Blueglass jars repurposed

A few years back (before I had Pintrest to keep track of my inspirations) I saw a photo somewhere online showing a string of lights made out of old blue glass jars.  If you have seen my kitchen, you are familiar with the shelves holding all of my beans and grains as the end panel for the refrigerator.  The majority of these jars were from my parents farm, they used them for canning many years ago, then when the new & improved Mason jars came out, these were relegated to storage in the barn.  They were almost tossed out but for my creative sister Anita, who wanted to store grains in them and I latched onto that idea.  I can remember sitting with her on the patio at the farm divvying up the collection.  When the kitchen was being designed a few years ago, my husband came up with the idea of a shelf just for the blue glass jars, this also acts as the end panel for the refrigerator, and is the first thing you see when walking down the hall to the kitchen.

This lamp was made for me by Ethan a few years back with one of the jars, it now holds their unwanted childhood rock collections inside.

And, in my soon to be finished craft room, I have repurposed some of the jars with glass tops for miscellaneous buttons and such.

So, last weekend, my wonderful son put together this string of lights for me.  I was short on the quart size jars, and had purchased these last year expressly for this purpose.  He made this while I was away at my spinning classes, and said it just took a couple of hours.  The porcelain cap in the zinc top had to be smashed out to allow the drill to go through to run the wiring and hook up the sockets.  He also added another hole to string a wire through so that the weight was transferred to the chain and not being carried by the electrical cord. Now I am on the hunt for a few more to have the string extend across the entire back porch.   Love the theme throughout the house.

And this big one (about 2 feet tall) I found years ago at an antique mall.  Must have been a store fixture for display, now filled with yarn scraps.