New Fairy Cottage, Updated Bird Feeder Station and Lanterns

I found this little planter at our JoAnn fabrics store.  It had no roof because they designed it to be a planter for either faux or real plants.  It has two holes in the bottom for drainage.  My first impression was it looked like a fairy house and wouldn't that be cute for the fairy garden!  With no roof I dismissed it but came back 10 days later and it was marked down even more and Dan figured we'd find a way to put a roof on it.

Dan and I talked a bunch about it and a metal roof was under consideration but I got it in my head to find something like a tile to use for the roof.  

After searching the tile section at a big box store I spotted a pile of natural slate tiles and I knew that was the ticket.  It offered a rustic, not so perfect look.  We spent $1.88 on it!  Woohoo! 😉

Dan is a great project guy and is pretty much always willing to help with my ideas.  He cut up some cardboard to create a template and went to work.

We don't own a tile cutter but this little grinder with a diamond blade worked well enough for what we wanted to do.  

He used E6000 glue to set the tile roof pieces. Because the little cottage is not truly square there are gaps where it didn't make good contact so after it dried for a day he used a clear silicone underneath to create a nice seal.   I am so thrilled with how well the slate worked out.  

There were two strips of slate left over and I had him cut them into sections.  I used a hammer and pounded the edges to make them look less perfect.  Some pieces split in half so I ended up with extra stones to make the path.  Win win!

This is hot off the press and I haven't even set any fairies out there or put flowers in the window boxes!  

Now on to the bird feeder station!

This is a picture from earlier this spring.  Our bird feeder post was pretty crappy looking and I came up with the idea to paint it white like the house trim and accent it with black.

He removed the old post and sanded off the hardware and spray painted it right on the old post which worked out nicely.

I never took pictures of the painting of the post but you can see I also had him add two black stripes on it.  The cylinder shaped piece is a baffle to stop squirrels, chipmunks, and raccoons.  

I also got the idea of having a light on the top.  We found the fixture at Home Depot which he painted white to match the post.  He drilled it in two spots to make sure it would stay securely on top since birds are likely to land on it.  

I love how it looks and at night it casts a nice glow.

My phone camera does a fair job but it does look a lot better than this.  The lanterns in the forefront were found at our grocery store called Meijer which has a lot of household things too.  They are a solar LED lighted pieces (Kathy Ireland Home & Garden, Solar Firefly Lantern). 

I had my eye on some that were on Frontgate's website for $79 and $99.  I paid $30 for each on sale but were only $39.99 to begin with.  Mine is larger than their small one but not quite as big as their largest.  Theirs requires a candle for light but I like these better since they run on a timer and are solar charged. 

Glad to finally have these projects done and to have found these lanterns!  

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