Demijohn's and more Demijohn's!!

 

Oh how I love fall time! There's just something so great about fall. The leaves falling off the trees, the festivals all around town, the cooler weather and all the upcoming holiday's. Fall time is by far my favorite time of year. 

And one of my favorite traditions since we left Italy is to dig out all my demijohns and fill them with bright colored leaves, then display them all around the house! We have green demijohns, blue demijohns and even some rare brown demijohns. And all of them are filled with bright colored leaves from the back yard.  In fact, my fall decorated demijohns are the most re-posted thing I have on pinterest. I get notifications all year round of people re-pinning my demijohns pictures.
 

This year was special because I had a little helper, helping me fill them with a little water. She had a blast pounding on the demijohns, hiding behind them, and playing peek-a-boo! I can't wait to one day teach her about the rich Italian culture and maybe even take her there.

When we lived in Italy, it was the law to recycle, especially glass. Get caught throwing anything recyclable away, and you get a nice little sticker on your garbage bin notifying you that you've been fined. In every neighborhood, there are large recycling bins on every street where people can dump all their glass wine bottles. We happened to have one on the corner, right in front of our house. Every once in a while, you'd see people drive up in a 3 wheeled Vespa farm truck (pictured below), and they would dump a full load of wine bottles and carboys (demijohns). Every once in a while I would sneak out and leaf through the bin, finding some unique and old glass bottles. Some small, some large.

The Italians think American's are crazy. They don't understand the big hype over these silly wine jars. In the States, the large demijohns sell upward to $100. In Italy, many Americans will  just pick them up from the recycling centers or the locals, clean them and send them back to the States to sell. 

I just love the bright colors, and the ability to display them anywhere in my home! And I love knowing these are the real things, not factory made bottles from Pottery Barn (which are a ridiculous amount of money as well, by the way!). 

Demijohns make the best vases! Once you add a little bit of water, the leaves usually last a few weeks. The leaves I picked this year weren't quite as red and colorful as last year, but one of the trees that I normally pick from in my yard hasn't changed colors yet. Once it does, there will be lots of bright, brilliant red leaves for me to pick.

Once while visiting a flea market in Italy, I bought two small wine vats that had wicker covers over them. I paid just 3 euros for them because they looked pretty beat up and dirty. The wicker wrapped around the entire bottle and you couldn't see the glass underneath. I brought them back to the States with me, fully intending to look them up and sell them. Instead they ended up sitting in my garage, packed away for two years. This year, I decided to peel off the wicker and see what the glass looked like underneath. They turned out to be beautifully aged demijohns that I'm estimating are at least 50 years old. There's a distinct writing around the neck of the bottles, which they don't do anymore, from my understanding. Anyway, I ended up cleaning them up well and displaying them on my mantel with leaves. I just love these darn little bottles, and the way the colored glasses filter the light.