And It Is...

In my last post I had started on a little project.

What was it?

Can you guess?

Why it's Santa, two elves, and a red-nosed reindeer!

Just a little something for my granddaughters!

Happy Holidays!

What's He Up to Now?

I find myself rushing to finish a little last minute project.  This has been banging around in the back of my mind for a while.  I then saw a show on television which gave me a few ideas which motivate me to take the idea in a different direction.

I start with some square stock - in this case some 1.5" x 1.5" red oak (about 18" long).

I cut them to various lengths, and finish one end with a 45 degree compound miter cut (I do this on my table saw using a scrap block cut at 45 degree as a jig).

I have a longer piece . . .

Two pieces of equal length, but shorter than the first . . .

One roughly midway in length between the first and the two similar pieces.

I cut out a piece of the mitered end . . .

I end up with four pieces which fit together like this -

. . . and from another angle -

Next step is to smooth over the edges, and then paint it (them).  Do you know what this will be?

Little Suzie Homemaker . . .

We finished cleaning up the ironing board and painted the new toy iron we got / made for our granddaughter.  We put new rubber caps on the ironing board legs, painted the top, and painted the iron grey and white.  My wife will be bringing this out to our granddaughter in a few weeks (along with the antique doll carriage).

This was a fun little project.

Tools and Toys

We  did some antiquing the last few days, and I found a few items of note.  I picked up a couple of wooden clamps (16" opening).  They weren't antiques, but the price was right ($35 for 2, retail is usually over $25 each).  We picked up a Coca Cola sign (~ 48" x 18").  It was probably made in the last 20 years or so.  It wasn't enameled, but the read and white paint scheme will look great on the barn (only $20).  I'll post a picture later after we get it on the barn.

The most interesting find was a wooden bar clamp.  There were 4 for sale.  I just picked up 1.  It is about 5 feet long.  It would have been used for clamping larger furniture pieces and tabletops.  I really liked the wooden screw.

We had small 'bird house' we got an an auction (actually, it was shoved in a crock we bought - it came free).  I had a spare stair spindle from another project, so I made another decorative bird house to put over in the side garden (I sometime call it the white garden as we have other white items there mixed in with the wildflowers).  I gave it a couple of coats of paint.

We picked up a child's ironing board.  We will touch up the paint.  It didn't have an iron, so I whipped up one.  It too will need to get painted.  I hope our granddaughter will like it.  I am pretty sure she will!

I Gift from Papa Claus and Christmas Carole

Noah's Ark Toy

My sister suggested I make an ark for my granddaughter. She has some little Noah's Ark figurines she had collected over the years that wanted to give to her niece. So as my first real project, I whipped up this toy over the weekend.

It is about 14" long and 5" wide. The sides are 3/8" plywood, while the base and the frame for the cabin on top are 3/4" pine. The roof is also plywood, but the deck is made of a piece of Pergo flooring. It is simply screwed together. I looked for pictures of ark toys on the Internet. I saw a few like this. I didn't have any plans, but the design is pretty straightforward.

The deck lifts off to allow one to store the ark figurines. I still need to add a coat or two of clearcoat. I also need to fashion a ramp for the animals to go on.

While rummaging around in the garage, we also found a box of small plastic toys that were our daughter's. In it were all sorts of animals. We will equip the ark with these animals. The figurines from my sister may be a little to fragile for our granddaughter, so the plastic figurines my be a good substitute for now. Maybe our daughter will recognize some of these toys.

We'll be bringing this gift at Christmas time. I hope the little one likes it. Now that I have the workshop up and running, there will be more toys from Papa Claus . . .