Sometimes when a girl spends her weekend routing out 300 plus cuts into a mirror frame, she needs tackle a small project to make her actually feel like a productive member of society. Projects like hanging a pair of garden lanterns from a tree branch.
I picked up the lanterns from my favorite local antique store, the School House Antiques Mall. I think one of them was $12 and another one was $18 for a whopping grand total of $30. I saw them and instantly fell in love with them. I try to limit myself to bringing home only one or two items each time I go to the store and it came down to these lanterns or a bamboo chair. But since Colby has officially cut me off on chair purchases, it was best for our relationship to adopt this pair instead.
I thought they would be cute hanging over by the hammock and adirondack chairs, where we could add a couple citronella candles to the lanterns and stop donating blood to the mosquito hoard that occupies our yard.
It was a quick hanging. We simply tied some sisal rope (it was leftover rope from the pulley shelf project) around the lanterns and looped them around the lowest tree branch in the area. Then Colby just raised and lowered them while I watched from afar until they were staggered properly. Because everyone knows that improper staggering is a lantern hanging faux pas! I kid! I kid!
It’s kind of hard to see the green guy since he blends in with the trees so well. But he’s there.
Okay…now let’s talk about how difficult it is to find small, not already in a large ugly container, citronella candles. Seriously?! Where are all the basic ol’ citronella candles?! My intention was to light some bug repelling candles in each of the lanterns since they already had a glass container in them just for that purpose. I searched high and low for citronella votives and this is the best I could do:
But turns out, they don’t really work and are meant only for very specific Off lanterns. Whoops! #citronellafail Live and learn.
Pssst…Okay guys, where do I find citronella votives? Bueller? Bueller?
There are a variety of mosquito repelling plants, one of them actually called “mosquito plant.” Two thoughts, plant a few near your seating area and use votives in the lanterns or, if you don’t really need light, can you convert the lanterns into hanging planters with the mosquito repelling plants inside?
Oooooh….that’s a genius idea! Thank you! And that would look so cute too! I’m on it…thanks for the tip!
It pays to have a biologist as one of your followers. 🙂 I always have great solutions for other folk’s problems, now if you could just cruise over to my place and fix some of mine!
BTW, those lanterns are kind of high, if you go with the plants in the lanterns you should put another plant, potted, on the table, you need to be rather close to the source of citronella (and that’s what those plants are, natural sources of citronella).
It really does pay to have a biologist follower! I am so plant stupid that I really appreciate it…you always have such great tips!!! And you totally have a deal…I’ll come fix things at your pad and you can help me with my plants…it’s a deal!!!
I feel like I saw a homemade citronella thing on pinterest. Maybe you could make one to fit
Just found them on Pinterest, thanks for the tip! Now…fingers crossed they work!