the bunch- handcrafted.stylishly: My Mother's Day Creation- Barnwood and Vintage Window Planter and a FREE PRINTABLE!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

This is my second Mother's Day, officially- and I feel honored to be a part of this club. As I was reading through quotes to find the one I wanted to put on my project for my Mother, many of them brought tears to my eyes upon taking time to reflect on what they really meant. I wanted to pick a quote that would inspire my mom in the place she is currently in life.
My mom thought she had her "dream come true" life, when she purchased Cedarbrook Lavender & Herb farm almost 10 years ago. At first it was amazing, then it got really tough when she realized she had to focus WAY more on "business stuff" than what she really enjoyed doing on her flower farm. As soon as she got comfortable splitting her time between business and the pleasure the farm brought her, the economy took a down turn. With that big change, came a whole new set of challenges which has lead to a drastic change in her daily life activities.

I am proud to say, that she is FINALLY, ALMOST at a point where she will, again, be able to enjoy flowers because her dream is back in sight and possible- although VERY different from what is was initially. I hope this gift I made for her, sitting in front of her new little home, will remind her on a daily basis to DREAM!

Dreams

It is SOOO important to Dream. If you don't dream and make goals how will you get ANYWHERE!? I have this discussion with my husband often, as he and I think very differently. I am a Dreamer down to my heart of hearts, hence why I am an Entrepreneur. I have been working very hard lately on a project that will change my little family's life DRASTICALLY, and I am SOOO excited about where it will take us. Only because I Dream for a future where we can live life comfortably in a way and place we are happy. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers this next week as hopefully all my hard work will begin to pay off! And DREAM BIG for your life, you never know what might become reality if you dream it!

Enough philosophical babble- and on to my fun project!

Step by Step - Barnwood & Vintage Window Planter

I always start a project by perusing through my stashes of materials in the garage, on the side of the house and on our back patio- I knew I wanted to make a planter box for my mom for Mother's Day, but I didn't know what style. After some inspiration gathering on Pinterest, as always, I had some ideas in my head, but went to take a look at what I had to work with. I decided it was time to use one of my vintage windows that have been sitting around for a while. I also picked up some scrap wood for the structure and base from the side of the house- and I picked out a piece of barnwood to use for the outside walls.

Step 1

I set up my window on my work bench and figured out how deep I wanted my planter box to be. Then I measured the long piece of scrap wood to figure out if it was long enough to cut into 3 sections to create the base for the planter.

After I cut the 3 equal pieces and laid them out under my window, I realized the gap between them would be large enough for a significant amount of soil to leak through. So, I found a scrap 1x2 to add into the mix, making the gaps between the board basically nonexistent.

Step 2

Seeing as I only had my two hands working on this project, it is very difficult sometimes to hold pieces into place when you are screwing them together in a manner that they won't move. To help combat this issue, I always start my screws by getting the screw into the wood before I attempt screwing into the other piece Just like this-

Then, I was able to hold everything together where I wanted it and begin to push the screws into the other piece of wood.

Step 3

With my base all secured to the bottom of the window, I laid out some scrap 1 x 2's to create a frame for the top of the planter box. Attaching this frame to the window was challenging because I had to make sure I wasn't screwing into the glass set inside the frame. I also had to pay close attention to screwing into an odd angle on the back side of the frame.

This frame was to be secured into the middle of the window frame where I wanted the top of the planter box to be. Again, only having two hands, I had to get creative in how to support the frame in a way that I could get it secured in place. I ended up stacking misc items under the top of the window frame to put it at the same height as the bottom where I screwed on the base. Then I was able to slide the 1x2 frame under it and screw in through the backside of the window frame into the 1x2's.

You can see that the base boards are all wonky- this is because they are not straight (one of the challenges that arise from using scrap wood for building projects). Luckily, you can always force the boards to be somewhat straight when you attach the other side to something- as you will see in the next step.

Step 4

With the base and top support screwed into the window frame, I was able to attach the barnwood to the outside to create the walls for the planter. I set the barnwood on its side on each side of the planter and marked where I needed to cut. I made sure to have the two sides go from the very back of the window frame to the front edge of the frame and base. The front piece then covers the raw edge of the sides giving a more seamless look.

I used wood glue and finish nails to attach the sides- needed to be strong enough to hold it all together with the dirt and plants inside, but I didn't want to see any screws.

And, then it was ready for planting!

It was beautiful after I planted the flowers and they will grow in to be stunning in a few weeks. I used lobelia around the front and side edges, when it lobelia grows along an edge, it drapes down- and will be so pretty.

I love how it turned out, but it needed something else... and that's where the quote comes in. I wasn't happy with any of the stock quotes available in the Silhouette online store, so I used my software and created my own, and I am happy to share it with you. Click on the image below to be directed to the PDF that you can download- feel free to use it however you'd like (but please be sure to share photos!)