Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Tag: Home Body

What the night held… a retrospective on an evening to myself.

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Got the kids 6 man tent set up, and the rain guard attached, and then promptly drove myself home with tunes blaring out the car windows at full volume. Walked in the door and gathered up my movie choices, spirits from the downstairs fridge, and all the components for my karaoke machine. Had the karaoke set up while I created a pitcher of Sex on the beach, substituting blue raspberry freezies for the crushed ice. Seven up, on, cranberry raspberry cocktail, peach schnapps and lemon vodka and the evening was off to a great start. I sang a bunch, then moved to the couch to watch some motorcycle rebuild videos, and also some Adam Savage Tested back log that I had passed up on earlier in the month. Spent two hours watching videos, and reading twitter, and looking through IG. At 9pm I was ready to watch a movie, and I settled on Aliens, because I think it’s great. Set that up ready to press play. I watched the sun go down from the back porch for a breath of fresh air. I had played guitar earlier in the day while waiting on a response to some photo editing, so I killed that bug early on. Didn’t need to lug an amp, guitar, pedals and cords up into the living room. Which is good, since the mixed drink(s) were not weak. Not overly strong, just not watery. I ate some proper Tea Biscuits while I watched 2/3 of Aliens, then had a shower and went to bed at… drom-roll please… 11:52pm. So I hit my mark, and exceeded it slightly, without being obnoxious about it. Slept soundly until 7:30am, and here we are. Not the raucous bacchanal I’m sure others would have engaged in, but a good enough Friday night for me. I had so many options open to me that I couldn’t do them all, and I had to pick just a few of the basics and be satisfied with my choices. Yes I could have sculpted, or painted, or started a wood working project, or written a brand new short story, or any manner of other things. I’m good with the mixed drinks, movie, snacks, shower, and internet video rabbit-holing on YouTube. Five hours isn’t that crazy an amount of time. Kids will be home in an hour, so staying up WAY later would have been a bad choice to make.

I didn’t order any food, my wife was kind enough to bring home take out for us all prior to their evening camping event with Guides. So I was pretty full and didn’t need more than a few biscuits to get me through the evening stretch. Glorious.

Plus now I need to mow the lawn, and I don’t fancy doing that hung over. That’s an awful job to do with a turned stomach, pounding headache, and a desire to lie down and vomit. Those days are 97% behind me now. Ha. Happy Saturday.

Just gonna squeak one in here on ya, if’n you don’t mind.

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Had a brain wave the other day about building a walnut side table that was hollow, but could accept the floating bottom walnut drawer I had made a few months ago. Make it tall, on thin Hickory legs, do a thicker walnut skirt, and try a tapered edge on the legs. Round it all over, and then see how close i got to my plans. I’ll draw it out first, and then see if i was actually able to pull it off. That should give me a sense of where i am making my mistakes. I also need to finish by June 30th, before 11:00am, as that’s when schools out for the summer. Pushing against a dead line, and following a plan. Could be fun. But i have a report coming late this week, so that’ll cut into my time significantly. Chop chop, quite literally.

So I have cut up four Hickory legs, the last substantial portion of my slabs. I milled and cut up some rough walnut, and have glued up a single four foot long panel, which will be chopped down into my hollow top. I cut two inch strips for skirting too. I need to figure out a jig for careful, and repeatable tapered legs. Dado out my leg slots to hold the skirting on. I’ll keep the legs poking up above it, to tenon into the hollow top. Then it’ll be round overs on round overs, and sanding until my hands go numb. A quick and easy project.

Walnut skirting and the as of yet un tapered Hickory legs. Followed by a four foot long walnut panel glue up. Didn’t skimp on the clamps this time around.

Here’s how my other table build turned out. Doesn’t look too out of place in the basement. Good height for the sofa that’s there anyway.

The Ninja Turtle is progressing. I like the Apoxie Sculpt, a tad sticky though. But fast to work with. I may still end up detailing it out with Super Sculpey, but for now I’m enjoying the process with Apoxie Sculpt. This could potentially sit for months if need be before I come back to it. I’ll focus primarily on the furniture build, as that can warp, buckle and twist if I don’t build it sooner rather than later. Learned that lesson the hard way with my screen door.

Today is domestic duties Monday, so I need to get the second load of laundry in, run the dish washer, vacuum and tidy up a bit today. I’ll need to sort and hang the laundry too. I hear the temperature is on the rise through this week. Going to feel like 40 °C for several days in a row. Yikes. Also need to get rolling on my youngest child’s birthday party later this week. Busy – busy. Ciao Bella!