Winter Planters

 "Winter Planters"?  I had never made one in my Life. This was the Year I decided I would change that, as I had purchased decor for one quite, & I mean quite, a few years ago.

Once I made one, you guessed it, I had to make two.  One for each the back & front doors.

I had posted these to my Facebook page.  A friend messaged me & asked if I would make her one.  I got going on getting some decor together, also buying more "just in case".  This is the one I made & dropped off for her. She was surprised when she got home from work, which made me happy.  I love surprising people, don't you?

Another sweet friend of mine stated she absolutely "loved" the ones I had made for myself, so of course I asked her if she would like one also. Of course her answer was "yes".  She was so so happy with it she has put an order in for me to make her one next Year !

A lovely friend I have, & I might add I am very fortunate for having such amazing friends in my Life, has always been so kind & giving to me over the Years.  I wanted to make her a planter for her house. I hadn't any of my large planters handy to get to easily, so I improvised & used one of our Aussie's Summer galvanized water bucket.  It did the job perfectly !  I was happy I could make her happy, as her giving to me has always made me happy.  It wasn't as elaborate as the others, however she "loved" it so what more could I ask for?

I had certainly been on a roll last week making all of these within 3 days, in-between my very, very large "to do" list (I will have to post a couple of these lists as some days as they can get to be a little lengthy, but I keep at it, stroking off what I get done & carrying over to the next day while adding more (this is coming from a person who would have liked things done "yesterday".  I am thinking this must be the part me having a  Perfectionist Disorder?, the part which would be "having unrealistic standards").  

**Note: Click on the blue highlight & it will take you to the link I included on the Traits of a Perfectionist.

I really did enjoy making these planters, & thought I might like to do more next Winter to sell.  On that note, this experience gave me some insight in how that would work out, not counting my time:

1) The decor I had purchased was Retail cost; the pine boughs are on our property, with time spent cutting them (I might add the one evening we were in the throes of a Blizzard, hahaha which certainly didn't stop me from getting r' done);

2) I used my own planters, which I have asked each of the ladies if they would kindly return to me in the Spring as they are my Summer flower planters, and of course the one was the Summer water pail for the Aussies (hey, I had to be resourceful in the moment & think outside of the box);

3) As already mentioned, my time along with dropping off each planter (for friends that is not in the equation, however to sell them that would totally be another matter which is my point);

Sooooo... in order for me to do this next Year to sell & cover every aspect from start to finish, I could not do any of the above.  Should I have made these planters to sell to people in general, it would have cost me money.  For example, one of these planters, if I would have included the container, would have cost me $50 to make, without including my time sourcing the materials & making it.  What I would have to do is source decor & planters at a very low cost, or free, from the Marketplace on Facebook, or at Thrift Stores & Yard Sales. Should I want to use Birch branches in any of them I would have to find someone who cuts wood & see if I could collect the small branches that they would not use & discard, if anyone would even do that I have no idea, or get my very equally busy husband take me back into our Back 40, which in reality is 30 acres, to find the birch from our own bush. 

 Again, I would have to put more thought into this as there is quite a bit of time & energy involved in all of this as well, as I have already outlined above.  Now again, on that note, I did enjoy doing them, so if I don't try it once for next Year I will never know, right?  I will give it a shot, starting a file with the resources I find, time spent, & cost attached to purchased items.  The clincher might be having the time to do them, but then again who knows what tomorrow is going to bring so I should remain optimistic it will all come together timewise for me next Year.  When I did the 5 of them last week I was still decluttering and working around two rooms being renovated, which still aren't finished (oh my goodness that might take 2 or 3 blog posts to cover those projects!), and our Tesla having a litter of 10 pups.  A little bit off subject now, but we had a "photo shoot" with each of the pups today so when I get the photos back I will be quite excited when I post all of them.  Back to my point, I pulled it off then with all that & more going on with me, so what could possibly be any busier next Year? oh boy I am brave in stating that am I not?

I must admit I am quite exhausted after putting all this out there, no wonder I was exhausted when it was all happening in "live time" !

Time will tell... if it is meant to be it will be, if not then nothing gained nothing lost other then having a few more pots & Christmas balls hanging around.

Stay tuned for puppy photos, coming soon on a blog post in the very near future... !

This is all she wrote this day..... "Just North of Wiarton & South of the Checkerboard"

PS:  I would like to thank all of my blogger friends for welcoming me back to my Blog, and all the friends, who don't blog, for your encouragement & support in me coming back to my Blog.  All the kind words & encouragement is some of the best medicine I could ever ask for to make me feel wonderful, which is has done.  Honestly, I didn't "feel" like doing a post today, almost not doing it, but I made it happen & quite proud of myself for doing so.  Again, thank you all very much for being here for me.