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CRAFTY IDEAS

While walking in the woods one Autumn afternoon with the children, my husband came across an interesting looking log. They persuaded him to carry it home and it remained in the garage for some considerable time before he hit upon a brilliant idea. I was pleased since I'd tripped over the log on innumerable occasions, on the way to the freezer, and was just about to throw it on the Guy Fawke's Night bonfire.

Much to our neighbours' disgust, my husband proceeded to shatter the tranquility of a November evening by sawing the log into slices with a noisy electric saw on the back lawn. "Whatever is he doing?" I asked the children, who observed him with interest through the patio door.

The next day we were sent on a shopping expedition to Leeds Market with instructions to buy a whole box full of assorted ceramic "Santa" figures. There were wobbly ones on tiny springs, about to pop out of a chimney and some cute ones on skis, carrying sacks of toys on their backs.

"Look, this is what we'll do," said hubby, taking us all into his confidence at last. "We'll cover those log slices with yacht varnish, stick some felt on one side and mount a Santa figure on the other, and then you can sell them at the Brownie's Xmas fair."

So "Crafty Ideas" was born, the brain-child of a bored husband with no time consuming hobbies - until now. He had found his ideal hobby, and declared himself a "Decorative Wood Designer."

"This isn't going to become a SAW point between us?" I joked.

The Santa ornaments sold like hot-cakes and we all had to trek out into the woods again in search of more logs to keep the production line going. Hubby decided to branch out, if you pardon the pun, into other wooden items. The garage soon became a workshop in which he spent every waking moment. The car was rendered homeless, the children became apprentices and I was roped in as sales manager. New lines were thought up on an almost daily basis, each one was photographed and a catalogue compiled. Business cards were printed as everything had to be done in a professional manner - we were now entrepreneurs, after all.

Wood was purchased cheaply from the local Sunday market and was used to create book-ends, shelves, and even toy-boxes in various sizes, sturdy enough to pass on to one's grandchildren; we designed a child's desk too. All our lines found a market at the local playgroup. Before long we had enough stock to try a stall at the local car boot sale.

We carried a very popular line in house number

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