January, in short

So it's officially winter here - yuck.  I got a few things done despite the cold temps and snow that started to hit the ground in 2016.

It's also been a heck of a month migraine-wise, so I've been trying to feel less guilty about taking time to rest.  In between all of the social events of the holidays and early January, last Saturday was the first time I got to catch up on simply resting.  I'm not good at it, but I try.  Today I'm back at it in the woodshop, preparing for my goal this year which is...

Pantry Perfection!

It's been a long time coming, but YAY IT'S DONE!  The pantry is no more, the hoosier-inspired cabinetry is here!  It's taken way longer than I'm proud of, but for many reasons, things move at a slower pace around the W house - and that's the way we like it.

Ready to see more!?

Waugh Woodshop: Quilt Rack

I'm sure you remember your Grandma having one of these back in the day.  Well, call me old fashioned (a lot would) but in getting some of the hand-me-down quilts, and a few newer ones ourselves, I thought I should find a rack to put them on display.  Could I find one I liked?  Nope.  So I made it  :)

Waugh Woodshop: "Arrow" table

With Pinterest inspiring the nation, I was contacted about building a dining room table based on a coffee table that the client had seen on Pinterest.  Challenge accepted!

Post-August Wrap-Up!

Holy cow!  How long has it been?!  I’m so sorry!!  Summer literally slipped away for us, although I’d hazard to guess it was the same for all of you too?  I guess that means that everyone has been out having fun, which is important before the big Canadian weather starts to move in … not too quickly though, I hope!

I thought I’d do a recap post of our summer as a whole, including whatever building, crafting, and travelling projects we’d done.  I’m going to try and keep it mostly photos, and again leave it to you if you want to hear more about a specific project.

Progress is my middle name

Well, no, it's Kathleen… but you get the idea.

After a lengthy woodshop hiatus, I've managed to get some work done down there in the past couple of weeks.  I'm now done all three drawers and the cabinet door, although I have to sort out a couple of hardware challenges before I can paint everything and put it together for use. GW made a very good point the other day; at least once the drawers and cabinet are done, we can use the base of the hoosier properly and stop using a bookshelf for a pantry.  Tee hee.

Another first

So…. I needed a new screen door for our sunroom.  Two winters ago it was one of those glorious -30degC Canadian days (or nights) and Pokaroo quickly scooted outside to go pee and… SNAP.  Her dog door broke clean off.  At any rate, we didn't bother getting a new one at that time as the screen door itself needed to be replaced anyways.  15 months later is a logical time to build a new door, right?

It was the right schedule for me, as for the second time this month, I was the lucky attendee of a Daughter Do Day - this time, it was a Dad'n'Daughter Day!  I busted my buttocks to get the door built this week, so while my Dad was here, he could help me hang it.  I won't go into all the painful details, but I'll say that building it seems easier than hanging it on a pre-existing 1939 door jam…

"Vintage" Shoe Rack

Despite me slowly piecing together the sunroom to make it an actual room to enjoy, there was still one hurdle that we couldn't get by; our shoes.  There isn't room in our back entryway to have our shoes go inside, so they stay in the sunroom. This also helps with keeping some dirt out of the house, but it did result in a big pile of shoes all the time.

The "before" photo was our latest great idea to make enough room for all of our shoes, but it didn't seem to last long as a solution.  My shoes were tucked in the back, and it wasn't really conducive to us both coming home at the same time which we do a lot.  Anyways…

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is many things to many people.  For me, it's about spending time with my Mum… and when us Ladies spend time together, we tend to get things done.  Hence the success of our Lady-Do Days!

Well, this year, I was lucky enough to get her as my sidekick from Saturday afternoon until early this afternoon.  Yay Us!  We got to catch up, have some good eats, jaunt around town, etc… and as it happens, get things done.  Not to say that GW and I aren't successful as well, but there's always an unspoken agreement with my Mum and I when we're doing a project.  We seem to think about the same next step at the same time and so one person ends up doing it while the other is taking the next step - does that make sense?

Anywho, thanks to my Mum, and a couple of hands from my Dad when he arrived today, I had a very productive weekend while GW was away.

Dollhouse Bookshelf

The second of the five requests that I got for the Waugh Woodshop all at the same time (oops, lol), was a custom dollhouse bookshelf.

I grabbed the measurements of the space they wanted to put it in, and also some photos of the furniture already in the room so that I could try and make it even slightly similar.  I can say that I don't know how successful I was on that last point, but it's cute nonetheless.

I wasn't able to find any pine boards deep enough (the deepest was 11.5" and even then, the boards were filled with knots and warped), so I used pine sanded plywood instead.

How To: Kitchen retrofit

As I mentioned in one of my other posts about the latest Waugh Woodshop projects, I had been asked and kind of volunteered myself to help a friend out with a retrofit of her kitchen.  She's selling her place and the kitchen wasn't quite at it's prettiest.  She had quotes to replace the cabinet doors, but I convinced her to let me try reworking just one pair… and then 16 doors and 4 drawer fronts later, she now doesn't want to move ;)

Oh, and some of her friends/neighbours have asked how it was done so I told her I'd post the details so that she could pass it along

How To: The Workbench Plan

As I mentioned ages ago, I was going to write a post with some plan notes for the workbench I built last year with my Dad.  I started writing this at the time (thank goodness!) and didn't get around to posting it as it was sooooo long.  BUT, I've since had a direct request for it… so here it is!

I adapted the plan from one of my favourite websites, Ana-White.com.  Here's the link to the Workbench to Get the Job Done

… And here's my version!

The latest goings-ons

Hello all?  Are you frozen yet?  It's crazy cold here, and I've actually started to get used to it I think.  It doesn't mean I like it, but I don't step out the back door under false hope of thawed nostrils anymore.

I'm not actually finished much of anything right now, so I thought I'd share a progress post to hilite the many projects I'm splitting my motivation between.  It sounds counterproductive, but as any DIY Craftsperson will tell you, one can't always be assured that your motivation will go in a straight line.  Or maybe just my Mum would say the same… so then it's a genetic problem, and we'll begin the search for a cure… once we're finished what we're working on.

Anyways… kitchen island, woodworking, kitchen floor, dollhouse, etc…

Christmas Quickie

For ages now, I've had this picture sitting on my Pinterest page, with complete intentions of making it as a centrepiece for our dining room table.  I wanted it to be something to hold candles in the winter, and perhaps potted blooms in the spring, etc.  Well, step one was building it - so after pinning it 41 weeks ago, I finally did it.

Kitchen retrofit update

Just a quick one today, as I thought it was worth marking that I'm halfway done the kitchen doors.

I've finished 8 of them!!

The next set I'll get (maybe 4?) won't have any huge ones, so I feel like it'll go a bit quicker.  Not really that much, but I'll have only one trimmed square to fit vs. two that I've done on each of the huge doors.

If all goes swimmingly today, I'll have another post later on with the Christmas decor piece I've been (slowly) plugging away at.  Finger crossed!!

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Christmas Craft Exchange

Oh the weather outside is… weather :)   It's about that time of year again, when we start to freak out about the snow, and about the Christmas shopping, and about the Christmas eating and socializing… how will we fit it all in!?

A few weeks ago, I finally remembered to ask my girlfriend, Grandma Kelso, just what it would take for her to make me some crocheted dish cloths.  She's a super amazing crocheter (hunh, that's a word), and our cloths from Mom needed some extra friends in the rotation.  My payment was to be "one crafty item that fits in a Canada Post envelope".  Challenge accepted!

Kitchen retro-fit

This is our canvas

Since finishing the mug shelf, I've been spending whatever spare time I can manage down in the Waugh Woodshop trying to retro-fit kitchen cupboards for a friend who is selling her house in the Spring.

She was unfortunately blessed with having these horrendous melamine throw-backs.  The wooden 'handles' just scream of decades past, and when she was told by at least three other friends/companies that the only thing to do was spend at least $3k to replace them… I said NOT A CHANCE - let's see what I can do with this challenge.

Wedding gift: Mug shelf

This past weekend, we were blessed to be celebrating the marriage of GW's long-time friend and roommate (of 9 years).

For our wedding, they gave us a beautifully made serving platter.  Made by hand.  The bride does amazing pottery.

So, for their wedding, I thought we could return the favour with something that might suit the bride's hobby and be a unique gift in their home.  I found a photo of one that I liked, and then got the okay from the couple (no sense in spending all that time building it if they weren't interested) and got moving on building a mug display shelf!

The time has come!

Finally here, from lands afar 

I've tried writing this post four times now.  I'm just not sure how to start it.  I guess because it's something kind of big, and kind of important - to me anyways.  I'm not making a huge life change, so don't freak out.  But I am putting myself out there for the world to criticize, which is a risk in itself.

Having spent the last year doing custom wood projects, and three commissioned pieces… I thought it was time I made it semi-official, time to put together something that could speak for itself.

Allow me to introduce…

Au naturel…. or Oak Naturel?

In the adventure of the windows, it was time to also change the colour of our front door.  The brick on our house is a brown, red, orange mix and our door was last painted a nice harvest orange.  But after 5 years, it was starting to look a bit beaten up (goodness knows how, it's not that exposed) so it was time to redo it.

My Mum came down to help out with another Lady-Do Day, where ladies get sh*t done, so a job that would have taken me 10hrs on my own took us 5hs together.  NOW, I'm nowhere near done, so there'll be many more hours to go… but at least it's been started.