Garden Sphere

I am really going to trying to freshen up the front yard and add some much needed curb appeal this week. Of course I have limited cash to use for this, (isn't this always the case?) so I'm going to have to get pretty creative.

This weekend I really lucked out and found a bowling ball for $1.50. I turned it into this lovely garden sphere, which would look cute on a bookshelf too. A really STURDY bookshelf. This thing is not going to break or blow away like the gazing balls you normally see.



Here is how I did it:


I took the bowling ball and sanded it all over. This smells like burning rubber and it's fairly messy. I wiped off all the fine black dust and then turned the ball holes-down. I probably could have filled them and painted them as well, but.. I'm lazy! I used an old candle holder to keep the ball steady as I worked.



Then I used paintable silicon caulking and piped it on just like icing. Note the black sharpie marker. I used that to plot out my design first and didn't end up following it and just winged it. MISTAKE! It kept bleeding through the paint and I finally ended up using a bit of kilz and then painting. I will never use a sharpie for this again.

I let the caulking dry over night. At least 12 hours. Then I got the paint.


I used some green semigloss I had left over from the kitchen stripes (could you tell lol) and used a sponge brush. I just loaded it and crammed paint into all the nooks and crannies. The picture was taken after only one coat. Keep adding coats until it's the way you like it. I think the better you seal it with paint, the better it will weather, but I have to admit I'm anxious to see how it holds up and wonder if it will look better with age. I think white with a brown stain washed over it would look awesome. I'll probably do that next.

Here it is again, next to my freshly potted victims that I hope survive my "black" thumb.



I'll be making more of these because they were so easy and I think you get a lot of bang for your buck.
I'm hoping to make a bench for this area sometime this week out of a headboard and foot-board I found by the dumpster at Albertsons (I have no idea why it was there). I'm not too good to bring in some trash and re-purpose it. As a matter of fact, this is cool now and instead of calling it "dumpster diving" they are calling it Green. :)

Btw, I have two of those blue pots pictured to flank my bench (currently invisible bench) and wonder if I should use chalkboard paint to make a little square on each of their fronts and write things like "Spring" or "Happy 4th of July" ..dorky? I think I may need to learn when to walk away...