We are going to a music festival soon and Sarah wanted to add some “bling” to her denim jacket. So we bought some spingley-spangley rhinestones, I designed some artwork, and we are in the process of upscaling a piece of simple blue denim. I’ll add images of the finished jacket as soon as it is…

This is the gate I’m making; it’s all screwed together using Kreg pocket holes joints and Kreg’s 2.5″ Blue Kote screws. I’ve given all edges a coat of exterior wood paint before putting it together so that every surface is protected. It’s been filled and sanded and is awaiting a final coat of filler, another…

I am making a new gate for my parents. It is their Christmas present and these are my timbers laid out as I experiment with differing combinations for the vertical pieces. The timbers are 47mm x 100mm (sides and horizontal pieces) and 47×75 for the verticals. The overall size is 900×900 and the gate will…

It’s the evening of Super Bowl LII and Maggie The Mini Schnauzer is having a pre-game snooze on my shoulder. Maggie and I are rooting for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots as they line up against the Philadelphia Eagles. My support for the Patriots harks back to my cousins in Massachusetts who are…

Not an exciting image today. This is the area at the bottom of the stairs at my daughters house and in which I have been tasked with building a combined seat and storage unit.

A shot of the timber I bought today and which I will use to make a gate for my parents. They are overseeing me from the photograph top left.

A quick snap of a sign outside a cafe bar that I visited today. I was there to discuss graphics for the windows.

This is my new Kreg shelf pin jig. It arrived today and will be out to good use later this spring as I make some furniture for our home. It is an ingenious device that easily allows the accurate drilling of holes for shelving; those little metal pins go into the holes and the shelves…

This is Maggie The Mini Schnauzer. She has just woken up  at the the scent of coffee. She loves coffee and will harass you until you give her the dregs from your cup. Maggie The Coffee Drinking Mini Schnauzer. She also likes tea. And hot chocolate.

“Life is bigger, it’s bigger and you, you are not me.” Today’s picture is of mementoes, signed pictures, commemorative badges and the like that are displayed on my office wall. Momentoes and souvenirs of Bradford City AFC. They may soon be coming down from the wall. Possibly to be put into a box, stacked in a…

Time for this quote from sports commentator, Chris Cooper, to come off my workshop wall. It references Bradford City’s incredible turnaround in the playoff semifinal where we overturned a 0-2 first leg defeat at Valley Parade to win 3-0, and 3-2 on aggregate, away at Blackpool. This caption was so evocative and instantly brings back…

This is the screen on my Mac moments after I submitted my entry for the Northern Writers’ Awards for 2018. The deadline isn’t until 2359 on February 1st and, therefore, I had a few more days grace. But, I’ve been working hard on the extract of my novel that I am hoping will be successful…

Bethany and Liam today returned from a short break in Prague. Knowing I like badges, they kindly brought me these two pins from their trip to the Museum of Communism. I aim to put one of the pins into one of my hats tomorrow.

Sarah printed the draft of my submission to the Northern Writers Awards and I have been reading through it. It’s surprising how many little tweaks and amends you spot when reading your words from a printed page and not from your Mac. The familiarity of the screen and own your words seem to mask these…