Snow days

We have been having some snow days around here. It started snowing Friday at about daylight and it snowed until just about daylight on Saturday. We had about 8 inches when it was done. It is so pretty to look at, but it does slow things up. We don't have all of the material for our next beds, and we have not been able to get out to get what we need. But the kids have been having a lot of fun. Of course what else would four kids do with 8 inches of snow. The little dog really does not love the 8 inches of snow though. He is only about 10 inches tall so he really just wants the world back the way it should be. Also the chickens do not love it. They have been hiding out under a shed and under the deck. Those are the only places where they can find dirt to scratch in.

It is really beautiful to look at though.

The cat has been cracking me up. He saw that the birds were coming to the feeder and he really thinks he should catch one. I think he thinks that he is hiding from them. He reminds me of the old cartoons with Sylvester and Tweety bird. Poor Sylvester never could quite make it work for him either. Of course the birds see the black cat in all the white snow and they are going to the other feeder.

Tenttastic

This is the Jeffery style in Deep Ocean. I love, love, love this bed! It was so much fun to stain it and watch it turn blue. It looked so good after we set it up in the little mans room. It also had a little shelf for whatsits. And a bookshelf for whatever he should choose to collect.

Didn't I tell you it looked great in his room? But the best part of this bed has nothing to do with us. It is all about what happened after we left. Our customer was kind enough to email us the last picture. Just scroll down to see what they did when we left.

TENTTASTIC!!! Isn't that cool? What little boy would not love that? Or little girl for that part. I have it on good authority that dads love them too.

Now I know that the first thing you thought was "where can I get one of those". My customer was kind enough to tell me where she found this one. First she says that if you google search for
"loft bed tents" you will get a lot to choose from. This one she bought from efurnitureshowroom.com .

Back from Texas

We got home from our Texas trip on Wednesday night. We were very happy to have beat bad weather home. We spent yesterday in the black hole of email. I hope we are caught up on that. We also had to go and buy some groceries just in case we end up with a storm that keeps us home a few days. So far we have not gotten anything but school is closed so maybe they know something I don't. Anyway this is the first bed from our Texas trip. It is the one I called the Clairamy. Notice how it has the arch on the side rail? That was our customers idea and it looked great. Here is a better shot of the arch, and of the little shelf on the side. Sort of a bedside table for a loft bed.

This is a new dresser design for us. It matches the clair style bed frame with the bead board. The knobs are hers, they looked great. She said that as she was shopping for them she saw some for as much as $30 each. She paid less than $3 at Hobie Loby.

These stairs are also a little different for us we are calling them the Bailee stairs. They are for bigger kids that don't need the safety rail. These also match the Clair with the bead board. And that little door on the side is a storage area that is tall. The top two drawer fronts are fake so that the area could be as large as possible. This girl is 13 and has an instrument and sometimes equipment bags to store so she needed this kind of a space instead of drawers.

This is another little creation my husband made for this bed. She needed a little shelf by her head to set things on. But my hubby thought that it would be wasted space so he made it open so it is a little storage box. She can keep her little treasures in it. Pretty cool. I want one.

A better picture of the shelf.

Behind the dresser are what we called cubbies. Her mom had some folding canvas boxes that she was going to put on them for storage.

We were trying to match some furniture that they had done in a whitewash. We came pretty close. The color is called white oak, and it looked great.

Why you should wear eye protection

Today my husband came in looking a little pale and wanted me to see if he had little bits of anything in his face. He did not, but this is why he asked. He was cutting with the chop saw and all of a sudden stuff was hitting him in the face. He happened to have glasses on. I would be lying if I said he is super good about that but at least this time he had them on. He is not really certain what happened but clearly the blade got bent one way or the other and it got way out of where it was supposed to be.

This is the answer to what hit him in the face. That is the metal guide for the blade. Obviously the blade is not supposed to be visible from this point of view. So it was most likely little bits of that metal that hit him in the face. Thankfully he was not hurt, and my dad had one we could borrow till we buy a new one.

The thing about the second Texas bed

We have cats, they are outside cats, they are meant to keep the mice away but I think only one of them does that and it is the one that just showed up one day out of the blue and decided it lives here now. Two of them are brother and sister and they don't give us the impression that thy are very smart. We like them but they just don't seem like head of the class material. This one went out into the shop because it was warm. When Freddy turned on the planer and it started to rain down wood shavings it just stayed asleep. Really cute, not so bright This is bed number one again or the Clairamy. It has a whitewash finish going. Now I have to say that this is growing on me. I am a woman who likes to have a noticeable result for my efforts. And when I put this stain on, it looked just the same as before. That does not mean I don't like it. It just means that the child inside of me was not satisfied with the subtle difference in color. Now that it is done and I look at it I do like it.

The thing about the second bed for Texas is not the bed. It is simply a Jeffery style bed with a bookshelf in the end. But it is the color. This one satisfied the child in me so much that it led to the stupidest thing I have done today, so far. It is called deep ocean and I love it. I have been so excited to see it on the bed, that my kids have told me to stop it. I don't know if the picture does it justice but it is very cool.

Now about the stupid thing I did. I opened the new can of stain eager to get it on the wood. Then I stirred it for what seemed like an eternity waiting to get it on the wood. Then I got a stool and stood on it to get the top of the headboard. I got up on the stool and finally put it on the top of the headboard. Then I wiped it off and stood there looking at the pretty color. Just taking it in, loving it. Then I heard a strange sound that brought me out of my loving the color. It was the sound of the stain hitting the floor. In my wonder at the beauty of the pretty color I for got that I was holding a full can of stain and relaxed my hand. Cleaning it up reminded me that I am in fact a grown up and I should pay attention to what I am doing.

Texas bed #1

So bed #1 is pretty much finished and it is very cute. But first we have changed the color of the second bed. Or more accurately our customer has changed the color of the second bed. We don't make those kind of decisions. This does happen sometimes. She looked on the Minwax website and liked the first color called Pearl Grey. But when we put it on wood and sent her a picture it was not what she had in mind. It could be they used different wood, or maybe even mislabeled the color who knows. At any rate she loves the one on the bottom which is called Deep Ocean. I love it too. In fact I love it so much that I had to save it for last, one of those little things I do. Like eating my peas first and saving stuffing for last. I can't wait to see it on the bed today. That is the first thing I get to do when I stop blogging. This is a process that we always do when we are working with a custom color. It can look so different on the wood that we always test it and send you a picture first. That way if it is not what you wanted we can make a change and it is no big deal. Now about the first bed. It is sort of a mixture of two styles, here on the bottom it looks like a Clair.

But here on top it looks a little like a Jeremy, maybe we should call it a Clairamy.

It also has curved safety rail, just one because it is for a teenager. And it has a built in dresser and shelves. And it has stairs. These stairs will be a little different from the other's because they don't have sides. Well it is time for me to stop talking about the beds and get to work on them. He is pretty much done building and now it is all up to me to get the finish on so we can deliver on Monday.

Totally not a bed

If you came here looking for pictures of bed don't worry there are lots of them just scroll down and you will get to them. But this is a counted cross stitch that I just finished. I am especially proud of it because it took me 10 years to finish. I started it as a shower gift for my pregnant friend. Then I got pregnant myself, four times in 5 years. Then there is all that time with babies around. I quickly found out that counted cross stitch and babies do not go well together. Finally after moving here and realizing that the kids are old enough to leave my things alone I got it out and finished it. Actually it was not that simple, I got it out and then realized I was about an inch and a half short of thread for the border so I had to go and find the right color to finish it. Now that it is done I put it for sale on Etsy.com While I enjoy doing cross stitch I do not really want to have a whole bunch of them hanging in my house. So we'll see if it will sell. I love the idea of painting a picture with thread one stitch at a time. And since I am not very good at painting pictures with paint and a brush it is probably the best I can do. Plus I think it is good for me, I am one of those people with the attention span of a gnat so to make myself sit still and work at something is probably good therepy or something like that.

Two new colors

One of the coolest things about the two beds we are building is that we get to use two new colors. This is the first, it looks really blue in this picture but it is called Pearl Grey. I can't wait to see it on a whole bed, I think it will look awesome. This is called Pickled Oak. The one on the bottom is the one with the stain. We are putting this on a twin loft, and a dresser as well as stairs it is going to be cool to see how it turns out.

I love the colors cant wait to put them on the wood and see what they will be like. I know I have said this before but I love stain, I love how the grain of the wood comes through. There are so many colors of stain that you can get they all look so pretty I wish I could play with them all.

We are going to TEXAS

Sorry no pictures in this post because we forgot to bring our camera when we delivered the full size Jeremy loft with the shelves and the desk. I hate it when we are stupid, but looking foreword instead of back we are very excited that we are going to Texas.

We got an email several weeks ago inquiring about a bed and it was signed their name and Texas. I assumed Texas county which is not too far away. But it was the real Texas. So we had more conversations through email and they decided to buy the beds, and we decided that we could take a little trip and deliver them much cheaper than shipping. So everyone wins. This is the beauty of being your own boss. One of us can say, "hey do you want to deliver some beds to Texas?" And the other one can say "Sure why not" That is that we are on our way.

As a bonus the beds are going to be cool. I will be posting some pictures as we get things done. So far just preliminary work, planing and cutting nothing exciting for a picture.

Clair style with a desk.

This is the bed we delivered on Friday. It is a Clair style twin loft with the storage unit and a writing desk. I know these look like the same picture but they are not, just from the same perspective.

We have several different variations of this style coming up. Next week we are building one with stairs, for a big girl sot he stairs will be a little different than the ones we have already done. That one will be stained pickled oak, I am looking foreword to that. And we have one coming up that will be stained early american, I am really looking foreword to that, I love that color and also it will be nice to see this style in a darker stain, I think it will really change the look of it.

Full size Jeremy loft

I have been trying to catch up from being sick. I'm not sure which is worse being sick or trying to catch up on everything when you get better. We have four little ones so when momma is sick a lot piles up, like laundry. And also painting beds and little kitchens. But I am getting there, this is a sneak peek at a full size Jeremy style. It is the first Full size Jeremy we have done, and it is also the first full size loft that we have built in a desk and book shelf. So we are really looking foreword to delivering it and seeing it all together. So better pictures will be coming home on Monday of this one. This one is behind because of my sickness and a big thank you to the customer's who have been awesome about it. It is always stressful to have to say we can't make the deadline. But when people are so kind and patient it makes it better, I still hate to be the reason we are late on a delivery but sometimes I guess life happens to all of us.

Tomorrow we are delivering a twin size Clair loft with a storage unit underneath. It is also painted white which is sort of a theme we have going lately. But I will get some pictures up of it when we get home or on Saturday.

A fish story

Today was the first day I have really ventured out of the house because of my cold and because of the cold. But today it made it all the way up to 26 degrees and I am on the mend so we took the kids for a little walk over to my parents pond. It is obviously frozen over like everything else in the Eastern part of the continent. My kids are west coast kids and cold like this is new to them so we took them over to walk on a frozen pond. They thought it was great. They took advantage of the opportunity to retreive some of the tackle they lost in the trees over the summer. So that was good.

This summer my dad had an unfortunate fishing experience that left his canoe out in the pond and him wet and his cell phone ruined. He decided that it would be a good time to retreive what he lost in the pond over the summer as well. Anyway he had to break the ice out of the canoe which was about six inches thick, then we bailed the water out of it and finally he had to break the ice around the canoe which was about three and a half inches thick. Dad says that all the old timers said that if the ice was two inches thick you could drive a team of horses on it so plenty thick for walking. Anyway when he got it broke loose and water was sloshing out of the pond from under the canoe about five little fish came out onto the ice, they were not very happy with that turn of events but the kids were thrilled. I guess it must have been a warm spot under there or a hiding spot. We put them back through the hole to grow up some more. I can honestly say that was the most fish I have ever cought ice fishing before.

Twin over twin bunk beds

Occasionally I try to make things easier to find on our blog. Other times I have done this by listing each style individually, but this time I am going to do it by kind of bed. If you would like to see each style go to the listings for November of 2009. So this is where it all started for us. We were unemployed and had tools, one day my husband looked at the old set of bunk beds that we Had made into rabbit hutches and said I think I could build those bunk beds, and I said go ahead, you build them and I will try to sell them on craigslist. We call it our James style and it is our most affordable style of bunk beds.

This is our Ciera style in twin over twin. This one has stairs obviously. We can add stairs to any of our bunk and loft beds. These ones have storage drawers, they don't have to. They also don't have to have the big sides. We are doing some for a teenage girl that don't have these things. We also made the dresser next to it that is why they match so well.

This gives you the idea of the look without the stairs, although that third thing is the rail for the stairs.

This is the Jeremy style in twin over twin bunks, and with stairs. I love this style. It has been a big seller for us and it is fun to make.

Again here it is without the stairs in the picture. This is by no means all of the twin over twin beds that we can make. We only build to order so until someone orders the Clair style in twin over twin we won't make one but we can. Also any of these styles can be made in an L instead of the traditional way they are in these pictures. We love it when you give us a challenge and ask for something different. We have never wanted to be a furniture factory building the same thing over and over again so go ahead ask us for something different.

Talkin Trash

My husband came in from the wood shop last night with this. In case it doesn't come to you instantly it is a little waste paper basket. I think it is very cute. I have put it for sale at Etsy.com as is. I offered to stain it or clear coat it, but I actually am wanting to paint it. I have a design in mind but I may not have the time right now. I have been sick and am behind on my other painting duties.

We will see what happens with the sale of it on Etsy, maybe he will make more for me to paint later.

By the way if you have never checked out Etsy.com you should. It is full of wonderful handmade things and vintage things. It's a very cool site.

COLD

As I am sure I don't have to tell anyone who is in this part of the country it is cold outside, I am at 7 degrees right now. We took this last year after an ice storm but it just looks "cold" so I posted it. I also have a cold so I am banished from the workshop, it just does not get very warm out there. So I have been inside, keeping the fire going and answering your emails. One funny thing about being sick. I always loose my voice when I get a cold I don't know why but it always happens that I end up with only a whisper. Which is a challenge when you have four kids. But the funny thing is that when I whisper to them they end up whispering back. Even my 11 year old does it. It is never quieter around here, maybe I won't tell them when I get my voice back.

Play Kitchen

I have mentioned this little kitchen set before but now I actually have something to show off. He has the main parts ready for me to paint. I love how they are turning out. This is the sink. I love the little window that he made on the back. The sink will be a metal bowl. He hasn't cut the hole yet, and he has to make the doors.

This is the stove, the burners will be painted either silver or black. The knobs will turn and they will be in the inset area on the front. This one will be shipped and we do not want them to get broken off in transit so he did it that way. The oven door will have Plexiglas and so will the microwave so that she can see what she is cooking. It is coming along. This is the last thing we are really behind on from when my husband got hurt. More pictures to come as I get it painted and we get more of the details finished up. Also coming up a full size Jeremy style loft bed with a desk and a bookshelf.