I'm Some Sort of Elf, Apparently

Short “I am still alive” post...  Here goes:

I was slammed at work this week but I did manage to find some time this weekend to fix the microwave, replace a shower door gasket, repair a shattered clay ornament, re-attach wheels to two broken toy cars, and start construction on some Christmas gifts for friends and relatives.  

Let’s talk about the last thing.  No spoilers here since both of these folks know what they are getting, anyway.

The first is a chalkboard for mom-in-law.  It is made from oak plyboard and barnwood.  The barnwood is 75-year-old reclaimed lumber taken from a dilapidated corn-crib on the parents-in-laws’ farm.

Here is the frame pre-sealant:

Here it is post-sealant:

This is one of the reasons I like working with this stuff.  I did not stain the frame at all - all I did was apply a clear poly satin finish. The decades-old wood really soaks up whatever you throw at it and brings out all sorts of detail, like the original saw-mill marks you can see in the pic above.

Here it is nearly done:

The next item is a desk caddy for the wife.  The stackable in-box thing she has now is too small and doesn’t really go with the faux-aged desk.  This is my first experiment with a dado blade and she thinks it is coming out great.  The back and shelves are made from oak plyboard and the body is made from leftover material from when I built my shop workbenches.

Now it’s just a matter of deciding on a color scheme (stained vs. painted and stained).  Personally, I am for painted-and-stained, but we will see what she decides.  I will post the final pics when it is done.

BTW, I have also been prepping material for the next batch of Geocache trinkets.  I am pretty psyched about these, and I hope to begin putting them out this upcoming weekend.  Ahh, what the heck... here’s a sneak-peek of the prototype (ultimately there will be 43 of these):

Talk to you soon.