Sunday, February 13, 2011

My Writing Box............

Now that I have a pen pal (hi Kelle!) I've been learning to write with a fountain pen.  I love using this pen and sitting there by the fireplace with my fountain pen and my pretty paper, writing a letter to a friend makes me feel wonderful. 

Around Christmas time I was looking for an old fashioned writing box to keep my paper, fountain pen, ink, envelopes and such in.  We went antiquing but couldn't find one and I was even reduced to searching on ebay.  I found a new one on Amazon, but after contacting the distrbutor was saddened to find that it was made........guess where.........CHINA.  No thanks!

Christmas came and went and I hadn't let go of my desire for a writing box, but I had switched gears a little bit.  I was going to do an impassioned plea to my blog readers, to see if any of you had any woodworking talent and would consent to make me one for a fee.  I couldn't let go of the idea of making one, and after a while I decided perhaps I could make one myself. 

I stopped by Lowe's on my monthly Aldi trip and bought my materials.......

Friday, The Man suprised me by taking the day off work and said he'd help me build my writing box, so we went to the shop and got started!

First we laid it all out the way I wanted it.  The big area is for my paper, the smaller area to the right if for my pen, above that is for the ink and stamps, and above the paper area is for my envelopes......
The first thing we did was screw that middle divider thingy together.  I had delusions of dowell pins, glue, and finish nails, but without the proper tools that was a pipe dream......so The Man screwed it together........

Then we screwed the outer frame together, here I am sanding it.  We glued and finish nailed this part together....

Then we laid the outer box on the bottom, clamped it together and flipped it over.....

Since we had to screw it together, The Man used a large drill bit to make a countersink hole to countersink the screws in......

Neat huh?  I don't have any pics of the rest of the steps, but basically, after we screwed the bottom on, we flipped it back over and put the center divider back in.  Then we finish nailed it on the sides, put the top on and put four itty bitty hinges across the back and it was done!

Isn't it beautiful??

Then I had bought these little fingies.....

I took a black paint pen and went over all the grooves, then painted stain on and wiped it off with a rag.....

Then I stained my box and glued these on top....


See how nice it is!  I LOVE it!


Hope your weekend has been blessed so far!




God Bless................


11 comments:

  1. Beautiful, just beautiful! I have something similar, it was my grandma's but not nearly as pretty.

    Hey, THANK YOU for the gift of gloves for Mike. He absolutely loves them and was so surprized that you'd think to send them for him. I'm working on a letter tonight back to you.

    Thanks for being such a wonderful pen pal *wink*

    Blessings,
    Kelle

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  2. That is so cool! Yes, and beautiful too. You have such a wonderful husband to help you put your writing box together. I'm sure it'll be something you'll treasure for years ... and maybe for generations.

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  3. You two did a wonderful job with your writing box. How neat that you decided to make one yourself.

    Happy Valentine's Day ~ FlowerLady

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  4. That is sooo cool! I'm all about DIY, it always means more that way. If you'd like to find older-style writing utensils - check out jas-townsend.com. They're a colonial reenactor supplier and they have cool stuff like ink wells, letter seals, and even brass mechanical pencils! They also have cute letter seals at Hobby Lobby in one of the scrapbooking aisles.

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  5. Way cool! I love the traditionalist aspect of this project. A traditional writing box made to pursue a traditional art, then blogged about in a very modern medium. Technology has the ability to bring us back in touch with the past and let us reclaim time that can be so easiliy wasted on lesser pursuits. That is soooooo awesome, and I love that so many people are waking up to this idea. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Oh wow, it's gorgeous! And it is extra special because you guys made it!! Hope you had a fantabulous! weekend :)

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  7. I made a writing box once where I covered a cardboard box in a collage and filled it with paper, envelopes, pens, markers, stamps, etc. I love the idea of using a fountain pen!

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  8. How pretty! You did a way better job than I could, and I actually have tools. LOL.

    Is it you that has the awesome library? I keep thinking it's you. Anyway, if it is, I was inspired and we're working on ours that's kinda like yours! :)

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  9. Oh my gosh! You make me feel like a lazy person after reading about all your weekly projects. The only thing I've made this week is lunch!

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