Patricia’s (a) Puzzle

We went skiing this weekend!  First time in a long time.  Julius had an all day lesson on Saturday and today he was shredding the mountain!  Not even joking!  He did amazing!  Now Patricia is a bit jealous that she declined learning to ski.  Soon we’ll get her skiing…

Julius had like a two hour fever last night.  It was really weird.  He went to bed early because he was super tired and he felt a little warm so I checked his temperature.  Sure enough he had a fever.  A couple hours later when we put Patricia to bed his temperature was totally back to normal.  This morning he was totally fine too.  He was not feeling well so he didn’t want to read to me, but he still wanted me to read him a bedtime book.  Reading him a bedtime book is always so weird lately.  Ninety percent of the time he has me read him recipes from his cookbooks.  Yes he has cook books.  A lot of cook books.  It is one of the main things he asked for for Christmas.  I don’t know if you’ve ever read a cookbook to a child as a bedtime story but it is not my idea of fun.  Last night I asked him “do you want me to read the ingredients and measurements” and his response was “of course”.

Patricia is in the loving books phase.  She loves story books so I feel fulfilled when reading to her.  After reading to Julius I’m either really hungry or ready to bake a cake.  Patricia has her own quirks lately though.  She adores changing clothes.  She changes outfits like 10 times a day.  That is not an exaggeration!  It drives me completely insane since the clothes she throws all over her floor I end up having to wash.  I thought moving from cloth diapers to potty trained would decrease my clothes washing but I’m definitely at about double the laundry I did when they were babies.  Lately Patricia has only wanted to wear dresses.  She usually layers a shirt (any shirt on top of a dress she calls a sweatshirt) and a cape on top.  Honestly she’s a complete fashionista.  I’m sure I’ll be consulting her for fashion advice in a couple years.  Right now though I don’t think I have the confidence to pull off any of the outfits she’d pick for me.  Especially since her current qualification for ‘a dress’ is “it covers my bum bum”.

Both kids are growing up so fast.  It’s crazy the amount of project ideas I had that are just moot because the kids are too old. I finally decided to tackle one that has been on my to do list since Patricia turned 1.  My aunt gifted Julius this beautiful hand made name puzzle bench when he turned 1.  I’ve been wanting to make one for Patricia to match.  It’s getting to the point though where she is amazing at puzzles!  In a few months this puzzle is going to be obsolete.  Since there is no time like the present I figured it would be a great way to improve my woodworking skills!  I’m pretty happy with how it came out even though it is not as perfect as Julius’ bench!  You live and learn!  Oh and this is adapted so you don’t need a lathe!  I think it is just as strong (I tested it by standing on it on Christmas Eve – Will freaked out when I did this).

I caught Patricia playing with her bench and tried to take a picture but she suggested she sit on it and pose. I couldn’t argue. This outfit pretty much captures her style too.

Patricia Puzzle Bench

What You’ll Need:

• Transfer paper
• Scrap piece of 3/4” thick wood
• Scrap piece of 1 1/4″ thick wood
• 1 1/2″ thick dowel
• 3/4” thick dowel (unless you have a lathe)
• Drill and 1/2” drill bit and 3/4″ forstner bit (honestly drill press would have been better but I don’t have one)
• Table saw or bandsaw
• Coping saw
• flush cut saw
• Sandpaper and orbital sander (or belt sander)
• Water based Acrylic paint
• Water based polyurethane
• Tung Oil

1. Decide how big you are going to make your bench.  Then cut the 3/4” piece of wood and 1 1/4″ piece to the size you want the top of bench to be. I actually would recommend making it 1/4” wider to account for sanding. My bench top is about 7”x15”.  I used the band saw to cut my bench.
2. First I wrote out Patricia’s name on paper.  To keep duplicate letters the same size I traced them.
3. Using the transfer paper trace name onto 3/4″ wood.
4. Find an area at the edge of your letters that is rather innocuous.  I used the inside of the ‘c’.  Use 1/4″ drill bit to drill a hole in the wood. Take apart coping saw blade and insert thru the hole.
5. Clamp the project in a vice so it doesn’t wiggle.  Cut around the edges of the letters along the lines you traced.
6. After all your letters are cut, drill holes in the letters with holes in the center (ex: ‘P’, “a”), clamp letters and again cut around the centers as in step 4.
7. Sand all around letters until smooth.
8. Sand around the inside of the puzzle until smooth.
9. Prepare the legs.  Cut 4 pieces of 1 1/2″ dowel 6 1/2″ long.
10. Using a forstner bit, drill a 3/4″ hole in the center of each leg about 1″ deep.  (Unless you have a lathe – then cut your legs longer and trim down).
11. Put a bit of glue in the hole then insert 2.5″ long 3/4″ dowel in the leg.  Repeat for each leg.  Clamp and let dry.
    

    Finished legs.

12. Using a forstner bit, drill a 3/4″ hole at each corner of the 1 1/4″ wood, 1.5″ from each edge. Note:  If you’re fancy, before step 11 you can cut the leg at an angle, and in step 12 you can drill into the stool at the same angle.  You’ll need a drill press to properly do this though…
13. Add a bit of glue to the 3/4″ dowel on each leg and insert into each hole.  Clamp and let dry.
14. Once dry, use your flush cut saw to trim the excess part of the dowel.
15. Sand entire surface.
16. Glue puzzle frame to stool base.  Clamp and let dry.
17. Sand all edges, face of puzzle, base of puzzle and legs.
18. Level legs by sanding.
19. Paint each letter with 2 coats of water based acrylic paint
20. Follow bottle instructions to coat each letter with 2 coats of water based polyurethane. Let dry.
21. Follow bottle instructions to coat bench with tung oil.
22. Once everything is dry assemble your puzzle!

I’m so happy with how it came out but it is a bit challenging to do this puzzle!  The pieces fit into each slot amazingly well, but Patricia has duplicate letters in her name and because I’m not a pro with the coping saw they are not completely interchangeable.  She’s getting used to it though!  Her favorite thing to use it for right now is a baby bed.  I’m pretty much the perfect size.