Painted jars and roses

I love decorating the rooms in our little white cottage with antique and vintage mason jars... but really, any jar would do fine for me... old repurposed jars from the kitchen, jars I collect from thrift shops and so on...

I love to see dainty little flowers in dainty little jars spread around the house... 

Jars painted in pretty spring pastel colors like soft pinks and robin’s egg blues.   

But if you are looking for a quick and easy way to tint your jars, here's my secret tip:  Tint them with food color dye!  Just fill your mason jars almost to the very top with water and add one drop of your favorite food color dye.  Give it a good stir and you're done! 

Adding food color to water is such an easy way to make the glass look tinted, but when you go to the dollar store and you find this pretty little dollar jar you see here, things can get even easier and better real fast...  

Isn’t this such a pretty color?  And it last forever because the jars come already tinted... 

Because the jar is tinted only in the bottom part of it, it gives the illusion that the water is tinted.

I will have to go back for more.... they come in blue, green, yellow and this pretty pink....

Roses from the garden...

in pink too!

 I so love these little pink roses...

The garden is teeming with them these days...

From the Kordes® rose varieties

I am happy... good things in the horizon, church this morning, lunch with dear friends, great conversation, great food, high hopes.  A new place, new friends, new life, new climate, and I think a new me too in a sense, as I see changes taking place in me as well as in our lives.  Tastes are different, preferences in styles are changing, thoughts and ideas too.  Life is a constant movement thread in hours and moments.  We need to treasure them, love each moment, love those we come in contact with...  treasure your family, treasure your friends and loved ones.  Love them all, and don't forget to include yourself in that precious circle of love too! 

See you soon!

Roses and painted Mason jars

All through my days I make rounds in my newly established garden to enchant my life… 

It is warm and the butterflies are finding their way here…

I’ve planted a Sioux Crape Myrtle that gives clusters of dark pink flowers… It stands right on the epicenter sort of speaking of our garden, and because I couldn’t wait for another small bush to grow and grace our space in some future time, I decided on a pretty good size of a tree this time. Thus, this Crape Myrtle is now the heart of the garden. Lovely, and promising in beauty and marvelous blooms to come. 

I have surrounded this tree with the spikes of pure white flowers of the First Lady Speedwell and the pink blooms of Veronique Pink Speedwells, and I have also planted at its feet a small plant called Angelonia, which I had never seen and it is also called summer snapdragon, with fascinating snapdragon-like flowers with beautiful colorations in purple, white and pink. It's the perfect plant for adding bright color to our hot sunny spaces and this tough plant will bloom all summer long. I love its spire like spikes of blooms. 

I am exciting about the huge variety of perennials you can find here… some variety I had never seen; others I have only read about. All beautiful and extremely hard to choose among. 

 

The Elle rose bush is in bloom… 

 The first roses of the season in our newly established garden.

Evocative of another garden in another place in another time...

I’ve been experimenting painting the inside of my Mason jars and I’d have to say that I prefer this technique to that other of painting your jars on the outside…

 

I love the “milk glass” finish and I love that the paint color clearly shows through the glass, but it still have that distinctly shiny appearance and smoothness to the touch, because the paint is viewed through the layer of glass, rather than being applied on the outside.   

I didn’t want to do all the swirling and twirling around the jar thing you need to do when pouring in the paint into the jars, so I decided to use spray paint instead of regular paint… I just sprayed the inside real good, and let the jars dry in the sun for a while.  A second coat got them all covered.  That easy.

I love love this sweet shade of pink…  Krylon Satin Ballet Slipper pink.

I didn’t have the heart to cut my Elle roses to make a bouquet, so I’m using faux this time.  I think any shade of pink, or purple roses will look fabulous in my newly painted pink mason jars… I don’t mind using faux roses at all.  In fact, I use faux often; particularly when I don’t have a better way to satisfying my need of them… 

LINKING TO:

HOME SWEET GARDEN

IVY AND ELEPHANTS
INSPIRE ME TUESDAY