Thursday, August 30, 2012

A DIY 'Date Jar' Tutorial

A few weeks ago, while I was reading Jennifer's blog, I came across her post about the date jar that she had made for her and her husband. As soon as I laid eyes on this DIY project, I  knew that I had to make one for us.

You see, I am such a believer (and sometimes, a stickler for) in date nights. I'd love to do a date night every week, but it ends up being more like once every other, or every third week, in our house. Our biggest challenge is always coming up with ideas. Ideas he likes, ideas I like, and ones that we'll both really enjoy.

The 'Date Jar' allows you both to spend time in advance thinking of different ideas that both you and your spouse will enjoy, so when the opportunity presents itself for a spontaneous date night, most of the work is already done! This is an absolute win win situation in our house.

So, I gathered up my supplies and got to it! 


DIY 'Date Night Jar'

What You'll Need
1 Mason Jar (I used a 16 oz. because I already had one)
20-30 popsicle sticks (I bought sticks that were already multi-colored, and came in a pack of about 100)
1 paint marker in the color of your choice
'Date Night' ideas from both you & your spouse
Ribbon in the color/pattern of your choice (this is optional; I added it to dress up our jar a bit!)

We started by each coming up with 10-15 ideas one Sunday afternoon when we were sitting at home. We each did this separately, and it was a welcome surprise when I realized that we hadn't doubled any ideas! 


Once we had our list together, and I gathered up all of my supplies, I began bringing our ideas to 'life' on each of the colored sticks.


I am actually thrilled with the colored popsicle sticks; I think it dresses the whole thing up and just makes it more fun. 

Once I had all of our ideas written out, I simply popped the sticks into the jar.


I finished this project by adding some colorful ribbon to the top of the jar, and once I did, I was so excited about how cute it came out! 


Wondering what some of our ideas were? Here are just a few:
  • Hiking at a local park with Riley
  • Happy Hour on the deck
  • Dinner out on the water in Annapolis
  • Signing up for a cooking class
  • One night away (somewhere within 2 hours)

I definitely recommend this idea for any couple that loves a good date night, but is too busy to try and come up with new ideas each week or month. This way, you can just choose a night of the week, pick a date and be on your way! Obviously, some of these dates require a bit more planning than others, but just the fact that the ideas are all there makes me happy.

I'm sure that we will begin to remove the ones that are used, and add new ideas as time goes by, but this is a fabulous place to start!

11 comments:

Shannon Dew said...

So cute!!! I might have to do this b/c J and I can always use a date night! BTW I pinned this too ;-)

Moe said...

I love this idea. This is totally something Dan and I should do. We always have great ideas for dates...until it's time for us to actually go on one and then we seem to have forgotten all the good ones!

JennOvey said...

Super cute! I'm pretty sure I have this idea pinned - I just need to get to makin' it!

Hailey said...

Even though I told you on IG....I love this!!! Thanks for sharing your ideas . I need to make ours soon.

Shannon said...

I love this idea, we're lucky if we get a date night once a month and we usually will just go out to dinner somewhere close because I feel bad leaving the baby for more than a few hours (I need to get over this!)We need more creative ideas.

Mrs EyeCanSee said...

I've seen this on Pinterest, such a cute idea!! We always do the same old boring stuff on our date nights, this would definitly help mix things up!

Darby Hawley said...

This is such a great idea and you made it so colorful :-)

Julie said...

what a great idea! we do date night once a week because that's our night to eat out. now sometimes we break that and eat out one other time but usually we're good :)

Molly said...

Trip to Wegmans! YESSSSS!

Tina Byland said...

Um... make that a double date for dinner on the water in Annapolis and we'll meet you out ;)

Alex and I keep talking about making a jar..... we're pretty bad at putting our thoughts into action! Haha! Yours turned out great!

Natasha said...

This is a great idea!! I will be giving this a try. Thanks :)