I put away our Christmas ornaments today and disassembled the tree; I packed up the lights around the window, the “candles” in the dining room, and the gingerbread tea light holders. Because we’re not quite finished burning through this year’s Frasier Fir candles, I’ll keep our new Sagaform votive holders out a little longer. The spot where the tree was looks awfully bare now, but it’s nice to get things put away and to look forward to next year.

I pack all of our mostly-flat ornaments in an old chocolate box in layers of tissue; the more dimensional ones are stowed in a larger box cushioned with crinkle-cut paper. For added protection, any ceramic or glass pieces are clad in bubble wrap. As if that wasn’t enough, a very few of the ornaments (not pictured) spend the better part of the year obsessive-compulsively stored in their original boxes for maximum security.

All these smaller boxes fit into two plastic totes with locking lids to protect against the periodic flooding our storage space is prone to—the cause of which has thus far not been discovered.

And so, comfortably enough past Epiphany, we close up the boxes of Christmas until next year.

Around 10 boxes formerly part-filled with tea are now flattened and in the recycling thanks to this handy yellow file drawer. Originally purchased for our wedding in September, this box from Hindsvik‘s shop has been sitting around my office with nothing in it ever since it arrived as a part of a package from Michigan back in October. Not sure what I would do with it in the apartment, I brought it home on Friday to see if it might be of some use. Less than 24-hours later, this old file box has a new calling.

Tom and I have been dreaming of a tea box for a while now, since it always seems like we have at least one million boxes of tea each with 2 tea bags inside, all of which tend to topple to the floor every time we open the tea cupboard’s door.

Online searches for a tea box turned up a few, but most of them (according to reviews) don’t actually fit the average teabag inside. After coming up dry on the web, I considered making a teabox myself from wood. That thought didn’t last long due to my wood working experience and lack of equipment.

Zero effort required, not only does this box fit perfectly in our tea cupboard, it is also—unlike the aforementioned actual tea storage boxes—the exact right height for tea bags:

If you’re interested in a box of your own, Hindsvik still has a few metal numbered drawers available.

At the end of November, Remodelista featured the Filigrantrae, a Danish wooden Christmas tree that can be used year after year. I was taken, but the marthaandtom production budget didn’t exactly have $275 floating around with which to fulfill all our Scandinavian holiday fantasies.

Almost immediately after seeing the images on Remodelista and then Design Public, a little idea floated into my head… I could make this myself. A typical I-could-make-that feeling turns into “I could make it, I just didn’t” …but not this time.

With the aid of a math problem made Facebook status, I developed a plan, helped along by Emma’s Designblogg‘s sharing of a series of photographs originally from Bolig Magazine of a Danish family’s home with one of these babies in every room (at $275, you bet they come in multiple colors: rødt, lime, sort, hvidt, and lilla). This was the final inspiration I needed.

With only hours left before snow would seal us in our apartment for the foreseeable future, we made a mad dash for Home Depot on Friday night. While everyone else was stocking up on snowblowers and shovels, Tom and I were shopping lumber. At $26.86 before tax — power-sawing included — we were off to a good start.

As of yesterday evening, we now have a fully-decorated tree that can be used again and again.

Before you head to your local lumberyard to buy out their dowel supply, I would share that this wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I have a renewed understanding of what it means to have the right tools for the job and a steadier hand with a drill. With all of the mistakes that went into this one, I was very tempted yesterday to throw out the central pole and begin again (I bought different drill bits midway through the project almost doubling the total cost. But at less than $50, I’m still not complaining).

While it’s not perfect, I’m taking the suggestion of my father (who I must thank for his willing participation in a video-chat planning session on Saturday) and living with all the character of this first attempt. With no further work in store, I finished just in time for my self-imposed deadline of December 15, the night before my family’s tradition of reading the Novena de Aguinaldo is to begin.

The Ingredients:

four  ½” round pine dowels, each 48″ in length cut into twelve sections in varying sizes (my plan called for 4″x1, 6″x3, 10″x2, 16″x2, 20″x3, 18″x1, 26″x1 but I was only estimating based on pictures of the original)

one 5′ pine closet pole (the original design has an angled cut at the top… I forgot to request this of the staff at Home Depot)

one tapped 1/4-20 wood insert and accompanying bolt to fit (mine was about 2.5″ long) these should cost about $.30/ea. at your local hardware store

one pine 1×4 cut to lengths of 16.5″ (2 pieces) and 4″ (two pieces)

Wood Glue (you’ll need screws and/or wood clamps to get a tight seal)

Sandpaper

Drill with the following drill bits: ½” wood specific* bit (for drilling into the center pole), a smaller but not too small bit for creating pilot holes before using the ½” bit, ¼” bit (to create holes in the base and central pole for the bolt, ⅜” bit (to create a hole in the central pole for the wood insert)

Don’t forget wood scraps for practice if you’re less-than-handy with your drill. I bought a 1′ section of a closet pole in addition to the 5′ central pole of the tree to practice making ½” holes and kept the extras from the 1×4 to prevent my drill from going through our living room floor.

All measurements included are approximations based on studying pictures and descriptions of the original Danish design. If you plan to make your own, don’t worry about sticking too carefully to the exact specifications listed here. Note also that the original design uses birch, which is no doubt much easier to obtain in northern Europe than in a big box wood retailer in the midwestern United States, where pine is widely available for a very low cost.

*Using drill bits not made specifically for wood working may result in much less than perfect drilling. For best results, DO NOT use a flat bit, even if it is specified for use on wood. I used this brand and was able to buy a single ½” bit at the hardware store. For help getting to know your drill, click over to Design*Sponge’s new feature on building your toolbox.

With a couple of days off ahead of me, I’m getting ready to paint the bathroom (again). Our building manager has kindly repaired the walls, too, and will be priming today so I have high hopes for the finished look, especially considering the challenge of painting over orange without priming… which I had planned to do previously. The new color, already in parts of our kitchen, coordinates with our transportation shower curtain and complements our towels.

So, nothing new required. Or so I thought. After spotting these fish hooks in a local magazine this morning, I think I may need to head to Ingebretsen’s for some new svensk bathroom hardware.

The hooks, $9.50 each, are also available in black and dark blue. Find them at Ingebretsen’s locally (1601 East Lake Street), or on ingebretsens.com.

Image: Ingebretsen’s

In addition to making food so good that people everywhere request that I end our relationship so that he might be available, Tom commutes by bike five days a week to North Minneapolis (~3 miles) rain, shine, or snowstorm. We moved to the city in 2008 and in all that time Tom’s been riding a too-heavy 2005 Raleigh mountain bike everysingleday. Ever since I upgraded my mountain bike (a teal Mongoose Switchback circa 1996) to a Dahon Mariner last July, Tom has been talking about upgrading his own.

Finally (!) Tom bought a new bike this past Saturday after visiting each of the two Hub Bike Coop locations in Minneapolis. With a bit of deliberation between the Surly Cross Check at the LHT, Tom decided on the Surly Long Haul Trucker in Truckaccino (the color of cappuccino—only truck-like). Knowing that a new bike was coming, I’d given Tom a Leonardo Single-Bike Rack & Da Vinci Tire Tray having written about it here. And, since I received a Christmas wish of my own from my father, I was able to install it right away with proper anchors and all. Truckaccino fits in pretty nicely in our living room, I have to say. This weekend we’ll be heading back to the Hub to outfit the new bike with racks worthy of Midtown Farmers Market produce come May.

In other cycling news, Google released Biking Directions for Google Maps today. Biking Directions have been a long time coming—we can’t wait to plan a long ride. Lastly, I couldn’t resist sharing the Minneapolis trio of 2&21‘s lated project posted yesterday under “Forget Lakes. We got bikes”. Full of facts on “what keeps bikers rolling through Minneapolis,” it’s well worth a look.