A Blessings Jar

Happy New Year!

A few weeks ago, I saw an image going around Facebook of something called "A Blessings Jar."  Basically, this was a jar with a lid that come with some pretty simple directions.  Here is the actual image that I saw, along with the directions:

So ... I thought that it would be cool to try something like this for 2013 -- you know, especially for those days in which you might be feeling super stressed!  Wouldn't it be cool to pull out this jar and read some of the little notes that you had left from previous days?

This is what I came up with after (1) dragging Jim through Michael's earlier today and (2) a little bit of crafting:

First, I had to use a purple color scheme because, well, there is no cooler color than purple!  I originally wanted to use glass paint to jazz the whole thing up but after getting lost in just reading the directions on some Martha Stewart stuff at Michael's, I quickly moved to stickers!  Near the counter -- where they have some of the cheaper things -- I found a bunch of sparkly circle stickers in green and purple -- as you can see, I added those to the cool terrarium-like jar that I found.  I also nabbed some marathon and travel stickers in the scrapbooking section of the store and viola!  A Dianna-themed Blessings Jar!  I also found some inexpensive scrapbooking paper in green, purple, and yellow and I cut those up to serve as the "scraps" of papers to write each daily blessing.  My first one -- for today, the first day of this new year! -- was to honor my body for having the energy, motivation, and endurance to make it through a 5K (3.1 miles) in freezing temperatures earlier today (it was about 25 degrees and a lot colder in the wind!).  I also felt happy to run into fellow runner and triathloner Bill and his family while waiting for the race to start!  

As you can tell from the pictures of my jar, I plan to use the same directions as the original!  I think 2013 will have a lot of exciting adventures -- including finishing my dissertation and graduating (hopefully!) and traveling through Scotland and Belgium in July (to celebrate Jim's 50th birthday!).  I know, like any year, that there will be sadness and frustration and stress -- so I hope this jar will help to counterbalance all that "bad stuff"!