Love is in the air

I think this is the ultimate in craftiness for 2009 and with Valentine's day rolling around, maybe it will inspire someone to think out of the box. I always rack my brain for what to get Mike for his birthday and for Christmas. It never fails that the majority of what I get him, ends up heading back to the store. Thankfully, this gift was a hit! Mike's uncle Dave made his very own wedding ring years ago. About 8 years ago when I was getting a new wedding set (long story!), I was without my ring for about a month. Mike didn't like me being in public without a ring on my finger (guess he was afraid that the two small children on my hip wouldn't be enough to fight all of the available bachelors off!) so he made me a temporary ring to wear one day in the machine shop at work. I wore that bad boy everyday until I got my ring back, and if I didn't like diamonds so much, I would probably still be wearing it!


Anyway, Uncle Dave's two boys have both gotten married in the past few years, and each wife made their husbands wedding band with the help of their new father in law. Chad and Shawna were the most recent wedding, and while looking through their wedding pictures there was a shot with the two girls and Dave holding the wedding bands. Mike saw the picture and made a flippant comment like "why don't you make me a ring?" Well, I tucked that little gem in the back of my mind and decided I would ask Uncle Dave if he could help me make a ring for Mike for Christmas.


Fast forward a few months to late November, and I finally asked Dave if he would help me make a ring. I only had one available day to work on it (Owen's pre-school is just not long enough sometimes!) thanks to a playdate after school, so I called up Davie to see if he could help me. Thankfully, everything fell into place. I showed up at the family business (AST) and got to work on this stainless steel ring (after some calculations from Mike's dad on the ring size--I was totally shocked that people actually use pie to solve equations!) made out of the same hunk of stainless steel that Chad and Josh's rings are made out of. Dave helped me on the lathe and we got to work on Mike's ring. I love that the edges are beveled and the front is thicker than the back (sort of off center). I came away from the morning with all my fingers in tact and some experience on the lathe. As much fun as it was, I'm not trading in my sewing machine anytime soon!