wood.

While in New Hampshire a week ago, my brother and Tina had a rather large tree removed from their backyard. Now would be the time to explain that their backyard is literally a dense forest with no fence. It's absolutely beautiful in the winter with a couple feet of snow blanketing the ground and all of the trees. When I was there a few years ago for Christmas, we went snow-shoeing through the woods in their backyard. Quite fun!!! And a great workout.

I'm getting side-tracked though...back to wood. Anybody who knows me and has been to my house knows not to put ANYTHING on my table that I made during furniture design. After spending 5 weeks slaving away designing, measuring (measure twice, cut once), re-designing, sanding, painting, drilling, sealing, gluing, you get the idea, I am a little protective of my piece of furniture.

Please excuse the Tacky Christmas attire. Like the red chairs? They came from the McFarlin rummage sale a few years ago. Recovered with a yard of fabric from Hancocks...total cost: $10?

Anywho...I found this ADORABLE image on a cute DIY blog...I need to get better about citing where I find images. I will do my best to start doing that from now on!

Since the groom's family is in charge of the Rehearsal Dinner, I somewhat asked (okay...Mom knew she would have to relinquish some control for the decor that would be for the dinner) if I could decorate the place. When I saw the "Mr." and "Mrs." painted on pieces of wood...my mind started racing with ideas. The dinner will be held at The Coach Stop, which is a charming restaurant that Tina suggested. If Jeremy could cut me enough pieces of wood to have those be the place cards at the dinner, it would be absolutely perfect. Now all I had to do was sweet talk my brother...

Jeremy {of course} obliged, and he got out there the next day to start cutting! When it occurred to me I could do a few more things with larger pieces of wood, Jeremy wasn't exactly thrilled to cut them (they took all of 3-5 minutes...quit your whining). But I do have the best brother in the world...so he patiently cut away for his dear little sister :)

The wood on the right side of the picture was the tree that had just been removed. Jeremy has to cut it, split it, and stack it for his wood-burning stove, which heats their house tremendously during the winter. I got to use his {lime green} chainsaw (check that off my list of power tools to learn how to use!) in addition to the ax which splits wood! Talk about feeling powerful...

Check out some of these amazing inspiration images I stumbled upon during my search of all things wood:

I need to start painting people's names on the wood and experimenting with fonts and colors. Happy almost weekend!

P.S. NEW YORK CITY COUNTDOWN: 5 days and counting!!!!!!