I get my love for antiques from my mom. When I was very young, my parents would pack my brother and I into the car, load a picnic lunch and take off on any old country road they might find. These were the days before tresspassing and vandalism got to be so bad. They would find and old house that was just about ready to fall down and search the grounds for old treasures. On many of these trips, old canning jars would be unearthed.
I have always loved old mason and ball canning jars. I remember how pretty these jars were filled with tomatoes, blackeyed peas, and peaches.My mom found me another one of these pretty blue jars the other day and brought it to me! 
I have several blue jars and several white jars. My mom gave them all to me one Christmas many years ago. She spent days baking cookies and candy and packed these jars full of those sweets. Plus she canned homemade salsa from her tomato harvest that year. I want to put something in them. I think they would be so cheery with candy sticks, cinnamon and butterscotch disks, and gumdrops in them. However, there are still hungry teens running around my house. I don't mind them eating the candy, however, they are not careful with antique dishes. I just know that it would not be long before one of these jars would be broken from constant handling.
So I am thinking my only solution is to put something in them that will still look pretty, but not tempting to eat. Maybe dried beans and peas? Corn or popcorn? I was thinking buttons, however, these are in my kitchen, and I want to keep the kitchen/ food theme going. What do you think would be good? Do you have clear glass containers? If so, do you use them and what do you put in them? I can't wait to hear!
10 comments:
I do! I love jars in the kitchen and I have some old ones as well. I have rice, dried beans of all kinds, raisins, prunes and other dried fruit, barley, oat bran, wheat bran, pasta - different shapes and sizes; you get the idea: basically everything that will fit. :)
Oh yes, I love old jars too! I keep dried legumes or nuts or coconut in them and love to sit them on my countertop.
:) LaTeaDah
I love these jars and old lids too, and I do use mine.
Lots of times I'll fill with lots of candies, they look pretty with flowers too. But for storage beans, rice, pop corn, nuts etc. are great. They looks wonderful all linned up in your cupboard...let us know what you fill them with...hugs, Linda
I like all of the ideas posted. The flower idea reminds me of a tobacco jar that a dear friend fixed for me many years ago. I had some dried roses, & she arranged them in the jar, which looks so pretty.
With all of the great flowers you grow, I'm sure those would be good. Also, flower seeds for between the seasons.
I too have many of these jars and I let them migrate to other rooms. In our master bathroom I have several filled with cotton swabs, disposable razors, bath salts, cotton balls, and one big old blue jar filled with boxes of my disposable contact lenses.In the spring and summer I bring other jars up to the bedroom that are filled with flowers, rooting plants and vines, etc. I love these old jars and have some with the original canning label on them written by the lady who canned the fruit in 1912!I also keep the usual , legumes, peas, cornstarch, etc., in them.
Looks like you've lots of good ideas. I was only going to add different types and colors of pasta - bowtie, shell, spinach and tomato colored ones, too, since you need it in the kitchen.
I have one in my kitchen that I keep tea bags in - you know the big ones. We make alot of tea around here, but I'm the only who does it so the jar wouldn't get handled very much by your teens.
What about packages of Sweet-N-Low or Equal?
I keep tea in mine too...and have quite a few....plus one is a penny jar...everyone has such good ideas!
Mason jars are so functional and decorative. I like to put Christmas lights in one, the glow of the lights through green glass is so pretty. You can't go wrong with buttons.
Those are so pretty Kathleen- I would almost be tempted to use a few of those for my flour and sugar cannisters... maybe coffee and tea in the smaller ones, too!
Hi Kathleen. I use my old wire-top glass jars for putting my different kinds of herbs in. After that I have others i use for popcorn ( nice to have red and black popcorn as well as the yellow or white )I also use some for lentils, dry beans, sunflower seeds, raisins and cran-raisins. I have a small one i put old marbles in and sit it on my windowsill.
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