A few weeks ago, Audrey ordered a wooden boards in a variety of lengths & widths with a variety of edges. He made them up and delivered them.

This past weekend, we got to see what she did with four of the plaques. Awesome colors, scripting, sayings, and look! We have a booth sign now!

As always, I look forward to seeing what she does with the rest of the plaques, and I promise to share them with you either here or on our Facebook page. Until then, we just have to show patience!

 Check out this little wine box with casters! It started life as a box for 6 bottles of wine, but it's been upgraded to a mobile wine box for general storage.

Before I tell you about this project, let me give you some back story. I was feeling left out. Shane was busy building things that Audrey ordered, and Audrey was busy getting her inventory lined up and dressing up the things that Shane had built. I had nothing to post to the website or social networks, I had no spreadsheets to maintain, I had nothing to photograph. So instead of moping about, I decided to dabble in pickin'.

I checked out a place that has old, unwanted stuff. I walked around. I found a toy for my 18 month old niece, a spice rack for me, and a cross-stitch accessory that my sister didn't want. But nothing to pick and repurpose for The Painted Hammer. And then I saw it. A crate. A small crate. On closer examination, I saw that it was made of wood, and it was made to carry wine. 6 bottles of wine, to be precise. And it was a good good deal. So I bought it, very tentatively.

I took it home, took a picture, and sent it to Audrey. She loved it, she said, but she wouldn't use it as shelving (my idea = okay), she would put casters on it (her idea = much clever-er). So we put casters on it (after I learned what casters were). Shane even gave the little box some stubby legs with the casters.

And now it sits in our booth. I'm delighted that my step into the unknown turned into something that Audrey & Shane wanted in our booth. If it does sell, I'm going to be so proud. If it doesn't sell, I may steal it, give it a light stain, and see if it looks good somewhere in my house. I wonder if they'll charge me for it?!

I didn't dare write an in-progress post on another one of Shane's recent projects. It had to stay top secret, no matter what. But not anymore! Shane built TWO tables for building Legos, one for his sister's kids...

And one for my brother's kids...

I'm super proud of this creation by Shane. It was his idea. He flipped through jillions of ideas posted on Pinterest but never found one that was close to the thing in his head. And the kids love them.

These tables sit about 12" tall with 6 Lego brand base plates inset into the tabletop, which is painted yellow. The legs are painted red, and there are blue rods underneath that the white & green trays fit into. While I adore this color scheme wholeheartedly, I love that it could be painted any color or style (it could even be stained) with any embellishments I could imagine.

This is not a new creation. Rather it is a project that Shane took a picture of when he visited his parents recently. Several years ago, his mom had mentioned that she needed a step stool for her grandchildren when they slept over and needed to brush their teeth at the sink. This is probably one of the most common inspirations for Shane's work.

This could be the nicest step stool I've ever seen for brushing one's teeth!

Back in October, I caught Shane cutting wood to make blocks and I can finally show you the rest of the project. Wee E loved the blocks. Well, she loved the paper it was wrapped in.

The set has 50-60 wooden blocks, all hand cut and hand sanded. They fit perfectly in the upcycled milk crate I found at Goodwill for less than $2. The set has short & long straight pieces, different triangle shapes, bridge pieces, and more. This will be quite an upgrade from her foam set of blocks!