Repurposed Candle Holders

In our last home, I had a lovely pair of outdoor candle holders that I really loved, and used every year in our courtyard garden. Can I just take a moment to weep and wail over the loss of that garden? If I miss anything from our previous home, it is most definitely, without a doubt, the courtyard garden. And the old elm trees. And the hammock hanging between the old elm trees.

 *tear*

Okay, before I get all hysterical here, let me get back to the point of this blog post.

My apologies for the crummy picture, but it gives you an idea what they used to look like.

I really loved them.

Then...we moved. Hubby's company paid for movers and when all was said and done and I started going through my gardening items this spring...this is what I found...

Those glass balls? They weren't supposed to come off.

Apparently the movers were determined that they would  come off and shattered the glass in the process.

Trying to burn candles outside without a glass hurricane of some sort is rather useless, so I sort of expected these would end up in the trash. But because hubby and I are both self proclaimed procrastinators, I left them laying around for a long time and then eventually threw a couple of pots of top just for kicks.

I have LOTS and LOTS of these leftover from the courtyard.

I kind of liked the general look of the two together.

But obviously the colors were completely different and that looked...weird.

So...I thinked and I thunked and then decided that I could try the same painting method that I used on

 these candle holders. (Apparently I have alot of candle holders too.)

So that's what I did. I sprayed a solid coat of black paint, then went over the black with a mottled coat of aluminum. Then I gave it a really blotchy coat of cream to calm down the shine of the aluminum.

After that, I layered on fairly thick coats of dark green and burnt umber acrylic craft paint.

The final step was to highlight it with an olive green acrylic paint, until I felt I had achieved a mossy and aged look.

The green is not showing up really great in the pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it, I guess.

They are actually pretty mossy looking.

I considered using silicone to attach the pot to the stand, but in the end decided against it,

 as the pots need to have some drainage, and it's worked out fine.

I did wonder how the acrylic paint would hold up to rain and moisture, and believe me, we have had ALOT of rain and moisture so far this spring, but they have done just great.

My poor plants, however, have hardly had enough sunshine to recover between the rain and crazy hail storms. These pictures were taken immediately following yet another big rainfall!

Hey - did anyone pick up on my red geraniums?!!!

Love.

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