An easy solar light basket! I purchased several of these baskets last year for Xmas and made gift baskets for my guy relatives. I filled them with homemade chapstick, hand scrub, cuticle cream and coffee. They were a hit! I had one basket leftover which I started using as a caddy for dinner parties outside. I would put in utensils, ketchup, mustard, extra napkins etc. and that got me wondering if I couldn’t improve on the idea.
I literally have an ENTIRE BOX full of these old electrical insulators out in the barn that I’ve been trying to find places for. They are SO cool!
(My bird bath is a large and very old enamelware tub from my grandparents. It is so deep bumbles and even chipmunks had trouble drinking out of it. So, I filled it with blue and white insulators and they made a great place for a landing and support for the little guys.)
I thought this would be a nice opportunity to use even more of them.
Six insulators fit perfectly then I just ran to the Dollar store and purchased six solar lights. And, just like that, it made a great table light.
Over the summer I would replace some of the insulators with condiments etc. And the insulators made perfect table weights for napkins on windy days.
My favorite though was when I realized how great an opportunity I had for a bouquet!
Dried hydrangeas are my go-to around here as I always have a pile at the end of every summer. All lit up when the solar lights kick on they look so pretty!
Over the course of the spring, summer and now into the fall I filled my solar light basket up with wild flowers, fresh hydrangeas and even sun flowers!
I ended up actually buying another basket just for condiments because having a lit up bouquet was just so pretty in the center of the table.
And it was also great, of course, as an actual light when my dinner parties ran into the night.
And then, with the completion of my outhouse I realized I was going to have to buy yet another basket lol because it was absolutely perfect as the hanging light outside!
One Shepherds hook later and my little solar light basket made a perfect outdoor light! With the weight of the insulators too I didn’t need to worry about wind knocking it off either.
As far as easy projects that required almost no effort this one totally made my whole summer!
I just want you to know how much I enjoy reading your stories over and over again. I am almost 72 years old but I loved my Grandmas as much as you loved yours. They taught me so many things that I try to teach my grandchildren. I was foolish enough not to listen to my mother at the time and now I struggle to remember things she tried to teach me. I am a plant lover and cherish the plants I have from my grandmas to this day. Keep up the wonderful stories. You have made a wonderful home for yourself. Your pictures are great to. You will never be sorry for your hard work and the love that you put into it.
Thank you so much Koleta for coming by and commenting! I was so scared when I was moving all my grandma’s perennials thinking I would probably kill all of them because I have so little experience gardening. But, most of them made it thank goodness! I guess 50 year old perennials would be pretty tough at this point lol.
So if you don’t have electrical insulators, what else could you use? Also, how do they light when the flowers are blocking the sun from getting to the solar panel?
Hi Ticia! I never left my bouquets outside more than a day with the basket cause I was worried the flowers would blow away. So the solar lights always got plenty of sun. Thanks for coming by!