Check this out while you are thinking!!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Awesome Rain Barrel Artist!!!!

Is the rain barrel really out in the open or are there shrubs, etc. nearby? Since you're in NC, perhaps you could use a beachy theme....like the artist in your link! That was totally awesome! Maybe you could glue sand, etc. at the bottom and use shells, etc. on it....just thinking out loud here.....can you post a pic of where it's going perhaps?

I'm in awe of the rain barrel artist...mine is just a white barrel...

I always planned to mosaic a rain barrel to hide it from the Home Owners Association.

I'm having ideas about sign shapes. Or just paintings on the sign. Think of everything that has to do with rain water or what the rain water is for. (I can not freehand- paint so I am just in my head.)

1. umbrellas
2. watering can
3. Garden Hose
3. rain clouds
4. rain boots
5. waterfalls
6. The word "water" "rain" written in multiple languages.

shabbybeach...here's some I found browsing online. The ** are my favs for you...being a singer and all ...since you sing while you garden!

Your porch is so beautiful and if the rain barrel is at the front of your home, then I assume it will be at a porch corner. I like the elegance of your wicker furniture & your lovely purple hanging plants... I hope you can tie those items into the painting (or whatever you decide to do) on the rain barrel. This is on my DH & I "to-do list" yet this summer...we also have a clear white barrel. Have fun!

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Don't empty the water jar until the rain falls.
- Philippine proverb

The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives. American Indian Proverb

**Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.
- Sweedish proverb

Falling
on the dusty path--
summer rain.
- Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

**God made rainy days, so gardeners could get the housework done. Author unknown

**I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain;
What a wonderful feeling, I'm happy again.
- Arthur Freed

What runs but never gets tired?
Water

Have you watched the fairies when the rain is done,
Spreading out their little wings to dry them in the sun?
- Rose Fyleman
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Or, shabbybeach, you could use children's rhymes like:

It's raining; it's pouring.
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed and bumped his head,
And he wouldn't get up in the morning.[1]

I hear Thunder, I hear Thunder,
Oh donÂt you ? Oh, donÂt you ?
Pitter-patter raindrops,
Pitter-Patter raindrops
IÂm wet through,
IÂm wet through.

Or if you like "spiders," there's:

The eensy weensy spider
Crawled up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the eensy weensy spider
Crawled up the spout again.

OMgosh, I better quit...my retired Youth Librarian Asst. job is showing! But I can see your little GD would love doing finger rhymes while playing on your porch! Jeanne S.

Jeanne - YOur ideas are great. That should give ncshabbybeach a lot to ponder. I think it would be great to have a rain barrel, but in the spring, summer and early fall when we could really use the water we just get drizzle. People who have been to the Pacific NW talk about all the rain we get, but actually where we live we only get about 23 inches per year. It doesn't rain. It drizzles!

Here are some I have found:

By means of water, we give life to everything.
- Koran, 21:30

Water is the driver of Nature.
- Leonardo da Vinci

To a gardener there is nothing more exasperating
than a hose that just isn't long enough.
- Cecil Roberts

Love is like dew that falls on both nettles and lilies.
- Swedish Proverb

Rain does not fall on one roof alone.
- Proverb from Cameroon

You don't drown by falling in the water,
you drown by staying there.
- Edwin Cole

The way I see it, if you want the RAINbow, you gotta put up with the RAIN.
- Dolly Parton (I LOVE this one!)

Remember this song? We would sing it as kids and it was in programs for kids.

Your sign cold be the second verse.

kathy

Say, say, oh playmate,
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree

Shout down my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more

Say, say, oh playmate
I cannot play with you
My dolly's got the flu
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo

Ain't got no rain barrel
Ain't got no cellar door
But we'll be jolly friends
Forever more

Concrete, thank you so much for posting that song! I had forgotten all about it, but the tune came back to me the second time I read it! LOL

Thanks for the link to that artist's site! She does some awesome work. She lives about 80 mile away from me. I will keep her in mind when I get a house and a rain barrel.

What about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Into each life some rain must fall"?