IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS HOBBY LOBBY & MICHAELS & WAL-MART & JOLENES (SORT OF)

I first started finishing stuff I was buying at the above businesses - finishing by painting and, in some case, remodeling what I purchased.

Let the journey begin:

 First came the canoes - A blue and white BYU canoe for Jake and a green and yellow UVU for Andrew.

Next came Christmas doodahs:

 that was because family, friends and neighbors needed to be plagued with something that I was producing. The Birdcage houses were filled with peanut M&Ms and placed in a small box.

Then there were projects for the Grand Kiddies:

 Bev got a water proofed ship

 Rachel and Lena received castles

 the outside of which I etched with

stone lines and then painted.

 I added a flag which is removable,

 and I replace the rinkytink door with

 a first class draw bridge whichI

painted brown.

 And, Annie got a treasure chest that

was way to big for her to tote around.

It was stuffed full of My Kitty stuff -

or whatever it's called.

Next came the need to "stretch". So I purchased some bags of basswood, found a picture of a dog sled (Iditarod Dog Race variety) and built this dog sled. It is something like 15" x 7".

Next was an outhouse for my daughter in law, Colette who graduated in statics and also worked in Denali National Park one summer at the base of Denali. The outhouse was supposedly on top of Mount Mckinley (Denali) and was being "used". Long sick pun intended. "What do you call an outhouse on the top of Denali that is being used?  A HIGH POT IN USE.  sick....

 Notice that it is a "two holer" -- the

ones we used while growing up all had two

holes as well.

Then the daughters received painted up jewelry boxes:

I made a couple of tool boxes for the knives:

and I made a few other assorted items:

But, this sort of thing, except for actually creating something quickly lost its draw. More knives, basswood, and some "how to" books were stoking my "creative juices."