The Gift

What is it? Well, the blanket was woven for me by my mother and it was a gift. It's gorgeous. It's my most favourite thing to wear around the house. I'd like to wear it to work. But this isn't a weaving blog. And most certainly not a fashion blog.

It's the thing on the blanket that should get your attention. I've given up staying on top of all of Norm's tool acquisitions. And apparently he has given up on filling me in on each and every one. This little gem came out out of the garage on the weekend when I finally demonstrated an interest in the detailed mechanics of cabinet making. The kind of stuff that keeps Norm awake at night. I had some questions and in answer to some of them (and with what was no doubt well contained excitement that I wanted to SEE a tool) Norm brought a little box of goodies in from the garage. This, my friends, is a tool designed specifically for pressing edge banding onto cabinet carcasses. Not something you need every day, but leave it to Norm to have just the thing.

This is the underside. What look like wheels in the top photo are actually metal rollers that you roll along the front edge of the cabinets to help the banding adhere. I fell in love with this little thing. Zoom zoom. It looks like something I'd give my nephew to play with. Speaking of which, I didn't buy him anything for his birthday last month. Now before you all boo and hiss, hear me out. I was babysitting him recently and we were playing with a computerized 'thing' that he said he got for his birthday. I asked who gave it to him. And he didn't know. Okay, okay, he's five years old...but this was a cool little laptop-type thing. This experience, and not wanting to add to the already overcrowded toy department that is my brother's basement, caused me to do things a bit differently this year. Instead of buying him a gift we spent the day with getting craft supplies and then making a Christmas wreath for his mum and dad's front door. He also came with me to pick out a new toy to donate to a local charity for underprivileged children. The concept that some children might not get gifts was a stretch for him, but he handled it with his usual aplomb by asking if he would get to play with it before we gave it away. Satisfied with my explanation for why not, we then carried on and had a little birthday lunch at DQ. And all was well in his world. And some little person without an overflowing toybox will get a Christmas gift from my nephew this year.