December Daily - Garage Workshop

Scary Larry the Shop Mascot got a little bit
of Christmas Spirit.

December 17th

There is nowhere else my husband would rather be than in his garage workshop.  A couple weeks ago the chaos had gotten too bad in there and he decided to do something about it.  He designed and built a lumber cart.  Some place to put all the shot up target sticks for our Matchstick Frames and other miscellaneous lumber we had stored in our garage. I think it turned out really well. Yesterday, we worked on in the shop and I appreciated this so much as there was room to walk in our garage.

BIG SHOT COFFEE SIGN

My husband makes these wonderful shot up picture frames from gun range target frames.  I convinced him to make this chalk board sign to hang above my kitchen sink.  My kitchen has a lot of coffee decor.  Hey, I lived in the Pacific Northwest where you can't throw a rock without hitting a coffee stand.  I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a catchy saying . I finally settled on "Home of Big Shot Coffee".

I traced the letters onto chalkboard. I used the technique found at Jenna Sue Design Co.  I used regular chalk on all the letters except the "O". It was a whole lot of chalk dust. I borrowed my son's pencil sharpener to sharpen the chalk to a point.  On the "O" I used a cooper chalk pen. After sitting with it for a bit we decided it wasn't popping enough and colored the "O" in with a cooper and gold chalk pen. We wanted the "O" to look like the end of a bullet casing. I have another post on Chalk Lettering for those of you who want to learn how to hand letter.

My husband also made me a really cool sunburst/half sun with roached target frames too.

Reclaimed Wood Half Sun

We have all this shot up target wood laying around which we use to make our matchstick frames.  I had a spot in my entry way that needed something.  So I was discussing this with my husband and this is what we came up with. 

Everyone Admiring their Work

Details
I cut out a half circle out of cardboard to help with the layout. 

Then I went through our wood pile.  We used gray shot up wood for the base beams and lighter wood for the in-between beams. My husband made a little jig to help in getting the miter just right for each beam. He also ended up cutting a much smaller half circle out of plywood to attach the sun beams to.  The beams were glue and brad nailed to the base. I love the roached wood.  

What I learned in 2014

I have been participating in "What I learned" each month with the blog Chatting at the Sky.  Since it is the end of the year, I am doing a 2014 wrap up of what I learned.

I strapped on a FitBit and my friend tried to walk me and her dog to death. (love ya Mrs Epi) I did think the fitbit made a difference.  It made me conscious of my lack of movement and  to get moving. Who knew such a little device could make such a big impact?

I really gave my one little word a workout.  My one little word for 2014 was Evolve.  I learn I could evolve.  I even did Zumba.  I was way outside of my comfort zone. I was even was a crew leader for VBS. The whole family got to help with a haunted forest as well.  I can't even watch scary parts of movies without shutting my eyes so I am glad I was able to assist without freaking out.

I read a lot of great books which reaffirmed reading is my form of relaxation.  I participated in Life as Mom's booking it. My year of booking it roundup.

Cody standing with a pile of Ivy he pulled
at the Larrabee Park CITO

We geocached a lot. I know we are totally nerdy. Love it! We also participated in a lot of great geocaching events - North Kitsap Cache Machine, Great Balls of Fire, Mount Vernon Geocoin Challenge, Point Roberts Cache Machine, CITO Larrabee State Park, 12-13-14.

I did 31 days of blogging and discovered it is hard but worthwhile. 31 Days of Adventure

I got to discover the joys of having a 1st year Trumpet player.  It reminded that all of us start as beginners. I appreciate my son's tenacity. 

My husband and I started a little business venture.  We make picture frames from reclaimed wood target frames.  We call them matchstick frames.  So far we haven't been monetarily successful but we haven't invested much and we have learned lots.

shot up heart

Shot to the Heart

Since my hubby has been busy with shot up target frame wood.  Target wood is wood that as been used for target frames at a local gun range. The wood has lots of  bullet holes. We make picture frames with it that we call Match Stick Frames.We had lots of unusable cut offs from frames so  I asked my hubby to make me a shot up heart. He attached this fancy heart hanger he made with some rusted wire that was given to him.  I think it turned out cute and the best part it cost $0 money. I added it to our heart/love/valentine gallery wall. Details about the string heart here and embroidered tree here.

Anyone else got You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi going through their head?

A New Venture - Etsy Shop

8x10 Keep Calm and Reload

My hubby and I have a small new venture.  We are selling what we call these Match Stick Picture Frames.

 

 

8 x 10 Thomas Jefferson Quote 

 

8 x10 Don't Tread On Me

The wood of the frame has genuine bullet holes in it. The wood is from actual shot up target frames from a local range.  The range normally just burns the busted target frames in their burn barrels during the winter. We are donating a portion of the profits to the Junior Shooter Program at our local range. 

 

I think these frames would look awesome in a Den, Man Cave, Western Theme Room, or Workshop. Each frame is so unique.  It was fun putting them together making sure that each piece had character with lots of  bullet holes.

 

Our picture frames are also for sale locally at TENEX and at our Etsy shop Match Stick Frames