carving

Walk your own path.

Write your own story.

Carve your own spoon.

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I had my first (but hopefully not last) spoon-carving lesson with my father-in-law over the weekend. It was difficult, but such a fun and productive way to spend a morning! My favorite part was getting into a rhythm with the chisel and watching the spoon bowl and curves of the handle emerge from the birch wood. 

I am already gathering ideas for my next carving session.

swift

This beautiful swift has found a home here with me. It's sure to make the time I spend winding my skeins of yarn go much faster, and I'm happy to let the swift do the work instead of my arms.

My father-in-law made it from rich-colored cherry wood and polished it to a fine gleam. It also comes apart so I can fold it up and easily stash it out of the way.

I can't wait to see it in action!

a place to gather

My father-in-law, David, built us this table.

It's solid oak, sturdy, and has simple lines.

It's the perfect table to laugh and celebrate around.

To hold hands and cry over.

To host holiday dinners.

To make ordinary dinners feel special.

To work on elaborate craft projects.

To play board games (we've already bought a poker-green length of felt just for this).

To keep in our family for generations.

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It's my dream table (just in time to fulfill those summer dreams).

Thank you, David!

good things lately

 Despite the recent storms, life has been full of some really good things lately. I thought I'd share.

{African flower hexagons}

Crocheting African flower hexagons outside is one of my new favorite things. I love having an outdoor space of my own now (except when the neighbor dog is out; she thinks I'm in her space and lets me know it).

{Our garden before the storm}

K made this raised bed with plans from The Vegetable Gardener's Book of Building Projects. It was his first solo woodworking project, and he did a wonderful job. The seats on each side of the bed make planting and weeding much easier. 

Also, even though the garden doesn't look as pretty after the hail storm, the plants are recovering well. I'm impressed by their resilience. We should have plenty of lettuce, chard, spinach, and kale in a few weeks.

{A new biscuit recipe}

We are breakfast-making people. Most weekends we'll make eggs or French toast or pancakes or biscuits. I usually make my tried-and-true biscuit recipe, but I just had to try out this drop biscuit recipe. The dough comes together quickly (great for bleary-eyed mornings) and produces light, slightly sweet biscuits. These biscuits are too delicate for our usual breakfast sandwiches, so we drizzled them with honey. Mmm... 

{A new mug. And a new class!}

I bought this mug at an art fair last weekend and love it so much that I signed up for one-on-one classes with the maker. I haven't been in a ceramics studio in six years! I'm so excited to get my hands in some clay.

{Game nights}

We have game nights several times each week. Sometimes it's just my husband and me, and sometimes we get together to play games with friends. Scrabble night doesn't happen often--we usually stick with newer strategy games. Our favorites right now are Dominion and Notre Dame.

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Also, today is the Kentucky Derby, which means drinking, gambling, and spending time with family. All good things.

What good things are going on in your life lately?

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button making

"Can I borrow your hacksaw?" I asked my father-in-law as I bounced into his kitchen on the morning after Thanksgiving. 

He didn't say yes. 

Instead he politely inquired why in the world I'd need a hacksaw and then volunteered to help me with the project I had in mind (probably to protect his hacksaw).   We He spent the morning making buttons for my Levenwick cardigan inspired by these handmade ones. We used a walnut dowel rod he had hanging around his workshop, sanded the edges, sliced off 1/4 inch pieces with a bandsaw, and drilled the holes. The buttons are finished with sealer and varnish.

guide

drill bits 

almost finished

drying

I'm glad our buttons are more polished and less rustic because I had some concerns about snagging my sweater on hacksawed buttons. Not so with these shiny guys. They'll be perfect for my Levenwick!

woodcarving class

K and his dad using a froe and mallet to split cedar

David, my father-in-law, gave K and I a woodcarving class this weekend. He started off by introducing us to the tools we'd be using--these were all old-fashioned handtools. Some of the tools have been in David's family for 130 years or more. These bear the initials NM for Nathaniel Morgan, David's great-great-grandfather, who used the tools to make furniture in the 1880s. Others belonged to David's grandfather, Homer Morgan, who was a tobacco farmer and ran a saw mill. 

Using the drawknife



We began with a cedar fencepost and the goal of making a little cedar cross. David recently taught a woodcarving class at his church, so the first step of sawing the cedar was already done for us. We skipped ahead to using a froe and mallet to split the wood, then used a brace with an auger bit to make a hole for the wood to intersect. Next was one of my favorite parts. We used a drawknife to square up the wood and shave it down to the right size. Then we used a miter saw, miter box, plane, rasp, eggbeater drill, and a mythbuster, which is a tool that David invented to create round pegs from square pieces of wood. (In case you're wondering, I aced the tool quiz at the end of the class.)

Using a rasp to smooth the edges

Two hours went by so quickly as David demonstrated each step and then K and I took our turns. My mother-in-law, Phyllis, snapped photos of the whole process.

Cedar crosses

Soon we had handmade, cedar crosses of our own (they smell so good!). And the best part? Coming up with ideas for the next project...

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Thanks for sharing your talents with us, David. And thanks Phyllis for keeping us company and taking great photos.



Holiday...Celebrate...

 

The holiday continues! I thought classes started back today, but they actually start tomorrow, so I have one more day of vacation. What a happy mistake!

I wanted to show you the additions my father-in-law made for our nativity set. We got a camel and a donkey for Christmas this year. I love them!

K promptly named them. This is Levon, named after the Elton John song.

And the donkey's name is LD, which K says stands for Larry David (we've been watching a lot of Curb Your Enthusiasm lately), but I maintain it stands for Little Donkey. Either way, LD is the cutest wooden donkey I've ever seen.

 Thanks for all of your hard work, David! We love our new pets.

Under the tree

Under our skirtless (for now) Christmas tree is such a beautiful, simple nativity. My father-in-law, David, hand-carved and built this scene for us last year. David's got amazing woodworking skills, and I'm so lucky to get to benefit from them. Thanks, David!

Here's a close-up of the baby Jesus. He's so cute and little--only about the size of my thumb.

There was some talk that David might carve a new figure each year to add to the scene, but until then a couple of friends from around the house have volunteered to step in.

Global harmony and cute to boot!

Also under the tree are some presents, wrapped and ready for Christmas morning. I am loving the doilies lately, and brown paper packages tied up with string never go out of style.

Is there anything under your tree yet?

In progress: Magazine Rack

K in the workshop

As I mentioned in a post before, we went to Maysville over the weekend so that K could get some woodworking lessons from his dad. The project he picked out to work on was a magazine rack. K's a practical guy, and let me tell you, we have a LOT of magazines cluttering up our house. Our insane magazine collection stems from my inability to throw things away. Yes, I know, magazines can easily be recycled, but there are lots of magazines (like The New Yorker) with essays and articles that I'd like to reread, and even more magazines that would make excellent craft fodder. So, K wanted to make something to catch all of these periodicals.

He's still got to sand and varnish this piece, but I think it looks beautiful. He made it out of maple and is just going to put clear varnish on it because he likes the light color.

It folds up nice and neatly for easy storage and portability.

Excellent work and craftsmanship, K! I can't wait to see what he makes next.