If you were to ask my Mom she would say "I'm my fathers child" because this passion to make things and the ability to visualize my projects started at a young age and it mirrors my Pops way of thinking. See my Pop, who isn’t so much a Mr. fix-it as he is a Mr. build it, taught me a lot about tools and not because he felt he had to... but because I would wander down into his wood shop in the basement and ask to help him. I started out learning how to use a good old fashion nail and hammer, then his belt sander and hand sander. By the time I was 10 I also knew how to use a table saw, jig saw and drill press. He always had neat little tricks to teach and he owns about every wood working tool you could ever want. He and I never actually didn't build furniture together but I helped him build shelves, shed doors and bird houses. He did however built me beautiful doll furniture when I was a child... but it was always a Christmas surprise so I never got to help out on those projects.
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| Me and the man responsible for the maddnes...My Pop! |
Once I became a teen and through my college years, I didn't have the time or the need for all this wood working stuff. Except my college roomate use to call me "the husband" because I was the only girl in the house that owned and knew how to properly use a power drill LOL. But it wasn't until I got married and my hubby and I moved away to our first duty station, that I realized we had no furniture! What I found at the affordable chain stores I absolutely hated! I loved the look of hard wood and old vintage furniture but most of the time I couldn't afford the finished pieces... So the wheels started turning, the tools came back out and the madness began! The other part of this is that as a military family we move... A LOT! My hubby and I were young when we started out and like I said, we had no furniture! What we did have was not great. Most of it was old stuff from family and friend that had been handed down...even today we still have a lot of "college" furniture in our house but most of it I have re-purposed or fixed up. I am slowly going through room by room, piece by piece and customizing and re-doing a lot of our old things. The hard part is you can't always paint walls, tile floors or do custom built in cabinets when you are in a rental unit...so I started having to tweak my ideas in order to have a "design to go" as I call it. The idea behind this is that you make custom pieces of furniture and decorate with accents that can travel with you. That way no matter where you are these pieces make the space your in feel like home.
Since we first moved 5 years ago I started slowly dabbling in projects and in the last year I have really started creating my own little identity with refinishing furniture and using salvaged finds around the house. In the few past year, since I've really started going to town on projects, many of my wonderful friends and family have ask for tips or advice. Which is how I got turned on to the idea of starting a blog. But what really pushed me over the edge to start sharing my ideas is the constant support of my wonderful family especially the encouragement from my amazing husband!
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| Me and The Mr. Marie |
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