Shaker Style Wardrobe doors

 My sister's partner has been making an alcove into a wardrobe/cupboard. He needed some doors to cover the space. 

So I made him up a set of four shaker style doors, with simple clean lines, to cover the hole! 

A Simple Carved Gift

My wife had a friend and work colleague leave her school a few days ago. She wanted to give her a personal gift and knew that the lady in question was building a library as she was obsessed by books. she asked me to make a simple sign for the door.

 the set up takes just as much time as carving it in all honesty. Luckily I had a few scraps of planned oak left from an urn I'd made and carved for my best mate's dad a few weeks back. This piece took the letters brilliantly. 

Part of me thinks it would be nice to sell more carved items, but I know I'm competing against machines that can do in seconds what takes me hours. 

Wasps Are Bad This Year

 I like to think I'm normally live and let live in my attitude to most things. But this year the wasps have been so bad I've had to do something about them. 

I had a plum tree come ready , and they were delicious but the last few days we can't get near the tree for the sheer number of wasps on them. 

I've already removed one nest from the roof of my shed, but I've decided to put up some wasp traps around the small holding, especially near the bees where I've witnessed them going in and robbing them. We've made the entrances smaller, but it does feel like we should help them out more. 

I made a homemade trap, which filled in a few days (from an old pop bottle), but I've also bought 8 plastic traps which you fill with an attractant, I'm looking forward to seeing how these do. 

I know they're essential to the ecosystem, but there is just too many this year! 

Have you found wasps bad this year? What do you do to combat them?

Middlest Leaves Primary School

 I must be getting old, that's what I keep thinking! Now I have two children at secondary school and I can very much remember all of these parts from my own childhood. 

As our Middlest takes to the front of church to read out her leavers speech and I can only think of how proud I am of the young lady she's becoming. She's very, much my go-to, my partner in crime in a lot of things, ask her to do a job and it's done, most of the time I don't even have to ask. Funny and witty, smart, sporty and popular, she was very much the person I wish I was at school! 

And her time at primary school has been amazing, she's loved every minute. She's really lucky and built such a tight group of friends. Her (excellent) year six teacher was telling me how capable she was, but also how she's learnt she can rely on her friends and how some of us never get that. 

The last few weeks have been mad with everything going on, and that's the main reason I haven't posted. With three children in school and my wife being a teacher it's always going to be full on. I've done a lot of running around, ferrying children to different things. With a class party, play performances, dance performances (not school related), and a few other things! 

The best part, for me, was being invited to their end of year trip. I checked with Middlest first though, but she was happy for her dad to come. I had a message on Saturday asking if I would be able to go to the safrai park with them on Monday - I'm DBS for the school ( I run a club on a Wednesday and was in school a lot when my eldest got type one diabetes) and have been on a lot of school trips over the years, so I jumped at the chance. The head teacher was going to go but had to drop out. 

It was honestly such a perfect day, I've joked that if you've ever seen the film "About Time" where the guy jumps back in time to relive certain days, this is one of the ones I'd pick (the whole weekend in fact). They are a lovely class and many had been to nursery with her, or been to the playgroup I used to run, so I knew every child. This whole class seems to care about each other deeply, I didn't see anyone get left out the whole day, and that's really unusual.

They weren't that interested in the animals if I'm honest, but were very interested in the rides! The safari park is very much perfectly pitched to 11 year olds (there were a lot of school there) and it was small enough that with three adults we could look after them all as we went from ride to ride. I went on everything and Middlest did as well, showing no fear (well maybe a bit when we got asked to step off one ride so they could test it as it wasn't working right, then got back on it). 

We got home shattered, but happy, I then had to drag us to scouts, which was also perfect. We went to the park on what was a perfect summers evening, played rounders and ordered some pizza as an end of term treat. Chilled out and lovely, I crawled into bed early and didn't even wake when my wife came up. 

Her last day was lovely, she had such a great time with her friends, and the school did such a lovely leavers service for them. It's a shame the whole class can't stay together as they go on to their secondary schools. I feel guilty for splitting up her friendship group, but I've no doubt she going to make lots of new friends and keep the ones she's already got. 

She is a wonderful person and I love spending time with her. I feel so lucky to have been able to do some much with her over the years and the school has been great (although I moan sometimes) with asking me to help and be around my children even more. 

She's going to do exactly what she wants in this world, and I'm going to support her every step of the way. 

Dissatisfied At Work?

 I have a friend who I think is dissatisfied with his work.

The other day he asked me if I found what I did boring. It's not the first time he's asked me this question. It must play on his mind. Mine isn't a normal job, but then having been a carpenter all my life I'm not sure what a normal job looks like. He was mainly talking about my making items to sell online. 

The answer is the same every time. Yes it can be boring, I make a lot of the same thing many times over, but also I've had far worse jobs and I'd say this is the best I've every had. Not money wise (not by a long shot), but for quality of life. 

Part of me enjoys a repetitive task. I like making items as efficiently as possible, with the best templates and jigs I can make, making my small workshop work in the best way possible, 

I don't enjoy sanding, which is a bit part of what I do. I try to have the best tools to make this job as painless as possible. 

I do enjoy developing different products, although I have less time for that these days, but the magazine works helps to break the cycle every month. 

I do enjoy not having a "boss" or a direct customer who I'm working for. When I was a jobbing carpenter I was very aware that you're always being judged, and a lot of what you did, if it was in the workshop, or going to collect materials, was often forgotten. 

I do enjoy being self motivated. Sometimes I make a batch of items or a one off that I know will take many months to sell to see a return in my labour, but I also know if I'm not making something then I won't be earning anything. 

I love the flexibility it gives me, having three children to run around after it means I can do all that for them, make sure tea is on the table and attend anything else that life throws at us. I can also support my wife in her career. Having one child who is type one diabetic also means we have a lot of extra visits to do and sometimes have to drop everything to be there for her should she need it. 

I love that my children can see me working, can look at what I sell. I love that them seeing me "create" my own job my inspire them to look outside the box when it comes time for them to think about work. 

I don't enjoy how hard this type of work is on my body, my hands have ganglion cysts in where I've probably worked them too hard over the years and can be painful, not to mention lifting and bad posture working at a bench all day.  

I always disliked having to rely on other trade when I was a jobbing carpenter, making the items like I do means I'm mainly reliant on myself and my suppliers (who still cause me plenty of stress). 

I sometimes miss working with others, but still do days doing carpentry for one customer, so I get my fix this way. I also do plenty in the village and see lots of people in my week, so I'm never alone for long. 

I would like to earn more money, this doesn't earn as much as normal carpentry. But then we earn enough and I've also worked some rubbish jobs for more money and it was never worth it. 

I love the time my job gives me to think, or if I want to be entertained I can listen to a book or podcast. 

SO, I'd say that I do enjoy my job, yes it can be boring and hard on my body, but I think it's far better than any other job I'm qualified or experienced enough to do. So for now I'm happy, who knows what the future will bring, I may go back to being a "normal" carpenter in the future, especially if one of the children decided to take the same route, I love that my trade has given me so many options and such variety over the years. 

I can always remember a "friend" telling me I'd failed by not going to university, but I was lucky and my trade has brought me many opportunities (I'd still like to go to uni one day maybe, but only for my own enjoyment and then I think it's too expensive to justify it). 

Sorry this is a rambling post, more writing down my thoughts on being asked the same question many times over. 

Are you happy in what you do? 

Wooden Scoops Handmade by Me

 I've blogged about it before but I'm really proud of my wooden scoops. 

I make them in small batches (this is the biggest batch I've made in one go), and they're designed to use up the offcuts I have left over from some of my other products. I try to be as near to zero waste as I possibly can be. I've also tried to make them as affordable as possible, although with postage having gone up again I may have to increase the price slightly soon.