This weekend, I lost myself in two favorite pastimes: woodworking and gardening. Both activities are a balm, lifting me out of whatever mental morass I'm stuck in and setting me in a flow, bordering on fixation. Time flies equally when I'm playing with a 20 V Max Lithium Ion cordless impact driver or a shovel. … Continue reading Wood and Flowers
carpentry
Law of the Tape Measure
I love the saying, "To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Known as Maslow's Law of the Hammer or the Law of the Instrument, the maxim says that we all rely on familiar tools to solve tasks at hand. It could also be expressed, "To a surgeon, every malady requires a … Continue reading Law of the Tape Measure
Swing Time Special
Last fall, my friend Pat McFadden and I ginned up her home workshop to make wooden games to sell at Artclectic at University School of Nashville. Over the course of the year, Pat has ridden that creative momentum to make several pieces of beautiful outdoor furniture, including two custom garden benches and my beloved Chippendale … Continue reading Swing Time Special
Garden Variety Carpentry
You might remember last fall when Buttercup was busy making wooden games -- including Build Me Up Blocks and Build Me Up Battle -- with the very talented woodworker Pat McFadden. Since then, Pat has been putting her considerable carpentry skills to work on a gorgeous hexagonal garden bench, to protect the base of a … Continue reading Garden Variety Carpentry
My Level Best with My Best Level
Long before I started collecting yellow power tools, I collected levels, those elegantly palindromic devices that can tell if a surface is out of synch with the Earth's horizon. I scoured estate sales in ranch houses built after World War II, the ones with pegboard-paneled basement workshops, where--I can only imagine--men of the Greatest Generation retreated … Continue reading My Level Best with My Best Level
Build Me Up, Buttercup 