So, about this blog. Blogs are a thing on the internet, and as with all things on the internet (and unlike most other things in life) barriers to entry are few. To fling stuff into the blogosphere, one needs not many dollars and an overinflated sense of self importance. The blogosphere is a noisy, noisy place where you […]
Last Christmas, Leslie, her siblings, and their significant others agreed to give their mom a treehouse for Christmas. More specifically, the labor required to build a house in a tree, which, as it turns out, is a lot. Nana, as she is known to her grandkids, was plenty thrilled. Quitters Little did I know a sizeable segment of […]
When we renovated our kitchen, I kept an ever-growing spreadsheet that listed our itemized budget, actual costs, links to items we were considering purchasing, and so on. It was a major remodel, so the spreadsheet grew unwieldy. Also, spreadsheets are stupid, and I hate them, because they’re stupid. A month ago, I received an email […]
I’m not sure how Sam Walton announced the grand opening of Walton’s Five & Dime. And I wasn’t there when Jeff Bezos launched a modest little bookselling site called Amazon. But I doubt there was much fanfare. Nobody knew those to be burgeoning retail empires. Who’s to say this is any different?: Our Etsy shop is finally up. […]
Hey friends, the giveaway has concluded, and our winners have been randomly selected: Brenda McCommis Mary Stowman Amy Riley Winners, congrats! You should have received an email from us on January 29 or 30 (depending on your timezone). If you haven’t done so already, please reply at your earliest convenience, as you have 14 days from […]
A couple years ago, we found a rusty birdcage at a salvage shop. We buy lots of crap (old boards, mostly). The guy we buy crap from sometimes gives us crap. So, this birdcage was free. Some people have punch cards for the local deli. We apparently belong to an unofficial loyalty program at the local junk […]
Our first batch of birdhouse nightlights will soon be on Etsy, but first, we’re giving away three of ’em—an $85-100 value (each). (Since the prototypes for these prizes adorn my precious daughter’s walls, I consider “priceless” a more accurate valuation.) Here’s the thing about this sweepstakes: Hammer & Moxie is new. Our families read it. Unfortunately for […]
Pregnancy is not my jam. I’ve never been pregnant, but I once spent ten months with a pregnant woman. Pregnancy was most definitely not Leslie’s jam, but by some biological/psychological miracle, her enthusiasm swelled along with her ankles. She read aloud each Baby Center update: “It’s the size of a poppy seed!” “A kumquat!” And […]
A few years ago Leslie asked if we could replace the stodgy-looking brass chandelier in our dining room. Lucky for her (me?), she filed her request during my Christmas break. I’d never made a chandelier, so I exhausted an entire day researching and hunting down lamp parts online. When Leslie returned from work, she found […]
Each fall, our neighborhood hosts a mass, coordinated garage sale. For one day, fifty-plus families throw their garbage in the yard instead of the dumpster, and people pay them for the opportunity to haul it away. We’ve become garage sale connoisseurs since Hannah came along, because children’s toys a) cost a fortune and b) should […]
