In celebration of Earth Day this week, and as a part of my “Green Day” eco-friendly series, I’m sharing one of my favorite projects with y’all. Jed gets all the credit for this one. It was all him from beginning to end, with just a few opinions from me. He keeps asking when I’m going to share it on the blog, so here we go.
We found a great deal on solar powered outdoor lights at Lowe’s, but we don’t have a walkway or appropriate place to put them. You know the ones I’m talking about, those little ones that stick into the ground. Then we searched high and low for jars that would hold the solar cell and battery in the lid. We are partial to mason jars at our house, but couldn’t find any that fit. We found these at Big Lots, so they were super cheap.
Jed painted them on outside with frosted glass spray paint. He then took the stick lights apart and used silicone glue to attach the solar cell to the inside lid of each jar. He tried gorilla glue first, but it was a big fail. You can find the full tutorial at Lifehacker as trying to get Jed to explain the details of each step is not something I’m up for right now. You now how men are with explaining details.
He looped each jar with thick but bendable wire, and hung them from hooks along our front porch. I think they look super cute during the day and fit our front porch aesthetic (a work in progress) nicely.
Here’s the best part – they get enough sun each day to glow every night without ever needing new batteries or help from us. The sun provides everything they need to light up our porch.
The jars begin to glow at twilight, and look so lovely when we are doing a little front porch sitting. We have a rocking chair and a 2 person glider on our front porch, which are perfect for our spring evenings. Our neighbor’s honeysuckle makes it smell amazing, and we just sit and rock/glide away. We are hoping that our porch fan will keep the mosquitoes at bay and allow us to enjoy the porch into the summer.
Below you can see how the jars glow at night. So cool, right? I love that my husband is creative and is always building and doing fun projects around the house. He works so hard at his job, and then comes home and works hard here too. I can’t wait to show y’all his current project – cedar log side tables. They are incredible and should be done soon.
great idea! love the solar jars! our green living -continuing to use green bags at the supermarket, trying to use less electricity and i’ve gone without a clothes dryer for over 1 year..
have a great day!
cheryl x
What a great idea!! Those look so awesome on your porch!
Wow, what a great idea!! Looks so cute on your porch.
I love these lamps! Yall are too smart! I so need some of these for my porch!
Really beautiful – I love the classic look of the mason jars, and frosting them was a brilliant little touch!
Beautiful! Thanks for the link to the instructions too! Big Lots is one of my favorite places! Great job!
Love this idea! I just posted something like this but for interiors with wine glasses! So you glue it to the lid. I’ve got to try this!
new follower… visiting from
http://imnotatrophywife.com
That is really neat!
~Kimberlee, http://www.TheSpunkyDiva.com
What a wonderful idea, love your lights! Found you through The Thrifty Home link party and glad I did! Deb
Pretty cool idea! 🙂
Great idea!! I had to feature this on my FB page! Love it!
We’ve been green forever. A lot of it comes from being unemployed…but at least now it’s the cool thing to do.
The dollar stores also have great solar cells.
these are cool! I saw that you could purchase some like this but I love how you hung them and everything. really great.
new follower!
kathryn
http://www.thedragonsfairytail.blogspot.com
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
Very shabby chic 🙂
I have been looking for something like this for a while and finally I now know how to get the look I want. Thank you for sharing. Found you over at New Nostalgia.
neat idea! You got most clicked on link at “AP Tuesday” I will feature your post tomorrow at New Nostalgia! Thanks for linking up!!