39 Days of Christmas - Day 04

It was no surprise I skipped yesterday. It was my oldest‘s 13th birthday…

Anyway, day four and I’m in the mini-shed and listening to a new album by a band named ‘Sweet Jean’ called ‘Monday to Friday’ ..rumour has it a Melb band but from all I can find they have retired :( anyway, you can grab that album (I got it at my boys school fair on vinyl!) on spotifried if you wish.

si mentioned, I’m the shed working on some drawers, and while I’m in there I play my music on this Sony Bluetooth speaker. It’s pretty bass heavy if you’re into that BUT depending on placement in your room, you can make it sound really good.

Get someone a Bluetooth speaker this Christmas.

39 Days of Christmas - Day 03

I’m not even kidding… socks. Good socks though, not your average joe (sorry Joe) socks… Happy Feet are my faves, followed closely by Bonds, (Fair play, less than a fiver a pair and these are great too, just not as great… great) but yeah, these Happy Feet are great. Effectively $13.09 a pair (It’s a four pack, do the maaaaath)

Get ‘em here - https://amzn.to/3AuRAsv

Day One - An Axe
Day Two - A different Axe (A guitar for your kid!)

39 Days of Christmas - Day 02

I mean, how do you follow ‘an axe’ …also, who suggests an axe? Well, these gifts aren’t all for kids, some women and men may appreciate a good (ok, an average) axe…

Day 38 spots us dipping into the old ‘music’ category.

Guitar… maybe you’ll buy your kid one, maybe they’ll play it three times and get bored because they can’t make it sound like …well, anything good. Get your kid a second hand guitar, get them a guitar introduction course, make sure the teacher isn’t boring (but obvs is teaching more than the intro to Smoke on the Water!) …If you’re in Melbourne, take your kid to Music Swap Shop, wander around in there for a couple of hours, just get a look and feel for a few different guitars…

There are a whole range of crappy cheap guitars on Amazon and sure, with the right strings and ten minutes spent setting the guitar up, they might sound slightly better than a cat attacking a chalk board, they might even sound ‘Just fine’ - Have a look through here (Click) …but yeah, Music Swap Shop if you can.

https://www.musicswopshop.com.au/

Now, here’s a selection of photographs of guitarists I’ve taken over the years, how many can you name?

39 Days of Christmas - Day 01

39 Things I’ve found handy in the last 39 Years. Accompanied by a random photograph from the last 39 Years.

Day one is, and mums everywhere (because so so many of you read my blog) will hate me for this, but one of the things I loved as a kid, growing up, was my mini-axe (hatchet) …I wish I still had the one from when I was a kid, alas, I don’t… But grab your kid one of these and take them camping, find a dead tree, let them cut some chunks out of it - they’ll remember it.

The Axe: https://amzn.to/3ggk3vb (It’s a Spear & Jackson, they’re not the worst and they’re not the best, but they do the job and can be re-sharpened (or, if you’re that helicopter type, just leave them blunt…whatever floats your boat)

And the photo? I couldn’t find a photo of me as a kid with my axe (Mum?) But here’s one my 12yo broke in the back yard…

This wasn’t a Spear & Jackson… it was a splinter and electrical tape.

Come back tomorrow. See you then.

Ho Ho Ho

Making things easy - Wood work for dummies?

I’m having a bit of fun with wood, I don’t have a whole lot of space… Like, no space really… So I wanted to share a list of smaller shop tools that make a big difference and don’t take up any room! The first one is a Bahco Cabinet Scraper …

“A card scraper or cabinet scraper is a woodworking shaping and finishing tool. It is used to manually remove small amounts of material and excels in tricky grain areas where hand planes would cause tear out. Card scrapers are most suitable for working with hardwoods, and can be used instead of sandpaper” - Wiki

This is the tool in question…

Best thing about this simple tool, you can sharpen and use it over and over again… Take a look below

You can get your own here on Amazon - https://amzn.to/3C719Q3