I am almost finished with the wedding box but I had to show off my clean workshop first.

All cleaning starts in the closet with me.  Here is leather, paper, and beautiful boxes of organization.  And the best part is that some of these boxes are still empty — I have room to grow!

The second closet was a success because I cleaned out Christmas decorations which are now relegated to just one shelf (and most of that is a holiday train).

This is my workbench.  The drawer pedestals came from a school surplus sale.  I’m pretty sure they were the student storage for a shop class.  Each cabinet has one locking drawer and one locking slot per student.  So I have six keys per unit.  At that rate I could keep things safe from even me!

And the cutting table.  OK, so every nook and cranny is not totally clean, but for now, I’m ready to work!

You know those last “finishing touches” on the wedding box?  Well, I ran into a problem — I got the idea that I should clean up the workshop first.  Then straightening one shelf turns into 4 drawers, and 4 drawers, turns into the whole closet, which turns into a desire to clean out everything.  So now, my workshop is less useable than when I started.  But have faith, the pictures should be ready early next week!?!  (Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

I’ve almost finished my mother’s wedding box using the scraps of fabric leftover from her wedding dress.  I’ve found some pretty special pieces to put in it.  I’ll describe here and pictures will follow later in the week.  The box opens at the top and has a drawer at the bottom.  The front is decorated with a bow that matches the bow on my mother’s dress.  

The colors of the wedding were pretty much red and white.  In the red satin-lined drawer is a stack of letters tied in a red satin bow.  The letters are communications between my parents while they were still engaged and my father was in boot camp for the Army Reserves.  I was trying to decide on a knob for the drawer and had purchased two:  one was a crystal looking one that looked more like a wedding and the other was a porcelain one that was less appropriate but I liked the look better — as so did my mother.  But I decided that I would go with the crystal look.  Then I read just one of the letters from my mother to my father.  She had a friend whose father build furniture and was building a few pieces for them.  She had been deciding on the knobs on the furniture and I guess had been thinking a lot about it.  We still have the pieces and the knobs are porcelain.  There is a line in the letter that says that she loves him more than a porcelain knob.  Decision made, I swapped out the knobs.   [Read more…]