Recently my sister gave birth to my new niece Lucy. Now I am an uncle to her and her new big brother Ethan. I haven’t met Lucy face to face yet, but I sent her a special present that I hope she’ll enjoy for many years to come.

I used my basic woodworking skills to make her a jewelry box. I remembered growing up that my sister had a small jewelry box with a little wind up ballerina inside that would spin with the music when you opened it. I wanted to make something like that for Lucy. I searched all over to find the parts for the dancing ballerina but couldn’t find everything I needed. Lucky for me you can still buy those little jewelry boxes like my sister had, and lucky for me they’re pretty cheap too. ;-) I ordered one from Target and when it arrived I promptly tore it apart. From there it was pretty easy to make the box and finish it off. Of course the completion of the project was delayed by our latest move, but I eventually unpacked everything I needed and got it done.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, I also made Ethan a present when he was born. (An uncle can’t play favorites you know.) I made him a set of wooden blocks with all the letters of the alphabet and the numbers 0-9 on them. Those were much more time consuming to make than the jewelry box, but they were both worth it. Who knows, maybe one day Lucy’s and Ethan’s kids may be playing with the blocks and watching the ballerina dance in the jewelry box made by their Great Uncle Marc. :-)