it started with the doors

This is the favorite bench.  I really wish I had a better photo of it though. Made with 2x6 scrap legs, half of an old solid door and lovely corbels. I finished it off with a carved embellishment on top.  It was majestic!  A throne.  Made by the Queen....ha,ha. I got started creating as "laura's salvage design" because of doors and corbels.  I was flabergasted (sp?)when beautiful doors were removed from old house when being remodeled and replaced with new ones.....Like new doors were better?  How could they possibly be made with a higher level of craftsmanship or better ingredients?  Old growth wood and actual steel & cast iron hardware isn't good enough?  It's laughable.  I had salvaged all these doors to "do" something with....so I started there.  I just wish I documented it better.  I am learning that i need to consistently take photos....The issue lays with quantity.

The church steeple bird house (on the majestic bench above)is still in my collection.  It was made to be on a column stand. I couldn't part with it.  Here are more that I created for a friends mom....some ask if I am doing my research for correct hole diameter for birds.  Bird experts frown when I tell them I wasn't concerned about it.... In my head I'm saying......"oh geez!...birds don't care.....they'll make their nest in a crack of a tree.  They don't measure and ponder their other rental options." But I refrain....  I don't mention that most often it's the yellow jackets that move in first.

little tiny houses

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rough cut lumber boxes with hand made metal handles

My Bird house windows are my favorite.  I always sell out at the summer shows.  Each one is different and well thought out.  Switching the hardware and arrangement until it's "just so"....I can't calculate an hourly total to figure the cost. They are labor intensive, but the joy i get in creating them is well worth it.  This summer when I return as "laura's salvage design" and as a vendor to the Cracked Pots  Community hopefully I will be remembered.  I suppose it was foolish of me to walk away.  I had customers looking for me in my "regular" spot....oh well, there will be others.  Also pictured here are my rough cut boxes.  The hubby creates the handles in the shop and I pull the square nails out of the gorgeous 1x12's.  We salvaged the boards from the deconstruction of Aunt Alice's house.  They were a vertical as part of the exterior wall.  I saved as many as I could.  Even the cracked and broken ones.  I cut slats for the bottoms (usually out of cedar scraps) and coat them with clear acrylic.  They are gorgeous for plants and garden tools outside or mail, towels or firewood indoors.  The rough cut marks are sanded a bit but still beautiful.  Lot of history and very multipurpose.

3 days left

As a teacher, I cherish every moment of any and all days off from teaching.  I wonder if that means I'm not the best fit for an educator?  Since I've persevered through 10 years in a classroom, I suppose it's fine.  I haven't strangled any teenagers yet!  That takes me to my count down.  3 more school days until Christmas Break!  That's exciting, but that doesn't mean rest.  This is the time to salvage good wood, start a new project and make a very long list.  My current list of to-do's starts the minute I get up on Saturday.  I need to organize my shop.  It's so small (just small enough to not need a permit to build) that if it's a bit out of whack I'm too distracted to work.  My shop work habits as are well organized as my teaching and house cleaning patterns.....similar to a pin ball machine.....back and forth here and there and back again.  bing, bing!  It doesn't mean I am useless.....if anything I'm super powered- as long as when I get somewhere I jump back into what I was doing.  For some with this "condition" it's a curse, but for me it is multi-tasking at it's finest.  So the race begins.....because it's the off season good wood isn't free, but the pickin's are prime.  My favorite place to pick (and unfortunely have to pay) is The Rebuilding Center in NE Portland.  It's such an amazing place.  Everything you could want to fix up an old home or create with.  I go for drawers, old screens, painted trim, shutters and "Art" Doors ($5) .  I've scored many wonderful things to improve my own home at super prices. Hopefully this time I'll score some carpet tiles for my living room too. So Saturday I'm off and running up to the Rebuilding Center....but not until I sit through the last 2 - 4th grade basketball games of the season. woo hoo!  Thank goodness there are 3 days before "take off " because it might just take me that long to get a list written up. Now if I could just find my favorite pad of paper.....hmm.