I have a memory when I was a little girl, running in my Grandma Nomi's backyard barefoot and chasing fireflies as the sun began to set over her house. It was the last bit of summer heat, and in my sweaty palms I carried an old mayonnaise jar with little holes poked in the aluminum top.

The grass was tall and scratchy and the fireflies were buzzing and lighting up everywhere...and that little jar was itching to be filled with what I was certain were actual fairies buzzing around the Virginia landscape. For one night only, I had the dreamy pleasure of letting those "fairies" sleep in my mayonnaise jar by the sink in the bathroom. And in the morning, those little bits of sunshine would be released back in the wild until the next summer chase.

Much like my childhood firefly memories, SONNENGLAS® instantly filled our family's heart with so much nostalgia. A company who thrives on bringing literal bottled sunshine, is also doing so in a way that is making a global impact.

The SONNENGLAS® is a beautifully constructed jar that is made in South Africa and runs on solar energy. Not only is this product creating jobs for more than 50 previously unemployed men and women from Soweto and Alexandra, its design origin is also amazing. The SONNENGLAS® was actually first created for people in locations that were without their own electricity. 

From a design standpoint, we really appreciate the environmentally friendly aspects of this jar, too. It's made of 100% recyclable material and 70% of the materials are locally sourced.

The SONNENGLAS® works by using four solar-powered LEDs. Sitting in direct sunlight the lights are charged through solar cells on the lid and provide hours upon hours of beautiful bright light!   Elleanor especially loves the magic of how the lights come on and off through a simple magnet switch. 

One of our favorite uses for our SONNENGLAS® is for walks on the beach. This summer we used our jar to take evening walks hunting for shells and crabs. We loved how much it illuminated our walks and even provided us a way to store our shells inside the jar. While the uses for the jar are endless (evening dinners outdoors, hiking, gardening, nights on the porch), we are especially excited to take our jar to the mountains this month and use it on our nights outside on the campgrounds together exploring!

These jars are amazingly affordable at only $30 and offer an eco-friendly option for lighting that is both sustainable and provides fair, stable employment -- which is our heartbeat!

Get one for yourself this fall or maybe even bottle up this sunshine and send it as an affordable and thoughtful gift for someone you love! 

We can't wait to make more memories this year with our jar...maybe even catch a few fairies while we're at it!

- The Judges

Note: Special thank you to SONNENGLAS for gifting us our first jar! We love it, and look forward to purchasing these for others who we know will enjoy them as much as we do! For the sake of transparency, we were not compensated for this post and all thoughts and opinions are our own!