New Book Includes Us!

Hi Friends of Earnest Efforts-
I know, two posts in one week?  Ha!  We just realized we ought to share the exciting news that we were one of 21 eco-artists included in this wonderful book created by Julie Rawding of the blog Can or Can Not and her Etsy shop of the same name at https://www.etsy.com/shop/CanOrCanNot

Julie has a wonderful eye for great art and this book is truly a blast for reading & inspiration.  You can either go to her Etsy shop and download the PDF or you can get the paperback copy on Amazon at The Upcyclers USA

We hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Take care, be good & kind and do your darnedest to laugh!
Ellie Efforts

One Week Until Holiday Market Starts!

Fresh hats ready for new heads

  Dear Friends - It's that time of year when we go full-force until Christmas eve.  Starting next Saturday, we will be at the Eugene, Oregon at the Lane County Fairgrounds, Booth #14, for our Eugene Saturday Market's Holiday Market.  It's exciting and motivating and time that's filled with inspiration and sawdust.  We pretty much have a rhythm down that keeps us from getting overwhelmed which makes it much more fun than it used to be!  I'm going to take you on a tour to let you see what we've been working on, finished and the many piles we've made (along with the added treat of some of Earnie's cathedral wallpaper).  My apologies for any strangely colored photos.  Sometimes photos from the Sawdust Cathedral have a sawdust hue which makes everything a little blurry.  The following are the various stages of rattles, boxes, drawers & barrettes.

Teeter - Queen of the Sawdust Cathedral

We hope you enjoyed the tour.  We look forward to seeing you at the Holiday Market, booth #14 along the south wall.

Take care, be good & kind, and do your darnedest to laugh,
Ellie Efforts

Earnie, Ellie & Myrtle's Fall in Pictures

Myrtle had her 6th birthday last week!

 
Dear Friends of Earnest Efforts -

As we make our way towards the holidays, our world seems to shrink and we become more & more obsessed with creating lots of sawdust.  The lovely rains are filling our valley as I write and one of my favorite things is to listen to the rain falling on the roof of the Sawdust Cathedral and watching the drip, drip, drip of water slipping through the tangles of moss living on the tree not three feet from where we sand.  The following are simply what we've been seeing in our daily life while we work & play at home.

 

 

Sawdust horizons inside the bandsaw

Wet moss on the oak tree by the sander

View while sanding

Earnie's boxes in the works

Barrettes in process

Running low on barrettes for market :-)

Thank you for visiting us here and we wish you and all you love joy & laughter in this season of beauty and change...
Cheerfully,
Ellie & Earnie

Change

Dear Friends of Earnest Efforts -

August and September have been filled with change.  The seasons have started shifting and the mornings are now crisp, crunchy and colorful.  I always feel re-inspired as autumn comes, which I suppose comes from the natural instinct to ready ourselves for winter.

I find myself staring out at the autumn woods along the creek and wondering where to start.  On 17 August, on what would have been our Grandpa's 99th birthday, our Nannie (click on link for an earlier post about a visit with her) started her transition to the other side with my Mom & I by her side.  We weren't surprised, because she had been declining over the past year and our Grandpa passed on her 80th birthday. However, when Mom asked her if she wanted to go see Grandpa, she said, "What for?"  That was Nannie :-)

I wont say that her passing was beautiful or that death is beautiful.  I don't understand those sentiments, but I will say being by her side, being with my Mom and my siblings, my Pa and my cousins was beautiful.  That was what was beautiful & special and those are the memories I will hold dear.  We held a perfect celebration of life, 'Nannie's Special Day' with friends, family, her famous biscuits & chocolate gravy and her peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that taste like our childhood (I made 350 cookies as I worked through my grief).

 

We then readied ourselves for a little hike down memory lane with a camping trip to Rock Creek.  Rock Creek is a tributary to the North Umpqua River in the Cascade Mountain Range of Oregon and is the place we camped as a large group all through my childhood.

And through the moments we breath life we continue to work and we find solace in that work.  Earnie held things together at home and sold at market while I was with Nannie.  He kept the sawdust flying in the Sawdust Cathedral cutting gorgeous new boxes and teething rattles & spirit shakers while he grieved and loved on me. And, when I was ready to come home he had plenty of rattles ready to sand for the new indie shops that contacted us.  All my gratitude to you, my beloved Earnie, for surrounding me with love and laughter over the past month and our 16 years together...

We are delighted to announce that four new shops contacted us in the last month.  Spreading our wings all over the country -

Tantrum in the Cole Street neighborhood of San Francisco, CA

Bona Fide Green Goods in Concord, New Hampshire

Ginko Gallery & Studio in Oberlin, OH

and coming soon the Enchantments Studio in Narberth, PA...

Oh, and last, but not least... yes, I cut my hair.
I donated 4 ounces and 16 inches of hair to Locks of Love.  It feels GREAT!

Our gratitude goes out to all of you who extended your love and sympathy in our time of loss.  Our hearts still overflow with that love.

Take care, be good & kind, and do your darnedest to laugh,
Ellie Efforts

Something Monumental Occurred In The Sawdust Cathedral This Week

Earnest Efforts 1953 Boice Crane Bandsaw

Dear Friends of Earnest Efforts -

This week we said so long to an old friend and welcomed a new one.  It may seem foolish to talk about a piece of equipment as a friend; anthropomorphizing an inanimate object.  However, this inanimate object, for which we have great affection, was built in 1953 from someone's sketched dreams into metal, and became an extension of Earnie; to cut his wood dreams over the last four decades.  My theory as to why our hearts felt a little heavy when the Boice Crane was unplugged and moved over for a new friend; tools are an extension of our hands and our hands are connected to our hearts, our dreams, and our creations. 

An old friend unplugged & moved

So, we said goodbye to one (no worries - the Boice Crane will remain a permanent part of our the Sawdust Cathedral) and welcomed another.

Oregon Tool is our local tool supply

Our new Shop Fox Bandsaw

No words; a smile says it all...

Old Boice Crane Upper Wheel

New Shop Fox Shiny Upper Wheel

Old blade & guide

New blade & shiny red guide 

Beautiful old directions

Fence rail with tape measure

Lower Wheel - also shiny

New 'Concepts' bulging from Earnie's brain

Someone else got a "new" bandsaw this week.  Earnie found a used Sears bandsaw for me a couple of weeks ago.  We have been waiting for a part to arrive in the post and yesterday I cut my first hair barrettes on it.  WOW!!!  It cuts like a dream.  I must say, as much as I loved the Boice Crane, I now realize it was one very scary piece of equipment - loud and jolting, lurching, jerky...  I didn't realize that cutting on a bandsaw could be a calming, meditative experience.  Ha!

Ellie & her Sears bandsaw

Small blade & guide

Myrtle says, "Don't put your head in there!"