(g)range life

pro tip: move these off the stairs before one of your pets exuberantly runs up the stairs and breaks one of the jars 

These are just a few of the jars I found in the back of a barn in Lafargeville. (Don't ask. Please.) I stumbled upon them while going through various barn things, and when I saw them, I gasped: there were so many! It was as if I had found the goose that laid the golden eggs, I swear. They were old, fully intact, and some were even blue. Quickly enlisting our friend Tom's children to help me on my mission, I gathered up as many as I could find. I probably ended up with 50 jars. Hooray!!

So what does one with with a vast amount of glasswear?

Google "mason jars crafts", "mason jar pinterest" or even "mason jar hipster" (my favorite result being this) and you could probably find a million and a half super crafty, creative, artsy, wonderful things to do with these things.

I am not particularly crafty, creative, or artsy. I used them for tradition purposes, mostly: moving my dry goods from their ugly cardboard containers and putting them in these nice glass jars.And now I am a teensy bit afraid that my kitchen looks like Grandma's Kountry Kitchen, but I am sure as hell not putting all of that flour back in to the bag it came in.

Anyhow, I plan on using these for the party -- probably to put candles in them. It's hard to tell from this picture, but these are the short, stumpy ones that don't have a lot of room to store stuff in. It's a cheap and easy way to make things look fancy (just don't tell anyone that I found them in the back of a barn).