Just Playing Around …..

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There’s a lot going on, I have another painting underway and I’m still making other stuff.

One of the exercises in the Life Book course was to make a Gratitude Jar.  Every day you write at least one thing down that was good, date it and pop it in the jar.  It’s a nice idea and I had a rather large, spare jar sitting around, so I had a go.  It hasn’t photographed that well, I took the shots into the light……. [sigh!]

I collaged the jar to death making lots of texture, made a label and stamped the name, drew flowers all around the jar and painted them a stunning shade of teal mixed up from three different colours of paint and I bet I’ll never get this particular hue again!

JarofJoys8

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I coloured the faux metal lid with alcohol inks, hot glued a chain of silver butterflies around the edge and hung a variety of charms and paper hearts from an old bracelet chain.

JarofJoys2a

And there she is – a bit of fun!  Already filling up with memo’s of the joys of each day.

JarofJoys1

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You all know how I hate waste and love re-purposing stuff – well I’ve been at that again.

I had an opportunity to buy some black fingerless gloves for less than a dollar a pair.  They are classed as ‘seconds’ and without the intervention of an entrepreneur would  end up in the landfill.  I was happy to pay the price asked, the flaws are minor and easily fixed, I love fingerless gloves and have a bag of end bits of yarn looking for something to do …..  So to while away the warm summer evenings I started to play and made these

teal

Aren’t they cute – here’s one on my slightly paint grubby hand

teal on hand

And a pink pair

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I love that I can take something that is flawed and destined to become rubbish and turn it into something that has a life and is fun too.  These are going to be great when the season changes!  Hands up if you like fingerless gloves – I have another ten pairs to make up………..

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!

 

 

67 thoughts on “Just Playing Around …..”

  2. I love the gratitude jar! That is an awesome idea!!! We do have much to be grateful for, don’t we? You did a marvelous job decorating the jar -very creative. The fingerless gloves are absolutely adorable. I think the Aqua ones are my favorite.

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  3. Your nails put my nails to shame-lol! They show off your perfect nails! Pretty-Pretty-Pretty!You are so creative + what a cute idea:-) Love the jar + the color is a “happy+ postive” color for all the good you find everyday. We all need a jar like that sitting on our kitchen table.
    I am eager to get to some creative projects, but right now I am busy with little tiny seedlings. The size of a pin head! Today, I would put in the jar, “Spring is around the corner-snow is melting!”
    Happy Painting to you Pauline + hope your jar fills up with nothing but happiness!

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    • I am amazed at how much attention my nails have received! They aren’t really anywhere near ‘perfect’ they are just strong and need a trim! They get no extra attention, but are very handy when crafting and DiY-ing and a perfect pest when gardening! Might be handy when handling seedlings the size of a pin head 🙂

      I’m pleased to hear your winter is easing back and the snow is giving way. It’s still only January so that is quite early isn’t it? I wrote for today’s joy ‘The perfect summer day. Blue sky, soft heat and no breeze as we walked’ It was a gorgeous morning and I stayed out for twice as long as normal and so fell behind with everything else 🙂

      I hope you get into your craft room soon – it will be nice to see something you made. xoxo

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      • I felt the breeze in your description:-) Blue skies + warm breeze( not too warm-lol),…summer:-)
        You are so right long nails and gardening just don’t go together. If you wear gloves it might work, but I never can find my gloves:-)
        My nails are awful, I admit, I am a recovering nail biter!I keep them short for they are in soil too often + they become a weapon to myself-LOL.

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  4. Cool idea and excellent executing because Aqua rules! I would imagine you’ll need to make these all the time because they’ll fill up so fast. That’s a cute charm on there too. Looks very Alys’ish 😀 You mentioned you mixed three colours of paint to do the jar. Have you just used regular paint to do the glass jar then? I didn’t know you could do that.

    I’ve seen you were these type of gloves and thought you were so cool 😀 Now look at how pretty you’ve made them. Way to up cycle, in the prettiest way. I commented on Alys’s comment because she was admiring your hands. Me too! My gosh, look at your nails. Mine are stubs, stumps….as in non-existent. I did just by some nail hardener tonight oddly enough. Suppose to stop spilling and chipping. We’ll see. It’s so dry here on the prairies and especially in winter. I didn’t eat all day today cause I was busy. I had a late super, half a small piece of quiche and a big salad. Wanting something sweet, I opened a bad of swedish berries. I just ate the last one and feel icky. Oh man, so many berries 😀 I better lay off the candy or you’ll have to roll me around this spring, LOL xoxo

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    • I collaged the jar, sketched the flowers on, gessoed the area I wanted to paint , mixed the paint to match the collage colour I wanted to bring out and painted the flowers. So I didn’t paint directly onto glass. I used heavy gel medium to stick the papers down with and that gives you a good surface to play on.

      I wear fabric fingerless gloves in the summer and wooly ones in the winter. I use ’em when I’m working in the art room all the time because they glide over surfaces where your skin would catch and make me bump the pencil or paintbrush . They are very handy and also hide a multitude of sins 🙂

      Maybe we will all be rolling! 😀

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  5. I just love your Jar of Joys! The details add such beauty it. Thank you for sharing this idea. I’m going to take it on and pass it along too. You did a great job with those fingerless gloves…bright and cheery. Now, about your slightly painted, grubby hand, where is it? 😄 I see very pretty fingers and nails!

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    • A couple of those fingers have smudges of turquoise paint on them and the gloves are hiding a multitude of sins! I’m really liking these gloves – and looking forward to developing more patterns and colours and flowers as I go along. I’m pleased with how my jar turned out, and there were some others made that I saw pictures of, that are even more stunning! It’s a great course 🙂

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  6. You are so creative Pauline! Love the gloves, they’re so cheery! perfect then for winter 🙂
    The gratitude jar is a wonderful idea. I keep a gratitude journal and I am convinced it changed my life. Love what you did to your jar and of course, the fairy! may she sprinkle all your work with fairy dust!

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    • You’ve got to have a fairy Yolanda – she keeps the magic happening 🙂 The jar idea has been around as long as the journal I think – and it is a great idea ……. I’m enjoying writing at least one sentence every day, but often many more! I agree that learning to become grateful changes your life – it certainly has mine!

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  7. Gorgeous jar and a really great idea. I keep finding great ideas here Ms Pauline :). I LOVE those repurposed gloves! You clever girl you…I really love the crochet cuffs, very clever and 10 more pairs? What a busy girl you are :). LOVE that teal and you are right, you have buggeries bollocks all chance of ever finding that particular colour again but you have it for all time painted onto that jar so at least you have that 🙂

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    • Now you have your very own crafting room you can make all kind of great ideas into reality. No time for pinning, just for doing 🙂 The jar idea is not original, it is one that has been around for years and I would never have thought to repurpose my unused jar if not for the course exercise, so I am learning lots and getting the chance to play at the same time. It’s a win-win! The gloves take maybe three hours tops to make and finish off any repairs and I can work away on them while chatting or watching a movie. Most satisfying!

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  8. We used a Gratitude Jar the first year . . . but it wasn’t BIG enough. Now we have a Gratitude Basket which we dump out on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day and revel in all the Happy Moments tossed in over the course of the year.

    Enjoy yours!

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  9. Love this, Pauline! You are on a roll. The jar rocks. Jar of Joys. Perfect. It is amazing how your YOUness comes out in all your creations. Oh, and I agree — nice fingernails. Hugs from Hawaii.xo

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  10. You are wonderfully creative. The jar is fun and whimsical. Kudos for saving the gloves from the landfill.

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  11. Loving the gloves! And i like your gratitude jar. My sister and I are doing something similar – only we call ours Happiness Jars – write down something positive every day, even if its been a bad day. I haven’t decorated mine, but I decorated hers with some crochet bunting we had lying about… Like you do 😉

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    • I like ‘Happiness Jar’ too. Isn’t it wonderful how even on the awful days you can find something to be grateful for – and there is the real work of the jar! I do think you should dress up your jar too!

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  12. What a lovely idea for anyone who’s feeling a bit fed up with their lot – focus on everyday positives and you’re bound to feel more content. Your recent life changes have certainly borne that out and you have my admiration. As for fingerless gloves – I love them! I buy old cashmere jumpers and upcycle them into luxury fingerless gloves and I’ve sold over a hundred pairs to date at twenty pounds a pair!

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    • Wow! I am impressed – I love the whole thing of upcycling and if you can make some cash as well it is great! [Making cash is not something I am very good at!]

      ! I saw you had been visiting a few days ago – thank you for sticking around 🙂 I always love to have new readers dropping in for a chat.

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  13. Always enjoying see what you create. In this case, the Gratification Jar is my fav … but one question … how many times is reference to me in there? 😉

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  14. Your jar is lovely, Pauline! I love the colors. As for the gloves, they’re perfect and so beautiful! That’s what I need to wear at my below zero office. My hands are always freezing. I must say, your fingernails look great for someone who works with their hands so much. xo

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    • Really? Below zero? Oh, such cruelty! Let me know your favourite colour and I shall make you some gloves immediately! Send me your address too. 🙂

      My nails have caused a few comments – they are very strong and rarely break and I forget to file them down…… my hair is the same 🙂

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      • Well, I might be exaggerating when I say below zero, but it is very cold. I need fur like Siddy to stay warm. 🙂
        You’re so sweet to offer to make me a pair of your beautiful gloves, Pauline, but it would be too time consuming and costly for you. You must get lots of Biotin and Calcium in your diet. You could be a hand model! xo

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  15. Wow those gloves have come up a treat, and I love that jar. I might make one for my son, he is going through a rough patch at the moment and it just might buck him up a bit. I’d have to make a blokey one though 🙂

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    • What a good idea for your son – yes a blokey one would be quite easy to make don’t you think? You could use the sports sections from the newspaper and a nice blokey bit of wrapping paper and maybe some comic strips, all collaged down ….. You would also have to supply him with strips of paper and a pen or else he may never get around to noting the positive. It is such good training for the brain to do these things especially when someone is ‘down’.

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    • It is most pleasing isn’t it when we take something considered rubbish and turn it into something pretty and useful. Judging by the swapping that occurs on my local Freecycle group, nothing is ‘rubbish’ 🙂

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      • In permaculture, they always say that there is no such thing as ‘waste’ just ‘resources’! We just need to get our heads round how we can use everything… Fran seems particularly good at that!

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        • Yes she does! It’s the ‘one man’s trash’ thing isn’t it – and I love knowing that something I no longer use can be used by someone else as is or for another purpose. This is why I no longer have mountains of stuff because it ‘might be useful one day…….’

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  17. I’ve heard of the Gratitude Jar but you’ve raised it to a whole new level! What a clever idea and the end result is gorgeous!
    As are the fingerless gloves.
    I love the way the the mind of an artist works. The vision! And then the doing!
    We should make something while you are here 🙂

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  18. Ooh, I love your ‘jar of joys’, such a wonderful idea 🙂 I think I’ll have to see if I can come up with something similar 🙂 And yes, handwarmers are certainly wonderful things 🙂

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  19. When you said you were going to make a few repairs and dress up the gloves you found I didn’t picture them coming out so cute. They definitely stand out from the generic style they started out as. Love your gratitude jar too. That turquoise color is lovely too bad you don’t have a batch of it made up for future projects.

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    • As soon as I saw those gloves I had an idea of what could be done to them. It is a fun wee project. I agree on the paint colour – I just wasn’t thinking past getting the flowers on the jar………..

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    • Yes, I apologise for my appalling photos Derrick – this is why I have an official photographer – unfortunately she is on night shift this week! I do realise they must offend my dear readers who are good behind a camera 🙂 The nails need another trim!

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  21. Pauline, I love that jar. It’s magical. Every time you post your collage work I get a hankering to do it too. I’ve always like the idea of a gratitude jar. I suppose it’s never too late to start, eh?

    You’ve worked wonders with your dollar-a-pair fingerless gloves. What a clever way to cheer them up while at the same time using materials on hand. May I add that you have the loveliest hands. How do you do all that crafting and keep your nails looking so nice?

    You are on fire!

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    • The jar is quite enticing – it says ‘Here I am, come put a note in me!’ 🙂 I don’t suppose you would have much need for fingerless gloves in your part of the world – where it never rains and is never cold…… but they are awfully handy here.

      Thank you for the kind compliment – I had gloves on, the age is hidden! My nails are very strong and they grow quickly – I didn’t realise until I saw the photo that they need another trim. My hair is the same – it grows so quickly – and Siddy has a similar issue 🙂

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      • My hair grows quickly, but my fingernails are a disaster, made all the worse by gardening, organizing for a living and my insistence on using my nails as tools. They’re soft, easily split and never long unless I’ve had a terrible bout of the flu confining me to bed. It’s been twenty years since that misery.

        As for the fingerless gloves, you’re right, they aren’t used very often in our climate. They’re cute though.

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  22. Your class sounds fascinating. I never thought of putting the gratitudes in a jar. I have a small journal that I write the best thing of the day in. It’s been going on everyday since Sept 2012. It’s not near as pretty as your jar and definitely not as pretty as your fingerless gloves. I love what you have done with them. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pair without fingers. That could be unique. The jar is so fun looking.

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    • I love my fingerless gloves, you can do stuff and keep them on. I wear fabric ones when I’m painting – the fabric allows my hand to glide smoothly over paper so there is no friction or bumps in the work. And woollen ones allow you to drive and shop and rummage about in your pockets without taking off your gloves – I love them!

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  23. I’m doing something similar to your jar – although mine is not nearly as artistically decked out as yours. But after seeing yours, I must add a “yet” onto that last sentence! I have the jar on the counter with a paper and pen inside (no excuses not to write it down!) and have invited my husband to participate in memorializing our year of joys and blessings. As it strikes us, we write a note about something good from the day and toss it in. The plan is to read our notes on New Year’s Eve. Now I’m going to raid my broken jewelry stash to spiff mine up a bit!

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    • You go girl!! Wrap a bit of pretty paper around it, tie a ribbon and bedeck it out with your old jewellery and wham-o!! You’ll want to write a sentence that says ‘I love my gratitude jar!’ I love the idea you would read your notes on New Years Eve – a great review and scene setter for the year ahead too.

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  24. Fingerless gloves are fun, and yours are fun, and fabulous as well. Love your jar of joy. My gratitude attitude was only for a week. Perhaps it would have gone on for longer if I had made such a beautiful jar to fill with gratitude.

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  25. I love fingerless gloves too and think those pairs are fabulous. I have yet to undertake the jar exercise. I need a jar to become vacated first. Yours is stunning. That teal colour is gorgeous and I adore all the trinkets you added.

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