Woodworking… Say What?

Lately, I’ve been on a project kick.  If someone needs a gift, they get something homemade out of a piece of wood.  People that have been gifted with a Tara original include my mama (her birthday AND Mother’s Day), Emily (wedding gift), Liz (another wedding gift), and Missy (yet another wedding gift, terribly belated).  They didn’t all get the same thing. I’m not a factory.  Some gifts were similar, but with distinct differences (Mama and Liz).  Admittedly, I stole these ideas from other blogs.  Instead of posting step-by-step instructions, I’ll give you links to the other blogs, and tell you about any changes I made to my projects.

1) Mama’s Birthday Present (stolen from thehandmadehome.net)

​So, the chick at thehandmadehome.net did her last name and number of people in her family.  Well, the Williams 2 didn’t have the same ring to it.  Since Mama and Brian have three girls, I did “Our Fab 3”.  Mama made a supplement to this which I’ll share another day (super cool picture display). Thehandmadehome woman used a projector to trace her letters.  I just printed mine in extra huge fonts.  I went to Menards and dug through the remnant bin.  Enter: mistake.  I was only checking the boards for similar lengths (as you can see in the picture, I didn’t succeed, but I thought it was quirky).  When I got home, I noticed one of the boards was smiling.  Also, most big box stores (Lowes, Menards, Home Depot, etc) are supposed to cut boards for you.  Not my Menards (which made we wonder why they had a remnant board section… they’re cutting boards for someone!).  I don’t have a saw or a truck to haul full length lumber.  If you do, great!  Note: do not listen to the guy selling nails when you know a 1” nail won’t do much when you’re working with a 1” thick board.  Good thing I used wood glue.

2) Liz’s Wedding Present (I guess it’s Kevin’s wedding present too.)

​Next project was pretty much the same as Mama’s, but different fonts, dimensions, and paint color.  This time I went to Lowes (I learned) and had them cut a perfectly straight board for me.  I also got 1-1/4” nails (you could also use screws, but I’m impatient and can’t spend the time drilling a pilot hole).  I couldn’t wait until the wedding, so I showed this to the couple before the wedding.  Patience is clearly not a virtue I possess.  

3) Emily’s Wedding Present

​This one is an oldie, but a goodie.  I made this last year, super pregnant, on the floor in our dining room (we had just moved in maybe a week or two before).  I saw state nail art onEtsy and Pinterest, and decided I didn’t need to pay that much to make it.  I got a scrap piece of wood from Mama and Brian’s house (I think it was a 2x10, about 15” long, but I’m not sure), some nails, and some string.  Emily and her hubby, Josh, got married in Alabama, but they (inconveniently for me) had the wedding in Gulf Shores, at the very bottom of the state.  This made the super cute heart that is usually negative space a little tricky.  I just used her other wedding color and filled in the heart.  To get the outline of Alabama, I printed a map on legal paper, taped it to the wood, and started putting nails around the outline (hammered about halfway in).  I didn’t count, but it came out to exactly 100 nails for the outline and 20 for the heart.  Afterward, I just ripped the paper off (I was a little scared that it would pull some nails out, but it didn’t).  Then I ran string from each nail to the outside of the heart.  In hindsight, I would have 1) not strung an outline of the state, 2) left the wood plain, I would’ve stained it, and 3) been more meticulous about my string to nail ratio.  I think it turned out pretty well, regardless.

4) Mother’s Day Present for Mama (from shanty-2-chic.com)

While I was at Lowes getting lumber for Liz’s wedding present, I also had a 2x12 cut down into 15” pieces.  This one I pretty much followed exactly, except I just used more nail heads to fasten the pictures I chose.  Mama ended up using some double-sided tape to hold down the corners that weren’t nailed.  Project redo: I would’ve used chalkboard paint instead of the free print out so Mama could change what it said.  

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5) Missy’s SUPER Late Wedding Present

​I guess the best way to describe this one is as a hybrid of the Mother’s Day project and the Mama’s birthday/Liz’s wedding projects.  Missy and Liz were both super excited about their married last names, so I knew I wanted to integrate them in their presents.  I saw some tutorials online about how to transfer a photo to a piece of wood, so I decided to try it out for Missy.  I had a bunch of the blocks of wood from the Mother’s Day project, so I used that.  I Googled “country sunrise” (because Missy is my fave country girl!) to use for the photo transfer.  You have to print the picture on regular, copy paper from a laser printer.  I read that laser printers deposit more ink than inkjet printers, so the transfer is more complete.  It also seems like the ink is sort of floating on top of the paper rather than soaked into it.  I printed my photo on legal size paper (it was a panoramic shot, so it wasn’t distorted).  I had to buy some Modge Podge (MP) for this one, but it was so worth it.  I got to use my new orbital sander for the first time, and sanded the crap out of that wood (she’s got little ones, so I rounded the edges quite a bit)!  Then I wiped it off with a damp towel to get all the sand dust.  I poured a little MP and spread it where I thought the picture would go in a thin layer across the wood.  I laid the picture ink side down on the MP while it was still wet.  I tried my best to center it.  After it dried overnight, I covered the whole piece of paper with a more-than-damp-but-not-soaking-wet-towel for a few minutes.  I used that same towel to kind of scrub the paper off (this whole process is reminiscent of the temporary tattoos of my childhood).  I did mine in two rounds, peeling/scrubbing two layers.  My towel started to rub some of the picture off, so I switched to my fingers.  Certain parts of the picture are more, um, rustic than I had hoped, but I’m rolling with it.Next time I’ll probably use a thicker layer of MP.  I think I might have been a little stingy.  Also, my picture didn’t go all the way to the edges.  This was an issue after I did the letters…

​I’m a bit of a font junkie, so finding the perfect one waskey.  I wanted the piece to feel a little western, so I Googled “western font”, and found a free website that made her last name a picture.  Then I copied and pasted the text “picture” into word and resized it super big.  That’s as technical as I get with this one.  It was tricky, and I’m sure there was an easier way to do it in Photoshop, but I was done messing with it (this was about 45 min into font searching).  The letters were about a page tall each.  Turned out, they were too wide, so I manually cut and pasted them (literally with scissors and tape).  After editing the letters, I traced them and painted around my lines.  I was super impressed with myself until I realized the “R” at the end of “BAKER” looked super bad since the picture didn’t go to the edge.  I got out my little paint brush and some stain, and fixed it right up!  (Note: I thought about staining the entire thing before I transferred the picture, but I’m really glad I didn’t.  The picture turned out darker than I expected on the wood even though the wood was pretty light.)  

​She got it, and she loved it!  I think it’s my favorite so far!

I’m sure my instructions are by no means complete, so please ask if you have questions on how I did something!

Do you have any favorite homemade gifts given or received?  

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Updates!

I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting the blogosphere these days.  The job, post-promotion, has been taking up all my time!  Oh, and snuggling with my baby girl.  That takes up the rest of my time.

I thought today I’d update you all on some past posts:

• The Shark:  We still love the new vacuum.  So far, it was definitely worth the money.  Since Turner will be crawling soon (we think…) it was a necessary purchase.  I definitely feel better about putting her on the floor now.
• Working Out:  I don’t understand the question… I haven’t been doing so well in the running department.  As many of you know firsthand, winter in the Midwest this year was ROUGH.  We’ve had a couple nice days, so I plan to get on the move soon!  I even snared a running buddy (that’s you Brittany C!).   But let’s focus on successes.  I have been doing some squats and lunges to get ready to run.  Hope it helps!  Part of the working out post was also what I needed to buy to start running, and contacts were on the top of the list.  Walgreens now carries contacts, and they give some pretty good deals to get people on board.  My contacts were 1) cheaper than 1-800 Contacts (where I usually get them) and 2) 20% off with a coupon!  In total, I spent just over $70 (hello free shipping) for a 6 month supply (my 3 month supply was about that much before).  To you non-astigmatism people, count yourselves lucky.  Toric lenses cost about 50% more per box.  I really hope Turner lucks out and doesn’t need glasses (both for her eye health and our wallet!).  
• Wedding Invitations: So, I think they turned out great!  The bride hasn’t seen them, so I suppose I haven’t passed the real test yet.  If you have no clue what I’m talking about, I offered to address my friend’s wedding invitations as a shower gift (part of tapping your talents to save money).  They took about 3 hours over 2 days, and I only had to throw away 3 envelopes.  Since there were 79 to address, I’m going to put that in the “win” column. The bride (hey Liz!) is pretty excited, so I hope they live up to her expectations!

• Meal Planning: This one does NOT go in the “win” column.  We’ve had some extra busy nights lately, and sometimes we don’t even eat dinner.  I guess that saves money!  I’d really like to work on this one, though.
• Tax Return:  I’m sure you know that we spent some of our tax return on the Shark (have I written enough about it?), but we didn’t tell you where the rest went.  Post baby, the doctor bills were through the roof.  We’ve managed to pay off all but two (including Turner’s bi-monthly doctor visits).  That left our emergency fund almost completely depleted.  Well, it’s beefed back up to $1500!  Dave Ramsey (we follow his plan) suggests having a $1000 starter emergency fund until you are out of debt, but Tu and I are currently uninsured.  Zach and I feel much more comfortable having that little $500 cushion just in case.  As soon as we’re covered (come on June 1st!), we’ll send that $500 toward debt.  As for the rest, well, Tu may have gotten some new clothes.  Girl is growing like a weed!

On tap for this weekend is some thrift shopping!  It seems silly to buy a whole bunch of brand new clothes for the baby when she’s in them for about 3 months.  Since that seems to be how long babies stay in once size, Mama and I should be able to find some good stuff at some local consignment shops.  I’ll report back!

Show It, Don’t Spend It

Ah, love is in the air.  I think Valentine’s Day is dreaded and loved by an equal number of people.  A very clever friend (shout out Lisa G!) always called it “Singles’ Awareness Day” because no other day makes you more aware that you’re single.  It seems mean to make such a big deal out of something so many people are excluded from.  I spent a majority of my V Days with my mama as my Valentine.  Since I have a husband now (who absolutely loves Valentine’s Day), it’s time to celebrate! (Well, it’s time to celebrate him.)

I wanted to do something special for Zach this year, since I haven’t celebrated in the past.  I’ve been anti-Valentine’s for so long, it seems hypocritical to suddenly be all about it.  I know he would want nothing more than to shower me with gifts and candy, but that isn’t in the budget (story of our lives).  We aren’t able to be together on the actual day (dang sectional wrestling tournament), but we will be Saturday evening and Sunday.  Sunday lunch is DATE TIME!!!  We’re actually going out to eat*!  I can hardly wait!!!   I’ve decided that Saturday is Pamper Zach Day.  I’m going to clean the whole house (or as much as Tutu will allow me to do), do the laundry (usually a Zach job), and decorate for my Valentine!  I had some down time, and I cut some hearts out of red, pink, and purple paper.  I was going to leave them unadorned and scatter them through the house.  Then I thought they needed something extra.  I didn’t have access to many crafty supplies, so writing was the winner.  Each heart says “I love you” in a different language.  I knew the three languages I had to use were Korean (Zach is ¼ Korean), German (that pretty much makes up the rest), and French (he took French through most of school).  I had some fun with the others.  Russian came to mind because of the Olympics.  I did Spanish, Italian, and Latin just to round out the romance languages.  I also did a Farsi heart (shout out Sadaf), and it was definitely the most tricky of the bunch.  

I’m also toying with the idea of giving him a “spa-like” experience by having a nice, hot bath drawn for him when he gets home.  He’s not a wine drinker, so maybe I’ll pour him a glass of beer to sip while he soaks.  He’s been working really hard lately (lots of early mornings and late nights with school and wrestling), so I think a relaxation day might just do the trick.  Oh!  And I don’t have to buy any candles, because we bought 100 tea lights when our power was out a few months ago.  Winwin!

What are you doing/did you do for your lover boy/girl?  Did you break the bank this year?

*We’ve been saving up our once a month restaurant trip for Valentine’s Day.  It’s nice that it falls right in the middle of the month!