tools and me

Another goal for the new year is to become more of a handyman.  Like Bob Vila, minus the facial hair.

My sister-in-law Cathy even gave me some tools recently because she knew I wanted some.  (She's like my mother-in-law in that way...she quietly listens and takes notes in that brain of hers, and then out of the blue, BAM!!  She surprises you with something that you have wanted.  Cathy once secretly reupholstered my cedar chest bench while I was downstairs watching a movie with Porter because she had heard me say that I wanted it done.  She's tricky that way.)

Anyway, back to the tools.  They're PINK!!!  And come organized in their own nice canvas tool bag.  I love them.  I've been using my pink measuring tape to measure everything in the house because it makes me feel happy and important and handymanlike.

Since acquiring the tool set though, I've been itching to really build something.

Anything.

And so I did.

I dreamed the project up in my head, and Bill hammered out the logistics and helped me get the design just right.

Then we paid a visit to my dad - because he is just as talented as Bob Vila, minus the facial hair....and has a wood shop that would probably make Bob Vila drool.  My dad's got skills.

I can't say I completely cut and built it.  I didn't.  My dad and Bill helped.  But it was so much fun hanging out in my dad's wood shop with the two men in my life I love most of all, building something I dreamed up.  Plus, we even recycled some lumber from our old deck to make it.  I'm excited to see the finished product.  It needs some paint and some hardware, but here it is; raw, unadorned, beautiful:

What is it?  Well that's another blog post for another time.

I will give a hint though.  It's a small component of a much larger project that we will most likely start when it warms a little.  Stay tuned.

Until then, I will continue enjoying my pink tools and experimenting with this ambition for 2010!

(** By the way, are we supposed to say twenty-ten OR two thousand ten??)