We managed to get a substantial coat of wax on the shelf unit yesterday, and we’ve given it twenty four hours to dry, and now I’m going to bring the shelf unit inside and begin to tidy up the living room and all of the loose toys. We have canvas bins that will fit nicely, so I’ll bung loads of gear into those, and leave the top for dioramas and play sets to get left in situ.
So far so good the wax is dry, and the unit fits in the space. Though I seem to have misjudged the thickness of the baseboard. Most likely due to the quarter round against the floor, which I failed to notice. Oh well. It fits in between the fire place and the front windows, and tucks under the windowsill of the fireplace wall. Fits over top of the fireplace kick out, and does not cover the wall socket/plugs/outlet. I am mostly happy.
Fits in the space, given all of the restrictions. Just not as snuggly against the wall as I was aiming for.
Next steps. Clean and sort toys on the floor into bins and cubby holes, and then sigh a breath of relief that it all works mostly as intended. I may still need to cut a 2″ hole in the top for power cords to more easily access the wall sockets/outlet, but we’ll see.
Looks as though I can get a vacuum underneath it fairly easily, which is a plus with my messy family. Updates to follow, as I get through the last leg of this project. Looks as though with the help of the toy box, and a couple canvas bins I have been able to leave as much playable surface as possible for the kids, and can still access both windows, and not interfere with the floor vent or fireplace. I’ll call that a win!
Floor is now empty of toys – for the minute the kids aren’t here that is!
My only qualm about it now that I’m done, well – beyond one corner not being 90° against the fireplace so the error is very easy to see. Is that I should have put in a second tier to one of the cubbies. Most likely the one with the wall socket contained within. Then I could have used that shelf to store the kids chrome book and have a dedicated charging spot that won’t get bumped or knocked. The shelves are 16 inches deep, so you really have to try to get at something pushed all the way to the back. But whatever. I can build an insert out of plywood for that, if it becomes absolutely necessary. And to think I sat on this idea and ruminated over it for weeks before I got started. How did I miss a dedicated charging shelf? Idiot. No matter. It’s done, it works, and I’m happy with it. Mostly. For now. To think if I had of made it from Walnut that would have been a $1500.00 job, easily. Just in materials, not even time and effort. It would also weigh about 200lbs if done in Walnut. Using pine cut both costs and overall weight, by an awful lot.
How I see it when seated to watch tv when I’m at home alone. Looks reasonable to me. Yes, I wear crocs, how suave of me.
It started when the battery cover became loose and would just slip off dropping both batteries, constantly. Then the button for the number seven (7) stopped working completely. Then my eldest spilled an entire glass of juice over the remote and it initially went dead for 24 hours, but I saved it via a bowl of rice. Now we have an uneasy truce where it kinda sorta works most of the time. But otherwise you may have to over shoot and come back to the channel you want, or go at it via the guide (which is my preferred method) but that only lasts as long as the guide button remains, the selection button keeps working, and the page up-page down buttons unbusted. Soon to be yet another item that needs replacing with only an option to upgrade to a more expensive version. Our communications bills only ever go up, never down.
Lord help you if you try to use the thing if you aren’t exactly in line with the receiver. You can click, fuss and shout all you want. Hope you like sit ups to move where the signal wants to be. Or sit off to one side to remain in the signal path indefinitely. First world problems, if that. More an annoyance.
A lovely warm Saturday to look forward to. We have some movies to cuddle up to this afternoon. I’d like to sneak out to get some polish on my shelf unit, but it could wait until Monday if it had too. We’ll see how everything shakes out.
I have come across this time and again, in everything from sculpting, drawing, and wood working right through to cooking and writing short blurbs daily. When you can afford to not give a shit about the end product, and focus solely on the process and the actual ‘doing’ of the thing, stuff tends to fall into place after a while. It’s not fool proof, and mastery is never guaranteed (not that I seek mastery of any one thing anyway.) If you can fall in love, or at least in-line with the process you can usually achieve a fairly high standard in that medium once you really start to apply yourself, and add in a little reflection or introspection about how you operate within the process, and how you’ve come to understand the process. Mayhaps, like myself, you achieve better results though you make the wrong choices. Enough of them that they cancel out and you get a little better at the thing you work at inspite of yourself, or your failings, and short comings.
I do love to watch YouTube videos about the hobbies I have, and I tell myself I’m learning about it as I watch others ‘do the thing’. I have, learned a thing or two, but mostly it’s an escape from working and learning deeper about the process of whatever I’m attempting. Videos aren’t bad, there is a tonne of noise and needless entertainment there, but don’t get carried away. You will certainly learn more by just going and ‘doing the thing’. A morale boost is great if that keeps you going. But try not to mire yourself in a YouTube video rabbit hole, you’ll loose hours of your time that way.
I’m no expert, and this is solely based on my personal anecdotal experiences. Your experiences may differ – greatly – from mine own. But that’s ok. We’re not all one size fits all.
In alternate news I had put my workout regimen on hold for five to six weeks this summer, which I now regret. I was creeping closer to 200lbs, getting under 2 bills was my goal, and I was roughly three pounds from it, but now I’m back to being about 10lbs from my goal. Ideally I’d reach 185lbs, but I think that will require not just a shift in picking up weights regularly, but fundamentally eating better. I’d rather run, cycle, swim and lift weights every day than go back to a veggie heavy diet. Wreaks havoc with my insides. My ulcerated bowel does not enjoy excess roughage, like at all. Too much dairy in a day – forget about it. It’s a tricky see-saw balance act. But in the end I’d like to work towards being under 200 lbs again. I need to revisit my plan. Perhaps to back to two a days with the weights, and add in more lunges, squats, sit-ups, and push ups. Like everything else. It’s not about perfect, but doing some of it, everyday, even if it’s ugly and unrefined. Ha. Yes, unrefined is a great way to view myself in a workout session. Just look at how skewed my sunglasses are. Unrefined fits me well. Ha!
Now I need to have breakfast and get ready to start my work day clock. Ciao Bella!
What a weekend we had, two in a row of rock’em, sock’em outdoor adventure fun. The weather held out for us so that we could all enjoy the whole Saturday on the water experience. I cooked various meals for all of us who gathered. Mainly on the bbq, and stove top but nonetheless I didn’t set the kitchen on fire, or burn the house down. The bbq on the other hand may have let me down just a bit. Burned my bacon twice! Luckily that’s how my wife and kids like it so it didn’t go to waste. I went low & slow the second time, but failed to turn them in time and it went into over cooked territory. If I had a large flat top grill, I’d do it all together and nothing would get missed. But that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it.
Everyone who wanted to got a turn on the 3 person tube, plus the ski-Bob, and had a chance to attempt to wakeboard. We spent much of the summer getting out eldest to be able to reliably wakeboard, so she put on a show for her cousins. The other two had admirable attempts to get to their feet and stay up on the water. Which they both did, briefly. Golf claps and cheers for all! Well done. The water was rather cool this late into summer, bordering on Fall. So big props for swimming and going in the lake of their own accord.
We didn’t party much into the evenings, as the fresh lake air made us all sleepy by 10:00pm. Did watch the Blue Jay’s pull out an 11-7 win one night, which was great. Texas was really leaving their pitcher out to dry by bringing him back in after the second and third innings punishment. It was a weird one. Pretty early on it was evident they didn’t have anyone warming up in the bullpen. Kinda odd. But again, late in the season, I’m sure injuries and tiredness play a part.
I think I will mosey on down to my office by way of the kids laundry baskets and get some Domestic Duties Monday chores on the books. It’s two weekends we’ve gone away so there is lots to catch up on around the house. The sooner I get the shelf unit done, the sooner I can start cleaning the toy zone disaster area. I was informed some big projects won’t come until next week, so I need to finish up what I have now in preparation for those two or three items dropping next week. Happy Monday! Ciao Bella!
I haven’t sculpted a full humanoid figure in a number of years, so starting off with a Ninja Turtle in a medium I don’t typically use was going to end up one of two ways. Either the best thing I had made to date, or a low res copy with lots of learning curve errors for the type of materials I used. Can you guess how I feel it went? Yeah, the latter and not the former. I will say this though, free standing, a plus, looks like a turtle, kinda, and now it’s done. Three pluses in its favour. A great introduction to Apoxy Sculpt. I like that I don’t have to bake it afterwards. But as I don’t sculpt full time, I’m not able to wait for things to semi harden to go back in and make crisper adjustments, like I would with Sculpey. I have six some odd pounds of sculpey so any more sculpting done this year will use it ( Super Sculpey), rather than the last 1/3 of the Apoxy sculpt I have left. I like the idea of apoxy for weapons or add ons that want to harden before I finish the figure/bust I’m working on. Green stuff is great that way too. Next steps, more sculpting – yeah! And also painting my two finished items.
Work on the shelf unit is coming along slowly, as per usual. Have the box built, and round overd applied to all front facing edges. Needs a hell of a lot more sanding, and some minor fixes on the top display surface. Then I can stain and apply finish to it. Which completes the top. The base requires twelve mortises to be cut, and I want to use my table saw for the through and throughs. The rest get hand chiseled out. Which takes forever.
Plus the actual legs are Ash, so that’s a great hard splinter wood to work with. But sturdy as all get out. Measured the top box, and it is reliably 15 ” and 15/16ths tall. I was 1/16th from my goal of 16″. Not bad, not great. I think the noted thickness for my boards was approximate and not definite, which is where my discrepancy comes from. No matter. It’ll fit under the windowsill which is my main priority. The floor could dip, cup or bow, and I’ll be glad of the extra room to maneuver when I comes time to bring the thing indoors and really get moving on cleaning up the kids toys.
I’m not totally sold on painting the shelf unit white. I’d like to stain it dark, like Walnut, to match the rest of the furniture. We’ll see how it looks unfinished once totally assembled. I can make my decisions then. That’s future me’s problem to wrangle with. My reasoning is, as I can’t let this go right now, is that white paint will show dirty finger prints and scuffs, and hard wear, whereas the dark stain will just start to look more rustic and worn. Which will match the state of the house – ha. I know it’ll get beat up, so why try to draw attention to that by being a brilliant white?
As an aside : I really should put wheels on the toy box so it can get moved into the room to aid cleaning up too. Just a thought.
Today is Friday, and a warm hello to two of my older brothers whom both have birthdays today. If I recall it is #45 & #47! Happy birthday Amigos. Here we are last year on the hottest day of August playing Swamp Golf at the Thunderbird course in Kanata Ottawa. Our father melting in the background.
If I never build another springless trampoline in my lifetime it’ll have been one too many to begin with. What a horrendous pain in the ass this monstrosity is. Counter intuitive. Washed out colour coded stickers. Oblong netting that only fits if it’s exactingly precise. A nightmare all around. Plus it’s second hand, and has seen some wear and tear, Nay! Neglect, I would venture to say. Bent frame pieces, legs that are 5° out of wack, and the sockets for the fiberglass pins all splayed out willy-nilly. My god. I hate it. I hate with a passion. I detest it with the fire of a thousand suns. We’ve gotten within 5% of complete, only to realize the instructions put us off by mere inches. Had to strip it back down and start again, three fucking times. I hate it, I hate it, I hate myself. Bah gawd lowrd in heavon! Fuck. Taking photos of it to take to the main office in Markham to see if we in fact have a lemon, or if these contraptions are among some of the worst things designed ever. My palms are bruised, my knuckles scraped, my arms are tired, and we still have fifty to sixty of these springless pins left to attach to the canvas mat at some point in the near future to look forward to. To say I am frustrated, angered, livid or disagreeable right now, is to put things mildly. I care not, for you or your ilk, springless trampoline. I would take a saws-all too you if I could. Pitch your parts into a burn barrel and watch your essence boil and bubble away into an equally ineffectual goo. You bother me, and I hate you. Fin.
I don’t know much about you, but I curse a blue streak when I get mad and frustrated. Especially if it’s my kids pretending that they can’t do something that they’ve done by themselves a hundred times, but have grown instantaneously forgetful about, in public, under stress, where I’m the one holding something heavy and/or awkward waiting on them to complete the task. Bothers me just a lil’ bit. Lil’bit – yeah.
We haven’t had the opportunity to have too many partial family adventure days in the past. I used to take my eldest to the movies quite regularly, which was fantastic. Covid curbed that. But now I want to try taking them to Wonderland by myself, but I’m worried they will make me wait for rides and then balk at the last second, which will infuriate me. So part of me wants to try a smaller, less intimidating park, that isn’t as expensive. Because whoo boy, wasted money will ignite my bad mood quickly. Not that I’m waiting on bad things to happen, just to get mad about them. It’s merely a tried and true reality, and it saddens me. Irritates me to no end too.
We could do the Zoo for the fiftieth time, or try Legoland, or something like that. I want to get out to do something out of the ordinary for us. I just don’t know exactly what yet. The less expensive it is, the cooler I am with missed opportunities or mishaps. A mindset that comes from decades of being broke. I hate to pay good money to waste opportunity and experiences. I’ll have to learn to let that go. Just grates my nerves deep down. It hurts me to see good money (hard earned at that) wasted. Frivolously. Bah!
Who knows, maybe the weather will be bad, or I’ll have a slew of new projects come in that will force us to not go anywhere. Maybe I’ll take them to lunch and a wander around a mall. The youngest has gone feral with lack of social interactions. Need to retrain them to behave out in public again. They were real good at restaurants as very little children, but not able to do it now after 2.5 years of eating like a menace at home.
That’s more about our short comings rather than my kids. But being at home 24/7 with our whole family present for more than a year was far more than we had bargained for. At some points them just eating anything was a win, and style or etiquette fell by the wayside. One child became randomly fearful of everything conceivable and the other a stage five clinger at all points of the day. Covid and the various shut downs really hampered them both in real, yet strange ways. Getting back to school worked wonders for breaking those habits and fears. Weird times.
Buried somewhere in here is the belief that we will have a good time, and can make some lovely memories together doing something fun and exciting. Is it that hope that is secretly hilarious. Like Charlie Brown lining up on his field goal kick simply for Lucy to pull it away, every, single, time. Is that when hilarity ensues? I’m not sure. I have high Hope’s though! Ciao Bella!
Every great show winds up having a clip episode where you get to revisit some of the funniest or most poignant portions of a television show. Usually it’s pretty deep into the later seasons when most of the story arcs are near completion, but they’ve been contractually obligated to provide 22 episodes per season and need to pad one out a bit. So, now I’m going to go through and update some current projects, rather than try to come up with anything new to say.
First off is the Ninja Turtle sculpt. One which I have worked up and torn back down three times so far. I’ve since decided to work the whole thing in Apoxy Sculpt rather than intermingle with Super Sculpey firm. The self drying, uber sticky substance is pretty wild. I’m not going to lie, I struggle with it. I don’t typically sculpt for hours on end, so staying with the apoxy as it gets slightly stiffer to rework it isn’t what I’m doing. I should change my working style to meet the medium, but I haven’t, so I may not. At least where this turtle is involved. It’s in very rough form, but it has a full body, arms and head. The feet are going to appear to be in standing water, so they are just lumps for the most part. Needs a lot of refining, smoothing and details yet. A work in progress that could take a few dedicated days to finish, or at my current pace, two more months in dribs and drabs.
The second project update is the shelving unit being built using dowel construction instead of my usual mitered box corners, or box joints. So a shit tonne of butt joints. Bland, but hopefully sturdy. So far so good. The plans I drew up call for eight inch high legs, and the outer most dimensions of the top box to be sixteen inches high and seventy two inches wide, by sixteen inches deep. All made with three quarter inch Pine. Except for the 1.75″ x 1.75″ x 8″ Ash legs or feet. It should stand twenty four inches tall, which gives me a quarter inch of room to slot in under the window sill. My true goal is to have the final build meet the pre-determined spec’s on the drawings, without having made any major edits on the fly. Not that that is a deal breaker, but if I can get better at building to plans that would make me happier. It’s pretty humid around here, so warped wood is something I really have to be aware of. Could funge the whole project if I leave it in the shop for too much longer. The top box is cut and dry fitted together, but needs to be sanded, glued, rounded over and stained, and have final finish put on it. I have a ways to go with the base portion. Cut my pieces, and did the round overs on the legs. But I have a lot of mortises to cut. Twelve of them to be exact. I probably need to round over the stretchers along the base too. More work! If I treat it with respect I hope to have a decent looking bit of furniture to have in the living room. Could be a fun reveal if all goes to plan.
The third project, is a doozy. It encompasses the whole house, mainly because it’s my fall clean up as the kids go back to school, and my wife off to work. I started with a bang, cleaned the appliances, counter tops, cabinets, both inside and out. The hall walls, door frames and doors, as well as the base boards. Washed the floors but did not polish them. In socks you’ll fall over and slip if I polish the floors. Lesson learned with bumped knees and one bruised tail bone. Ouch! I have a paper purge coming. I’ll sort the girls best artwork into a binder, and the rest can go to recycling. Between the two kids we have a seventeen inch tall stack of school work just sitting in the dining room. That’s gotta go. Plus I want to purge broken toys, and remove stuff to the cottage, which doesn’t get played with at home. My niece and nephew are both still small, and would love to play with that stuff still. Oh the memories. I got a jump on it, sure. But the real work will start once school starts again next week. I went through their closets, so that too is done, for now. Growing kids, so clothes and shoes will be a consistent issue for years to come. Ha. Lots to do around here.
Lastly is paid work. I have a solid line up of projects between now and November, so I am very happy about that. I have the room to slot in other projects inbetween my planned work, which is handy. And I’m ok if one or two drop off the map until next year. Next year? Yes. Only four months left of 2022, can you believe it!?! Every so often I think about going out and gathering up more clients, and then when I see what I actually have in the pipeline during the summer & fall, I’m glad I haven’t done so. Busy is great, run off my feet is no good. Creativity suffers when I’m too stressed. Have a solid work life balance right now. Love it!
So there it is. The clip show of what’s going on around here. I could mention, though it’s a bit late. That I also have a model kit I built more than a year ago on my desk that needs panel lining and it’s water slide decals placed on it. This thing has more than two hundred decals to place on a twelve inch tall 1/100 Gundam model kit. Going to be at that project for about eight hours or more. Will look great when done, but ugh. That’s a commitment I’m reticent to make right this second. Stuffed in a box in the closet is a much larger 1/60 scale resin kit that needs weeks worth of work. I lean into my model kits over the winter months when my garage is too cold to work in. Keeps me occupied when not working or cleaning, or shoveling snow.
Lastly is the childrens book I wrote and am currently illustrating (poorly I might add). That’s another item I’ll leave for the winter months when I can’t work outdoors. I have eight more background illustrations to complete, and then I need to tackle the two main characters. It fell off the radar, kind of on purpose, but still I’ll be glad when I get it done. Which reminds me. I’m not entirely certain if I will write a third novellas worth of short stories this winter. I never officially published book two on Kindle Unlimited. I probably should do it. Accompany book one so it doesn’t look so lonely. I sold one copy. In the UK. I believe it was to one of my cousins. It was great to write it all, edit it and then collect all those stories together into one unified thing. Felt amazing to have actually done a thing on my bucket list. Now with book two I’ve written more than 100,000 words worth of short fiction. I’m proud of that. Regardless of whether or not it sold any copies.
Ah, the endless loop of thinking about making a slightly larger than usual purchase on something for myself. I have been thinking, dreaming, wondering, hoping to learn to play the bass guitar, and now that I have a line on a good used bass amp, and a decently priced slightly above beginner guitar, I feel like I should go and pick them up to make this years long dream a reality. But I’m stressing out about it for some reason.
Probably because it’s a selfish purchase, but on the off chance one of my kids wants to learn an instrument in their teens I have guitars and a bass for them to choose from. Alongside my wife’s clarinet, and our violin, and our keyboard. I hope they decide to pick up an instrument. Hours and hours of fun, and a great way to appreciate personal time, and learn something new. The intrinsic value of picking up new songs is really something special. Playing in a group with like minded friends is also a fantastic experience. I played the trombone in the middle school band, and the orchestra in junior high and it was amazing. Jamming with buddies in high school was wicked as well. Ten stars, do reccomend.
The thing is, I find that when I hit a plateau with guitar playing, I need to shift the focus to a different instrument, and that new way of thinking/executing music teaches me something helpful with my guitar playing, in a round about method. I love to noodle about on my guitar. I love to tickle the ivories on our keyboard, and it all seems to pay off in the end. Plus, ahem. Halfway decent instruments that have been looked after tend to have a 60-70% of retail resale value, if that brand hasn’t exploded in popular culture and doubled, or nearly tripled in price, a la Gibson Les Paul’s, and my random Fender that’s now worth three times what I paid for it. Could also plummet in price too, so don’t take any of this as investment advice ok? Great.
Heading into day three of camp, and so far we’re all smiles and excitement. I have a feeling it’s probably a bit more free wheeling than we might have expected. But last week or summer, we have zero expectations for it, other than our kids remain safe and looked after during the hours of their stay each day. I care not if they choose to focus more on dance, than singing or acting, or if the youngest gets an extra hour to slap paint around with a brush. Like I said, no expectations of new dance routines or a recital of cumulatively learned dance steps. It’s for the best.
In other news the kids gymnastics will start in mid September, so that should be an absolute riot! I think they are gonna love that! Or, conversely hate itvwith every single fiber of their being. Or, third option, my favourite. One will fall in love, and the other will hate it, and we’ll fight every time I have to take them both with me so that one of them can keep doing it, and the other just has to sit for an hour watching the very thing they hated so much. It’s going to be spectacular – for me. I think they have Tae Kwondo to look forward to as well. I wanted jujitsu for the full body usage, grappling and striking. But Tae Kwondo isn’t awful. That’ll help them defend themselves as they get older. Anywho… Ciao Bella !
You knew it was coming, we all did, and it’s happening, right – now. Woah. All those weeks ago this felt miles away, and now that it’s here, we’re already on Tuesday. The youngest had transitional night terror episodes about doing something new, and last night was no different. The camp was full of smiling kids faces, so I knew that they’d have fun, dancing around to music, doing crafts and acting like pretend animals all day long. They even get outdoor time in the a.m. before it gets to swelteringly hot in the late August sunshine and humidity. They practically bolted from the car when they saw a field full of kids their own age, and hula hoops, and kids doing cartwheels and… yeah, they had a lot of fun on day one. Four more days to go until another long weekend. Then a random Tuesday at home, then school.
For as long as that lasts while York Region does nothing preventative about Covid or Monkey Pox. Could be a short lived return. But, this is all next weeks worry. I want the kids to enjoy camp right now, then focus on having one last great summer long weekend before we have to tackle the gods honest truth about the state of our school, school board and all the inherent bs contained within thanks to our MOE. Ugh.
Spirits up, smile on, keep this train a rollin’. The last vestiges of summer are shining that late day amber coloured glow. Trees are starting to turn, or just shed crumpled leaves due to the lack of rain in July & August. The sun sets earlier and earlier, and the evenings have grown rather chilled. You’ve got only four or five more weeks of comfortable sweater wearing evening patio drinking weather ahead of us, before coats will become a necessity. That was a mouthful.
I spent much of last night dreaming about the shelving unit I’m going to build for the front room. Asymmetrical to fit the space, yet maximize the utility. It has to be short to fit under the windowsills, but have playable surfaces for the kids toys. Stained dark and polished to a gloss, even though the kids will most likely scratch the surface immediately. Oh well. I’m using pine, so it’s not like $2000.00 worth of Walnut lumber. I have the pine here. It was to make HP Trunks, but I’d rather use the resources on the family room at the moment. I’ll still have all of the hinges, handles and coloured felt if I go back to making them again. I need to make a 2ft long trunk for my youngest. She only has a novelty box I made that’s 12x6x6″h. Looks the same, but significantly smaller.
I’m going to use lap joints, butt joints and dowels for the utility shelf unit. No dovetails or box joints or mitered corners of the boxes portion. Any kind of panache can be shown on the legs/base portion of the unit. The top box will be pretty straight forward. No funky angles, or design touches. Plain Jane! I need to check and see if my planer still runs, as that might be the defining factor for using my stock of pine, or buying pre laminated boards in a paint grade state. Will look into it later on this morning. Ciao Bella!
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 
You must be logged in to post a comment.