Pinterest challenge - mason jar gifts!

First let me tell ya that I will be moving to Wordpress! Yay! And you know what? You can add this link to your reader feed: http://casadeberry.wordpress.com/feed/
I will be here for a few more weeks and I'll keep reminding y'all so all my sweet followers can, uh, follow me in my new online home.

Okay, NOW we continue our regularly scheduled post.

Yeah, I am a few days late, but seeing this challenge pop up in some of my favorite sites got my butt in gear. That, and the fact that the pears on the tree were finally turning a gorgeous golden yellow.

I got plenty of canning and packaging inspiration from Pinterest:

Source: tipnut.com via Amy on Pinterest

I would LOVE to have a pantry filled with canned goods!

Source: google.com via Michelle on Pinterest

These are ADORABLE all packaged up for Christmas!

Source: canningacrossamerica.com via Denise on Pinterest

Okay, seriously. WOW. If I ever manage half of this, I will be so proud of myself!

Source: squidoo.com via Kristin on Pinterest

I started to think up ideas for the extra jars I had - scrubs would be great, don't you think?

Source: tipjunkie.com via Kelly on Pinterest

How cute are these with their color-coordinated tags?


I was lucky that my mother-in-law came over to can pears with me because I sliced up my finger with a fruit corer and she had to take over - no worries, we cleaned the corer and threw away the pear I'd been working on - but we had a good morning, chatting as we processed the fruit, and me planning in my head how I'd package up the finished goods.

This is what we picked from the tree the night before, my oldest was a super helper:


Soaking in their Fruit Fresh so they'll keep their pretty color:


Cooking down - we did some in sugar and some in Splenda. We did lots of tasting and they were yummy!


The smaller jars in front are pear butter, so good!


I also made some sugar scrubs - there are lots of great recipes at Tip Junkie.

I chose to go with a simple label I made in Photoshop, some ribbon/yarn and bits of a Christmas (fake) branch we had from last year's decor.



While I don't have an entire pantry full of canned goods, I do have a couple of small shelves full of these, and they make me happy. Maybe next year I'll get many more tomatoes and I'll be able to can lots of yummy sauce!

Hope you enjoyed my Pinterest Challenge!