My view from my diningroom window used to be a boring fence. Now it is this gorgeous driftwood planter that is host to a staghorn fern and two orchids.
The planter is heavy — so heavy, in fact, that it required a custom stand to be built to support it. It also required reinforcements on the fence and stand.
The jewelry is for fun.
The story behind the driftwood planter, however, is what’s important. This planter represents the birth of PinkToolBelted.com. This project began with a fabulous outing to Half Moon Bay with my daughter. It evolved into a search for a carpenter to build a stand for the monstrous piece of driftwood we brought home. The project was ultimately finished by yours truly and one of my amazing handy-woman helpers.
I’m actually glad that the carpenter I hired cost twice as much as he estimated and, as a result, had to depart prematurely, leaving me with an unlevel, unsanded, unstained, unsealed, unattached, otherwise beautiful table. And after I learned to saw and sand and stain and waterproof and drill and bolt and paint, I learned how to grow orchids and staghorn ferns and mount them onto really, really heavy pieces of driftwood. (To my utter amazement, the plants are still thriving a year later!)
I’m glad that someone with twice my strength wasn’t here to help me wrangle my delicately fragile 80 pound work of art into place. The final placement required far more finesse than brawn anyway.
Instead, I advertised for a Handy Woman Helper at a local university and had the incredible good fortune of hiring some of the absolute most helpful and delightful young women I’ll probably ever know. (To find out about the handywoman helper hiring process, click here.)
And we did it! We finished and secured the stand to the fence, hung the driftwood planter, my work of art, and secured that to both the fence and the stand as well. And the knowledge that if I can do this, I can do a lot of things was reinforced to me. PinkToolBelted.com was born.
To see details of the driftwood planter, click here.
