Custom Cufflink Box

I have partially shown off my husband's awesome Christmas gift that I built, but haven't shared much else. 

My husband works in the business world and at times wears cufflinks.  It's not easy to find a good looking jewelry box for a guy that is under a couple hundred dollars.  I set myself up with the task to build him a box (my first box ever) to house some of his cufflinks.

The top, bottom, front and back are birdseye maple and the sides are bloodwood.  I also burned a small blue jay feather in the top for decoration and as a nod to how awesomely supportive my husband is in all my creative pursuits.  He has shown off my blue jay and feather burnings to so many people, he's my number one fan and supporter. 

I didn't follow any plans for this piece as I couldn't find one that suited what I wanted to do.  I had to custom build the insert where they cufflinks sit.  I used wooden dowels, wrapped foam around them and adhered crushed velvet on top. 

I am extremely happy with how this turned out and my husband loves it!  I learned quite a great deal just from figuring it all out as I went.  I think I learn best that way. 

So, did anyone else make any awesome Christmas presents this year?  Comment below and include a link, I would love to see them!

Thank You Veterans

I want to extend a "Thank You" to all the Veteran's out there.  Those no longer serving, still serving or paid the ultimate price, you live in my heart.  I can't even begin to put down into the proper words what it means to be a part of Military life.  With my time as an Army wife, I do know one thing for certain; I will always have the utmost respect for the men and women who choose to wear a uniform.  Thank You from the bottom of my heart. 

My husband sitting on his tank, OIF 2003.

If you would like to read the absolute most beautiful piece I have seen written about Veteran's day, please grab a box of tissues and check this out, "Veteran's Day 2013 - Let Us Not Forget."

Also, I wanted to let you know something that you can do to express your gratitude to our servicemen and women.  You can send them a card this holiday season.  The Red Cross is once again organizing the event, "Holiday Mail for Heroes."  I urge you to go to the link and check out the details.  If you have any non-family photo Holiday cards, gather them up and send them to our troops.

Have you ever wondered why Veteran's Day is on November 11th?  You can click here to find the answer to that question with an overview of the history of Veteran's Day.

How My Husband Was Detained In A Chinese Airport at Gunpoint!!!

Sorry, I couldn't come up with a shorter title than that.  I mention my husband quite often on my blog and I love him dearly.  He is my best friend and we started off as friends before we started dating and then turning into a family.  While I love my husband, I like to rib on him occasionally like we are still college drinking buddies and when he has a good story to tell, I love to encourage him to tell it.  So, hop on over to his leadership blog: C4 Explosive Leadership Tactics and learn how my husband was taken off a plane in China at gunpoint and detained by their version of the TSA. 

My husband!

up, Up, UP in a Tree!

I'm not the only handy one around my house.  When my husband isn't busy or exhausted from work and travel, he can be found getting dirty (sometimes right along side of me) fixing, building, or replacing something.  Matt asked me to call our local mechanic's shop to see if they would give us a tire so he could put up a tire swing for our kids.  It just so happened that I need to go in for an oil change and bugged them until they gave in.  YAY!

I brought it home and on Sunday, my husband gathered up the supplies and went up in one of our smaller trees. 

Even though this is one of our smaller trees, it's still huge and he is really up, Up, UP there!

One tip that I can give you about putting up a tire swing, many places tell you to just put a strap over the limb of the tree, but an arborist will tell you NO!  It is actually better for the tree to drill a hole in it, use a galvanized eye bolt (secured properly) and the tree will heal itself around the bolt.  With a strap, it will continuously wear at the bark and cause more stress and damage on the tree.  My husband spent a lot of time researching the options and now I am sharing his findings with you.

The boys waited anxiously for dad to finish and it was worth the wait.

Colton doesn't look too happy in this next photo, having to wait for his turn.

I am seriously still laughing at his sad little face.  I love those little gems you discover later when you go through photos.

Summer has been great and just keeps getting better.  A big thanks to my husband for providing more fun around the house for the kids. 

UPDATE:

My kids figured out a way to play with the tire swing at the same time.  I love their ingenuity.  I'm impressed that they both can throw through a moving target.

Artists Collaborating

For Valentine's Day, I decided that Maben and I needed to collaborate to make my husband's gift.  Maben has taken an interest in drawing.  He comes home with a lot of paper from school, covered in drawings of stick people depicting our family or Star Wars and lots of Angry Bird scenes.  I know most of these will find their way to the recycle bin, but I really wanted to save at least one.

So, I had Maben draw a picture of daddy and write out daddy as well.  He is growing up too fast, it's no longer daddy, just dad.

I took his drawing and glued it to a sheet of copper and cut it out with a jewelers saw.  I mounted it to a scrap block of zebra wood (oops, I meant marble wood) and now there stands, "Dad."  

It turned out amazing!!!  I have immortalized my husband through Maben's 5 year old eyes.  I can't think of anything more perfect.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and leave you with one of my all time favorite quotes.

Happy Birthday Hunny!

Today is my husband's birthday and I just wanted to tell him as publicly as I could, Happy Birthday!!! 

I hope the boys and I make your day extra special!  I love you so much.  And, here is the most important question of the day, are you ready for some cheesecake brownies?

P.S.  We really need to retake a photo like this.  I love it...but it's six months old.  I'm sure the kids won't mind hopping on pop again!

I Remembered The Date!

My husband and I have been married for seven years today.  Happy Anniversary hunny! 

This year is extra special, because one of us finally remembered our Anniversary date correctly! 

We were married on the 27th, my husband always thought it was the 26th and I knew it was a day off, but I picked the wrong direction and thought it was the 25th. 

We have argued over it several times, I have pulled out our marriage certificate to only find we were both wrong...often. 

We have even celebrated it on the wrong day before.  I'm glad we both have a wonderful sense of humor about it all. 

I guess after seven years, someone had to get it right.  Congrats hunny, you got me this year!  Yes, I thought it was the wrong day, again! 

I'm happy that I married my best friend.  I love our honesty and our ability to laugh at ourselves and each other. 

I love that we share some hobbies together.  I really needed someone who has a love for power tools like I do.  

I love that our favorite movies to see together are awesomely bad action flicks. 

I'm glad that I knew I was going to marry you way back when you went to Kentucky.  I'm really glad that you came around to that idea years later! 

Happy Anniversary hunny!  I hope next year treats us as well as this past year has.  I love you!

Design, Design, Design

Whew, I am tired.  I have been helping my husband out with designing a logo, business card, handouts and updating his blog.  Some of it being very last minute due to some unforeseen problems. 

My hubby is a project manager, public speaker and blogger.  He is actually giving a public speech today.

Good luck hunny!  You will do great.

So last night was the deadline to really get everything in order. 

I started off with lots of logo ideas for his blog, C4 - Explosive Leadership Tactics.  If you have been around my blog long enough, you would have seen a logo that I did (I think back in the spring) and it just didn't work.  Here is the new logo.

I think the logo design fits perfectly. 

The "C" is the bomb and an integral part of my husband's concept. 

C4 stands for the 4 "C's" that my husband feels are the most important aspects of leadership: Conceive, Communicate, Command, Complete. 

Since the full name of the blog is C4 Explosive Leadership Tactics, I really wanted to play off the explosive part of the name, hence the bomb. 

Did I miss anything?  Does it all work?  Do you like it?

Happy Veteran's Day

Today is a day that I proudly wear an outfit that screams I am an American with pride!  Many people think it might be tacky, but I don't care.  I am proud to show that I love my country and my freedom.  It's because of the brave men and women who are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect it.  A special thanks goes out to my husband, who served in the Army, doing two tours in Iraq.

Riding on his tank, Iraq 2003-2004

I am proud that I was able to stand by you and support you.  The deployments were anything but easy, but I wouldn't trade that experience for anything else in this world.  It shaped both of our lives and our relationship.  Without it, I don't think we would be the people that we are today.

Deployment night, 2005

I want to take today to say thank you not just to my husband, but to many others.

Thank you to all of our dear friends that are still in the military and thank you to their families who support them. 

Thank you to my grandfather and Matt's grandfather who served in the Navy during WWII. 

Thank you to my Father-in-law for serving in the Army. 

Thank you to my Uncle who served in the Air Force during Vietnam. 

Thank you to my Brother-in-law, Scott for serving in the Navy.

Thank you to my brother, Dan for serving in the Coast Guard. 

Thank you to my cousins who stand proudly beside their husbands and take care of the home front when their husbands are called away.

Thank you to all the men and women who served with my husband, you all helped get him back home to me.

Thanks to everyone who has served.

Thank you to everyone who still serves.

Standing outside a Texas National Guard Armory

For anyone who has no military affiliation, please tell a Vet "Thank you."  Show your pride for your country and your freedom today.

Learning Stained Glass

My husband and I have both been wanting to learn how to make stained glass.  We have grand aspirations of replacing the window above our front door with some beautiful stained glass that we make ourselves.  Now, that dream is a lofty one...maybe we will do it, maybe not.  But, when a Groupon came out to learn how to do stained glass, we jumped on buying it.  MONTHS later, we finally signed up for our class to learn and it was a blast.  We will do three Saturday classes, our first was yesterday. 

I really enjoyed being able to take the class with my husband. We like to poke fun at each other, which always provides a lot of entertainment for anyone else who is around us.  We are both very goofy and had so much fun with our first class.

My goofy husband, Matt

We even completed a project with our first class.  It was just a small ornament or window hanging (I guess which ever you want it to be).  The choices we had were a butterfly, star or cross.  Hubby took the star and I took the butterfly.  I really love the way that mine turned out.  I did a really good job for my first try.

I don't think I would have done anything different.  As you can probably tell, I love butterflies.  Now, I just need to figure out where I want to hang it.

I am eagerly awaiting our next class.  Our instructor Renee was great and if you are interested in learning stained glass from him and live in the Houston area...go check out his website.  (not receiving any kick backs for that statement)

A Little of This and a Little of That

This past week or so has found me in a tailspin of busy, busy, busy.  It seems like I have had a million places to go and a million things to get done.  So far this week I have been working on 1/2 dozen of the redneck wineglasses to fulfill an order.  Find out how to make them yourself here.

I am also working on an order for a fence picket flag.  And I thought that since I was doing one flag already, I might as well get around to doing a Texas one.  I will let you know how that turns out.  If you want to see how I make an American Flag out of fence pickets, go here.

I have also decided that I am going to enter a photo contest for Vermont Magazine.  So I am selecting photos and need to get that in the mail ASAP!  I am also working on making myself a drop in insert to protect my camera so I can lug it around in my purse.  I am really hating my camera bag.  Almost impossible to carry that and the diaper bag at the same time.  The messenger style camera bag is also starting to hurt my shoulder.  How I love my camera.  If you missed it, I am toting around a Pentax KX in red.

I am also in the middle of a Biggest Loser competition with some friends of mine.  So that means my butt is hitting the gym a LOT more, plus I have been cashing in some personal training sessions that my hubby got me for my birthday.  My butt had spasms yesterday...seriously!  You can check out part of my weight loss journey here.

Oh, and the kids.  Yeah, the kids...I've been trying to keep them busy, happy, healthy, fed and mostly entertained.  I also try to squeeze my hubby somewhere in all this when he isn't stuck at work and we both aren't completely exhausted.  We are doing two dates this week...hoping to catch up with the hubby! 

I'm tired.  So I want to apologize if there is any slacking in the posting.  I never understood how summer vacation was so frantic until Maben went off to preschool for a year and that ended with summer vacation.  Now...I get it!  Hoping to play catch up when Maben is in camp next week. 

Tool Holders

My husband and I both enjoy woodworking.  Living down south with all this humidity is NOT a good thing for your tools.  It causes a whole lot of rust and rust prevention is important if you want to keep using your tools for a long time.  There are many tool holders you can buy to store your tools and they typically come in two options, leather or canvas/denim.  Last month at the woodworking club meeting I attended, I decided to ask the old guys (don't judge, they are old!  I am fairly certain I am the youngest member) which was better.  It was an almost unanimous agreement upon canvas, and then denim.

Apparently leather holds moisture and you don't want moisture next to your tools.  Moisture = rust!  My hubby has a lot of leather tool holders, so for Father's day, I made him a denim one for a set of his chisels.

It rolls up, clips shut and has grommets at the top to hang it on a peg board (open or closed).  The grommets actually line up when you roll it closed.  Total happy coincidence! 

The only *constructive* criticism I received from the hubby was that it needs a flap at the top, so if he throws it in a tool box, the chisels won't come sliding out.  That's easy enough...I can add that at a later time.  For now, I just wanted to show off another creation.

Happy Father's Day

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love the most is soap-on-a-rope.
Bill Cosby

 

Honey, we love you!  We hope you love your Father's Day gifts.  We hope you have a wonderful weekend.  You are an amazing husband, an awesome father and my best friend.  Happy Father's Day! (a few days early)

I hope that all the great father's out there have a wonderful weekend.

P.S.  Be prepared, we are in need of some newer family photos!  With all 4 of us in it.

The Woodworking Show

This weekend hubby and I hit up The Woodworking Show here in Katy, TX.  It was overall a lot of fun and we had a good time.  There were some highs and lows in my experience for the show. 

Total high, hubby watched the kiddos while I talked up my blog to a bunch of sales reps.  I love you hunny!  To all you sales people, I hope you enjoy my blog and thank you for taking the time to talk with me.

Maben playing under a table.

Total low, the typical thing happened, I am a woman in a man's world.  There were several sales reps that refused to talk to me so long as there was a man within earshot whose attention they could grab.  SHAME ON YOU! 

I expected it.  It's why locally I choose to shop at Woodcraft over other woodworking stores.  The guys that work at Woodcraft have been nothing but super nice to me.  Some other stores have not been as nice.  I think those other places are seriously missing out on an awesome demographic, WOMEN!  There are more and more women DIYers and woodworkers popping up everywhere and so few of us are getting representation, recognized or even any respect in what has typically been and still is a male dominated field.  I am amazed at all the room makeovers I am seeing by all my fellow tool wielding women.  You gals all rock!  I am so happy to be a part of a community where so many women aren't afraid to try new things.  The community of women bloggers who are building and crafting is amazing!

Anyways, I wanted to give an giant shout out to the companies that were super friendly to me.  Mr. Juneau from Bosch tools, Circle Saw, Everyone from Woodline USA, Craft Supplies USA and Sommerfeld's.  You all made me feel like I belonged.  I am a fan of your products and was super happy to be able to purchase from most of you.

Me standing next to my favorite purchase from the show.  I can't wait to find any reason to use it!

12" Dual-Bevel Glide Miter Saw

The new miter saw puts our old miter saw to shame.  I will have to dedicate an entire post later on to all that this bad boy can do. 

My House is Under Construction

Bang, bang, bzzzzzzz, bang, bang...I have a headache!  It's funny that when I am the one wielding the tools, the noise is calming.  It gives me peace.  When someone else is wielding them...it gives me a monster headache.  I only know this now that my house has been under construction for the last three days.  New siding and windows are being installed.  The paint won't be much different from what is currently on the house.  We are doing toasted almond and a darker brown for our trim color.  I really hate the current trim color.

My house...the work in progress.  When we moved in almost 4 years ago, the house needed some serious TLC.  My husband and I have been slowly tackling it.  We finally got a new fence in...after Hurricane Ike took out the last one.  (Yes, I am quite aware with how long ago that was)  We put in the new mailbox and post when we did the fence a little bit ago. 

The old mailbox was a travesty!  It was horrid and I jumped up and down for joy when Hurricane Ike blew my mailbox away.  Some neighbor promptly returned the ugly mailbox to our front yard.  Really?  Couldn't you have just saved me and thrown it away.  Seriously, someone put slats of wood around the outside of the mailbox...it was ugly!  Since it was functioning, we bungee corded it back onto the post and said we would get around to it.  I mean, who honestly wants to brave a hardware store after a hurricane.  Well, we finally replaced the old mailbox and our new mailbox and post is in.  I love it!

I now need to figure out what to do with the post.  Stain it?  Paint it?  Hang something from it?  It needs something, I'm just not sure what.  I am always taking suggestions.

Our house is slowly turning into a home that we love.  Turning a house into a home really takes a lot of work, love and memories.  

The things I love about our home:

• I brought my two baby boys home from the hospital to this home.
• We have the biggest and best tree in the whole neighborhood in our front yard!
• Our driveway is big enough to draw a chalk city for the cozy coupe cars to drive around and park two real cars at the same time.
• The master bedroom is HUGE!
• The garage is large enough to house all of our awesome power tools.
• I installed an entire closet system in our master closet...and I did an awesome job at it.
• We have the best next door neighbor in the whole wide world.
• And last but not least, this is the home my hubby and I started our civilian life in.  As much as we both love and respect the military, it was our time to move on.

I will post more photos of my house once the new siding and windows are up and the paint job has been completed.

Blast From the Past: Wood Gifts

In honor of the Woodworking Show that is coming to town this weekend (where my husband and I will spend way too much time), I am showing some gifts that my husband and I made for each other.  Last August we celebrated our 5th Anniversary, which just happens to be the traditional wood anniversary.  Since we both enjoy woodworking we decided that our presents to each other had to be made of wood. 

I turned a candy bowl for my husband's desk at work.  It's Bolivian Rosewood and turned out beautifully.  It actually holds candy.

My husband made me a heart shaped box with a swinging lid.  It is made from Purple Heart and I love it!

Did you know that the modern anniversary gift for the 6th anniversary is also wood?  I sense a tradition starting here.  Wood is way better than the traditional 6th anniversary gift of candy.  At least it is to me.  Wood lasts longer.