And, a much better picture...

Christy happened to have a much better picture of my pretty Brooke with her new bed.  Here she is after opening her present.  I have orders for two more beds just from this picture!  Can you see it now - a garage full of teensy bunk beds!

I have to mention that Kayden was the seamstress for the bedding on both Brooke's and Taylor's beds.  She did such a good job - thank you, Kayden!

See the empty bunk?  That's for Abby's doll when she  visits!

Another pretty bed - with a pretty young lady...

I recently posted a picture of the day bed built for Kayden's cousin, Taylor.  But, the picture was taken before it was "gifted" to her.  Here's a picture of Taylor with her new day bed - which it turns out is big enough for both of her American Girl dolls!  (It looks almost big enough for her!)  Project done!

Another year, another project...

Happy New Year!

Yep, it's the last day of 2011, the eve of the New Year.  It's the 3rd new year I've ushered in without Don.  

Okay, enough of that.  It's been a great year.  It's had it's ups and downs just like any year.  We've lost Madeline Cornelius (Grandma Mad), Josephine Rowlison (Grandma Verne) and Jackie Gililland (Don's Mom) all within the last two weeks of November.   But, to balance the losses, there have been a few new babies added to the mix, too.  Bottom line, in my family we've all had jobs to go to and we've had our health (thank you God!).

And, I've had my projects!  In fact, I've just finished one.  It was the biggest thing I've tackled - and I don't think I'll be making anything this big again!  It wasn't difficult to build, just to "handle".  I don't have the space either.  It was wall-to-wall cabinets in my garage.  My saw is nice but it isn't big enough to handle large pieces of lumber, and neither am I!  I work only with plywood because it's fairly light and I can lift most pieces, but when you put a bunch of big pieces together, that one item gets really, really heavy!!

Kyle actually installed these cabinets.  I delivered them, helped him get them to the wall and then he attached them to the wall and added the trim pieces.  There is another piece that isn't shown in these pictures that surprised both Kyle and me.  He gave me the dimensions and I built it to those same dimensions, and when we slid that cabinet in it was square and fit perfectly - has to be a first for me (getting it squared!)  It's in and the trim is attached, but the cabinet itself hasn't been anchored to the wall.  As soon as that's done I'll add a picture of the one.

The cabinets add so much nice, usable space to Kyle and Deb's small living space.  I'm happy with the end result, and so are they - job done!

Remember where I started?

And then it started coming together...

Wall cabinets getting painted.

Center media cabinet ready to go, and loaded in the truck .

Oops, how did that happen?
See, this is oak - it was supposed to be birch!  Darn - but it looks nice  so I'm going with it!

And here it is finished!  Ready to ring in the New Year.

Congratulations Kyle and Deb!  I'm so proud of both of you - you've shown tremendous patience as you've tackled your remodeling project.  Hang in there - you're almost done!

Another pretty bed...Done!

I've said it in earlier posts, but I'm going to say it again - I love making these little beds!  They're so darned cute.

You saw a picture of this bed as a "sneak peek" in my last post.  Here it is all painted with the cushy mattress.

I wish I had the blanket and pillow made by No. 1 Granddaughter (the Seamstress).  She did a wonderful job on that and it's really, really cute on this bed.  She took it home with her after her doll-bed-blanket marathon last week; I'll get a picture of that soon though so you can see just what a sewing whiz she is becoming.

This is a present for the Seamstress's cousin  from my daughter's family - it's just what she wanted, a daybed for her American Girl doll.

Ho, Ho, Ho and Merry Christmas!

What's up??

I haven't posted anything new in quite a while.  I've been working on stuff but haven't finished much!  Here's a sneak peek!

My haven...

I've talked about my woodworking being really good therapy for me, but I've also come to think of my garage as a haven.  When I walk out the front door and into the garage I don't think about the dust on my furniture, the floors that need to be cleaned, the laundry waiting to be folded and put away or the dirty dishes.  And, yesterday I was reminded that I haven't been thinking much about my bills either!  I came home to a notice that my water had been turned off!!

I was dumbfounded - sure that I'd paid that bill.  But, nope, I checked my on-line banking records and sure enough the last time I paid my water bill was in October.  Strangely enough, I received my most recent bill yesterday, too.  It did show that I had an outstanding balance.  But, between Oct 14th and yesterday I didn't receive a reminder - and the rep assured me that they always send out a reminder.  I suppose it got lost with the original bill.

Well, darn.  I haven't been late on a payment like that in a long, long time.  I guess I need to spend more time in the house - and I will, just as soon as the Doc's wall unit is done, and my Christmas gifts are finished.  It looks like I'll have to start the New Year off with a resolution to take care of the business of living before I can escape to my hideaway!

Death and Therapy...

f I had any doubt that my woodworking was good therapy, they've been dispelled.  I've spent the weekend working in the garage and I'm pretty sure that my mood is back to normal.

November was a tough month for this family.  My oldest daughter's husband lost two grandmothers.  These two women were wonderful, warm, and caring people.  They treated my daughter as if she was their granddaughter. And, they treated me like a daughter.   La Verne and Madeline will be missed!  

We also lost my husband's mother.  Don's mom was not the easiest woman to love.  I know that she loved her son and daughters, but for some reason she was seldom able to show them that she loved them.  And, she rarely said the words "I love you".  Her children loved her, but never understood why she wasn't like everyone else's mother!  Her difficulty in showing her feelings spilled over to her grandchildren.  She could sometimes share some loving feelings with the grandchildren who lived close to her, but my children rarely saw her and never heard much from her either.  I think I can count the number of birthday greeting cards she sent to all of my children on one hand (and I'd have a few fingers left over). 

Over the years I made every effort to keep in touch with Don's parents.  We made at least one trip north each year specifically to see them.  In 39 years of marriage his parents traveled only 3 times to visit us.  And, one of those trips we went there, picked his mom up and brought her to our home to spend the summer with us.  Even during that time she was critical of the kids rather than loving, found fault in the way our family functioned, and spent little time sharing time with us.

That said, I still feel her loss.  After Don's death I tried to contact her every week.  But, in the past 6 months it had become very difficult to try to carry on a conversation with her and my calls had dwindled.  In fact, after trying unsuccessfully to reach for for over 2 months, she actually called me (that's only happened twice in 39 years!).  During that call she was talkative and seemed happy.  She even told me she loved.  Lord, I should have known what was coming!  I talked with her on Thanksgiving day as she was waiting to be picked up to go to her daughter's for dinner.  Again, she seemed in good spirits and we had a brief, but good conversation.  I'm thankful for that because the day after Thanksgiving Jackie fell and broke her hip.  As it happened, I arrived in Medford that same morning for a brief visit with my logger daughter and her family.  Instead, I went directly to the hospital.

Mom was in pain and on medication for the pain.  She was pretty much out of it but occasionally was able to mumble something that we could understand.  She had surgery Saturday morning and did well considering her overall ill health.  However, she was having trouble breathing and she was transferred to ICU just until her breathing stabilized.  She was fairly lucid that Sunday and chatted briefly with her daughter, but Sunday evening she was failing.  Her daughters made the difficult decision to keep her comfortable but to let her go.  She died Monday morning about 7:30.

I am relieved that she is no longer in pain, that the loss of her son, which she felt so deeply, is behind her.  I will miss her, ornery person that she could be!

Her death opened up my own loss and I've felt melancholy and sad all week.  Emotions have been up and down.  I couldn't wait to get back to my own house, away from that death.  And when I did arrive home, what did I do??  I went out to the garage and continued working on my son's wall unit.  I cut, I drilled pocket holes, I glued, I painted.  These are big, heavy pieces and I shoved and pulled and strained all weekend long. I thought about Don, his Mom, and their lives.  I thought about how Jackie lost her son and in the losing of Don she almost lost her own life.  I thought about how I once asked God why he'd taken Don and left his mother!  I thought about all of it.  This is life, it isn't always easy, it often isn't fun, and sometimes it downright tragic.  But, it is what it is, and we either deal with it or we buckle under the weight of it.  I've chosen each day to deal with it.  And, I've found that it is so much easier to deal with when I'm in woodworker mode!  Thank God for wood and tools - I just might make it!

Project progress?

Ugh!  I'm still working on the day bed!  But, there is progress.  Last night I added the 3rd and final coat of polyurethane to the face frames and drawer fronts.  Tonight I can give them a final swipe of a clean cloth and call it done.  Then I just need to get it out of the garage.  Ah, but, therein lies a problem.  The designer has someone staying in the room this daybed is going in, so it can't be installed yet!  I really do need the room in the garage so I think I'm going to have to ask her if I can deliver it anyway.  I'm hoping she has room on her patio where it can be safely stored until she's ready to have it installed.

This one was slooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww!  I'm glad it's complete.  I'll post pictures once it's in place!

Home Depot, again!

I remember asking Don why in the world he had to spend so much time at Home Depot.  Sometimes he was there several times a day, for goodness sake!  Well, darned if I don't find myself heading off to Home Depot often, sometimes several times a day, too!!  I now believe that it's some kind of mystical phenomenon that occurs when you use tools on a regular basis.

For some reason known only to the powers that be at Home Depot, they are no longer planning to carry the Pure Bond birch plywood that I like to use.  My Glendora store has been out of it for over 4 weeks, but some of the stores still have a few sheets.  So, Saturday morning bright and early, there I was at the Covina Home Depot.  By the way, I hate to try to find things in the different Home Depots - they are similarly laid out, but just different enough to make you crazy!

Finally!

Good grief!  It's been such a struggle - I don't ever want to do another big drawer!

After a couple of weeks of effort to get these 3 big drawers to work, I'm finally ready to say "DONE".  Not, perfect, mind you, but Done!

Now to the staining.  I'm not a finisher, and I'd said I wouldn't do the finish.  But, I hate to lug these things over to the house and leave them for someone else to smear the stain on them.  They can't be put in the room until they're stained and have a good coat of polyurethane on them and now's the time to do that!  So, I'm working on that and hope to get these things out of my garage soon!  They're being stained a deep, dark espresso color and I'll put a couple coats of semi-gloss poly on them.  When they 're finally ready to be installed I'll add a piece of trim on the few inches that will show on the left hand box, slide them into place, maybe connect them at the face frames, and call it done.  The cushion is up to my friend!

My bruises are finally healing!

Success - sort of!

Another drawer that works! Hooray for me.

Finally, last night after dinner I made my way out to the garage.  I was tired and really debated whether I wanted to work on this.  In the end, I told myself that I'd work only until 9 pm.  If I still wasn't getting these drawers to work by then, I'd worry about them later.

When I left the garage on Sunday I'd left the drawers in pieces.  My plan was to rebuild them and make every effort to get them square.  I built myself a jig - I guess that's what you'd call it.  Two square corners wide enough to hold the ends of the drawers.  I squared up one end, screwed it together, flipped it around and did the same with the other end.  Checked for square - success!  The new drawers ended up about a 1/2" shorter and deeper than the one drawer that work well from the get go (I had to use the material I had on hand - I'm trying to keep the costs down for my friend's sake!). But, the drawer fronts are all the same size so the slight difference won't be noticeable.

Perfect fit!

Two that fit!

 I was so sure that the problem drawer would work well that I put the drawer front on it before sliding it into the box.  Dang, dang, dang - it wasn't right, not even close.  It doesn't look bad here, but it is :-(

Still a problem!

I worked on it a bit, lowering and moving slides,  It moves all the way in now, but it's still not level or straight in the box.  If I can't finish this by Friday, this is going to be on hold for a while.  This weekend I start a new project, one that should be more straight forward.  Cabinets for the Docs-I do like making things for my kids!

Check back to see how this bed turns out - I can't wait to see either!

Nada, zip, nothing...

Well, I haven't received divine guidance regarding the drawers.

I really haven't had time to get back into the garage to work on the problem either.  After all, I did have to be available Monday night to pass out candy for Halloween, right?  I mean, I couldn't leave that job entirely up to Chinese Boy (CB) (Bobby's one-time name for Tony).  This was the first time he'd had this responsibility and I needed to make sure that he had a good understanding of what to do and when to do it.  There's just so much to know:  How quickly do you open the door; when you hear the kids, or when they ring the bell?  Do you try to scare them or just smile and laugh at their costumes?  Do you put the candy in their bags or let them reach in and grab?  How much candy do they get, a handful or just a piece?  If they look like they're 18 year old football players, do you give them candy or ask just what the heck they're doing trick or treating?

See what I mean?  It's not an easy task and, of course, I could not leave CB to do this on his own while I pondered the drawer problem! I had to be there.  And I was - in my PJs and bathrobe, sitting in my favorite chair, watching an old moving ("The In-laws" a funny, funny movie!).

Tuesday night I meet with my support group at the church.  I could have put some time in after that.  But, I wanted to be considerate of my neighbors and not subject them to my swearing the noisy drill - it was 9:30 at night.  They were all probably in bed!

So, tonight's the night.  I'm praying that between now and then the drawer fairies will be dancing around in my garage, doing their fairy magic, and that when I finally get the drawers remade and slide them into the drawer openings, THEY WILL, BY GOSH, SLIDE IN RIGHT!  (Those caps do not mean I'm angry, just that I'm just praying out loud!)

New projects...

The big things I've been working on do wear on me, and I have a few more big projects to do.  But, I like thinking about some small projects I could do that I could start and finish in just an hour or two.  Fun stuff!

What do you think - do you like this?  This one is made of reclaimed wood and is really rustic looking, but I might make it a little less rough.  Would you use it?

       

Then there's this.  I've made one of these and want to just keep making them - they're so cute.



Or, how about these?  I don't know why, but I have the urge to make these, lots of them!  Do you like them, too?  Which ones - rustic or white?

  

Okay, now I'm heading to bed.  The Good Wife is on tonight - one of my favorite TV shows!
Good night all.

Damned drawers!

What a day!  I'm still working on the day bed.  It's ready to be stained - almost.  Today I finished the face frames, filled and sanded, cut drawer fronts, and edged those drawer fronts.  Whew, I was feeling pretty good about maybe getting these parts over to my friend the designer.  It looked like all the pieces would line up and butt up against each other just the way they were supposed to (not without lots of redoing and fix'n, let me tell you!).  All I really had to do now was get the drawer fronts on the drawer bodies and I'd be ready to stain.

My euphoria was, sadly, short lived.  One front on and working on the second the ugly consequences of things being just a teensy bit out of square became very apparent!  I tried, I really, really tried to get those drawers right.  I'd finally gotten the "bad" drawer to work.  It wasn't right, and it wasn't pretty, but when the drawer was closed you wouldn't see how I'd made it work, and I was ready to just move on.  So, I started on the second drawer that had worked without any major adjustments.  I put on the drawer front and I was pretty darned close.  In retrospect I should have left that drawer front just as it was - BECAUSE, when I made the slight adjustment that I thought would improve the alignment, well, I have no idea what happened, but that darned drawer now wouldn't slide into the box!  In out, in out - nope, the right side was sticking out 1/4 inch from the face frame.  What could be wrong???  I looked, I moved the glide in the box, I moved the glide on the drawer.  I adjusted the right side, then the left.  Up, down, back, fore.  Nothing worked!

I'd like to say that I finally figured out what to do, but alas, I caved.  After hours and hours and hours pulling that danged drawer in and out (it weighs a ton, mind you, and it's big and bulky - I have a whole new crop of bruises on both my arms and legs!) I threw in the towel.  I did it nicely, nothing was thrown.  Children could be in the general area without worry - I wasn't swearing at all (by that point it I'd realized it was pretty useless!).  Nope, nothing sensational at all.  I just took off my apron, put the drill on the work bench, left the drawer body in pieces (more on this later) and shut the door.  I wasn't having fun right then.  I was done.

I hadn't made any plans for dinner, but I spent an enjoyable hour cooking a pretty darned good dinner from this and that, things I had on hand.  I even had a sip of red wine (vinegary or I would have had more than a sip!).  Now, I'm thinking I'll just go to bed.  Tomorrow's another day and another opportunity to make things work.  Maybe I'll dream of the solution to my problem - you think??  Even if the answer doesn't miraculously come to me, I'll figure it out.  Just not today...

Reclaimed wood...

I spent a week in September visiting my daughter in Northern CA.  Oh, the plans we had!  Console tables, shoe cabinets, rustic tables, too many things to recall right now!  AND WE DIDN'T BUILD ONE OF THOSE THINGS!  We were busy, though.  

Let me back up a bit.  My daughter and son-in-law (the "loggers" from here on out, LD and LSIL will be your individual tags!) bought their house 10 years ago.  It was one 1100 square feet of what I think is called "HUD housing".  Very basic, cheap materials.  The floors tilted and squeaked horribly.  The rooms were so tiny.  But, they soon filled it with kids and all the stuff that comes with kids.  

Back in 2007 they had an opportunity to do a major addition to their home; plans were drawn up and approved to more than double the size of their house.  They now have 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a beautiful modern kitchen, and fairly large living dining area.  My WH did a great deal to help them complete their home.  He installed cabinets, put up crown moulding and door trim, hung doors, and did a bulk of the painting.  He also built and installed custom closet organizers.  But, they were pretty basic, just lots of shelving and double rods.  We all know, kids suck up space!  So, while I was at Christy's I moved rods around so that kids could easily get to their hanging clothes, added additional storage in the closet for toys, and built drawers to fit into those existing closet organizers.  

Things are sometimes a bit more expensive in their little Northern CA town, including lumber.  They also carry different types and cuts of wood than I am used to using down here in Southern CA.  Since the loggers are frugal and have all sorts of wood available, my LSIL and I went on a hunt for 3/4" lumber.  I was excited to find lots of it that I felt certain would work for our needs.  

I learned while making these drawers, that using reclaimed lumber takes a great deal more work than just buying something from the local lumberyard.  Some of it had been stored in an outdoor shed and was filthy and had signs of mold.  It wasn't all straight either!  I spend a great deal of time sanding the boards to remove the dirt and mold, and just to make it safe for the little hands (and not so little hands) that would be pulling and pushing these drawers every single day!  The result isn't very pretty - I call them rustic looking.  But, they work and hold tons of PJs, underwear and socks, and lots of summer shorts.

 

 These are in Bobby and Jack's closet.  The extra toy storage faces these drawers.  They have huge closets!

These large drawers are in Brook's closet.  We also added some storage in a niche that faces these.  We used laundry baskets on wooden runners that we attached to the walls.  One of those large baskets hold all of Brook's shoes, the other holds her capris and shorts.

I started another project while I was there, but was unable to finish it.  I'm hoping to finish that when I'm visiting for the holidays.  It's a neat thing, and something LD really wants.  I hope to have pictures of it to post soon.

It was a great week.  The kids were so excited to be able to reach their hanging clothes and have real drawers to put their clothes into.  They don't have dressers in their rooms because the dresser tops just seem to be holders for everything! My LD says that the kids are doing pretty well at keeping their closets neat - that's a huge plus!  Good job, kids!  

Love you and see you soon.

PS:  (I'll give you fair warning so you have time to spiff things up for Grandma!)

Funny thing about old age...

Don never could bring himself to say he was old - he would even say "I'm 61 years of age", never "I'm 61 years OLD".  I used to think that was funny.  I still think it was a funny way of saying your age!   But, I can relate to not feeling old.  I usually don't even think about my age.  But, recently I've noticed that there are times I feel my age.  Especially when I've been pushing and pulling and lifting and moving the heavy pieces that I'm working on.  For example, consider the day bed I'm currently working on.

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but these pieces will sit next to each other to form a platform that is 72" long X 30 inches deep X 19" high.  By building it in three pieces I can, without assistance, get this into a small space.  Then, an upholstered foam mattress will make this a daybed that my good friend, Judi, can use for her little grandchildren to sleep on when they're visiting.

These things are heavy!  They each have a drawer and those are heavy, too.  Put them together and believe me, I'm struggling to move those suckers!  I have to remind myself to use my legs to lift and to push not pull!

Why?

If you've stumbled across this site you won't know that I lost my husband March 31, 2009.  Actually, I didn't just lose my husband, I lost my best friend.  I'd married my wonderful husband (let's just call him WH for now) when I was 20 years old, so I'd spent almost 39 years with him.  About 2/3's of my life!  We have three children and 5 grandchildren (so far).  They're wonderful, all of them, and I love to spend time with them.  But, they have their own space in my heart, and the space that Don filled is broken.

Most days I feel like I'm doing okay.  I wake up happy, I have a wonderful boss and coworkers I like.  My kids, as I've said, are wonderful and I see and talk with them often.  I have great friends that I've had for a lifetime, and I have some terrific new friends that have supported me in my changed life.  But, still, there is a huge, gaping hole in my life that I have to work on every day to fill!

And more storage...

I have a young friend at work.  In some respects she reminds me of my daughter-in-law; they both love clothes and shoes!  Well, one day I got a call from my friend and she explained that she had a huge problem.  She had purchased lots of plastic bins to store her many pairs of shoes, but the bins took up too much space in her closet and she could no longer hang her dresses there.  She'd measured the small area between her bed and the closet and she had 24" of space.  Her question: Would it be possible to have a cabinet made to fit there.

Honestly, I was surprised.  Was she really willing to pay for materials to add two feet of storage space?  Would that really give her the extra space she needed?

Turns out she was serious.  And this cabinet fit perfectly in that tiny space.  It will provide her an extra 2 feet of hanging space and 2 additional drawers.  She was so excited when I delivered this and we slid it into place.
I told her that I didn't want to paint or stain it (I really don't like that part!), so, she did that.  It's painted an Espresso color.

I made lots of mistakes on this one (if you're reading this Keiry, don't go looking for them!) - I really need to get something that reads accurate measurements to me!  But, it's surprising how easy it is to "fix" things so that no one else is aware of any goofs.  I was really pleased with how this turned out - and thrilled that something that kept me busy and taught me so many lessons made her so happy!

    

And, finished and in place - It looks terrific, Keiry!

A place to work...

Did I mention that the Doctors lack storage space?  Or, maybe it's that they have just a whole bunch of stuff!  They decided that what they needed was to turn one of their small, extra bedrooms into an office space.  My son designed the desk and upper cabinet.  Once I had it built, he painted the base and stained the desk top and the upper cabinet.  Notice the printer?  I suggested that we put that on a pull out shelf so that he could get to it easily (experience talking!), but he didn't think he'd need that.  He's since decided that it would be helpful to have it on a pull out, and then he could also add a shelf above it for more storage.

(This finished picture doesn't show the upper, but it has since been stained and installed.)

A place to dine...

My son and daughter (let's just call them the Doctors), have a small outdoor patio.  A normal sized patio table and chairs would use up all their space.  I had seen a really cool looking table posted to the ana-white site, and thought I could scale it down to the size they needed.  And, they had an anniversary coming up so I had an excuse to build something totally unnecessary, just interesting!   

I was going along, feeling really smug about creating this really interesting design when I noticed that almost every piece of wood I'd screwed into place had split!  I was pretty disappointed, and painstakingly began removing screws to see if I could salvage any of the material.  As it turned out, I had to make another trip to Home Depot for additional pine, but was able to reuse some of my original lumber.  

I had to get over my fear of using my husband's old circular saw to get the legs cut out, and I threw out a few 2x4's before I got them right!

In the end, I was surprised at how nicely it turned out.  Chairs - who would have thought that I could make chairs?  They actually should have been sanded more on the edges, but my lovely daughter-in-law said not to worry about it, they'd just buy some cushions.  Hooray!  My son says the seats are fairly comfortable as is, but I think he'll welcome the cushions, too.

A good night's sleep...

My son and his wife need lots of storage for their clothes.  My son built a platform for their mattress which lifted it high enough off the floor for them to slide in plastic storage bins.  But, I kept hearing how much it wobbled.  Now, a wobbling bed might be nice at times, but not when you're just trying to get a good night's sleep.  And, I certainly didn't want them to hurt themselves if it collapsed when there was something more than sleep going on!  So, this Queen sized storage bed was built for them.  

The plans are from a web site that I just love: ana-white.com.   I've also built a couple of floating night stands that still need to be installed in their room.  Once installed they will be able to access the large drawers that are on either side at the head of the bed.

This project was stained using Minwax Espresso rub on stain, and finished off with a rub-on polyurethane.  Kyle did most of the staining and it's a really beautiful finish.  As a bonus, this bed is so heavy there absolutely isn't any wobble in it!

Espresso anyone?

My daughter and her husband have a small house.  They maximized their space by concealing their media equipment in a closet directly behind their large TV.  That left their living room looking like a bowling alley!  They wanted a cabinet to sit under the TV, but because their room is very narrow they didn't want it to be as deep as most cabinets available for purchase.  I spent several weekend days shopping with my daughter for the "perfect" piece.  It had to be the right depth, longer than the TV, and cheap!  Finally, I just didn't want to shop anymore!  I told her I might be able to make something that would work.  

I think she doubted that I was serious, so when I told her I'd purchased material to make their cabinet, a look of concern crossed her face!  I can only imagine what she was  thinking - probably "Oh my gosh, am I really going to have to put some horrible looking thing in my living room just so I don't hurt my Mom's feelings??"

Well, I think my first real project was a success.  It's not perfect, but most of my goofs are hidden, and this media/wine cabinet looks nice in their living room.  It's the perfect size for their space, too.  I also made them 2 coordinating end tables.  (I made 2 end tables just like this one for a coworker.)