrical, but I learned that you connect the HOT wire to the BRASS and the NEUTRAL wire to the SILVER.

Neutral wire has a ridged casing:

Hot wire has a smooth casing:

Insert the wire into the lampholder and screw down the lid very tight. This will puncture the plastic casing and make your connection:

 

Step 7- Split and Strip the Ends of Each Cord. Use an exacto knife to split the lamp cord about 1.5 inches. Use a wire stripper or exacto knife to remove about 1 inch of the plastic casing on each cord. (I waited until after the cord was knotted to do this step and it would have been easier to do this before)

Step 8-Feed Cords up the Drilled Holes. You want to determine at this point how low you want each jar to hang. Tie a knot on the end of the cord, so the cord will stay in place.

Step 9-Connect wires to the extra lamp cord and split and strip each end about 1 inch. I cut about 6 inch pieces of lamp cord. Split and strip each end of the cords. Use a wire nut to connect the hot wire of the 6 inch piece of lamp cord to the hot wire of the knotted cord. Do the same with the neutral wire. Remember-Hot to Hot and Neutral to Neutral. Repeat until you reach the end. The only exception is that for the middle cord I didn’t use a wire nut. I just twisted the wires together. These wires will be connected to the wires in your ceiling. (I wish I would have taken a picture, but I forgot. Some of the other blogs I posted showed some pictures of this step.)

Step 10-Test the lampholders to make sure they work. I am no electrician and neither is my dad who helped me. However, he has been in construction for 35+ years and knows some basics about electrical. He helped me at this point. We took a cord  with a plug on the end from an old lamp. We wired our fixture to the cord and plugged it in. We screwed in a light bulb to every lampholder to make sure they were wired correctly. We found that some of the lampholders didn’t have a proper connection. We needed to screw the lid on tighter to pierce the lamp cord. Eventually, they all lit up and we were ready to hang the fixture.

Step 11-Attach wiring and fixture to the electrical box. You probably want to call an electrician at this point. My Dad was able to do it, but I would NOT have been able to do this by myself. I will say that this fixture weighed about 22 pounds which is a proper weight to hang from the electrical box. We did not have to drill into our ceiling which was great! It worked out well, but it took 3 of us to finish. My husband and I held the fixture up while my dad did the wiring and installation.

Step 12-Attach light bulbs and mason jars. I did not buy the “wide-mouth” jars, so regular light bulbs would not fit inside my jar. I had to purchase these:

Step 13-Stand back and admire your finished light!!

I spent a little less than $40 on this project. It helped that I didn’t have to buy the wood, but I like that price much more than $400. This light fixture will definitely be coming with us when we move!! I LOVE it!

DIY Kitchen

For Maggie’s birthday coming up in about 6 weeks, we wanted to get her a play kitchen. We know that she will have a blast playing with her brothers with the kitchen. I looked around the Internet for something to buy. I found that they were pricey and many were not well made.

I came across some ideas on Pinterest and found some blogs with great ideas. The kitchens that I liked the most were made from old end tables or entertainment centers. They used the furniture as a base and revamped it from there.

Here is my favorite example:

Here are the end tables I found on Craigslist for $40!!

 

My Grandpa is going to help me get them completed! I can’t wait to see the final product!!

10 months!

We are into 2012 and Maggie is getting closer and closer to ONE! Last year at this time we were preparing her room, buying a new car to fit our family of 5, and preparing to add another little one to the family. We have adjusted to the 3rd baby, but her mobility is adding challenges. She is into EVERYTHING!! She gets into drawers and pulls things out. She loves to crawl in all the rooms to find things to put in her mouth. This child finds the smallest things and immediately puts them in her mouth! We are trying to be careful, but it is so tough to keep the floors perfectly clean.

She crawls around here like a mad woman! She is fast. She can stand up really well while holding on to things. She has now moved onto holding on with one hand. She can climb things pretty well, so she gets herself in some precarious positions. It is kind of funny!

Maggie celebrated her first Christmas. We had multiple celebrations with our family. She got a few things to play with, but we really didn’t worry about too many gifts. She really enjoyed the boxes and wrapping paper. We had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior and spending lots of time with family. It was a blessing to have Abe off for a week. The best Christmas present!!

She is now feeding herself. She loves to pick things up and she is really good at it!

Her first tooth is finally through right around January 18th. The second one is coming and will break through really soon as well. I can tell it won’t be long until the top 2 will pop through as well.

She was really sick again with a cold this month. Poor baby can’t seem to get well. We had to stay home from church quite a bit due to sickness. During that time she developed full on separation anxiety. She now HATES the nursery. She cries almost immediately, and I get called up to pick her up. Our other kids were the same way and Parker still struggles. One of these days we will hear a sermon. LOL!

Appearance: Her hair is starting to grow and fill in. Her eyelashes are also growing and they are dark and long just like Daddy! Swoon

Sleep: She takes a morning and afternoon nap. They are 1-2 hours in length. She goes to bed at 6:00 and is very cranky if she is awake past that time. She is waking up one time during the night around 3:00 to eat and goes right back to sleep.

Diaper Size: Still in size 3. Thinking we will order the next size up for next month.

Clothing: She is now pretty much in 18 month clothes and some 24 month thrown in. We can get away with 12 month shirts because she seems to have short-ish arms.

Height: I think she is about 29 inches

Weight: Approximately 18.5 pounds

Head Circumference: Not sure

Eating Habits: Like I mentioned above she is feeding herself sometimes. She can pick up chicken nuggets and meatballs which are 2 of her favorite foods. She eats some veggie purees still along with apple sauce. We are starting to give her what we eat for dinner sometimes. She also started eating butter and jelly sandwiches. She loves them! She nurses 4 times per day and now gets about 8 oz. of formula.

Development: She is crawling very fast, holding on with one hand to things, opens and closes drawers, says “mama” and “dada,” she recognizes her brothers by name (we ask her where Chase is and she looks at him and same for Parker), she is kind of loud, she likes to pinch HARD, and she begs for food all the time.

9 months!

Maggie got to celebrate her first Thanksgiving this month! We actually had two celebrations-one on the actual day with the Barney side and one with the Greens on Sunday. We had a really low-key day. We hosted, but everyone brought most of the food. It was nice to be with my parents and Bridgie, my brother and his family,  and my Grandpa and Grandma Berger. The second Thanksgiving at the Greens was wonderful as well. We had delicious food and everyone was able to make it so we were all together. It was very loud and crazy, but that is what happens when a big group of people gets together  

We put up our Christmas tree  and decorations Thanksgiving weekend. That was TOUGH with 3 kids. We were very tired at the end of the day, but it was so nice to enjoy the decorations. The boys LOVE seeing all the pretty and cute things. Maggie was very interested in the tree and kept pulling the ornaments off. We had to put chairs around the tree to keep the ornaments on.

Maggie had a couple colds in a row that came with a bad cough. We ended up at the Dr. twice because we were worried about ear infections and congestion in the lungs. Thankfully, it was nothing too serious, but it took her a while to heal.

She is crawling very well now, and she is sitting up and very steady. She is beginning to pull herself up onto things to stand. She is gaining strength in her legs.

She has really started to LOVE bath time. She loves to kick and splash. She loves the bath toys and plays for quite a while. We are able to pour water on her head to wash her hair and she doesn’t cry. Abe started pouring water on the boys heads when they were about 6 months old to get them used to it. It really worked out because as they got older they weren’t afraid. We just did the same with her.

We are looking forward to celebrating her first Christmas and the holidays.

Appearance: She is cute as ever! She seems to have very long legs and we think she is going to be very tall She kind of dwarfs a lot of kids her age. Very normal for our kids.

Sleep: She mostly takes just 2 naps now and every once in a while a 3rd nap. She wakes up once to eat at night. She goes to bed around 6:30 and wakes up around 7:30 or 8:00.

Diaper Size: Still in size 3.

Clothing: She wears a mix of12 month and 18 month clothes. My friend gave her some really nice clothes that her daughter outgrew. I love hand-me-downs! Such a blessing!!

Height: Not sure

Weight: 18 lbs. 3 oz. (she was weighed at the Dr.)

Head Circumference: Not sure

Eating Habits: She is now loving solids. She eats veggie purees like carrots, peas, and squash. She chicken nuggets and meatballs. We are letting her try our food which she loves. We tried yogurt, but it gave her the runs. She loves puffs.  She is still nursing well about every 3 hours. She also get one bottle of formula at night now.

Development: Crawling, sits up, beginning to stand, loves to play in the play room, loves bath time.

Under the Sea Sensory Box

We have been working on less screen time at our house. Here is one activity that I have seen floating around Pinterest. Sensory boxes. Our box has an ocean theme. I will change it up. I am thinking about doing space, dinosaurs, car/truck, etc. The boys are so excited. Almost everything is from the $ Store. Hopefully, this will fill up some of our day:)

2012 Goals

*Grow Closer to the Lord I really want to focus on joy this year. I have so much to be joyful about, but often times  I let my sin or circumstances rob me of joy. I look forward to growing in knowledge of God and His Will for my life. It really does amaze me that the Creator of the universe wants me to have a personal relationship with Him. Very basic, but AMAZING.

*Invest in my marriage I have been pregnant for about half of my marriage. Our kids have been the focus of our time and energy. In many ways, we have not put the time and the effort into our marriage that is necessary. Abe and I LOVE being together. He really is my best friend. I look forward to viewing him more in this light rather than my partner in parenting We hope to go on a few more dates and we are working on weight loss and fitness together.

*Run a Half Marathon Abe and I hope to run our 3rd half marathon this April. We are looking forward to training together. My goal is to run it under 2 hours. I will be happy with 1:59:59!

*Potty train Parker Our goal is to have Parker potty trained around the time he turns 3 in July.

*Plant our first garden Abe and I want to do a garden this year. We are eating a lot more veggies, and it would be nice to gather them out of our own garden.

*Stick to a budget and save money We started using a Envelope Method App to track our spending. We started in October. It has been super helpful and we have been successful. I hope to continue with this and be more financially responsible.

*Meet new people and be more hospitable Meeting new people is somewhat nerve-wracking to me. Kind of silly, but I get a little embarrassed for some reason. I want to get over myself and be more outgoing. We also want to work on having more people into our home especially those that we have never had over.

Look Back at 2011 Resolutions/Goals

*Setting aside time to be in God’s Word and pray. I did better in this area this year. My day is always better when I begin the day praying and reading God’s Word.

*Keep our home clutter free and organized.  This was somewhat accomplished. However, it doesn’t feel like it after the influx of new toys from Christmas.

*Adjust to life with THREE kiddos. I think I have adjusted to life with 3 kids. It went smoothly the first few months, but I hit a bump in the road at about 3 months. It was ROUGH! Dealing with 3 kids is my new normal, and I can hardly remember what it was like before Maggie came along. I am now cooking, cleaning, exercising, running errands, along with many other normal activities just like before. I didn’t go easier on myself with giving myself time to adjust. Oh well!

*Enjoy my kids and this time of life. I did try to enjoy my family more this year. It still a tough job being a mommy and I have bad days. However, I am trying to keep in mind that it will not be this intense forever. My mantra this year has been “the days on long, but the years are short.”

*Start Chase’s educational journey. Chase started pre-K at a local charter school. God very clearly led us in making the decision to enroll him in school. We both have peace about our decision, and Chase is thriving. Praise the Lord!

*Getting Parker potty trained and in a big boy bed. We moved Parker into the bunkbed in October. It was rough at the beginning, but it has worked out nicely. We tried potty training, but he really didn’t want to do it after about 2 weeks. I gave up and we will attempt it this next year.

*Get back into pre-pregnancy shape. I am pretty much back into shape. I have a goal of losing some more weight, but I fit into my clothes. I got rid of my maternity clothes already, and I have a big bag of “fat” clothes to donate. It feels good to be “normal” again.