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No more (ahem, additional) projects. Right? (laughing). This year, my building was going to be an 18th century English cottage/Georgian with a saddlery shop on the first floor catering to fox hunters. To kill some time while waiting for our dog to be finished at the vet, my husband and I went to breakfast and still had some time after that. So we went to a resale shop we had never been to, just down the street from the vet. We walked around and when we came to the washing machines, I stopped. My mind was processing something I thought I saw on the floor as we came in. A dollhouse? Had to have been a Barbie house. Or something like that. Plastic? I went back and examined it. No, it was wood and 1:12 scale. The more I looked, the more I liked it. Then told myself I did not NEED another project. To leave it there. The lady working there said it was $50 and came with a bag of furniture. FOOOM! It was in my car. The dog had to share the seat with it going home.

Hi all, I am a beginner...wanting to find a good wood to carve details into. Basswood isn’t very user friendly. Chips and crumbles a lot. However since I am a beginner I don’t want to ruin expensive wood. Is there an affordable alternative to bass/limewood? Thank you!

One of the things I love doing is making parquetry furniture, namely tables. As I have a drafting background, I use the computer to draft up a design which I print out. I then choose my veneers and start cutting out the shapes. I always cut the piece (using an Olfa knife and ruler) and glue it down before cutting out the next piece and gluing it down. That way, if the pattern gets away from you, it's easier to adjust as you go along. Once all the pieces are glued down, I sand it until I can't feel the joints. The rest of the table gets built and assembled and then I finish the piece with a clear coat. This piece has 64 individual pieces of wood in the surface of the table.

In response to Bill's challenge, here is what's on my workbench today. My workbench is my kitchen table, and it has overflowed onto the kitchen hutch. The petitpoint in my hand is actually further along than that now, but the person who commissioned it has asked me not to show more recent pictures until she can show it off herself. When I finish that, I need to finish the stockings and rug to send off to another customer. The stacks of wood are the first miniature lumber I've cut myself, and it still needs to be thicknessed. It's for several different projects - a 1960s credenza and a 1930s dining set with expandable table that has the two leaves stored inside. The copper pieces are for a Stickley rocking chair. The brick in progress is for the hearth/wall in the Dick Van Dyke Show living room. If you look closely, you can see evidence of real life projects too, namely some painting in the kitchen (had to take down the brass towl bar and the switch plates). (The stockings are on 48 ct gauze, the elephant rug on 40, and the one in progress is on 72.)