THANKS JAR STRIKES AGAIN

Normally on Tuesdays I share a recipe, but today is a special day my friends. Today is the Young House Love Pinterest Challenge! 

  I'm sure you all know about Sherry and John's blog, right? Sure you do. Their blog is the first one I ever started following, and is always a fun source of inspiration. I even got to meet them when Michael and I lived in Richmond (yes, I freaked out slightly), and have their new book pre-ordered. Total YHL nerd over here, people. 

Alright. Enough blabbing. So last year I tried to be cool and replicate Sherry's Thanks Glassing Project, and well... it didn't turn out so hot...so this year I gave it a facelift:

Oh, wait. 

I should probably explain.

So, every day of November (or earlier) until Thanksgiving you (and your spouse/partner/family/kids/etc) write something on a slip of paper you're thankful for and put it in the Thanks Jar. Then, on Thanksgiving you read them all! 

WAIT. Before you go judging and thinking this sounds a little goofy- let me assure you that it is not only sweet, but also HILARIOUS. Last year both Michael and I individually wrote cheese and whiskey on one. Class acts. 

Well, besides being ugly, the problem with last year's Thanks Jar was that you could see right into it, which means any nosy Nelly could check out what was on the slips ahead of time. No good. Thus, this year I decided to upgrade it....by painting it GOLD:

All you need:

Gold spray paint

Spray Adhesive (regular glue works too)

Mod Podge

Glitter

 After painting your jar gold, just spray some spray adhesive on in lines and layer your glitter on in whatever manner you so choose. I went with gold & copper tones from Martha Stewart, but clearly it doesn't need to be an fall color scheme! If you'd rather do a Thanks Jar for the holidays, blue & gold or red & green would be fun too!

We had so much fun with it last year, we actually started a month early. We've been writing one a day since the beginning of October and the jar is getting mighty full!!

If you want to have a Thanks Jar this year, get your butt in gear - you have 2 days!!!

Have another holiday tradition to share?

I'm a sucker for that stuff...so let me know!

xo, lp

MONOGRAM RECIPE BOX

Here's the deal. In case you live under a rock, I love to cook & bake. Evidenced here.  

Growing up, my mom had old wood recipe boxes overflowing with carefully written out recipes categorized with little index tabs. Controlled chaos, if you will. I know it's easier nowadays to just keep recipes digitally, but there's something sacred about written out cards. 

I decided to make a simple monogrammed wood recipe box and have begun to write out all my favorite recipes, edged with colorful paper.

For a long time I was going to print the monogram out from offline, but thought it would be more personal (&imperfect) to write it out myself. So here you have it:

I started with a plain wood recipe box from Michael's (about $4 after a coupon):

I sanded that baby down, and started sketching out my monogram. I went with an almost-black navy acrylic paint for the letters & circle. A quick seal of polyurethane later the paint finished fully matte!

I kind of love how it's not a perfect circle, which is currently shocking the perfectionist inside of me...

 Not to sound like a cranky,senile old lady- but I think too much is getting "computerized" these days. Some things hold such good memories, and you need to be able to touch them sometimes- not just stare at them on a screen.Overall, I love it and cannot wait until it's like my mom's recipe boxes; bursting with inspiration and tasty food ideas!

You an old-school recipe box fan like I am?

Do tell what your's looks ( or will look) like. 

xo, lp