Homemade Gifts For the Outdoors

My husband is just the most talented man I know. He is such a wonderful husband and friend as well as a terrific Father to our children.  He is my best friend and I am constantly being amazed at his talent.  There just seems to be no end to it.  Sometimes I am even jealous of his ablilities.

 This past year, he spent alot of time in the garage. He has his woodworking tools set up in there. He made so many wonderful gifts. 

 He made me the nicest Purple Martin Bird House that I have ever seen.

He made The cutest Bird Houses that you have ever seen. I just love it as did everyone else. He made a total of 13 of these bird houses for family and friends Christmas gifts. Eveyone just loves them and they all had baby birds in them this spring.

He has already begun to make his famous bird baths again. I took a few pictures of them i various stages to show you the process.

I did not take a photo of the  the actural process of making this part. I will have to explain it to you. He took black plastic and put it on the cement beside the house. He then made a mound of sand on the plastic, the depth and size that he wanted the bowl part to be. He put a large rhubarb leaf ( ours is really large) down on the sand mound. He poured the cement(which he colored red) over the leaf. He let it dry for about three days. Then removed the leaf from the cement. This is the end result of that process.

 The glisten in the middle is water that he used to clean the stems out of the creases in the bowl

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 This is the underneath side of the bird bath.

When you are making the bowl part of the bird bath, this is the side that is facing up. You will need to put about a 2 inch deep hole like pictured above to attach the bowl part to the stand. To do this, you simply use a portion of the Mold that you are going to be using to make the base. These can be purchased at Lowes and Home Depot. This 2 inch indent must be the same size as the base you rae going to be making. The form or mold is of heavy cardboard type material. You need to do this part at the same time as you do the actural bowl part.

This base was made with cement that was not wet enough so it is not smooth as a wet cement is. The paint is mixed into the cement

This is the completed Bird Bath Installed Into My Daughters Flower Bed. Just to show the variation in colors, I have also added a picture of mine in my garden.

I hope you have enjoyed the projects that my husband has completed. This is just a portion of his talent. He has made many other wonderful gift items for both the outdoor and indoor use.