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I’ve just uploaded a few posts I had written elsewhere with some table decorations I’ve done for the last few holidays. I’ve got a large glass jar that I found at Walmart back in January that I like to change out with different things to reflect whichever holiday is coming up next.

In February, I used pink and white candy corns for Valentine’s Day. For March I used split peas for St. Patrick’s Day, and in April I used a few bags of jelly beans for Easter.

For the last few holiday-less months I’ve just filled up the jar with two bags of dried northern beans and one bag of dried red kidney beans and plopped it on the table for something to look at.

But while eating dinner the other night the thought struck me that it would be really easy to transform it into a quick 4th of July jar, and when Mike went to a home improvement store this morning I asked him to pick me up a few paint sample cards in dark blue (he got me red, too, but I didn’t need it). Don’t go too crazy — you only need a few. If you don’t feel comfortable using paint cards, construction paper will work too.

I free-handed a few stars out of the paint chips and slid them down into the jar in front of the beans. Voila! A craft easy enough for even me to do.

Since it’s the end of February, I’ve been trying to come up with an idea to replace the Valentine’s Day candy corn that have been in a decorative jar on our dining table. I couldn’t think of any green candies to go in it for March and St. Patrick’s Day, though.

Last week I was walking down the aisle at the grocery store and passed by the bags of dried beans. The bright green split peas caught my eye and I grabbed up three bags (about $1 each).

I use split peas pretty often for cooking and know that the bag always recommends that you wash the “field dust” off the peas before using them. I figured I’d rinse them off this time as well, even though I wasn’t cooking with them.

What I didn’t realize was that they get pretty clumpy when they’re left to sit after being wet, so my husband and I dumped out the colander onto a baking sheet lined with towels to let them air dry, then broke up any further clumps we found.

Overall it worked out really well, and makes a nice little decoration for St. Patrick’s Day!