Good neighbors give you 100 year old canning jars

Can canning jars be sexy? I believe the answer is yes. First of all, have you seen the Weck canning jars? Just to receive an empty jar would be a gift in itself. I have a small one filled with Red Himalayan Salt and it is my pride and joy. They are so beautiful that they would be hard for me to give away. They are like the Salma Hayeks of the canning world, all curves and beauty.

Our neighbor, Betsy, has been cleaning out her basement for what seems like two years. As elderly people tend to do, she likes to talk about her imminent death and how she wants to clean up her house before she dies so as not to trouble her bereaved offspring in the future. She is always unearthing treasures and giving them to me because she is pretty much the best neighbor around. She gives me cool vintage stuff and juicy neighborhood gossip, so really I could not ask for more. She happened to mention that she had found some REALLY OLD Ball canning jars in her basement. I practically fell over with excitement when she offered them to me. So she gives me these jars and I do a little online research and it turns out that some of them date back to about 1910. They are 10 years older than our house!

I've decided that they are too valuable and cool to use for canning (I'm afraid they could break-- who knows how many times they've been used), so I'm going to use them to store pantry items and maybe for decorating around the house and the garden.