the smile jar

I've always considered myself a pretty crafty girl. Just ask my mom. When I was little, I was constantly cutting little things out of paper and getting glue everywhere. I loved, and still do love, making things. I even used to (this is going to sound really quite gross) like the feel of peeling the layers of glue that I would get stuck to my fingertips. I got some weird satisfaction out of it. Like I was accomplishing something. Don't ask me.

Anywho. Last week I read this little article on a jar you could make. I don't remember what they called it, but I shall call mine the smile jar.

The article suggested that you write down every time something makes you really happy and deposit each slip into a big jar, which you then read on New Year's Eve. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't do the whole New Year's Eve thing. So I decided to make my own smile jar. I mean, I don't know about you, but I get down on myself a lot about things. Things I should have done, things I did that I wish I hadn't, and then, of course, the stressing over things in the future. And I thought, I could use a smile jar. I'm going to write down all the little things that make me happy when they happen, and then when I start feeling blue, I'll shake out a few of the colorful papers and read them, until I'm feeling all chipper again (for those of you who know the outer Audrey, you know she's a pretty chipper girl).

That's how I concocted the Smile Jar. I found a big Mason jar from my mother's pantry, one big enough to hold a year's worth of memories, cleaned it up, and thought of a few things over the last few days that have made this girl happy. I figure every time something makes me really laugh, smile, or just plain warm and fuzzy inside, I'll write it down, and the day it happened.

So meet the Smile Jar!