An ode to Jars...

Mish did a heartfelt post recently on what Jars mean to her. Though it has taken me a while to get this post written up, the same thing has been on my mind for a while now. Like Mish, my craft room is full of jars.

I've been following Mish's blog for a long time, back in August 2008, she gave us a tour of her craft room. When you read her post, it really becomes clear that Mish loves "REAL things like wood and metal and glass" and I have to agree with her. REAL wood and metal and glass has a personality and a weight and unique textures that plastic can never match.  I remember thinking way back in 2008, that if I was to design my perfect craft room, it would have to be like Mish's, full of real things.  Full of wood and metal and, of course, glass jars! 

Slowly, so slowly, I been a-collecting:

 

The two cookie jars you can see (top right and bottom middle), were a gift from a favourite friend. The two tiny cork-topped jars stacked on top of one another were my mothers, from when she was a girl and the others are all op-shop finds. And I love them all. 

My favourite, you ask?

That would have to be the green-tinged hexagonal jar in the top middle. At the moment, the jars hold my ribbon collection and other various odds and ends. I think I may need to re-vamp their contents in the near future.

I fully intend to continue collecting, simply because I like them. I like their weight when I lift them down from a shelf, I like how the sunlight streams through them and sets the ribbons ablaze with light. And, I actually like that I could drop them anytime on my concrete floor and smash them to smithereens. It makes me appreciate their beauty, today, all the more.

So thank you, Mish for sharing what jars mean to you. It's made me consider what they mean to me. Jars don't remind me of my grandmother or of canned fruits and veggies, but they do remind me of this wonderful hobby and all that I love about it, and I am thankful for that. To me, glass jars are wholesome and time-honoured and it makes me happy to rescue them from an op-shop. I have to love them though. I don't bring any old cheap junk home, I have to love them, and these I do. Funny thing to love, eh?

xx Alyssa