woodshop.

We spent most of our last day in Texas in my Daddy's woodshop. Sam made a pen with my Dad on the lathe! And, I got to to take this pen home, made of pink ivory. It's a beautiful wood that has a pinkish tint to it, and leaves the woodshop covered in little piles of pink shavings. I've used it every day since I got home. And, Sam just loved getting his hands on those tools.

It was so great to be sitting on a stool in my Daddy's woodshop again. He used to have a woodshop in our garage when I was growing up, and he is in the process of rebuilding the shop again in his new garage. When I was little, he always had a stool set up in the garage for me to sit on and swing my legs back and forth while he worked. The walls of the garage were completely plastered in posters of topographical maps, National Geographic photos, science cartoons, and a life-size NASA astronaut. And, one entire wall was covered in peg board where every little tool imaginable hung by size and color. I can remember the sound of every different power tool, and the air from the box fan in the corner blowing on my sweaty neck. I can remember the smell of a Texas summer afternoon, mixed with fresh shavings and car oil. He helped me make my own smooth wood toolbox, and gave me a few random tools to fill it with. I would sit in a corner and bangs nails into a scrap of wood, or draw pictures with my fingers in the fine layer of wood dust that landed on every surface. It was one of my favorite places to be.