DIY spice jars

There have been a lot of projects going on at our house in the recent weeks.

Inspired by some friends and neighbors, Brad and I have begun to revamp our household. In little ways here and there, a few things at a time.

Originally we had talked about moving closer to his work.  Right now, my commute to work is 10 minutes by bicycle while he spends 2 hours in a car each way (it's only 30 miles, but traffic makes it horrendous).

But after talking over the budget and looking at our debt-pay-off plan, we realized that moving probably wouldn't be the best decision. So instead, we've been finding little things to do around our house that will make it more of what we want.

Last week, I found a small DIY project for spice jars online.

We had a ton of these little jars left over from our wedding (I put jelly beans in them as wedding favors).



We had nearly 40 of them left, and about 30 spices in the cabinet that needed new homes.

Our house was built in the 1920's and has a built-in spice cabinet in the kitchen that, I think, used to house an ironing board.

(Please ignore the ugly door pulls.)

On Saturday, I counted out the correct number of jars.



Then I spray painted all of their lids with a black matte spray paint that I picked up at Fred Meyer for less than $3.



After the lids dried, I wrote the names of the spices on each lid with a silver metallic sharpie.

Metallic sharpies may be the best invention ever, by the way. Amazing.

After writing each name in my best handwriting (which still isn't the greatest), I filled each of the jars.  For some of the jars it was fairly easy, but for others I had to use a funnel I'd made out of printer paper and some blue painters tape (it was the only tape I could find).



The finished product.  It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.