Where Did The Year Go?

It seems like only yesterday it was spring and I was looking forward to starting the playhouse castle and I was ready for summer. I blink and the castle is built and we are looking at New Years to be next week! Eeeks.

I have been quite busy between working out, wrangling kids, staying up late finishing some orders and getting the courage up to start a Facebook page for my someday business. I got the 7 signs done and all but one are in the mail. Woohoo! The background color on one was taking longer than it should to get it right. I am not very good at painting small parts without painting outside the lines. Anyway, at least those are done and I could take the time to make some cute little toddler chairs.

They are BUILT!!! I actually think they are cuter than the first set, but I am not totally sure why. They still need to be stained and sealed, but it has been REALLY cold in the garage and with Christmas shopping happening, I am not having the time. :-( But soon, (next week) they will be done and I can deliver them!

I also finally set up my Facebook page for Tabitha's Workbench. I have not put anything really on there for sale yet, but I am working my way up. My best friend's daughter actually send someone to my page and she ordered one of these toddler chairs with a small art table for her daughter. I am very excited to make it for her. While I probably didn't charge as much as I was supposed to, I am going to chalk that up to experience and a discount that hopefully will mean she can write a little paragraph about how she likes the table and chair afterwards. As I said, a work in progress. 

And Christmas is this weekend. We leave tomorrow for my in laws so don't expect another post until after the holidays are over. I am just too busy to actually sit down and type up anything. I am doing this while wrapping presents as it is. Busy busy busy.

Happy Holidays everyone! Happy building!

Tiny Progress on Backlog

I wont play the broken records of my busy weekends not getting anything accomplished. I think everyone is tired of that. So instead I will just state that I made some lovely progress. I got almost all the name signs done. I had a couple with more complicated painting and I am still finishing those up (I just didn't have the time). So they are sitting there and just need some shellac, time and packaging materials. 

I also finally got some progress made on the last 10 toddler chairs for the preschool. I spend a good number of hours (until 11pm on Friday night) cutting wood for them. I usually have my cutoff at 10pm for my neighbors sake, but I am hoping they will understand with the holiday's coming that I may be working late on projects. I tried to make it easier for me later by routing with a round-over bit the edges of the legs to they are less pointy. This is when I learned that the output of my palm router was directed onto my space heater I use to not freeze out there. A little sawdust here or there and nothing happens, but after the amount I was doing it was too much hitting the heater at once. This meant a pile of sawdust burst into flames. I looked over and realized where my sawdust was going a couple seconds before it started on fire. Luckily I knew what I was up against and tilted the heater to get the sawdust on fire onto the ground and out of the heater. This works well as long as you are careful to stomp it out without spreading it to the sawdust all over the ground. I got lucky this time and it all stomped out fairly quickly and didn't ignite the sawdust on the ground. I am not super careful about my heater. I wouldn't use it, but it can get REALLY REALLY REALLY cold in there.

As it is, I wear jeans, a cami under my regular shirt, under my sweater, under my ski jacket, and I have gloves and a scarf on. The scarf is only there so I can tuck it over the top of my zipper on my jacket. It gets super cold against my lips and the scarf keeps that from happening. Anyway, I am dressed like I am ready to go to Alaska and help Anna build her house. Even with all those clothes and layers, it can be chilly out there and the space heater helps my legs since jeans are not quite warm enough. I can't help but dream about a heated workshop where I can just wear some overalls and a regular long sleeve shirt and be warm and comfortable. Sigh. Some day, right?

Friday night was for cutting all the wood out. (Yes, those are storage bins for my screws. I bought a LOT of KREG screws in bulk and this keeps them organized and easy to access)

Then Saturday night I had enough caffeine to last me until midnight and went out there again. This time I only managed to work until 11pm before getting too tired and cold. I started to assemble the chairs. I didn't get all the fronts and backs done, but I am a lot farther than I was. Hopefully this week, I can finish getting the signs out the door and the chairs completely built!

Well, time to finish up some other work and go to bed. Have a great week and Happy Building Everyone!

Not Gone

Sorry to do such a disappearing act, but Thanksgiving and the weeks since then have been a crazy blast of busy. Thanksgiving was a success and everyone agreed the chairs were comfortable and that everyone had lots of room at such a large table. Once Thanksgiving left the house, it has been a madhouse of stress at work, attempting to work out more nights (which means less nights in the freezing garage) and lots of projects begun.

I am trying to get more fit which means working out. I have had to sacrifice some of the evenings to work out instead of building. Since I have little to no money for new wood, this hasn't been much of an issue. BUT, I am still behind. Before the Optical Neuritis, I had a few sign orders to get out for people. Since it is nearly 3 months later, I felt really guilty. So this last weekend I got the 8 signs cut out and I am just painting them and I hope I can get them into the mail by Monday.

On top of all that, my son started a new school today which means the last week was spent trying to co-ordinate some new before and after school care for him. I am catching up though. I have nearly all the legs cut for the 10 chairs I owe my daughter's daycare. I should probably build them 12 so it will be the chairs plus interest....

Now, of all things, I find Christmas sneaking up on me. I have so much to do between now and then. We have a money tree to plant, grow and harvest so we can afford to buy presents for everyone. We have very little spare money, but Christmas IS coming and we will be seeing lots of family this year. I hate that I can't afford to get everyone sure fancy awesome stuff. :-(

So, dear readers out there, I am not lost and gone. I am simply busy with life and working out and building and kids and a million other things keeping me from actually turning on my laptop for days at a time. Bear with me because soon I will have some photos of the chairs and maybe even the signs to post. Have a great crazy December and I hope to check back soon. Or at worst, check back this weekend with an update.

Happy Building!