So SWMBO says to me, she says "I want you to make some flower planters". Naturally, she being SWMBO and all, I said "Sure honey". Let's see, I saw some on the NYW site. "How does something like this look, sweetie?". "Those would be nice", she replied.
I think to myself, "I don't need no stinking plans", and proceed to wing it. Hmmm, M&T joints in the corners should work, and some cross braces for the floor installed with M&T joints. This shouldn't be too tough.
Okay, I need to cut twenty two mortises for this thing. "How many planters do you want, dear?" "Five should be enough. Christopher Lowell says you should use odd numbers".
Hmmm, one hundred and ten mortises. Lay out each one, cut them with my router, square them up with a chisel. "Hey honey, when would you like these?". "I'd like to have (some kind of little blue flowers) in them so we can have them out front when your mom comes over for Thanksgiving" (We live in Tampa).
"Ummmm, it's going to take me a long time to make all these little square holes I have to make. But there is a machine you can buy that makes these holes and it would really speed up the process".
"Whatever you need, sweetie".
Ahhh, she's great. As long as I'm making something she wants, I can buy just about anything I want. A quick trip to WoodCraft, and four hours later my new Jet benchtop mortiser has cut all of the nice little holes. Life is good.
I didn't quite make the deadline, but two of them got built and painted and filled with dirt and flowers and put out front in time for mom to see them this afternoon.