Hint #1: This past Thursday was the annual Show-and-Tell for the St. Louis Woodworkers Guild. Always a good place to go and get inspired - if not by what you see, then at least by the actions of others. This is also the second year we've had silent auction tables. I already had a pile of duplicate tools (ok, ok... they were triplicates) sitting in a box to be sold on eBay or Craig's List or just given away, so I decided to bring them in. Oh, ho! I came home with $230 in my pocket AFTER paying listing and selling fees to the guild! (I didn't complain about the fees - it all went to the guild, after all.) That will go far in buying my new shop floor!
Hint #2: Earlier in the day on Thursday, I'd received an e-mail from Spike Carlsen, a fellow woodworker and author of several woodworking books. A few years ago, he gave a presentation at one of our guild meetings. In preparation for the meeting, I wrote a review of his book, A Splintered History of Wood. He's just published another book, Ridiculously Simple Furniture Projects, and wanted to know if I would read and review it.
Hint #3: My friend, Alex, has been posting pictures on Facebook of the progress he's making on his new workshop. Jerk.
Hint #4: When I got home from the SLWG meeting, I checked my e-mail and saw that I'd received a possible commission request!
Hint #5: My little boy is getting baptized the first weekend of May. My wife's aunt and uncle could possibly drive down from Ohio for the event! Her uncle has recently become an avid woodworker and apparently this new interest was all started with the turned bog oak fountain pen I'd given him for Christmas one year. He has a pretty nice setup in the third bay of their garage. One of the last times I was up visiting them, I helped him install his Gorilla cyclone dust extractor. His shop is organized, clean, and fully functional. There's no way I can let him see the complete wreck of a room I call my workshop!
You think five hints is enough? I do!
So it's time for me to kick into gear and get some things done. First I need to get some things done in my shop - a bit of painting, hanging some shop lights, and installing a floor.
I want to get click-in cork flooring. I think it will work well in a woodworking shop - it is tool friendly and will provide some cushion for my feet. I don't have quite all of the money I need to buy the flooring, but I think I might be able to take a "loan" out of our savings account to cover the difference. I'll pay it back, I swear!
And... that's my goal - to get those three things done before May 1st. I don't want to set too many goals for myself that I get overwhelmed, you know? And when my wife's uncle comes to visit, that should be a good opportunity to get some ideas from him as to how I can set up the shop to achieve the best use of space.
Oh, there is another goal - to dust this blog off and get it back up and running. I haven't been writing anything lately mostly because I haven't been doing any woodworking. It is hard to justify the first without the second. But I have several blog ideas running through my head, and some obligations I need to fulfill, so I'll work on that, as well.
Sorry for the prolonged absence. Hopefully I'm back! My only excuse for the lack of blogging and woodworking is this guy to the left...Now... who wouldn't want to spend all of their free time with this little Clark Kent wannabe?
