the craft table.

After successfully giving my mum a wooden creature with a drawer—questionable in the context of “decluttering”—I decided to attempt something more practical. A travel mug felt like a safer option. Functional. Contained. Harder to argue with. The plan was straightforward: take a standard stainless steel travel mug and personalise it using the laser. Simple. Except “simple” becomes relative quite quickly. For my husband’s mug, I went with something a bit more personal—orchi

There’s something deeply satisfying about taking a perfectly innocent piece of wood… and burning a hippo into it. Enter: my newest obsession—the xTool S1 laser cutter. I’d love to say I approached this new machine calmly and methodically, but the reality was closer to equal parts excitement, curiosity, and “what happens if I just try this?” energy. The good news is: the S1 is surprisingly forgiving. The better news is: it turns out I really like setting things on fire (in