Making jam jar garden lights

I don't have many absolutes in life, but for well over a decade I have been the woman who simply will not camp. I fail to see the attraction of spending nights under a flimsy, leaking sheet of canvas, isolated from life's little luxuries like running water, toilets and electricity. MM on the other hand, is a huge fan (I think it has something to do with not washing).

His enthusiasm, combined with that of the children caused me to relent this weekend and we joined nine other families from the village for the annual camping trip. So am I converted?

Well, it took two of us all day to pack up, thunder storms hit just before we arrived, all our torches had run out of batteries by the second night and I am currently putting through my seventh load of washing. Strangely this was not as bad as I had expected (my levels of dread had reached panic attack proportions) so I have said we can go again next year.

However, I will be better prepared, including taking a few emergency candles. With this in mind, the children and I made some jam jar garden lights yesterday afternoon - not only perfect camping companions, but also very useful for hanging in trees of placing on tables for some atmospheric garden lighting. Here's how we made them...

Take a piece of thin garden wire around 50cm in length and put a loop at the end
Thread on beads (we recycled some glass ones from an old necklace) to cover about 25cm of the length (the loop will stop them falling off while you do this)

Wrap the unbeaded section of the wire around the neck of the jam jar, twisting the end to secure it, and then bend over the beaded section to form a handle. Leave a little wire at the end to hook under the neck wire and twist this to secure the handle in place
Take some sand (we used a little from the sandpit), put it in a jar or lidded container and add a few drops of food colouring - then shake it hard and, hey presto, you have some weird coloured sand

Put the sand in the bottom of the jar - you can make different colours to create a layered effect
Add stickers to the side of the jar and then place a tea light inside and you're ready to go

It almost makes me want to go camping again, just so we can use these. Almost...