Christmas is less than three weeks away! If you’re like me, you sometimes struggle with finding meaningful AND unique gifts. Mason Jar Lifestyle to the rescue! It doesn’t get much more unique than Mason jar accessories (and who doesn’t love Mason jars??). But here comes the best part: we are proudly partnering with charitable Houston-based coffee company From the Grounds Up to make your gifts extra meaningful. From the Grounds Up roasts premium coffee, with 100% of profits benefiting a farm in Jos, Nigeria. Contributions provide crops, seeds for the tree farm, farm animals, and all that’s needed to support their agriculture needs. Each coffee bag is stamped with what is currently being purchased for the farm!

We’ve put together a perfect gift set, which includes a wide mouth pint Mason jar, a faux leather sleeve, a silicone coffee lid, a stainless steel band, and a bag of this premium coffee. Each set includes a holiday card with a note detailing the positive impact of your purchase. When you purchase and give this gift set, you’re really giving two gifts – one to the gift recipient, and one to the farmers in need!

The coffee is Nicaragua Reyna del Cafe Medium Roast (whole bean) Medium Roast, South American, Whole Bean Notes: Butterscotch, Caramel, Floral Small Batch Roasted, Organic, Premium Coffee

Because each bag is freshly hand roasted in small batches, this set will be offered for a limited time – through December 10th only – for Christmas gift giving, so please act quickly!

The set is available here. If you would like us to write a custom note on the card for you (if you’re sending it directly to the gift recipient), please indicate in the order notes what you would like the card to say.

Seasons greetings, friends. If you’re reading this, then it looks like you survived the big weekend of holiday shopping. Congrats! Whether you braved Black Friday crowds, supported the “little guy” on Small Business Saturday, or shopped from home in your PJs on Cyber Monday (or maybe all three!), we hope you found some great deals and some fun gifts for your loved ones. Thank you so much to all of you who chose us for your shopping needs and visited our website to take part in our storewide #THANKFUL sale over the holiday weekend. We truly appreciate your business, your feedback, and all of your support!

If anyone is kicking themselves for missing out on our sale this past weekend and would like advanced notice for the next one, now would be a great time to sign up for our newsletter! (A little elf told me there might be another special event during the month of December…) We send out email updates to let you know about things like giveaways and upcoming sales, as well as updates on new products we’ve added. You’ll even receive a 10% off coupon just for signing up.

As many of you probably know, today is Giving Tuesday, a day when people across the country donate to their favorite charities. At Mason Jar Lifestyle, we love collaborating with non-profits to support worthy causes. For a list of some of the groups we’ve worked with in the past, check out our Giving Back page. We’re always taking requests, with special consideration given to organizations in Colorado, especially the Denver area.

One of our company’s first donations was to Forgotten Felines Rescue. They have a network of foster parents that care for cats and kittens and help get them socialized for their “forever homes.” This is a picture of Barney (adopted from FFR) befriending his new family. He was immediately very sweet and loving with all the tiny humans in his life, due to the devoted care he received in his foster home, and he’s now a cherished member of the MJL household.  Because this organization does such great work, we were happy to hear from them later when they had a donation request, and we jumped at the chance to give back.

For those of you planning to make a donation today (or anytime, really), there is a fantastic website available to make the decision a little easier and make sure your financial contributions are being used as effectively as possible. The site is Charity Navigator, and they provide ratings and detailed information for almost every charity group that files their information with the IRS. It’s an amazing tool for choosing non-profits, to help you make sure you donate to the ones that use as much money as they can directly toward supporting their causes.

We’d love to hear about some of your favorite charities. Leave us a comment to let us know which groups are at the top of your list and what it is you love about them.

We’re Maggie and Ryan, and we loved Mason jars long before our business, Mason Jar Lifestyle, was even a twinkle in our eyes. When our youngest child was two-months-old, I (Maggie) was shopping at a local big box store and came upon a display of Mason jar drinking lids and soap pumps next to the jars. I immediately put one of each in my cart but wished there were more options than just those two items. I wondered what other clever attachments were out there, and I knew I wasn’t the only one.

Fast forward a few months, full of research and planning, to the launch of masonjarlifestyle.com – a dream come true for Mason jar lovers, who, like us, wanted to make the most of their jars. Did we mention that we also had a two-year-old and four-year-old child at home (in addition to our baby!)? It was a wonderful, whirlwind of a time. I recall taking product photos with baby sleeping peacefully (and, let’s be honest, often also crying and fussing), strapped to me in his carrier.

We did everything, from web design to shipping, from a small office in our home. After just a few months, though, we had outgrown our small home office and began searching for, and soon relocated into, an offsite space. We also hired two awesome family friends to assist with shipping and a part-time nanny to help with our kiddos.

Since we launched our business in May 2015, we have grown into a larger operation than we ever imagined, while continuing to value quality and customer service, just as we always have. We now have five amazing employees. All seven (Ryan and me + employees) of us are totally committed to giving our customers the very best experience possible. Each order still includes a handwritten note. Every email receives a response directly from either Ryan or me.

If you want to see a product that we don’t yet carry, we want to hear from you. We have an active social media community on Facebook and Instagram, where we often post ideas, sales, giveaways, and other fun content. We also value giving back to the community with regular donations to charities and charity events.

We will never forget where we came from or why we’re here. It’s for the love of jars, and it’s because of you.

Hello, all. This is “Mason Jar Middle Sis” here (MJMS, if you’re in a rush), embarking on my first blog post for Mason Jar Lifestyle. Thanks for joining me on this journey!

A couple of weeks ago, my husband came home from the grocery store with an apple cake mix that he thought I might like. (Awwww.) The back of the box had instructions to turn the ingredients into a salted caramel apple crisp, which I thought I might like even more.

I gathered my ingredients and peeled and sliced several apples only to discover, after opening the box, that the caramel sauce was not included. Shoot! After digging through the fridge and confirming that we didn’t have any on hand, then digging through the pantry and confirming that the caramels we’d gotten “for Halloween” had all disappeared well before Halloween, I decided to make caramel sauce using ingredients we already had, which were sugar, butter, vanilla, and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

I’d never made caramel with condensed milk before; luckily, it turned out great! (Scroll down for the full recipe.)  While it was still warm and gooey, I drizzled some of it over the apple crisp.

The rest went into a jar and into the fridge for later.

I only made a half batch, since I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I’d recommend making a full batch if you do it yourself, since it’s easy to store and would be fun to share with people. I think this would make a great little gift for friends, so there’s really no reason to worry about making too much. You could bring a jar with you to share at Thanksgiving this year, or add a fun lid insert and a cute gift tag and give it as a holiday gift to anyone with a sweet tooth. It’s good with cake, ice cream, or even stirred into your hot cider or cocoa.

To turn this into a tasty treat to-go, you can put some sliced apples into a jar and a couple spoonfuls of caramel into one of our divider cups, then pop on a lid and you’re all set.

Since the divider cup is silicone, you can stick it in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds to soften the caramel before you eat it, if you prefer yours warm, like I do. That makes it softer for easy dipping/drizzling.  (Just don’t heat it longer than that or the caramel might boil/burn.)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some delicious caramel apples to enjoy.

Caramel Sauce Recipe Makes about 2 3/4 cups

Ingredients: 1/2 cup water 2 cups sugar 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter, divided 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions: Add sugar and water together into a medium sized, heavy duty saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. Allow it to continue to boil, without stirring, for 10 to 14 minutes.

It will slowly start to darken. Tilt the pan occasionally to redistributed the mixture and keep the cooking even until it turns a deep caramel color. Remove from heat.  Stir in sweetened condensed milk. It will bubble up and expand a bit, which is why you need a medium pan to keep it from flowing over the edge. Do not scrape the sides of the pan during this stage.

Add the first half of the stick of butter, one tablespoon at a time, thoroughly stirring after each piece. Stir in the remaining half stick of butter and vanilla extract until smooth.  It will thicken as it cools.

Congrats to our most recent gift certificate winner, Jessica L.!

Want a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Mason Jar Lifestyle? Click the Rafflecopter widget below to enter!

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We have had such a great response to our recent giveaways that we thought, “Hey, let’s keep ’em coming!” Ladies and gentlemen, we introduce to you the Mason Jar Lifestyle monthly $50 giveaway! Enter through the rafflecopter widget below!

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So this week’s topic doesn’t have anything to do with Mason Jars, but how could I not talk about the total solar eclipse happening this month?  The only tie-in I could think of was that we do carry Mason Jar solar lights that you can find here.  But other than that, this is just a blog post about the solar eclipse because we’re really excited about it!

Here are some fun facts about the solar eclipse and resources.  If you’d like to know more, go to Astronomy Magazine’s website for the full list of fun facts.

The total solar eclipse will happen on August 21st, 2017 This will be the first total solar eclipse in 38 years A solar eclipse is a lineup of the sun, moon, and earth A solar eclipse happens at New Moon Everyone in the continental U.S. will see at least a partial eclipse. First contact of the solar eclipse will be in Oregon This eclipse will be THE most viewed The city with the best and longest view is Nashville.  Below is a list of some other cities that have some decent views.  So some of us will get a decent look at this pretty big solar event.

 

One fact to also remember is the importance of protective eyewear when viewing the total solar eclipse, so make sure and check out different sites that list appropriate eyewear.  NASA has the following guidelines listed on their site:

Have certification information with a designated ISO 12312-2 international standard Have the manufacturer’s name and address printed somewhere on the product Not be used if they are older than three years, or have scratched or wrinkled lenses Not to be used with homemade filters or be substituted for with ordinary sunglasses — not even very dark ones — because they are not safe for looking directly at the Sun

And they have verified these five manufacturers as credible: American Paper Optics, Baader Planetarium (AstroSolar Silver/Gold film only), Rainbow Symphony, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17.

Click here for the full description and list.

Here are some other resources for this rare celestial event happening in just a few weeks.

Eclipse 2017 Website

More Nasa resources can be found here.

“Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.” -Victor Hugo

It’s hot – everywhere right now!  So, to help everyone cool off and hydrate, I thought I’d find some yummy flavored water recipes to share this week. These waters can be used for hydrating purposes, or as a detox from all the summer treats you’ve eaten.  You can also use them to help aid weight loss or get glowing skin.

No matter the reason you drink these waters, we all know the most important thing they do is hydrate.  During these very hot summer months when we are outside lounging or exercising, we are sweating, which causes us to lose water.  What better way to put back some of that water, but with some of these yummy fruit/veggie/herb infused water recipes.

Take it up a notch with this watermelon and jalapeno infused water.  You can find the full recipe here.  Reader’s Digest is actually a great resource for fun and easy healthy eating and lifestyle habits.  There are plenty of other Infused Water recipes there as well!

Benefit: the capsaicin in the jalapeno has been shown to help provide pain relief and aid in weight loss.  Check out Dr. Axe’s website for full benefits.

Nourish and hydrate your skin with cucumber herb water.  You can find the recipe here on the blog A Couple Cooks, along with some other great infused water combinations.

Benefit: Cucumber is ultra-hydrating!  Rosemary is a great anti-inflammatory, check out full benefits for rosemary here.

Mocktail anyone?  Try this blueberry/mint/lemon water that I found on Chelsweets blog.

Benefit: Blueberries are full of cancer fighting antioxidants. Mint is great for digestion. Check out the full benefits for mint here.

And for fruit infusing Mason Jar lids visit Mason Jar Lifestyle’s website. Because of course Mason Jars and infused water go together like peas and carrots!  I don’t recommend that as an infused water though!

 

 

Not only will you be saving money buying infused waters, but you will be reducing waste and reducing plastic use.  Bonus….and being that it’s still plastic free July, double bonus!!

We are half way through July.  How is everyone doing with their plastic free goals?  Hopefully you found some great alternatives and suggestions on the Plastic Free July website.  I thought it was a great resource and definitely wanted to share it with you all.  As July continues to speed by, I realized I have been doing great on my plastic free goals, but not so great on the healthy eating goals.  I’ve been utilizing convenient eating way too often.

With the higher temps and busy summer schedule it is easy to grab a quick bite at a drive through, or a sit down restaurant.  I try and make healthy choices there, but it’s always better to cook your own food.  I decided for the next few weeks I was going to do a gentle whole food detox.  I’m doing this to help get me back on track with my healthy eating as I’m starting to feel a little sluggish and tired from more than just those 90+ degree days!

A couple of my strategies when doing a detox like this is food prep!  That is really the best advice for any dietary change. Food prep. Food prep. Food prep!  Also, making a big salad for the whole week that I can bring for lunch, and have a small serving of before lunch.  I go and pick out all my favorite produce and through it all together with a few of my favorite greens.

If you are looking for a good detox salad recipe check out this one from Mind Body Green.  Feel free to swap at anything or use it for inspiration for your own creation.  I also make sure that I make my own dressings.  Store bought dressings are either full of chemicals, or the better quality ones are way too expensive.  For a few bucks in ingredients you can make an amazing healthy dressing.

Last week we posted some really great basic salad dressings that you can of course make in a Mason Jar!  My favorite is the basic Balsamic Vinegar dressing.  It’s simple and does not mask the flavor of the veggies.  I am looking forward to trying the ranch dressing.  My daughters eat ranch on pretty much everything, and making this favorite will be much cheaper than buying the natural one I found for them!  I love being able to dump all the ingredients in a Mason Jar, shake it up, and voila! yummy, healthy salad dressing!

 

Here are the Mason Jar salad dressing recipes courtesy of Buzzfeed.  Let us know which one was your favorite, and some of your tips and tricks for whole food detoxes.

Since July is the official “Go Plastic Free” month, I thought I would continue the love and share some more ideas of going plastic free.  Here are some ideas from Mason Jar Lifestyle’s customers who recently participated in a social media challenge we held recently:

“We just recently replaced all of our food storage containers with a good quality glass set, and I haven’t purchased any sandwich-sized Ziploc bags since our last box ran out in April. My son takes a lunch to his day camp this month, and all of it is going in reusable containers except the milk — cartons are recyclable.”

“Replaced food storage containers with glass, we use BeesWrap instead of plastic wrap and we use stainless steel or paper straws instead of plastic! “

“Used mason jars to pack everything in my cooler for camping 5 days. Condiments, grapes, butter, taco meat, milk, etc. Worked perfectly.”

“All small things but they add up! Remembering to bring my own real fork to work for my lunch, making my own mason jar coffee in the morning, and going to actually use all those reusable shopping bags we have!”

“I used to go through lots of Ziploc bags but now that I’ve invested in Bento boxes, I can’t remember when I bought them last.”

“We are doing the challenge and July is hard!!! We take our stainless steel cups, sporks, and other items but it is the eating out that is killing us. Twice this month ordering an ice cream cone we have been given a plastic spoon. I am documenting it all and even going to Beth Plastic-Free Terry for advice and it has been a challenge. Good challenge to recalibrate how we do our thing.”

“Not able to go out and buy glass containers I save every glass jar that food comes in. They are sterilized in the dishwasher..and I paint the lids a unifying color. Although its just for show and not use I also glue on decorative handles on the lids. I am very careful not to buy food in plastic containors but until they pkg. Everything in glass you have no choice. Leftovers go into glass bowls with a glass lid or glass jars that Ive saved for that purpose.Its not easy getting away from plastic but it can be done!!”

“I am slowly moving to all mason jar and glass storage. Plus we are using cloth napkins instead of paper. It’s a process but a worth it one. Good luck all.”

“Used mason jars to pack everything in my cooler for camping 5 days. Condiments, grapes, butter, taco meat, milk, etc. Worked perfectly.”

“I’ve been storing leftovers in jars instead of plastic containers. Works great-AND I can actually see what I have in the fridge!”

“I am only purchasing glass storage and drinking products.”

“Using parchment paper bags to replace zip lock bags and off course glass and metal water bottle”

“Not eating out!”

So many wonderful ideas to go plastic free this July, and I’m happy how much Mason jars play a part in most everyone’s strategy!

Please go to Plastic Free July website to accept the #choosetorefusechallenge – you will find some solutions for going plastic free this month, and beyond.

I suggest visiting the Case Studies section of the Plastic Free July website, as it offers many ideas for families, individuals, and workplaces to reduce your plastic use.

And in the Toolbox section it gives you access to all the logos and badges to start your own campaigns or challenges!

A lot of Mason Jar Lifestyles customers are interested in cooking and food storage ideas to go plastic free as was outlined in all the comments we collected from customers. The Plastic Free July website has some great ideas outlined in their Living Plastic Free section  – it offers up suggestions for all aspects of our lives.

 

Please make sure and check out Plastic Free July’s website for inspiring stories and ideas to go plastic free in July and beyond and #refusetochoose

And once you get all your wonderful plastic free ideas head over to Mason Jar Lifestyle to bring those ideas to fruition!