The 5 year Plan

I do hate my job. While there are many days where I don't mind being a corporate accountant, there are SOOOO many more days that I just hate it. I hate doing the same timeline month after month and the same entries too. What I really want to do is.....well..... something else.

Those who know me know that if I could dream of my perfect job it would be woodworking and teaching other woman/men how to use power tools and empower them to be able to do projects on their own as well. I love to build things, but honestly if I had to build for others all the time, it wouldn't be as much fun. But to teach others to do it themselves and just help them get started and watch that sparkle in their eye as they do their first project......wow.

A dear sweet wonderful woman I know named Tasha suggested that I take things slowly. If I hate being an accountant then I should make a 5 year plan. A plan to slowly build up the idea of teaching/empowering woman to build or repair things around their house. Start slowly by blogging and doing small projects. Get my name out there and perhaps do a little demo here or there on a weekend to get myself out there. I already have one planned with my lady friends in Seattle in a few months (we need it to be warm enough to work outside since nobody has the room in their garage for our group). I will show them about the tools, have them practice some of the skills by building something small like a kid's size picnic table or something simple like that.

Anyway, by the time the 5 years goes by I should be able to make it more of a full time thing instead of a weekend or evening thing. And along the way, I can try to get us in a financial position that can survive me doing it full time instead of the solid money in accounting.

So what do you think? Would woman and men want to come and have either 1 on 1 or super small group classes where its okay to know nothing about tools. Everyone is welcome to come and learn and find camaraderie. To empower themselves to take on those home improvement projects like moulding and laminate flooring without fears of failure? Can I do such a thing? Would people come?

Well, I have 5 years to find out right?

Working Mom

This time, I actually mean working mom. As in my "real" job. Life as an accountant means that come every Jan-Feb, I lose touch with life and end up working endless hours and barely get to see my husband and children. This also means I am away from my passion of woodworking. I get so restless and desperate to build something and I am denied.

This week add on a 2 year old with a cold which she shared with me (ahhh.....thanks). So my little sniffly miss was home from daycare and I was away from work during the busiest 2 weeks of the year. The 2 weeks leading up to our audit and where we have a million schedules to fill in and little time to complete it. I went to work at 12 yesterday since my husband and I split the day home with the kidlet. I worked until 8pm, came home and promptly crashed.

In my few moments every once in awhile at work I dream about my next project. I am working 9-12 hour days right now so I think I deserve a little break to think. Now if only I could remember to eat since tonight is the second night in a row I have forgotten to eat dinner.

I come up with so many little projects I want to make. Tonight while driving home (I have a 45 minute commute) I was thinking about how awesome it would be to own a vice and take a 4x4 piece of stock and use a hand planer to taper the legs. Is this odd? Perhaps. Given I do have a table saw and a new tapering jig I made with my Father In-Law, I have no reason to want to hand plane it. Other than the physical aspect of it. The part where I have to strain to lift the heavy wood and maneuver it. I love that feeling of strength when I lift something I build or spin it around.

Even tonight as I finally relaxed after a shower and a blissfully short 9.5 hour work day about building a super deep dresser with big chunky drawers and how silly that was because if we ever moved it would quite possibly not fit anywhere but here.

My mind wanders when tired, and this has been a long week. I have to work on Saturday and then clean my poor house, but somewhere in there I WILL find time to do something. Even if its just finishing a simple box I started for a friend. Bare with me during this slow time. Its feast of famine I guess. There will be times when work and family take me away from projects to showcase on here. Not to mention I am getting a bit away from redo-ing a whole room into doing just projects.

Speaking of rooms, which is better? A 5 bedroom house with a laundry closet in the hallway, or a 4 bedroom house with a laundry room? Yup, you can tell I am tired. Anyway, take care folks and soon I will be back at this.

---The Sawdustmomma, more commonly known as Tabitha or just Mommy