Luminaries -- These are particularly great around the patio, or in a sitting space you've created out in the garden. I use tin coffee cans (or soup cans, if I’m going to hang them) and using a hammer and nail, I poke holes -- sometimes random, sometimes in a lacy pattern. I love to put citronella candles in these and light them for a nighttime get-together -- they’re pretty and they keep the bugs away! Painting them ensures that they stay pretty during the daylight hours as well.
Bird Baths -- There are nine million ways to make a birdbath. I’ve created a mosaic over a pre-made bath from the hardware store. You could use a pretty shallow bowl or dish -- you could simply place it in the nook of a tree or on a stump. Or go a bit more complex and use a spiral of flexible copper tubing to support the bowl and a copper pipe (both from the hardware store) to plant it in the ground. Over time, the copper will develop a gorgeous patina.


Wind chimes -- Wind chimes are super easy to make and limited only by your imagination. Use shells you’ve collected, copper piping, silverware, chandelier crystals, cheap wooden or metal bangles, dried bamboo from the floral section … all you need is something to string them with (string, wire, chain) and something to string them from (a metal ring, pretty saucer, small silver tray). And don’t forget that you can accessorize your chimes with beads, sea glass, and iridescent marbles!
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