My husband John is a self-taught woodworker (so many YouTube videos watched) as many of you know. I’ve featured some of his projects on my blog post category: From the Woodshop.

Recently he decided to take on some commissions and make a little money on the side with his woodworking. We figured he needed a business name and we came up with Mighty Moe Creations, as his nickname is “Moe” (a childhood nickname adapted from his middle name which he used as his first name when he was younger).

He wanted to have a wood branding iron to burn/emboss his name on wood items he creates and so we created a logo for Mighty Moe Creations using Canva:

I am new to using Canva but I was proud of myself of being able to draft a logo which he and I finalized.

Earlier this week the branding iron he ordered came in the mail and he has been practicing branding scrap wood until he perfects his technique and is ready to brand pieces he makes.

We were pleased how crisp the image comes out from the branding iron compared to the original logo we created and sent to the company that makes wood branding irons!

John’s been busy working on his commission piece in his workshop, a large 3D looking custom serving tray similar to the one in this post – From the Woodshop: Tray for our Ottoman.

John’s studio/woodshop in our basement is a “hot mess” right now but he’s making progress on his commission:

I can’t wait to see the finished commission with his new logo branded onto it!

Oh and here is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer peeking into the woodshop (he is never allowed inside the shop as we are worried about wood splinters getting into his paws) to see what his humans are up to!

From the Woodshop, Studio

From the Woodshop: Some Additions to My Studio

February 24, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

John, my resident woodworker, was working on a remodel of our mudroom/laundry room beginning with a new bench (see post From the Woodshop: A New Bench and Beginning of the Mudroom Remodel ) but he is waiting on a new toy (a track saw) before he starts on the next part, the broom closet.

So he’s kept himself busy on the weekends instead with a couple projects for my quilting studio.

NEW EXTENSION TABLE

First he replaced the small plastic extension table with a pine slab on top that I was using next to my sewing/crafting table, with an actual table:

Here is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer checking out the new table:

The table has the schnauzer-stamp-of-approval!

Mike reviews the quality of John’s work (ha!) when he isn’t napping under the cutting table in the center of my studio:

Hopefully you can spot Mike somewhere in the schnauzer pillow…

MINI FRIDGE STAND

In the post The Horizontal Diaries, February 8, 2023, I shared that John had set up a breakfast station in the upstairs guest room when I was spend a lot of time resting (being “horizontal”) with my left leg elevated after breaking my ankle and having surgery.

Well I am spending less time horizontal these days and more time up and about; and I returned to coming downstairs for breakfast each morning. So we decided to move the small refrigerator (or “mini fridge”) out of the guest room and into my studio!

John built a stand for it and now I have a drink and tea area in my quilting studio:

I think John is encouraging me to spend as much time creating in the studio I can with beverages and snacks…

DECORATIVE STORAGE

When John was first teaching himself (via books and YouTube videos) on how to make drawers, he made a lot of practice boxes to start. He recently repurposed a couple of those practice boxes as some additional storage for my studio:

I think we’ve run out of projects for my studio for now, so John is probably going to return to making cutting boards (see post Never Bored When Making Boards (From the Woodshop) ) until his track saw shows up!

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: A New Bench and Beginning of the Mudroom Remodel

February 9, 2023February 9, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

John’s been up to it again in his workshop, this time making the bench/shoe storage that is Stage 1 of the long awaited MUDROOM REMODEL.

When you enter our home from the garage you enter immediately into the laundry room which is allegedly supposed to be also like a “mudroom” where you could take off your shoes, etc. But ours instead has sort of been a “hot mess”room.

John did try and spruce up the laundry room/mudroom by building a topper/board for the washer and dryer a couple months ago (see post Never Bored When Making Boards (From the Woodshop)), as well as putting in a shelf above them. But still when you first walk into the area from the garage there is no place to sit and take off your shoes…plus it is kind of messy and cluttered there with Mike the Miniature Schnauzer’s dog food, our reusable bag collection, clothes that are hanging dry, and various random crap.

John’s been wanting to turn the laundry into a real mudroom/laundry room for a long time (and no longer dread whenever we need to bring in people through the garage into the house); and he decided the best way to start was to make the mudroom in a modular fashion – beginning first with a bench that you can sit on and take off your shoes.

Here is the bench in progress in his workshop and then in the garage being stained (John designed the bench without formal plans/pattern from watching YouTube videos and looking at online ideas for benches!):

And here is the completed bench in place in the (someday to be) mudroom/laundry room and John happy with his handiwork:

Next he will be working on building a “broom closet” to store the brooms, mops, and vacuum cleaner, as well as some cleaning supplies.

A Crafter's Life, From the Woodshop

John, Project Man (Part I)

August 31, 2022August 31, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My partner John has been busy with a bunch of home improvement projects (I have helped a tiny bit) and I thought I would share. I have nicknamed him “Project Man” because he loves staying busy with projects (though I’ve been working with him on just relaxing and not always being busy).

SOFA TABLES

We like to hang out and watch movies on the sectional sofa in our basement (and it is right near John’s bar so easy access to cocktails too!) but we needed some additional options on where to put our popcorn and drinks.

We already had this tray on the ottoman that John and made (see post From the Woodshop: Tray for our Ottoman):

But we constantly had to lean over to access our snacks and beverages while movie watching.

So a little research online and John and I found a style we liked for a table that would slide under the sofa and make our snacks and drinks quickly accessible.

Here is John working on the first of the two tables he ended up making, it was his first time making “dovetail joints“ for furniture:

Here is the first table in use:

Sometimes we set that table between us and sometimes John just uses it on his side of the sectional sofa (we each have our own areas that we “nest” on the sofa).

After that table I was made, I thought – “what about a bigger version of that table that I could sit under and working on my laptop or eat a meal on?”. So John made a bigger version and here it is in use:

It also works well as an end table:

John made sure the two tables could nest together out of the way when we are not using them:

We’ve definitely enjoyed them on a couple recent movie nights!

SCREEN FOR SWING

One of the things I loved about my backyard in my previous life in Oregon was my backyard swing. Last year we found a lovely swing on sale and installed it in the backyard.

Last summer (2021) John made a screen for the backyard patio area to make it more cozy:

Recently, I asked John if we could repeat the concept he used last year for the patio screen, for the section of the backyard with the swing. So a couple weeks ago, John made a screen for the swing so you can feel super cozy when relaxing on it:

It is now a wonderful place to read a book! (And if I bring a couple pillows over from the patio seating, it is a great place to take a lazy afternoon nap!)

I continue with more projects in Part II of this series of posts, but let me close the post with pictures of Mike the Miniature Schnauzer at one of his favorite places – a home improvement store. He loves to ride around in the cart (we call him “Mike in the Box”).

He was helping us buy toilets for the projects I will share in the next post.

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: Floating Top Hall Table

June 13, 2022June 14, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I haven’t posted any new pieces by my partner John, a self-taught hobbyist woodworker, as he has been super busy with his job.

Recently he found time to work on a new woodworking piece, and has recently finished a pine floating top table. The table was originally to be used as sofa table in our basement but it came out so cool, we decided to put it in the entryway.

Here is the piece in progress in his woodshop in our basement:

Here he is staining it in the garage after he finished building it:

And finally the finished piece, now in our entryway!

I put a bowl I found last year at a second hand store with a little pillow I made on the top of the table. There are bird illustrations on the wall behind the table, so I also placed a little bird dish my friend Kathy got me and two little birds that were a favorite of John’s late wife.

With this table complete, John is now planning his next project.

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: The Bedroom Suite is Complete!

February 10, 2022February 10, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well, John has done it. He has completed a “bedroom suite” of a headboard, dresser, and two matching nightstand tables.

Here are the posts related to the first pieces he made – the dresser and then the headboard:

Out of town guests? Put them to work!

From the Woodshop: A New Headboard

Recently my partner John made two matching nightstand tables to coordinate with the dresser and headboard he made. He made them in a weekend!

Here are the tables in progress:

And if you want to peek a little more around the current version of his woodshop, here are a couple more photos I took at the same time:

And here are the finished products:

Can you tell which side of the bed is mine? Hint: not the one with the Handyman magazine – ha! I always keep a basket of quilting magazines that I’ve picked up at thrift stores next to my side of bed. I like to daydream about projects I likely won’t make right before going to sleep – ha! I re-donate the magazines to the thrift shop when I am done so they can sell them again.

Here are the coordinating pieces – the headboard and dresser – that complete the “suite”:

I am amazed. That is all I can say!

You might have noticed a “project list” in one of the photos above in his workshop. Well he has many more projects planned. He makes me look lazy, I should have finished like 5 quilts by now – ha!

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: Tray for our Ottoman

February 5, 2022February 4, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My partner John, who only took up woodworking a couple years ago, has been busy crafting up a storm in his woodshop in our basement.

Our basement serves several purposes: a den, John’s home office, our bar, John’s woodshop, and the guest bedroom/guest bathroom.

Recently we bought a new sectional sofa with a storage ottoman set to replace the old sofa and loveseat in “den” area of the basement.

In order to make the sectional and ottoman work, we had to give away the old coffee table and end table along with the old sofa and loveseat (we gave them to our neighbor’s son who needed furniture for his first apartment).

We decided to use the ottoman like a coffee table and I found an old tray to put on it so we could stabilize any food or drinks we wanted to put on it when we have “movie night” in the basement.

John was not happy with using that old tray and decided to make a custom tray for the ottoman. And not just a simple designed tray, he decided to try and make one with a 3D effect that he found on YouTube (where he watches endless woodworking videos).

Here is the tray in progress in his woodshop:

Here is the finished tray:

Here is the tray on the ottoman!

And here is our miniature schnauzer Mike who did not like I was taking photos of the ottoman and not of him on the sofa – ha!

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: A New Headboard

February 1, 2022February 1, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I guess I’ve officially turned this in to a series: posts about what my woodworking partner John has made in his woodshop!

If you want to see other posts on what he’s made they are all under this link – From the Woodshop (it will include this post; after you click on the link, scroll down to see earlier posts).

We did not have a headboard on our bed, we just had a platform on which our mattress rested. John decided to make a headboard for our bed using a design similar to the one he used for making Lazy Susans (see post From the Woodshop: No “Lazy” in the Making of a Lazy Susan):

Here is the headboard in progress in his woodshop:

And here are some images of the completed headboard:

It’s amazing how he keeps progressing on his woodworking journey, all self taught using YouTube videos!

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: No “Lazy” in the Making of a Lazy Susan

December 22, 2021April 28, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I was going to post about my Etsy shop but I thought I would share what my woodworking partner has been up to instead.

Yesterday my partner John and I met up with our friends Michele and Blair for dinner and gave them a handmade Lazy Susan for Christmas!

Sometime earlier this year (2021 is a blur for me) they mentioned they’ve been struggling to find a Lazy Susan for their large round table for quite a while. They have 3 kids and passing things about the table at dinner can get quite tedious.

My partner John, whose hobby is woodworking, never made a Lazy Susan before, felt he should put himself up to the challenge of making his first Lazy Susan and gift it to them for Christmas!

The first one he made came out 26 inches in diameter and he was not completely pleased with it as there were tiny mistakes (ones I did not even notice), and we decided to keep it for our table:

The Lazy Susan is his own original design. So not only did he make his first Lazy Susan but he did not use a published pattern, he just created the design and his own pattern!

For his next Lazy Susan, he made it 29 inches in diameter which was a better size for our friends’ large round table.

Here are some images from the creation of the second Lazy Susan:

Here are photos of the completed Lazy Susan (it is so beautiful in person, he did an amazing job with sanding the piece and finishing it off with layers and layers of a bees wax protectant):

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: Barrister Bookcase Liquor Cabinet

October 26, 2021October 26, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

While I’ve been busy making endless drawstring/project bags, my partner John has been busy building his first barrister bookcase to replace the shelves in his bar in our downstairs entertainment area.

John has always been handy but he got into woodworking a couple years ago and really started focusing on it during the early days of the COVID pandemic. He also had a section of our basement framed out and removed the carpet to have walls and a door put up to create a workshop for himself (see post From the Woodshop to see how it looked when first built..he has since done a lot of upgrades and added in an air filtration system and sawdust collection system). Part of our basement was rarely used so it was a much better use of the space to make a “studio” for John!

A lot of good things have come out of John’s woodshop such as a remodel to my sewing studio:

Our bedroom dresser:

If you’d like to see posts I did on his projects, see my blog category – From the Woodshop for links to the related posts.

For a quite a while, John has been fascinated with barrister style bookcases. If you’ve never heard of them, here is a little background on them from Apartment Therapy:

This old staple, also referred to as a lawyer’s bookcase, comes in many shapes and sizes. However, all barrister bookcases feature glass panes to protect books and trinkets from dust. I think what I like about them most is that they offer both old-school charm and a sense of regality.
Apartment Therapy.com

Below is an image from the Apartment Therapy article: If You’re Not Using a Barrister Bookcase for Storage, You’re Missing Out

John found plans online to create barrister bookcases and taught himself via YouTube videos and online resources how to make them!

Here are photos from his building of the bookcases:

And here are the completed bookcases mounted as his new liquor cabinet in our bar:

To add an extra feature to the bookcases, he installed lights into the first two rows of cabinets:

Here is what they look like with the doors open (the doors lift and glide into the top of their section:

John has curated a nice collection of Whiskeys, Bourbons, Ryes, and Scotches including those he purchased during a Bourbon Tour of Kentucky he went on with his friends a couple years ago. Now he has a nice place to display them!

I tease John that after a while he will run out of things to build and he will just have to build us a new house!

From the Woodshop

Out of town guests? Put them to work!

May 6, 2021June 6, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

You can’t have your guest visiting from out of town just hanging out at your house and relaxing. And you absolutely do not want them expecting you to take them sight-seeing or anything like that while they visit!

Instead, you need to put them to work on home remodeling projects! (smile)

April was a busy month. Besides visiting Orlando, Florida (see post Oh Orlando), we also had two sets of out of town guests visiting.

The first set of guests (Marla Jo and Jason) we used to help build a new dresser for our master bedroom. Actually Jason and my partner John worked on the dresser while Marla Jo and I sat around and binge watched television shows, snacked and chatted (yes, that was exhausting work!)

No we don’t just invite people to visit us and then use them for home projects. Jason is very handy (he does amazing builds and remodels) and enjoys working on projects. Also he wanted to learn how to make drawers and John has become very good at making drawers over the past year.

Here are photos from Jason and John working on our new dresser:

The boys had fun playing in John’s workshop in our basement:

Mike the Miniature Schnauzer grew impatient as his Jason (Marla Jo and Jason used to be Mike’s babysitters when I lived in Oregon and went out of town) was ignoring him and not playing ball with him (Mike felt Jason should have been able to multitask, ha!)

So Mike kept tossing his ball between the back of Jason’s legs while Jason worked on the dresser.

We did actually take them sightseeing as well as out to a nice meal during their visit; and even visited with them. But most of their visit the boys did work on the dresser.

After they left to return to Oregon, John completed the dresser on his own and finished it with a beeswax and mineral oil mix that Jason recommended.

And here is the finished dresser in our master bedroom that two important men in my life worked on:

It was very exciting to put my clothes in it!

Postscript

Marla Jo and Jason are family to me and they have embraced my partner John. Jason drove my stuff 1200 miles from Oregon to Colorado when I relocated in April 2019 after my husband died in December 2018. They were both there on the most awful day of my life and watched my dog Mike when I traveled to see family and friends after my terrible loss.

They are very happy to see me in my life now and to also see that Mike the Miniature Schnauzer is doing so well. Jason took these adorable photos of Mike, posed with his favorite toy – “Beary”- during their visit:

From the Woodshop, Studio

Handmade Spools

February 18, 2021October 26, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My partner John (“Mr. Woodworker”) has been busy in his workshop. In the next several weeks I will have some new improvements to my studio to show you.

For now I thought I would show you that he has taught himself to make wooden spools, which I can use for my decorative ribbon.

He has a special drill-thingie (I guess I could ask him the official name but what would be the fun in that) which he used to create the top and bottom of each spool:

And he attaches the top and bottom discs to an oak dowel to create the spool.

The spools are around 5.5 to 6 inches in height and I think they add a decorative touch to my studio!

From the Woodshop, Studio

In the Studio, additional

December 22, 2020October 26, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Just a quick(ish) post as I try to catch up on reading all my dear blogging buddies’ posts that happened while I was away from blogging for a little while.

This is an unexpected continuation of my previous post – In the Studio.

“Mr. Woodworker” (my new nickname for my partner John) is a little obsessed with getting my sewing studio in shape for maximum-creativity-efficiency (or he is just looking for more pandemic projects and we continue to primarily be stuck at home).

He and I came up with the idea of adding some shelving on each end of my new floating shelf he just installed:

Here are the new shelves (just installed yesterday) – one on each side of the window in my sewing studio!

I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am with my two new bookcases/shelving on each end of the new floating shelf. These bookcases are things I did not even realize I needed until we spontaneously came up with the idea and Mr. Woodworker whipped them up!

I now feel really organized!

What does Mr. Woodworker have planned next for my sewing studio? Well he wants to build me a matching cutting table, a sewing table and one additional bookshelf area. I asked him to hold off for now as I need to focus on using my studio to keep making stuff for my tierneycreates Etsy shop I hope to reopen in January 2021.

Postscript

Mr. Woodworker has been working on his own studio too, which is located in the basement. He built himself a clamp stand for his woodworking clamps:

Functional – yes. As cute as my sewing studio area – no – ha!

From the Woodshop

November 24, 2020June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Crafting wise I do not have much to report as I am finished with the granny square blanket (see previous post Attack of the Giant Granny Square Blanket) and I am currently working on hand stitching Seattle Scrappy (see previous post and the post An Update on “Seattle Scrappy” – Haphazard Stitching… ).

So I am going to take this opportunity to share what the other crafty person in the house, my partner John has been working on.

A couple months ago we turned part of our basement into his woodshop (we had it professionally drywalled as well as electrical added, while John put in the floor and did all the finishing work), so he could have his own “craft room”.

His workshop is a work in progress and evolving. For the first time in his life he has his dream of having his own dedicated woodshop beyond just tinkering in the garage.

John and I met in mid-2019 after suddenly each losing our long time spouses/life partners in 2018. We decided that since how long you have to live your life is unknown (when you become a widow/widower you think a lot about your own mortality in addition to grieving the loss of your spouse) we would not hold back from having our dreams (within reason and within financial possibilities of course!). One of his lifelong dreams was to have his own woodshop!

(One of our shared dreams is travel and pre-COVID pandemic we had many plans for travel in 2020, but you all know about “best laid plans” when it comes to 2020…)

Mike the miniature schnauzer did a guest blog post a couple weeks ago (yes, yes, stop your disbeliefs that my dog writes blog posts, ha, ha) on some of the projects John has been working on – Guest Blog Post: A Whole Lot of Remodeling Going On , but I thought I would share some of the projects since that post.

Wood Blocking Board

I saw on Instagram wood blocking boards for granny squares and asked John if he could make me one – and he did!

Here is an image of one I found online and texted him the image:

He watched a couple YouTube videos and checked out some on Pinterest and figured it out how to make me one:

It’s going to be great to use for making my next granny square blanket – I can stack my blocks pretty high with the long pegs.

Bike Holders/Storage

John loves Pinterest as a great source of ideas. He wanted to get our bikes off just sitting on the ground of the garage and found a cool design for a bike rack and made one for each of our bikes!

He made mine first so most of the images are of mine with some detailed images of the rack to include the little drawer he built for it also.

The little drawer is perfect to keep your biking gloves and other small items related to cycling. It is very easy to lift our bikes out of the holders.

Magnetic Board

I am obsessed with Scrabble letters. I have a collection of Scrabble letters from thrift stores and old Scrabble games. I’ve made gifts from them in the past like friend’s names spelled in Scrabble letters affixed to a magnetic strip. Recently while at a thrift shop I found a bag of Scrabble letters with individual thin magnetic strips attached.

This led to the idea of creating a magnetic board for my home office where I could write inspirational messages for myself with Scrabble letters! I asked John and he made it happen!

Currently up on the board I have the Maya Angelou quote:

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

Custom Tables for his Woodshop

The first table John made for his woodshop was a table/stand/storage for his Miter Saw:

He used purchased plans he downloaded online to make this table and then made some adjustments for his needs.

Recently he made himself another table/stand/storage, this time without pre-purchased plans! He designed a table for his Planer with storage drawers with cool pulls he ordered online:

Exercise Room for Water Rower

And the big project that John recently completed did not technically involve his woodshop as he did much for the work in the garage – he converted part of our unfinished storage room in the basement into an exercise room for our new Water Rower. This involved framing out and dry walling the room. A wonderful friend helped him with a lot of the initial labor related to framing, installing the drywall, and pulling electrical for lighting and wall outlets.

The artwork in the room was my idea and I found it at a thrift shop. John created the frame around the world map. I figured we can daydream about travel while we row. We found a television on sale and an inexpensive TV mount online so we can watch rowing instructional videos (or Netflix) while rowing.

We repurposed an old bookcase for our “gym” towels and water bottles like they would have at a real gym. John also put in a vent for the room for ventilation while we break a sweat.

Well I better go work on my hand stitching so I can have something to show you in the future – John makes me look pretty lazy!

Postscript

Do you remember how in the post The Inpatient Schnauzer: Update on the Granny Square Afghan (Guest Blogger), Mike the miniature schnauzer was getting impatient for me to finish the granny square blanket? So it is all finished but he seems to have moved on!

He is now in love with a new fleece blanket we recently picked up and has become inseparable from it!

I guess schnauzers are fickle!

Let me close this post with a sign/piece of artwork I discovered while thrifting that I put up outside John’s woodshop door. I think it goes with the aesthetic of a woodshop and also embraces how we are hoping to live our lives: