Julie's Berry Planter Box

I spent a few hours this weekend building this planter box for Julie. She wanted a place to plant different types of berries on our porch. This box is approximately 37x15x18 and cost just under $30 to build. A smaller planter box was for sale at the nursery for around $80.

Wooden Tractor

Julie got me this tractor from the 99 cent store. It looked like it was just supposed to all go together and kind of snap in, but it took quite a bit of super glue to keep it from just completely falling apart. I love building stuff.

Picture Frames

I found this slightly broken down picture screen thingy (left) and I cut it up and painted it and put some pictures in it and hung them in my hallway (right). I am not quite a trash digger though because I found it adjacent to the trashcan, not in it.

New Bookcase for the Girls

There is a useless space underneath the crib in the kids room so I built this bookshelf(?). This shelf is only one shelf high and the backing is made of cardboard, so that I would have a place to store the girls' books without them getting lost in the crevace by falling back behind each other. I made it from wood that I took apart from some old and tall bookcase a couple years ago, and put a fresh coat of white paint on it. Beautiful.

Towel Rack

When I was taking my wood shop class I started making this towel rack to put up in the girls' room for their hooded towels. It took me long enough to stain it and get the two coats of lacquer on it, but it is finally done...and it looks pretty good.

Wood stuff

I made this maple cutting board by squaring 5 strips, laminating them together, routering the edge round, and then coving a handle into each side with the router. This side has the cool grain, while the other side is just all light colored.

I made this rattle from osage orange wood, and it had two beads on it, but one shattered off. It was made entirely of one piece of wood on the lathe. It still needs some sanding, and if it looks a lot better after that, I will post another picture.

Graphic Designer?

So, a blog that I commonly read was having a contest to have the readers design a graphic for them to use on mugs and t-shirts and I decided to submit a couple designs. The middle design above was selected as a finalist. I could win up to $200 if I get the most votes so go to zenhabits.net to help me out and vote for me.

I Love Lamp

In the woodshop class that I began last September, the first project was a "candlestick". I put it in quotes, because from the beginning I had other plans for mine. Since I like to read at night when Julie goes to bed, I was going to make mine into a reading lamp. Now, five months after turning it on the lathe, I finally got the wood stained and laquored and began assembly with parts that I purchased at Lowe's. Julie and I were watching "Blood Diamond" as I put all of the pieces together. It took me about 30 minutes because I had trouble feeding the cord through the side hole and up the shaft. When I finally got it all wired up, I plugged it in to the wall. I flipped the knob to turn it on and...poof! All of the lights, the TV, and the DVD player shut down and we found ourselves sitting in the dark. Julie said, from the darkness, "You didn't electricute yourself, right?" I was fine, but the breaker got tripped. I found a flashlight and took care of turning the breaker back on.

It appears that my woodworking skills are better than my electrical skills.

Spinning Top

I turned two wooden tops from the same piece of lignum vitae, one with ridges on it, and this one. The one with the ridges I put the metal tip in at an awkward angle, and it spins at that same awkward angle. This one, I made the metal tip from a nail and got it a little closer to straight, and it spins pretty well.

Entry Way Table

I built this solid oak, mission-style entry way table for my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas this year. It is held together completely with dowels and glue, no metal on it. It was inspired by this $450 table that I found online. Believe me, it cost much less to make myself.

Throwing Tops

In my wood shop class I have been working with the lathe, and completed these two tops last week. The one on the left was made from cocobola and was oiled for my dad for Christmas. The other was my first attempt at a rosewood top that was waxed. It is not as pretty as the cocobola one, but it spins really well.

Construction!

Julie's aunt Cindy and I built this wardrobe for our campus security patrol to hang their uniforms in. Other than my painting skills being so poor, it turned out pretty good. I even got to use a biscuit joiner.