Upcycled Bird Bath/10 on the Tenth

Welcome to $10 on the 10th, where DIY, Lifestyle and Home Decor Bloggers share ideas under $10.00.

Our theme this month is Upcycling and Recycling. One of my favorite things to do.
Last year in a fit of carelessness, I broke a cute bird bath.

It sat pretty low to the ground. I think I threw something down into the flower bed, hit it and snapped it right off of the base. 

This is metal so I was a little surprised that I was able to break it. 

It hung around the deck for almost a year. I was waiting for Bill to get sick of seeing it so that he would fix it for me. 

He didn't. This year during the spring deck clean up, I moved it from the back of the house to the garage. I even mentioned that it needed to be fixed. He didn't take the bait. 

Extreme boredom prompted me to give it a try. 

The metal fitting needed to be removed in order to see if it could be fixed.

I used locking pliers to get a good grip on it. To my shock, it came loose.

The stand to an old Christmas mailbox would work for now since we were under lockdown.

All the Christmasy doo dads were removed from the base. There was snow, garland, and grapevine. 

I needed a screw with threads that would match the threads in the bird bath. A quick dig through our stash of screws yielded a perfect screw. 

 The other end needed to be able to screw into the wood so we used a hack saw to saw the head of the screw off. 

It took a while but it worked.
I carefully drilled a hole into the top of the base. I wanted to make sure that I didn't inadvertantly make the hole too big and ruin the whole project so I started with a small drill bit and worked my way up.
I meant to glue the pieces together for added security but to be honest, I was so excited that I may have forgotten that step.

How to marry these two together?

I was a little over the rusty look. After a good brushing, it got a couple of coats of spray paint. 

My favorite paint for the garden is Rust-oleum Painter's Touch 2xs in Moss Green.

 I've touched up a lot of garden accessories with it.
I had this on hand but it is almost empty so I need to get some more. It's $3.98 a can. I'll get some more next time we can get out.
Found bricks help it stand in the garden. I love that this is repaired.

It adds more interest now that it is taller than it was originally.

Zinnias and cosmos will surround this darling in a couple of months.
This was fun to do. It adds a fun new element to the garden. It was also fun shopping the yard.

That is it for now.
Be sure to check out my other friends on the hop.
Katie

Bluesky at Home
Apple Street Cottage
Patina and Paint
At Home With Jemma
French Ethereal
Pandora's Box
Decorate & More With Tip 
The House house

Linking with these parties:
Follow The Yellow Brick Home 
A Stroll Thru Life
Between Naps On The Porch

Garden Collectables In A Vintage Tool Tray

Good Morning. 

How are you? 

Whenever I visit First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas, I am always amazed at the junk.  

I feel the urge to put chicken feeders and nesting boxes everywhere or make an old washing machine into a flower pot. 

I've resisted these urges. 

I've been seeing tool trays from old tool boxes for a long, long time. 

It's been one of those junky things that I just feel the urge to buy, however, I knew that Bill had some old tool boxes in the attic. He has three of them up there.

Two of them had red tool trays which seemed odd since the boxes weren't red. 

The trays were greasy from use so I spritzed them with Greased Lightening. 

The red started to come off. These trays had been spray painted. 

I asked Bill a little while ago, if ever felt like he married someone just like his dear, old dad. 

He was a little taken aback at my comment but then, I think he had to agree. 

His dad and I had a rocky start when Bill and I got engaged. My FIL passed away seven months after we got married so I never got to see if he would have warmed up to me. I have to think that he and I would have eventually gotten along and we would have gotten into some major projects together. Nothing would have been safe from our spray painting antics. 

Bill's dad loved cars. He may have spray painted these with automotive spray paint left over from a car he was working on. Bill used to have a red mustang convertible. 

The trays cleaned up pretty well. They have a rusted, chippy look. 

I thought you might like to see my process for styling something like this. 

I gathered some vintage and new garden collectables for the small tray. 

Peat pots and clay pots were added first. 

There really was only one spot that the clay pot worked, so that is why it went in first. 

Peat pots provide an instant unmistakable garden look. I ordered mine off of eBay. 

Summer flowers were added next. 

Vintage garden tools and an old spray nozzle were added. 

I always save my empty seed packets to use in decorating. A brass butterfly and the seed packets were added last. 

The other tray is a little bigger so it got styled with the same items. 

I couldn't decide which one to use. 

The bigger one in now the centerpiece on the kitchen table. 

You'll get to see it when the kitchen gets styled for summer. 

I'm loving red right now! I hope this was helpful. 

Stop in tomorrow for Ten on the 10th. Eleven of us are sharing gift ideas for under $10.00. 

Have a great day! 

Linking with: 

Common Ground