That time of year is upon us again… Mothers Day.  A day to celebrate and reflect on the woman who brough us into the world, cared for us and put us before themselves.  As demanding and often self-centered we children could be, mum would always be there unconditionally.

So with the 8th of May approaching I decided to make something nice for mum (Julie, Julz, me Julie) and if you have read some of my other posts you would realise that I am a buddying woodworker.  Not being able to build her a new house or boat I tried to keep it simple yet showing her that she is a loved woman.

LOVE being an appropriate word and things to put on shelves or tables being a big thing at the moment I thought about making the word LOVE with all the names that she hold dear etched into it… who would have thought i could be so thoughtful?!

Alrighty, here we go… first up I had a nice piece of wood I could use from left over projects. I traced the word love onto the wood and then began jigsawing around the trace.

So where we live in Melbourne we don’t have a shed or garage, and I was hoping and relying that Melbourne’s unpredictable weather would hold off so I could use some power tools… I was lucky and the autumn weather was in the low 20’s with no rain in sight… but all I needed was about an hour and Sara wouldn’t have been happy if I had to jigsaw in the lounge room.

Although not perfect, my skills with a jigsaw are good enough to not botch this job

When the word starts to take place I became a little bit more excited about what I was trying to create… with no template my lines were straight and my curves flowed… Yeaaawww! Happy days…

At this stage I was wondering what my brother was getting or making for mum and thought that I might be able to ‘out do’ him… haha sibling rivalry reignited… but what I was seriously thinking was that I hope this gift wasn’t as crappy as the gifts you used to get from the school way back in primary school… for those who experienced it would remember the small stall they set up; run by the mother’s mind you, where you were able to purchase some shitty small gift that mum might love but really never use and resent the fact she had to keep this gift until a suitable time as to throw it out or accidentally break it… cheers mum…

Moving along… oh I’m finished jigsawing! Yay, time to cut out the O and E holes (not A hole)… The E I was happy with but the love heart shaped O was a bit shit… but what the hell?! I made it… so who cares right?

So after a little sanding and shaping with the sander and some files just to smooth the edges and rough cut marks I decided, with the help of a soldering iron, to burn the names of some family members that mum loves at this point in her life…  After a rough little sketch so I had a guide I etched the wood with a fine pointed tip as best I could…

End result came up a treat!

Hopefully this gift doesn’t get intentionally broken or put into the scrap heap… I hope it’s a reminder to my mum that she is loved and we (including my brother) are grateful for the things she has given up and sacrificed to raise us to become the people we are now… pretty fucken awesome people!

I think she liked it… put it up on the mantle in front of the encyclopedias… haha

Happy Mothers day to all mothers out there… especially Julie, Faye, Audrey (nan), Carmel (nanna), Kaye, Gail, Jane, Liz, Jess, Yen, Kath, Jaqueline and Tayta (Saras nan)