The Summer of the (DIY) Wooden Stars

You guys, I have been without a working sewing machine for SOOOO LOOOOONG!!!!!

Fortunately, my "good" sewing machine didn't break until AFTER I'd sewn plenty of cloth masks for everyone, but when it broke, it broke for good.

(See what I did there?)

The day that I heard that my sewing machine was unrepairable, I switched it out at the repair shop (I drive to one in the next town, now, on account of I'm still scared of the people who run the one in my own town) with my beat-up old sewing machine, the one that Matt replaced for me as a present a few years ago when IT broke, but I still keep it around because it has an awesome bobbin-winder.

In another piece of good luck, my beat-up old sewing machine is old enough that its parts are mostly metal, which means that it WAS repairable... or at least, that's what the repair shop has told me. They've also tell me, every time we call (once a week!) for an update, that they've finished their repair and all they need to do is test it.

You would think that a sewing machine repair shop, when faced with a machine that they've already repaired and are now simply storing and not being paid for, would be eager to do the very last thing that they have to do to that machine before they can 1) get it out of their workshop and 2) get paid money in exchange for their goods and services. If you think that, though, you're likely not mentally or emotionally suited to run a sewing machine repair shop.

And that's why, in all my new-found non-sewing time, I've been experimenting with a wide variety of non-sewing productive things to do with my hands.

And somehow in that process, I became obsessed with making wooden stars?

I don't know. It's weird. The whole thing started out being normal--I figured I'd make our Christmas tree a nice wooden star tree topper. Then I made a smaller one as an ornament. Then I had some wood leftover, so I made a couple more. Then I found some more wood. Then I thought that maybe I could paint some of the stars, so I found some more wood.

At this point, I'm basically out of scrap wood, so I'm about to go and tear apart a wooden pallet and see if I can also make stars out of pallet wood. If I can--I'll just be frank with you; I'll probably make a LOT more.

To be fair, though, the process is quite satisfying! Here's one star just after I cut it out of some super old board that was probably in our garage when we moved here:

Here I am about to sand the snot out of it (pro tip: get a quarter-sheet palm sander because it's cheaper to buy full sheets of sandpaper and tear them to size yourself)--

--but then deciding that it would be terrible to ruin that gorgeous patina and instead just sanding the sides and curving the edges:

Here's a larger version of the star from that same wood. Check out the old nail holes!

Here I am spending some art time with Will. She's coloring the world's most epic fantasy landscape, I'm gluing wooden stars together, and we're both listening to Welcome to Night Vale:

I cut some other stars out of such clean, nice wood that I didn't bother priming them before I painted them:

I want all that nice wood to show between the layers of my rainbow!

Here's the finished tree topper, all set up and ready to go in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop!

It was SO MUCH FUN to make. The second that I scrounge some more wood out of nowhere I'm going to make another!

Our Christmas tree is already so busy that I forced myself to make this very sedate, lightly stained and sealed only, tree topper for our home:

It's a weensy bit wonky, but it was the very first one that I made!

I am, however, right this minute working on painting a galaxy onto yet another giant wooden star, so who knows if our tree topper will stay regal and sedate and simple this year, or if it will be conquered by galaxies or rainbows--or both!