In Which I Make a Thing: Becoming a Green Goddess

After the ferocious 30 blogs in 30 days, I haven't done enough on here. Fortunately it's because I have legitimate writing projects I'm working on which is satiating. Still, I feel bad so let's go.

Among my initiatives for 2018 are significantly increasing the amount of greenery I have in my house and creating a witches lair in my basement for all my herbal projects. We went out and bought quite the plethora of houseplants, placing them last weekend, but this project was one I've lusted after.

It's loosely based on this video I found on Facebook. By loosely based, I mean I watched this video one time and decided it was sufficient instruction for me to go make this thing -my succulent shadow box. 

Observations:

• It was hard fought and sorely won. Would I do it again? Ask me again in 3 months when I find out whether or not this is still alive.
• It is really, really hard to cut equivalent dimensions with a circular saw. Measure twice cut once is the woodworkers creed, right? Well I measured at least 5 times and I still couldn't make the wood be the size I wanted. We'll chalk this up to needing "skill of the craft."
• This thing is heavy. The wood starts heavy, stays heavy, and only gets heavier when you fill it.
• I stained the wood and gave it a coating to maybe protect it from water. This video didn't show that, but I thought it would be prudent. 

But especially on a Saturday with the intent to be more productive in 2018, I deem it a good project. You ready for these steps?

1. Make the box
2. Stain and coat the box.
3. Attach the mesh to the box (I did this backwards from the video in attaching mesh to box then frame to mesh and box. It probably doesn't matter because the next part is still difficult).
4. Fill the box with dirt. Like as full as you can.
5. Stick in your succulents. I tried to maintain more of the original rootage than the video where they clipped it off. This made it harder to stick in the succulents, but I'm hoping I'll be rewarded with longer lifespan.
6. And my final step, leave it for a few weeks to allow the plants to re-root and keep in the soil when you make it go vertical to hang on the wall. Like, I'm still not quite sure how all this dirt isn't going to fall out.

But hey, it looks real pretty, right?