I must have been a good boy this year.

I must have been a good boy this year.  I came home to find a new craftsman band saw in the empty space in my basement last week.
 We are planning on changing the way we do ornaments next season.  We have been cutting our ornaments out of oak or birch 1/4 plywood.  I believe we are changing to brown maple.  Around here it is relatively cheap and with a band saw I can resaw and plane the rough lumber down to 1/4 inch and make the ornaments out of that.  I have been using maple to make the name ornaments for the past three months and that is how I have been doing that. 
   I was using the table saw to resaw the wood.  Anyone who has ever tried that knows it is not a good idea, especially if you want to keep all of your fingers.  Mrs Clause found out I had a near mishap and I think she may have helped with the band saw.  Thank you Mrs. Clause.
   If anyone has any tips on the best way to resaw lumber I sure could use some help.  Right now I am doing it free hand and it is working OK but I am always up for some good ideas.

Halfway Through The Holiday Craft Season

Well here we are halfway through the Holiday Craft season and it just seems to be getting crazier each year.  This year I started making name ornaments and those have been keeping us busy, busy, busy.  We are having fun doing it but I believe both my wife and I are really looking forward to the end of the holiday craft season.  We picked up 2 more shows this year.  Both of the shows are in Glens Falls NY, one of them was at the Catholic School and the last one is at the Methodist church a few miles down the road.
Here are some pictures of our latest set up.  The top picture is of our bi-fold doors.  They seem to make a

great ornament stand for all of our holiday ornaments.
The next picture is of my lovely wife setting out some fingerless gloves and old fashioned hand warmer muffs that our youngest daughter asked us to sell for her.   She is trying to get into the craft show circuit with her own talents and tastes.
I have been working on our son-in-law trying to drag him into the scroll saw business with me but he does live to far away so he helps me out part time when he and our oldest daughter have the time.

This year our newest endeavour is wine bottle balancers.  They have been slow to sell but everyone who walks by us has to stop and take a look or three at the display.  When they ask how do they do that I tell them "my wife says it physics but I believe its magic"  Most folks just smile but I did have one physics teacher tell me it was simple physics.  Some people just don't have a sense of humor.   I took a few different patterns and combined them into the wine balancers.  In the area we live in, covered bridges are a big thing so those are our biggest sellers to date.

Well Mom is on her way to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  I have an Aunt and Cousin who will be here for the big day also so I have to cut this short and get to cleaning and getting ready for the festivities.  Have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving.