Snow Globe in a Jar & Coping with Frozen Water Pipes

I love the Christmas season. It's the winter I can do without. As we have been struggling to stay warm and safe in -0 temps, we discovered Friday morning that our water pipes were frozen. We are not new to this, it's happened twice before but it never gets easier. The daily hauling of water from our families homes and my family of 4 showering when it is least inconvenient for them is a struggle. One good thing is I have quit doing dishes. If you can't eat it off of paper or plastic, you can't eat it here. So that's a plus, I guess. Cooking has also come to a halt. Yea, me! :) 

This is how I would prefer to contain winter. Here in this jar, with it's evergreens and snow. While I sit on a beach somewhere warm drinking tropical drinks. Whose with me? 

How To Capture Winter In A Jar

I made this little token of winter for my Grandmother-In-Law, Virginia, who is living in a nursing home and isn't able to get out to enjoy (I use that term loosely here) the winter. It started out as a jelly (or salsa?) jar.

I hot glued 2 tiny bottle brush trees to the bottom of the jar then filled the bottom with a layer of Epsom salt. It is the perfect faux snow, sparkly, inexpensive and on-hand.

I hot glued a piece of drop cloth fabric that I cut with pinking sheers about an inch larger than the lid and then glued on a piece of ribbon on top of it. I left the ends of the ribbon open then tied it in a little knot.

She looked cute and sweet here but I thought I should add a little something sparkly so I got out my metal punches and stamped the word JOY onto a round silver blank.

I strung the JOY pendant on to a ball tipped wire and added a little pink glass bead, threaded the wire through the knot in the ribbon and used my needle nose pliers to twist the wire closed.

Grandma Virginia loved it! I bought a big package of these little trees at Michael's when they were 40% off. I am sending some winter in a jar to my parents in Arizona and am seriously considering hand delivering them.

I hope the winter has been kinder to you!