Holy smokes, y’all! Where has the time gone?? I really intended to get back to blogging last month but the powers that be really weren’t allowing that. Between the job job and customer orders on deadlines, I was hooked up, to say the least. But I did miss you all. Let’s recap, shall we?
When I last left you, I was heading to Workbench Con in Atlanta. Long story short, it was a blast. It was so awesome to get to actually meet in person so many of the people that I’ve known over the past couple years online. It was seriously like a big family reunion. I got to be awe struck by the people I’ve been following and also had the privilege to have several people come up to me and say they’ve been following me for a while and were happy to meet me. That’s such a surreal feeling. There was some good content in the classes but it was a bit overwhelming trying to retain it all. If you are a woodworker involved in social media, no matter the size of your following or experience, I highly recommend attending a woodworking related conference if you can just to meet everyone. Even if you only go once, it’s so worth it. (I originally planned to do a full post dedicated to the conference but now I don’t know. If you think you might be interested in reading that, let me know. If I do it, I’ll also include my opinion on Workbench versus Haven. Ooooh!)
Once I made it back home, I hit the ground running. I made three flags (four and a half if you count what I had to remake…) and a dresser. I did all of that in about four weeks and it wiped me out. The shop nights were long (I often didn’t finish in the shop until sometime between midnight and 2 am) and I actually looked forward to going back to work just to rest. Ha! Here’s some glamour shots of the builds because what’s a blog post without pictures?
This dresser was custom designed to fit the space and other fixtures going with it. This was a much easier build than my first ever dresser and, if I say so myself, it looks much better. After the first dresser, I went into dresser building retirement. I was in way over my head when I took on that build and it was a miserable experience. I swore I would never do another one. Then I got asked to make another one and I couldn’t say no. There are two years of time, tool acquirement, and skill building between the two dressers and I could really see my growth as a builder with this build compared to the first one. The dresser was left natural so that the family could apply the finish themselves. That’s my favorite kind of customer. I got a text from them after I delivered it that they couldn’t find their daughter one morning for school. She was sitting in front of the dresser just staring at it. Can’t complain about that kind of reaction to my work!
The first completed flag was a large challenge coin holder. I’ve made a handful of smaller challenge coin flags in the past but this time I got to make it much larger and use my new table saw to mill up the lumber for it. Then I got to do it all over again because my glue up of the first flag was bad. Things don’t always go as planned in the shop, unfortunately. I filmed the entire build process for this flag so hopefully before the year is out, I’ll be able to share it with you on YouTube.
The next two flags are different sizes of the same thing. A couple co-workers saw a similar flag I had made for my boss last year and requested their own. I decided if I’m already making one flag, I might as well make all three at the same time. I’m pretty amazed that I never mixed up the pieces to each flag.
So, what’s coming up? Well, all that time I spent not writing blog posts allowed me to think of some additional topics/post series that I can incorporate. It’s a bit difficult to make enough interesting and unique projects throughout the year, photograph them, and write about them to share with you because there just isn’t enough time in the day. You’d be surprised how much slower a build goes when you are trying to document every step. I’ve decided I’m going to work in some opinion posts (Oh, lawdy! Don’t worry. They’ll be mild.) and some maker feature posts. I’m excited about the idea of these posts and I hope you are, too. I have just a few more customer orders on the books to wrap up then I’m going to start working on my own things. Whether I can get to them or not, I have a bunch of really cool ideas, lol. I want to finish my garage storage solutions, completely remodel my office, and redo my closet (if I can ever work up the courage to Konmari my clothes). That’s in addition to all of the builds I want to accomplish for myself, some surprise gifts, and finally figure out this video editing stuff. Oh, and maybe one day get my house cleaned. The struggle is real. Thanks for sticking with me. And as always, if you get to missing my fabulous writing style and wit, you can follow along with me on Facebook and Instagram (both @7miledesigns) where I post more regularly. Until next time!
