Window Box

Ever since we started building our home last year I imagined a window box on our front window. I searched the internet for the best window box and came across flowerwindowboxes.com. When searching for a window box I was looking for a well built, 7 foot window box in white. This was surprisingly difficult to find as many of the options available at different retailers were either shorter than 7 feet or made out of plastic and had to be assembled with glue upon delivery. Flowerwindowboxes.com was the clear choice after much searching. We ended up going with the Charleston series as I loved the traditional style of it. I also ordered the self-watering insert. This has been wonderful asset as our window box is located on the sunny south side of our home. I only have to fill the self watering feature every other day and my plants stay nice and moist!

Here is the before photo. You can see what such a difference the window box full of flowers makes and adds such curb appeal and the finishing touch to our front garden!

When ordering, I selected the brick/rock mounting hardware kit. This came with everything we needed to mount the box to our existing stone. With some help from my amazing dad we were able to mount it ourselves in less than an hour! Great detailed instructions were included. Flowerwindowboxes.com also has videos on their website that are helpful to watch before installing.

The construction of this window box is absolutely beautiful. They are handmade by craftsman in Georgia and shipped fully assembled which is a huge plus. Once shipped, it only took a few days to ship from Georgia to Minnesota. Everything was packaged nicely and arrived on-time with no damage.

I could hardly wait to plant once it was installed. I was able to plant a couple hours later once the silicone caulk set up. I filled it flowers to match my front containers in purples, pinks and white hues. I used variegated vinca vine, raspberry swirl petunia, white bacopa, white calibrachoa, supercells doublet love swept calibrachoa, white geranium and Angelonia.

Container Gardens

Warm weather is finally here! That means it is planting time!

This was my first year designing containers for our new house! I used the fiber clay pots from Woodlodge and love how they turned out! They are low maintenance and can stay outside during the winter. This year’s color scheme was pinks, white, and soft purples.

For the front of our house I used purple fountain grass, Superbells Double Love Swept calibrachoa (I love these!), white bacopa, headliner raspberry swirl petunia, angelonia big purple bicolor, variegated vinca vine, Supertunia Vista Bubblegum petunia and a light purple verbena. I am hoping they fill out as I had envisioned as right now they look a little bland.

I love how our black patio containers and hanging baskets turned out! In my containersI used Gulliver blue bacopa, white bacopa, Americana salmon geranium, Supertunia Vista Bubblegum petunia, Superbells Double Love Swept ccalibrachoa, Angelonia big bicolor purple, a double ball Eugenia, and goldilocks. Originally I had planned to plant licorice vine instead of goldilocks, but I ended up going with my go-to goldilocks. I like that the lime green color brightens the shady patio area. I will have to try licorice vine next year as it was sold out right away this year!

In my hanging baskets I used white bacopa, Superbells Double Love Swept calibrachoa, Americana Salmon geranium and Supertunia Vista Bubblegum petunia.

I picked up all of my plants from Gertens and Pahl’s Market this year. As always I was so impressed with the quality of plants and selection at both nursery’s. I cannot wait for all of my containers to fill out as the summer progresses!

Best,

Rachel

#Containers #Gertens #ContainerGardening #Woodlodge #Flowers #Pahl039sMarket

Our Hawaii Honeymoon

We decided to go on our honeymoon a few months after our wedding so we would have something to look forward to. We went to Oahu and stayed in the Waikiki area. This was my first time visiting Hawaii and it was breathtaking!

We were able to get a direct flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu. We arrived later in the evening so our first day consisted of traveling, dinner and heading to bed! Our first full day consisted of spa services at the Moana Lani Spa, a fun beach photoshoot, and a wonderful dinner at Hoku’s. Did you know that you can book activities through Marriott? When we were in the process of planning our trip I was on my Marriott Bonvoy app and saw activities that I could book through them. This is how we found our photographer Michelle Jost. We had a great time and she took beautiful photos!

Our second full day we spent driving around the island. If you ever plan a trip to any of Hawaiian Islands I highly recommend renting a car. You can drive around Oahu in about 2 hours. We went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and had the best Dole Whip ever! We then made our way up to the North Shore for lunch and to watch the waves. We then made our way back to our hotel for the Kalakaua Ave Street festival happening right outside our hotel. We stayed at the Moana Surfrider Hotel. It was wonderful and we will post a full review later!

Shirt // Pants // Sandals

This was one of my favorite outfits of our entire trip! Use my Sarah Flint code SARAHFLINT-CCRACHEL3 for 15% off!

Our third full day consisted of Lai making class courtesy of the hotel, time on the beach, afternoon tea at the Veranda and shopping on Kalakaua Ave. I have never been to high tea before. It was such a wonderful experience with amazing food and tea!

On our last full day we spent the majority of the day at Pearl Harbor. This is a must see for anyone visiting Hawaii. We started our visit of by visiting the Arizona Memorial. Tickets do need to be reserved beforehand. Tickets are $1 to reserve online. There is a standby line for guests who did not reserve tickets. This was an incredible experience- you could feel all the emotions at the memorial. We then explored the two museums at the visitor center. The visitor center is free of charge so a great activity for anyone! We then went to the Battleship Missouri and Aviation Museum. For these activities we had to catch a shuttle bus to Ford Island. Ford Island is an active military base so photos were not allowed until we arrived to our destination. The Battleship Missouri was such a cool experience as we were able to walk through an entire battleship and see where the surrender documents were signed for WWII!

The last Day in Hawaii was spent having a nice breakfast and enjoying the beach. We spent the morning dreaming and planning our next trip back! Our flight took off at around 5:45 Hawaiian time, so unfortunately we had an overnight flight, which was not the highlight of the trip haha.