As I emerged from my tryptophan-induced coma -- approximately last Saturday (yes, Turkey Day was an epic gastronomic success at the Johnstone home) -- my woodworking energies were suddenly supercharged by a glance at the calendar. Did you know that Thanksgiving is only a month away from Christmas? Whoa! My holiday gift making efforts (based loosely on the “Think System” made famous by Meredith Willson’s super-salesman, Harold Hill) had produced exactly zero gifts thus far; hence a change in tactics was obviously required.

So I charged out to my workshop and promptly built a sorting cabinet for my laundry room and a hanging rack system to help me overcome my laundry ineptitude. 

And while I understand that, technically, this effort did not result in a gift being completed, I do think that a dam of sorts has been broken, and I feel in my gut (much diminished from its expansive holiday state) that this is the week that the race has begun in earnest.

Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal