Adventures with Marcus: An Easter Basket

Over a week ago on Ana White's facebook page I saw a post with a super cute wooden bunny Easter basket and I was hooked. I should also add that I am a bit of a procrastinator too. I have talked about making this since I saw it but I also didn't ever quite make it down to the wood shop to actually work on it. Ana White Plans Today is Easter and yesterday I pretty much committed that I would have it done by today with two actions.....1. I didn't buy Marcus another basket- so this had to be it. 2. I actually bought white fluffy yarn to make the tail. So I was all in and last night after I put Marcus to bed it was time to get it done. I headed down into the wood shop, I brought the laptop along so I follow along the directions and started planning. I had not mentioned that the goal was to actually use scrap wood to create this project and I had not planned ahead.

Wood Shop

One of the reasons I haven't been doing much in the wood shop lately is that I have not finished the bunk bed yet..... well I have mostly finished it. It is now sitting in the wood ship- fully assembled- mostly sanded, and ready to be stained. I just really hate the finishing part of the project- I just wished they would finish themselves.... anyway I digress. I haven't spent a lot of time in the wood shop because it is currently quite full with the bunk bed- I now know that is the largest project I can make in the wood shop. But since this project was time sensitive I sucked it up, made some room and started to work on the project.

Using the directions I was able to find wood that would work for all parts- with some modifications. I ended up not using any plywood- the pieces I had on hard are all reserved for further products. I had some scraps left of 1 x 12's that I bought for bunk bed project. This project called for a 1 x 8, so I resawed these pieces into that size- the band saw makes this pretty easy work.

Once the pieces were all cut it was pretty easy to get it glued, clamped, and nailed. I also figured out what to do for a handle- I didn't have an old dowel or handle floating around the house so I resawed a 1 x 3 and made a nice looking handle.

Once it was all put together I grabbed my orbital sander and sanded the entire box. This make everything (especially my rough eat cuts) look a lot better. All in I think this project took a little over an hour. I didn't finish til late so I knew I would have to wait until the next day get it painted.

Easter Basket Filled Up

We decided last night that the Easter Bunny would come today while Marcus and I went to church. Right before we left we had Marcus put out a few carrots for the Easter Bunny. He looked at me like I was a bit crazy. When we got home from church, we found that the Easter Bunny had eaten the carrots and just left the tops behind.

He also left the Bunny Basket full of treats and eggs in the back yard to find. Marcus had a blast today and I think he will be excited for Easter next year.