Hi Kae,
When I was growing up my dad had a shop with a table saw, wood lathe, drill press, and all the basic hand tools that he used to keep our old house (2-story built in 1896) from falling apart and I've always been mechanically inclined. My profession for over 40 years has been a Telecommunications Technician where I would install, maintain, and repair microwave, fiber optic, telephone switching and other electronic and electromechanical equipment so working with my hands comes naturally to me.
Most of my woodworking up to this point has been "construction" oriented - knocking out walls, remodeling the kitchen and bathrooms etc. Now that I'm retired I have more time to do things that interest me so when I decided to make a workbench I got a bunch of books and plans and took a little from each of them to get the final result. One of the most amazing inventions in the last few years has been Pocket Screws. I'm convinced that you can build anything with those things.
Lex