Collections in a Jar

    Some people collect old canning jars (I have a few of those), and some folks collect old apothecary jars (I have a few of those too) - but my favorite jars to collect are chunky, over-sized jars with wide mouths in which I can show off a collection inside. I find this to be a neat & tidy way to display my smaller collections because they are easier to keep clean (jars are a cinch to dust off), and they are out in the open to be looked at and enjoyed instead of tucked away in a drawer, suitcase or closet.  
   Every now and then when the mood hits me I include a quote, verse from a song, poem, or scripture from the Bible which adds a little thought or whimsy to the jar and makes the contents a little more meaningful and/or fun.
   My TIME jar (pictured above) contains a small collection of old wrist watches, mostly broken. I wish I could say that these watches were all worn by my Dad, husband or someone that I love, but alas, they were not. Nope, these watches were all purchased from one dealer at a flea market last summer in hopes of tearing them apart to make a collage or to re-purpose them into jewelry. The only memory that is linked to these watches is the crazy amount of TIME that it took my daughter and I to sift through the heaps and heaps of costume jewelry (in the rain) in order to find them all! The little note inside of the jar is a Bible verse from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: "There is a TIME for everything and a season for every activity under Heaven..."

    This next jar isn't as much of a collection as it is a constant reminder that I am queen of procrastination! I transferred the film  into this jar from a shoebox when we moved here four years ago and it's so darn cute that the urge to develop the film has left me. I started getting lazy about film developing after we started using a digital camera. I'll bet this film is at least 12 years old - Yikes! I keep the jar on a shelf, with a few old cameras that I love, perched on top of the family stack of high school yearbooks.    
   This jar of vintage cookie cutters is the eye candy that I keep on my kitchen shelf along with my chrome canisters and cookie sprinkles - all things that make me happy when I'm baking up something good in the kitchen.
 

  

  I have a quirky habit of rescuing Scrabble games from yard sales & thrift stores. When the game is a fairly new one, I dump the tiles into this jar. I get a kick using the tiles to spell out little "notes" around the house. 

   This last jar is filled with vintage cowboy & Indian plastic toys that are waiting to be placed into a "Wild West" themed shadow box that I've been wanting to make for a few years now. I love these old vintage toys by the Louis Marx Toy Company - such classics! The jar shares a shelf with my vintage "Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories" books (wholesome and wonderful stories from the 1940's) that I collected and read to my kiddos when they were young.

    Hey! I feel an idea coming on! Since I have so many more collections in jars that I'd love to share with you, I'm going to  feature "Collections in a Jar" for the entire month of April (try to CONTAIN your excitement), so stay tuned for "Collections in a Jar: The Sequel!"

P.S. I'd love to see photos of  your collections in a jar - please post them on my "NEW" Whimsybop facebook page! Click here to link to Whimsybop on Facebook!