the craft table.

There’s something quietly satisfying about finishing a project that carries meaning beyond the materials it’s made from. This one felt like that. When our trainer announced he was leaving the gym, it landed heavily. Over time, he had built more than just a set of classes—he’d built a community. A group of us who kept showing up, lifting heavier than we thought we could, and laughing (groaning?) our way through it. Somewhere along the way, we became ‘Scottie’s Hotties’—a name

Sometimes a project starts with a practical need. Other times, it starts with a slightly uncomfortable feeling that you owe someone something. This was the second kind. the situation As part of some changes in our clinic space, several of us had to move offices to make room for additional consultation rooms. A reasonable and necessary change. Less reasonable (or at least less comfortable) was the fact that one of my colleagues—who is only on campus one day a week—effecti

There seems to be a pattern emerging. If a room doesn’t have a clock, my response is not to buy one. It is to design and make one. This is now the second time this has happened. My new office at QUT has the same issue as my therapy room—no easy way to check the time when I’m meeting with students without making it obvious. So the goal was straightforward: readable at a glance not overly distracting and, this time, a little more personal making it mine (literally) For

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 is a particular challenge in buying gifts for someone who is actively trying to own less. My mum is one of those people. Thoughtful, practical… and increasingly resistant to “things.” So naturally, I made her a thing. the brief (ignored) The goal was simple: something useful, not too large, and ideally not destined for a cupboard. What I ended up making is… a wooden creature with a drawer. In my defence, it did start with good intentions. The design is actuall

There’s always that moment before Christmas where you think “I could buy something… or I could make something.” This year, I chose chaos. the brief (self-imposed, obviously) My brother has a new couch. Which, in adult terms, means: no drinks on the armrest,no balancing mugs on questionable surfaces, and … coasters are now required. So instead of buying a perfectly reasonable set, I decided to design and laser-cut a custom coaster set. Because why make life easy. Each pi

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