Its getting to be that time of year again...

Here are some ornaments that I cut this morning,  I have been working with Paint Shop pro and some good directions that someone was nice enough to give me to make my own name ornaments for friends and family.  Three of the ornaments were cut out of walnut and the other two were cut out of brown maple.  Brown maple is one of my favorite woods to use.  Its is grown locally here and has a wonderful grain to cut all kinds of nice things.

I have not been keeping my blogs updated like I should, I will try to improve on that.  I enjoy sharing my work and showing everyone what I have been up to.  We are trying to get ready for our craft shows.  We are trying a few different and new shows this year.  We are also starting in October this year.  This way we will be able to add a few extra shows on to our already hectic craft show schedule.  We have added a show or two down in the Glens Falls area of New York this year.

I have been cutting ornaments and earrings out to fill our stock up.  I hope to get time to get some of these posted in the very near future.  Our earrings are selling quickly.  I never would have thought to cut earrings so I guess I am glad my youngest daughter asked me to cut her some last summer.  I have a display of our earrings at the college bookstore where I work. 

OK the saw is calling me.  Time to get busy again.  Have a great day and take care everyone.

How about a Little "Wine" with that cheese

This is what I have been working on for the past week or so.  I ordered a few patterns from ScrollerLTD and went to work.  I have been looking for that little something extra to bring to the craft shows this fall and I believe this may be it.  I also scoured the internet to find wine balancing patterns.  It is hard to believe but there are a lot of them out there to be found.  I have found them for wine bottles and for the 2 liter soda bottles.  The first picture is a wine bottle balancer that I found on the web and cut out of maple.  The next picture is a walnut glass holder.  I have had a basic pattern for this but really like the fancier one.  The third picture is a wine glass holder that is cut out of maple. The forth is a pattern that I bought from ScrollerLTD.  The web site is http://www.scrollerltd.com/. I changed the inside to better suite my needs.  My wife really likes this sunshine pattern so I incorporated this into her wine bottle balancer.  The fifth  picture is a simple wine bottle balancer that is cut out of walnut also. The last picture is several balancers that I have cut in the past week or so.

   The area we live at in the northeast is quickly adding more and more local wineries and I am hoping to make a tour through some of them with a box of differnt wine bottle holders and balancers to see how thay are accepted.

Wooden Braclets

Happy Easter everyone.  I have not been in the shop doing to much lately and the worst part is I really don't have a good reason.  I have made a few of these wooden braclets that I found a pattern for.  The ones pictured are made from cherry-upper left, Lower left and upper right-black walnut and the lower right is made from spalted oak.

It is Easter Sunday and we are having My aunt and cousin over for Easter Dinner along with both of our daughters and our son-in-law. I am planning on it being a great day.  The weather has been unusually warm for upstate Ny.  The frist part of April and the temps are in the 80's.  The snow is all gone for now and things are looking up.  

I have a small load of walnut to get busy with and hope to be cutting more and more.  I just ordered a few patterns to help jump-start my "wanna cut" list and get out of the no cutting funk I have been in.  Here it is April and the holiday season is not that far off.

  Well this is a start again.  Hope everyone has a "Hoppy Easter"

My life may get back to some sort of normal

For those of you who know me or follow my blog, I have not been able to do to much lately.  The bridge I use daily was condemmed in October and blown up in December.  I have to either cross or drive around Lake Champlain.  Either way it extended my drive to work by way to long.  Driving around is a 95 mile drive each way.  The second option is catch a ferry across that is only 25 miles extra but takes the same amount of time.  The states of New York and Vermont have been working on a new ferry where the old bridge used to be, and they have told us that the new ferry should start this Sunday.  That means I can do the happy dance.  It means a minimum of 2 extra hours will be added to my life each day.  One hour for beauty sleep and one hour for me.  This mean more time in my basement doing what I like to do.  Cutting wood into little pieces. and making wicked cool stuff.
I have not done much in the basement due to weather also.  For those of you not familiar with upstate NY it get cold this time of year and my basement is not heated well.  Ok enough excuses, I have to get to the basement soon and get busy.  I am off today to go pick up a load of walnut which I hope is nice and has some nice color to it.  Walnut is a great motivator for me.
OK have a great day.
Gene

End of the 2009 Craft Season

Christmas 2009 has come and gone, we had a great year this past year despite all that is happening around us. My wife and I completed 10 days of craft shows, a new record for us. We had a few great days and we had a few crappy days and we learned more and more from each show we have done.

The pictures posted here are from a patterns furnished by Steve's Scrollsaw Workshop Blog @ http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/. The original design had hearts on it. I modified this and place some cut outs of Vermont and New york, I also designed a Christmas Tree cut out. We sold these at our last 2 shows and they did well enough to make sure we have them for next year. For those new to this blog my wife and I started doing craft show 3 seasons ago at an Aunts suggestion. We started doing the craft shows just to pay for our Christmas. Each year our Christmas has been growing and growing. We really enjoy doing the craft shows.

I learn something different at each show. Sometimes we learn something good, sometimes it not so good. next season we will be doing as many shows as this year but a few of the locations will be different. Most of our shows are done in Upstate NY and Vermont. All within an hour drive of the house on a good (no snow) day. Next year I believe we will expand our boundaries some and try to make it to some of the bigger cities and towns around here.

Today is Dec 30Th and I have already started cutting for next years Christmas season. We ran out of a lot of items this past year and I do not want to do that again. I spent a good deal of time in the basement yesterday, today I will not be so lucky, its approx 11 degrees below zero and my basement is not heated. Today will be a good day to just sit around and play some video games with the wife on the new WII Santa brought us for Christmas.

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