Inspiration from Great-Grandpa #1

My great-grandfather grew up during the Great Depression.  Like pretty much everyone who lived through that time, he learned to be resourceful and re-purpose pretty much everything.  He had a knack for turning everyday objects into the most fun and unique playthings and pretty little accessories around the house.
In their retirement, he and my great-grandma raised roses (that's a whole long post in itself for another day) and being the generous hearts they were, they gave away hundreds and thousands of bouquets from their own backyard roses to folks in need of a little cheer.  They delivered them to friends, family and strangers.  People in the hospital, folks receiving the Meals-On-Wheels they helped deliver, people they read about in the local paper who were going through hard times.  You could always count on a beautiful bouquet with your favorite rose tucked in for your birthday especially.  They had so many roses that they had an extra refrigerator in their breezeway to hold all the fresh-cut flowers during the peak season.


One of the problems was that there was always a need for vases.  Being the resourceful kind of guy that he was, my great-grandfather came up with a way to get free vases in pretty much constant supply that he didn't have to worry about getting back from all these people he enjoyed sharing the bouquets with.  One of the things he did was let the local cemeteries and churches know that he could make use of their extra vases.  After funerals and weddings and such there are always leftover vases from the floral arrangements.  Many times these got thrown away or given away so he got a good study supply from those sources.  But at the rate they gave flowers away, often they still didn't have enough or they were too large for the bouquets he was making.

However, a large majority of the food bought from the grocery store came in glass jars back then.  There was a study supply of food jars in all sorts of sizes and shapes - salad dressing, pickles, condiments, etc.  Once the labels were removed these were the perfect containers for smaller arrangements.  Problem is, they were a little blah...  Great-grandpa also loved spray paint.  He came up with the idea to spray paint the jars - sometimes inside and other times outside.  He usually did at least two colors to give a fancier look - often with a gold or silver mixed in.  The blue salad dressing jar is the only one I still have.  It is one that he gave me for my birthday.  It is painted on the outside.  I saved these three jars to make my own.  A pickle jar, an iced tea bottle and a jelly jar.

A little spritz of gold spray paint on the inside...  Just little short spritzes at different angles.  You don't want solid coverage because you want your second color to show through.

Although this one was so pretty I almost did it in solid gold...

For my second color I chose red.  The great thing about this is that it does use much paint so its a great way to use up your leftovers from other projects.  I plan to use these for fresh-cut summer flowers on the deck.  With the paint on the inside, the water may eventually cause some of the paint to peel.  That is easy enough to fix with another layer of fresh paint in either color.