Monday is Recycling Day^{8}

It’s still raining today.  That’s only for informational purposes – not for complaining purposes.  I don’t complain about the weather.  It’s such a waste of time.  And I already have so many things to waste my time on. . .   I really don’t mind the rain – if it had stayed (or if it does stay) so dry this year, I would have to give up on the vegetable garden and the flower gardens would have to fend for themselves.  Our water comes from a well on our property and if there is no rain. . .  it gets a little dicey.  Twice (in the last 15 years) we have actually run out of water.   The first time, I was in the shower and the water just stopped coming out of the shower head.  It was  very. . . unexpected.

In any case, I’m grateful for the rain (even though I wore my winter coat and a scarf this morning-but-I’m-not-complaing-at-all).  And on the up-side, I got my favorite parking spot at the grocery store this morning!   What?  You don’t have a favorite parking spot at the grocery store?  Oh.  Sorry.

I thought I might do a baking project today and share that with you. . . rainy days are good for baking.  As it turns out though, I did something else instead.  That happens.  One of the bigger projects I’m working on (much progress was made yesterday) involves chalk board paint.  While I was woking on the larger project – a tiny project popped up.  Honestly, it took me longer (much, much, longer) to take the pictures of this project than it did to complete the project itself.  It’s so simple and you might even have everything you need to do it already on hand.  Especially if you have recently become obsessed with chalk board designs and you already bought-the-paint-even- though-you-didn’t-know-where-you-would-use-it.  What?  You don’t participate in that kind of silliness?  Oh.  Sorry again.

My Junky Plastic Pretzel Jar

I got this jar at BJ’s last August when we had a huge party.  It had pretzel rods in it.  I kept it and it’s been very useful.  When I buy snack foods for the kids’ lunches, I portion them all out into individual servings.  This solves two problems.  First, the kids are more able to make their own lunches without my assistance (or my breathing down their necks with lectures about portion control).  And second, it keeps me from grazing the pantry late at night and eating all of the snack foods.  At which point I have to give myself a lecture.

I digress.

Though practical, the jar was ugly.  I was usually trying to tuck it away somewhere because I didn’t want to look at it’s big plasticky. . .ugliness.  Last night when I spied the jar I decided to simply paint over the paper label with the chalk paint.  Two coats.  Done.  I thought about painting the lid as well, but I think I like the red.  It could be painted with the chalk board paint OR it could be painted with a metallic spray paint. . .  the possibilities are endless!

I think it's not quite so ugly anymore. . . what do you think?

So in order to complete this project you just need a big plastic jar, a paint brush, and some chalkboard paint.  I’m using Rustoleum – and so far I’m happy with it.  I can’t compare the performance to any other brand because it’s the only one I’ve tried but the price was quite a bit less than the competitor.

Creative recycling at it’s best.

Trash into treasure?  Maybe not quite – but I’m pretty pleased with it.  Let me know what you think!

I linked this post to:

The Southern Institue

By Breida Category: Blog, Kids, Salvaged Goods, sign making