Sunday, September 14, 2014

Smart storage

Smart storage, like this cup rack, can add some 'out of the way' storage that makes using your kitchen easier....

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Custom shower....

Here you see a quick shot of a custom shower in a custom bath we're currently working on, more pics to come....

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Been a while...

Even the post shows that its been a while, I have 4 children now, not just 2!

I will be updating as I can....

Sunday, April 22, 2012

The High Point Market is in full swing, third market now.

This is a very very tiring week for me, hence the short post. I have wanted to post more, I will as I get some ideas in writing....

Cheers!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Make Work: Eleventh Installment 'Paradise Gardens'







I had to go get some walnut today at a lumber yard in Summerville Georgia today. Summerville is home to a very unique place known as Paradise Gardens, or the home and compound of Howard Finster. If you have not been there, I suggest you go....

Why? Well, you probably have never been to a place like Paradise Gardens before. It is this mish-mash of stuff that looks like it was thrown together in a systematic organized hap-hazard way. Make sense? Didn't think so.

It is worth seeing, it is known world wide. There are some odd things there, some inspiring things, as well as things that sparked a little design for me. If you want to see what someone will do without a care of what others really think, visit Paradise Gardens. It is bound to have some sort of effect on you.

I have a couple of low res pics from my camera phone....




Also, here is a pic of a curved door we made in the shop. Pretty cool ehh?


Monday, May 9, 2011

Make Work: Tenth Installment 'Tornados'

"I went to sleep with gum in my mouth now there's gum in my hair and by mistake I tripped on the skateboard when I got out of bed and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day." *

Thats what is was.

April 27th will live on in my mind for a long long time. It was the day that over 200 tornados tore across the South. Including my area of dwelling and my hometown, Ringgold Georgia.

You see, I love the weather. I look at it all the time, it fascinates me, how it changes without regard for us. Somehow we think we can alter it. I had not looked at the weather in a while though, but I found out quick what was coming.

I work in a Business Development Center, essentially, a lot of different business that do different things, getting their ideas off the ground. When the first wave came through, I could feel it. I could see that the clouds were not really the same as a storm cloud, anyone knows that. It had that erie look and feel, oddly cool. Lots of wind, that would not stop, then would die off to nothing. Thats when I get afraid.

When the first wave was coming through, we depended on the geeks with the smart-phones to show us what was happening. I tried and tried to call my wife but the calls would not go out. Then I finally got her, it was spotty but I got the message across 'be careful!'.

I later found out that the first round that morning had a couple tornados in it, one hit the legendary Lookout Mountain. It took out a couple houses that were complete losses. You see, we have been taught a bit of a urban myth. 'Chattanooga will never get a tornado because the mountains around us make a 'bowl' that makes a tornado impossible.....'

Wrong. Wrong.

I told my lead carpenter that we need to call it early, at this point the meteorologists knew what was coming. Another wave at 2 p.m. and another at 8 p.m.. It felt like the impending doom that we all fear, it's coming and you cannot run or drive or fly fast enough.

I got home after 1 P.M., found that a branch came close to hitting the house and was glad it did not, my wife and girls were right there beside it in the sun room. I came inside, settled down (as best I could) and proceeded to look at the neighbors tree that dropped like a bad habit. I am still gathering wood from that.

Once I could get a good idea that things were coming close as promised, we went to the basement. You could have been dragging me to a gas chamber, I was as nervous as though I was going to my grave. I prayed while my knee jumped like a jitterbug. As the storm approached, my Brother was texting me updates due to the internet being down from the first storm. You could hear the wind, then the Quarter size hail, then more wind. I went upstairs to check but came back downstairs after seeing the trees bend like plastic straws in the wind. Once it was quiet for a while, we came back upstairs. We looked around, no damage, and we thanked God we were OK.


Then we had dinner, after that, a friend called. She told us about the tornado that hit Tuscaloosa earlier that day. 'It was a mile wide' she said 'that storm system is headed our way'. My heart rate went up again, then after getting some more weather info, we planned for it to hit around 8 PM. My Brother was my eyes and ears again, he would tell us to get in the basement when a cell was coming over. We turned on a video for our twin girls and we waited it out. The wind and rain and hails again.

Then it happened.

I got several text messages from my Brother about how we would have a couple minutes left or how we were in the clear. Then he texted me 'we are in the basement'. 'Why?' I said. 'Tornado is touching down' he says. 'How do you know?' 'The house is shaking....'

He was right, it was just a quarter of a mile away. After it went through, his next text to me was 'every major building in Ringgold is destroyed'. Now, my brother is a bit of a joker, I did not believe his last text, until the next day.

Once the storms moved out and we were up the next day (without power) it started to dawn on us what had happened. In the system that came through the South, there were 288 Tornados, 344 (approx..) deaths and many structures damaged or demolished by this storm. I have seen this on the news before, some town in OK that is blown away and my thought is 'another one?'. Once you see your hometown like this, the burger joints you go to, the pizza hut that you have your soccer party at, where you took 8th grade classes. Gone.

There are a LOT of crazy stories coming out of these storms, too many to post about. Many people were in it and survived, while their neighbors did not.

April 27th 2011, will live on in my mind for a long time, as it will with many others. I must say, I am glad to be alive, glad to have my family.

I have noticed that I hug my children a little tighter, as well as my wife. Things could have turned out so differently, but I was fortunate.


As I try to move forward with business, life and other things, my mind returns to that day. My heart still beats a little faster....


*Oh, by the way, the quote above is from a book I read my girls. It is about this kid having a bad day, thought it was fitting.
"Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day"
By: Judith Viorst

Monday, April 11, 2011

Make Work: Ninth Installment "How I learned more in 8 days in High Point than I have in 2 years"



High Point has come and gone. The town is deserted and the show is just a memory. The mad dash to get out and get home is over and we are in a flurry of phone calls to get back to the norm and follow up on leads and possible new ventures. Sigh.....


I learned so much in one week at market that I had to decompress for 3 days just to remain sane. You would think that I would feel as though I have 'arrived' after being featured on the cover of a major B2B magazine, but I don't, I only feel like there is more work to do on my part. Better designs, better looking booth next market, scale of the pieces, placement of my booth, what to make, who to have make it (not China!), what to focus on...... So, these are just a few of the things that I need to consider as I propel this business onto the national and even international scene.

I have attached a couple pictures of the booth as well as a picture of the cover of the Home Accents Today post.