The Noah Owl Box

My poor first born son finally has a toy box named after him! The first one (Noah Building Blocks table) I stopped offering about a year ago. Guaranteed, there will be lots of therapy for Noah in is coming years!!!Anyhow, I designed and built this owl box for my excellent web designer. She has a Bertie but I thought two Bertie boxes might be a little boring so we decided on the owl.I'm calling it "woodland mod" because...

Read More

Mushrooms With Expressions, by Patrick Gottlieb

I had some help on this next toy box/keepsake box! Patrick Gottlieb is my son's self-proclaimed best friend and a talented artist. He's been drawing mushrooms with expressions for about a year now and we talked awhile back about turning one of his mushrooms into a toy box. At last, it's finally done! Patrick's brother's, Eamonn and Sam also joined in by helping to color the many sketches of mushrooms with expressions...

Read More

The Best Day EVER!

I just realized that it's been a week since this slacker woodworker has written anything on the blog. I could've sworn it was only a couple of days.That's what getting geared up for the first day of school will do to ya. (And maybe all the other stuff plus a couple glasses of wine.)So first off, Grace and Noah started back today. It was Grace's first day of school and she was really so excited, in her little Gracie way....

Read More

hair today, blond tomorrow

Build furniture? Sure, i can do that! Learn web design? Sure, I can do that? And the list goes on...or rather, in my husband's eyes, the illness persists. I think I may have some sort of sickness where it never dawns on me that maybe me doing something isn't the best idea for the best outcome. One time one of the inserts in my shoes was lost so I was wearing shoes all the while feeling the connector brackets under my feet. I figured if I cut an insert out of foam and hot glued it we'd be all set. At the insistence of my sweet husband, I threw the...

Read More

Designed For Kids

NEVER in a million years would I have predicted this. A few of my designs are being published in a book by Phyllis Richardson, through Thames and Hudson, London. The book is called Designed For Kids.Phyllis contacted me a long time ago and while reading her email, my jaw hit the floor. And then I calmly and cooly wrote her back saying, "oh please oh please, this can't be a joke, right? Really...my stuff? Really?" Well...

Read More

Custom Shmustom

I rarely do custom work but sometimes I decide it's worth it to do a custom piece. Recently, a client asked for a custom piece -- Gracie Toy Box-like but with specific dimensions (4ft wide), custom walnut stain, short legs, and custom veneer applique across the top and OUTDOOR POLY. It was going to be used outdoors as a storage piece on a back patio. All was going well with it until I got to the outdoor polyurethane part. Even with a respirator, I thought I was going to pass out or puke. I've vowed never again to use outdoor poly. I'm very...

Read More

Wood Fog

A good friend of mine used to call the years I spent from age 25-30 my "baby fog" years. Because I was constantly saying I didn't remember this or that..or anything, really. She'd just say, "baby fog." I was thinking about her today and the fact that I'm now in the "wood fog." I keep, week after week, looking at my schedule and cranking out toy box after toy box. That's how I remember my weeks now. It was a two-Owyn, half-a-Bertie-week last week. This week is a Bertie/Owyn/Owl week. Now don't ask me what I had for lunch or where I left...

Read More

Shut It

Man, it's hot out there today. But life is sweet because my office is organized and my garage is walk-through-able. Which it never really is. I can actually walk all the way around the workbench/table without being stopped by a piece of plywood with jagged edges or mounds of crumpled, used masking tape. I'm just plugging away so not much else to report other than I found this post written on Aug. 5th and LOVED two things: first, that they wrote about my furniture and second, that the title was SHUT IT. Brilliant.Here's the link to the very...

Read More

Building...Building..Building...

I've not just disapeared and left with no warning. I'd tell you. All 3 of you who read this! I've been working on four different pieces so I'm keeping busy in the workshop. Also, I cleaned out the workshop. (Mom, catch your breath.) It's actually now a cleaned up, organized garage. For another two weeks. Then the old coffee cups, half-drunk ice teas, and Corona Lites, will be sitting on the workbench next to the foam rollers. Now where's that favorite tape measure of mine??...

Read More