Solar Upcycled Chandelier

I found this old chandelier at my local salvage building supply store for $3.00.  Nothing special, but nice bones.  I thought it would be fun to add some color and solar light to make this a fun and functional accent light on my back porch deck.

I started by taking the light fixture apart and then snipping and removing all of the wires.

Next I primed and painted.  I painted the metal pieces with a metalic oil rubbed bronze and the center spindle a pop of blue.

Reassembled.

Since I would not be using any glass globes I inserted some weatherstripping foam tubing to keep the socket from moving around.

I purchased some dollar store solar yard lights for $1 each.  The ones I bought were too wide to set inside the socket securely so I inserted a ball of epoxy in the socket, then pressed the light int it and twisted to seat it securely.

Here is the finished solar chandelier in both daylight and at night.

Recycled Closet Door Raised Bed

Re-purpose old bi-fold closet doors into raised planter beds.  I picked up my bi-fold doors at Habitat For Humanity ReStore for about $5 per pair.  The doors each measured about 6' 6" long and were 12" wide, perfect dimensions for the sides of a raised bed.  I cut some 12" x 2" boards 3' long to use as the ends.  I simply attached the bi-fold doors to the boards with 2.5" screws and that was that.

Cheap, easy, and eco-friendly!  

Notes: 

Use solid wood bi-fold doors, not the newer kind you see that are mostly constructed of mdf.

Girl Scout Daisy Headband

I wanted a good way to keep a visual of our troop in a crowd of Daisies at Daisy Days, so I created these unique headbands.  It worked, our girls were very easy to spot.

I started with these Dollar Tree headbands.  I removed the butterflies and saved them to use for another project.

Next, I cut all the Daisy petals and center out of felt and attached to felt backing with hot glue.  Once set, I cut around the shape of the Daisy.

Turn flower face down with the light blue petal at the "12 o'clock" placement and place a quarter size glob of hot glue in the center.  Hold the tip of the headband antenna flat into the glob of glue and place a small square of felt on top.  Press down until glue sets.  My apologies for not getting a photo of this step.

Here is the finished product.  Time consuming but worth it.  Imagine a troop of 1st graders wearing these... very cute!