Christmas Gifts 2011

My Christmas crafting for 2011 went pretty smoothly. Usually, I'm feeling very under the gun leading up to Christmas Eve but this year I figured out what I wanted to make early and actually got the gifts done at least a week in advance. I wish I could do that every year!

For the girls, I made each of them a pair of fingerless gloves, or gauntlets, out of recycled sweaters and fleece. You can see the Instructables article here. They required a bit of machine sewing and some hand sewing to complete. Here's a tip: when you go to the fabric store around Christmas to buy material, get a number for the cutting table line as soon as you walk in the store. Otherwise, you'll have to wait a VERY long time to get your material cut.

Sarah has always wanted a way to dry washed plastic ziploc bags, so that's what I made her this year. Drilling angled holes with the correct orientation and at the same level around a curved dowel proved to be quite difficult. I eventually settled on this jig. (Some might call it a jury-rig, but it worked.)

I bought the dowel arms pre-cut and I only used part of a 1" dowel for the trunk. However, I needed the rest of the 1" dowel to make sure my jig would work. The base was pre-cut, too, from the craft section at our local Joanne's. I finished it with some urethane I had lying around.

As usual, I really enjoyed the planning and making of these gifts. We exchange our handmade gifts on Christmas eve so that we can really focus on just these gifts. It's always a very special event that we all really enjoy. I'm already thinking about gifts for next year.
Merry Christmas!

Santa's Workshop is Open for 2012!

I've written a few previous posts about my family's tradition of creating handmade gifts for Christmas each year. Many times, the handmade gifts are the favorites of all gifts, including the store-bought ones.

This year, Sarah and I decided to donate a wooden music stand from MusicMakers to my daughter's 7th grade class as a raffle prize. I made one of these several years ago for my daughters so I was familiar with it as I started this one. Overall, the kit itself and the instructions are excellent. I broke the project up into two sessions so that I could do the bulk of the gluing on day one and then pretty much just assemble and sand on day two. This worked out great.


I've been working on a couple other things that I can't share just yet because I don't want to spoil anybody's surprise. I'll check in again after Christmas!

Octagonal Side Tables

I've been wanting to build these tables for a long time. I got the idea from a side table we bought at a yardsale for a couple bucks. We like them so much that I decided to make a few.
I started out with some 1x6s and a 1x12 from Home Depot. Liz and I cut the 1x12 into 11" squares on the table saw. Then we drew the octagon shapes onto one. Once I realized that the angles were all 45s, I figured out how to make a template for the table saw; that meant I didn't have to measure up and draw 6 octagons. Definitely a time saver.
Next we cut the legs down from the 1x6. I'm not sure of the width b/c I just cut them all to the same width on the table saw but they're 22" long.
The next thing we built was a plywood box (from scrap) with a couple stops on it so that we could set the bottom shelf at the right height and have a stable surface to hold things in place while we nailed the legs on. Two 15" lengths of scrap legs let us set the table tops at the right height.
A bit more sanding and a coat of stain and we are good to go.
I didn't keep the receipt from the Home Depot when I bought the materials but I'm pretty sure they cost less than $10 each.
I forgot to mention one of the prime motivations for doing this: it's hot as blazes here and working in the basement for a couple hours was nice and cool!

Christmas Gifts 2010

2010 was a good year for hand-made Christmas gifts. It took me a while to come up with the exact right idea for each person, but in the end I was very pleased with both the quality of the gifts and how well they fit with each recipient.

For Sarah, I made another bird feeder. The feeder I made for her a couple years ago is still going strong and is a lot of fun to sit and watch. I wanted to make a feeder that would contain different seed and accomodate more birds at once. This is the design I came up with. You can't see it from the photo, but the upper part of each hole is half-covered by a small piece of wood to prevent the seed from just spilling out. It spills a bit when I pour it in, but once it settles the seed stays put. The feeder is about 24" high by 4" square. I used half-inch poplar from Home Depot. I like this wood for this kind of project because you can buy it already milled and ready to go. The paint should look familiar: it's the same paint I used on the generator enclosure.

For Elizabeth, I made this treble clef mounted on a piece of maple. The clef is about 9" high. I cut it out on the scroll saw and spent quite a while sanding it but it was worth it: it came out quite nice. Elizabeth is very excited about playing her violin in the Green Mountain Youth Symphony, so this was a good gift for her.

Helen spent some time last summer singing and touring with a vocal group called Village Harmony. They spent a couple weeks in Canada and then came south to the states. She had an absolute ball and loved every minute of it. I have to confess that I did not cut out all of these letters. There are too many and I could not have done as good a job as the folks at SJA Wood Design. I have bought letters from them a few times in the past and have always been happy with their work. I stained the mounting board black before gluing on the letters. I think it came out quite well.

As always, I ended up really enjoying making and giving these gifts. I always get  a bit tense leading up to it as I feel the pressure to create something unique and beautiful for each person, but the rewards are just great. I think the kids look forward to exchanging our handmade gifts on Christmas Eve as much or more than the gifts we open on Christmas Day.

Generator Enclosure

We are lucky enough to have a small generator that can be plugged into a secondary electric panel to run the critical systems in the house: heat/hot water, water pump, refrigerator, a few lights. This allows us to be without power pretty much indefinitely without an adverse impact on the house.
The issue was, though, that we stored the generator on the porch so when we needed it, we had to move it. It's very heavy; in fact, it's really too heavy for two people to lift. When I'm around, I move it with the tractor but Sarah's pretty much up the creek when I'm not around. I built this enclosure so that we can keep the generator in the right place without having it exposed to the weather.

This photo shows how I normally start projects like this. I have a journal that I sketch, take notes, make estimates in, etc. It's very helpful. Of course, I always end up improvising a bit while I'm building, but this way at least I have the rough outline of what I'm going to do before I start.
The enclosure is made from 1/2" B/C plywood and 2x3 studs. Hardware is galvanized. I painted it with Behr (Home Depot brand) primer/paint combination. That stuff was great to work with: covered in just one coat. I've got a bundle of shingles ready to put on the lid but we really needed to get the thing in place first, so I'll do the shingles a bit later.
The goal was to match (at least for the most part) our existing trash/recycling enclosure; I'd say I was pretty much successful. The colors, shape, and size pretty much match so at least the new one doesn't stand out too much.
Not exactly the funnest project to build but very useful.

A New Handrail

We love our house a lot, but we know that it can be tricky to get around in. Recently, I sprained my ankle pretty badly and I learned first hand just how many stairs this house has! I'm sure that our parents notice it, too.
This was a quick project to add a handrail to the three steps that lead from the mudroom (where we have the downstairs bathroom) up to the main part of the house. I bought the supplies from Home Depot but will probably revisit this project. I say that because HD only had fir and oak handrails and the handrails in the rest of the house are maple; the profile of the HD handrails was different, too. But since I wanted to get this project done today, I just bought fir and will special order maple at some point so that it matches the rest of the house (yeah, right).
Had I been thinking during construction, I would have had blocking installed in the wall before the sheet rock; as it is, the studs weren't in the best locations so the railing is longer than it needs to be. The top is 36" above the stairs, which meets code. While it's a bit long, it isn't disproportionate so it looks OK.
I like the final photo because it includes not only this project but the nook desk project and a hand-made kitchen stool by my daughter! Odin adds a touch of brown for depth.

Palletize

Time for the obligatory fall firewood post. I almost always have a pile of firewood rounds lying around various parts of our land. I like to let them season for a few months so that they're easier to split. Once I start splitting them, though, I find it's best to stack them on a pallet rather than just leave them on the ground. They dry better and don't get as dirty.
This batch is from some trees I cut down earlier this year.
I don't think I'll burn it this winter since I'm still working through a batch I split and stacked in June, 2009.