Handmade Gifts From the Heart

I often marvel at the skill of craftsmen and women. People that through years of study and application, perfect a craft or trade. My husband Jerry is one of those people. Jerry's hobby is woodworking. He just made this cute little wooden ship.  To enlarge photos, just click on a picture!

It's amazing to me how he can just whip these things out from ideas in his head. He makes signs, chests and boxes (often pirate themed) and he makes carved wooden animals, people, and even spoons. This year he made us a life-size totem pole more than 15 feet tall. You can see it HERE.

I asked him how he designed this little ship and he told me that when he was little he wanted a toy just like this one, and although he never got it; the image has never left his thoughts. He calls it his "boyhood dream" ship. This toy is going to a very special boy for Christmas (Santa's secret). Jerry had a rough childhood. I think that's why he spends so much of his time building toys. It's his way of recreating childhood, one that is full of wonderment and imagination.

 Our yard is full of small outbuildings he constructs for fun and storage. We have a saloon, a mining camp shed, and he just tore down an old mini-farmhouse he built ages ago. I have come to realize that I live with a man with the most vivid imagination and the skill to manufacture his dreams, and that's pretty darn cool. What a lucky farmgirl I am. Merry Christmas!

If you have been thinking about linking up to share a handmade Christmas gift idea of your own, there's still time! Please link up and share!  Some of us need lots of help when it comes to making things.   Thanks and have a Merry Christmas!