My husband says I have a restless mind. My boss calls it being a hobbyist, or dilettante (which I kind of like better because it sounds so much more exotic).

Really, it means that I can’t sit still for five minutes without learning something or doing something, even if it’s occupying myself with reading, playing a game, or doing a hobby. Or learning about doing a hobby.

Most recently, I’ve been turned onto DIY wood working projects. I should caveat this by saying that I do have some experience doing construction type work: as you may recall I built my own deck for one of my previous homes, and before that I spent a while in a trade school where I focused on carpentry. So I did kind of know my way around a miter saw and drill.

As an aside, before woodworking I learned about house design, video editing, animation, computer building, videography, bullet journaling, and of course the sewing and scrapbooking you already knew about.

To return to the point: we needed some new patio furniture. So I googled (my favorite thing, as we know) and found some cool DIY plans for chairs. So I built two. Then I found another site with a plan for a sofa, which I built. Then I found a cool site called SketchUp where you can create 3D models…for free.

FREE.

So I played around with it for a while, then I made plans for a coffee table, and then I built that. And of course, I formatted the plans with screenprints and everything, and I’m telling you, if I could have figured out a way to actually make it workable, I would have put it into a PowerPoint presentation. I did do an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the lumber, so I was able to completely geek out about that, at least.

Anyway, here’s what it looks like with all the pieces. I have grand ideas about making the sofa into a sectional, and I want to add a table to go between the two chairs. But if I think back to what our deck looked like before and what it looks like now, it’s so much more inviting and relaxing to be out here! I have been sitting out here in the evenings and really enjoying myself.

Of course, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses along the way, though I do look mighty official in my tool belt, as shown here:

Not only did the table almost collapse when I set it on its side (I had to add screws in each corner to make the legs stronger) but this also happened.

I feel like I need to explain this.

I did have some stuff on an old glass table (the one that used to be on the back deck, in fact) and I was trying to switch out the bit in my drill.

I accidentally dropped the bit, it hit the surface of the table, and…thus what you see here.

That is my coffee in the corner. It was indeed on the table when it shattered, and did indeed fall to the ground when everything else did. And it did indeed spill, and I did indeed pick it up before snapping this photo. Because, Starbucks.

After this I had to sit the next few plays out. Some days, I should not be using power tools.