Before you can stand around watching paint dry, you have to apply the paint. I took this shot as monte was painting the dining-room-extension-table. One of the things we got around to on this chilly day today.
Watching paint dry.
Category: Projects
Knockin’ things off my todo list.
Every day is a blessing. But, to me, birthdays are extra special. My day started with rain (yay!). Followed by birthday coffee, birthday presents, and day 5 of vacation.
Having a birthday near (and sometimes on) Thanksgiving means that most of my childhood birthday cakes featured pilgrim candles. For most of my adult years, I celebrate my birthday by taking the entire week of Thanksgiving off for vacation. And I LOVE it.
I spent part of today shopping. Yes, like a school girl 🙂 And I crossed off nearly everything on my list.
Then when I came home I set out to start (and complete) a project that has been on my Todo list for a while – Do-it-yourself Flaming Rock Bowls. I saw these online a few months ago and wanted to give it a try.
I made 3. 1 broke. So I have 2 left. The shot above is of one of the bowls, curing.
I’ll light them up this Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.
Most awesome adirondack chair.
Over the years, monte has made some beautiful adirondack chairs. He based the original pattern on a chair that his dad made. The last 4 pretty much wore out. Last year he made a variation on the adirondack chair out of cedar, more like a regular chair height, but with the features of an adirondack chair. He made it to fit his height. Which meant when I sat in it my feet pretty much stuck straight out.
This week, he started on a chair made just for me 🙂 Today, I joined him in the shop to work on the back slats and seat of the chair. The picture above is a shot of the final product — cut so that my feet touch the ground when I sit on it.
I really enjoyed today – day 4 of vacation. Monte and I spent months… no, years really… together in the shop working on Porter Belle, Cupholder, and many woodshop projects in between. But, in the last few years we haven’t spent a lot of time making things together. So, it was fun to be out there again today making sawdust.
I do enjoy and admire monte’s woodworking passion and skill. And, I LOVE my new chair. Thanks, sweetie!
Looking back through time
One of my never-finished projects is doing research on family genealogy. I have had a lot more luck tracing monte’s ancestors than mine, as there are many more documents that I can view online for 18th & 19th century USA than for Ireland. So, between reunion activities last weekend, we took several drives to family grave sites across the area to visit relatives’ graves. We had been to all of them before, but this time I’m taking photos for my records. This is the gravestone for monte’s great, great, great grandfather, born in 1758 — the oldest one we’ve visited.
Tonight I’ve dusted off my subscription to ancestry.com and logged in to tend the family tree. If you have done genealogy research you know what I’m talking about when I say that you can lose several hours at a time as you crawl through the past. I’ve been absorbed in searches and downloading of newly found records documenting land ownership, census information, military service, etc.
But, it’s getting late. That’s enough for tonight. It’ll keep.
Nature’s palette or grayscale?
Yesterday I went over to Laura’s for lunch around the pool with Lori and Ann. As usual, she had a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the counter. I love the colors of these lilies. The shot above is the original. Below is the same shot in black & white, after messing a bit with the color levels and brightness/contrast in Gimp. I was trying to create something for this week’s Technique challenge over at the Photoblog Challenges website (check it out, you’ll find lots of weekly and monthly challenges – fun for photographers of all skill levels out here in the blogosphere).
Probably too dark. I was hoping the stamen would still be crisp. Waddyathink?
Frugality is the mother of invention.
We had a fantastic shower put in when we remodeled the house 2 years ago. We love it. It has natural tumbled travertine stone on the outside. But on the inside, I picked a matching ceramic tile. I did this as a last minute change, on the advice of a friend, because she’s had both and said the ceramic tile would be so much easier to maintain than the travertine on the inside where the surfaces would be wet.
I am SOOO glad I did that. But I have to say, it’s no small task to keep the grout clean. I’ve fallen in love with bleach gel pens… the gel sticks to the surfaces and every now and then I just put that in the grout for a little while and scrub and rinse it away.
However, one bleach pen doesn’t go very far in this shower, holding only a couple of ounces of bleach gel. So…. I decided to try make my own. Here’s what I ended up with. I tried this in a small batch, and it seemed to work ok. I’ve heard you want to use this infrequently, though, it can be tough on the grout.
Homemade Bleach Paste
– 1 part bleach
– 5 parts baking soda
– 2 parts water
Snocones, inspiration and a video
I had a doctor’s appointment this afternoon which took me downtown. Since I was in the neighborhood, I just had to stop by the Sno-Beach snocone stand. If you’ve never had one, you must. It will change your life. If you don’t live in Austin, fly or drive down here as soon as you can and get one. They make the absolutely, hands-down, indubitably BEST snocones on the planet. If any of you are skeptical, I’d even put money on it. And I NEVER make a bet unless I’m sure I’m right (even when i’m wrong) 😀
Even though there were about 30 people in front of me when I got there, and when I left I was in the middle of rush hour traffic on Mopac, it was worth it.
I’d like to work on ways to transform my blog into something more interesting for other people to follow. Up til now I’ve mostly been doing this for my own enjoyment. The Daily Post is hosting a Post-a-Day-2011 and Post-a-Week-2011 challenge, an online community really, for bloggers to share their posts and inspire eachother. It started at the beginning of the year, but I’m joining mid-way (or in work-speak, at the end of 2Q 🙂 ). I recently completed my own 365-project (a year of posting one photo taken of a moment from each day) but I have been and will continue to post here. So, in search of inspiration, today I signed up for the once a week version, check it out:
Oh, wait, one more thing! Here is a link to a video that my friend Teri took of us on Cupholder last weekend as we were all headed up to Cypress Creek Cove for the raftup. (we’re the little boat in the distance that Teri and Jim are catching up with quickly). It was WINDY… and we had 2 reefs in, so only a tiny bit of sail up, but we were MOVIN’! It’s good to be back…
Jun 15, 2011
The masts and spars have gotten their last coat of varnish. Tonight, with the help of our friend, Marty, we rigged the mast and spars with the hoops, hardware, boom, gaff and flag halyards, forestay, and topping lift. She’s ready to step!
Tomorrow we will head to the lake after work to step the mast. We’re going to do it old school, using the halyards from 2 boats next to Cupholder to raise and then lower the mast into place.
Jun 10, 2011
Over the weekend Monte repainted the barn doors on the shop. They look great. We made the doors ourselves, which was quite the project. The rest of the siding on the shop is hardiboard, so it doesn’t need much maintenance but the doors are wood and the weather is hard on them here.
Here’s a shot from before the shop was there. Hard to believe it’s been 2 years. And it’s nearly 5 years since we bought the house(!). Where does the time go?
Jun 6, 2011
Sheila365 has switched to a new wordpress theme!
I picked the Journalist v1.9 theme when I first started this blog in March 2010. I’ve been waiting for EVER for a new theme to be published, that I like, with a dark background, wide enough left column to be suitable for a photoblog, that didn’t have goofy fonts or other not-my-style eye candy, etc.
WordPress just published a new theme today: Twenty Eleven. And….I like it! The first new theme I have previewed that I wanted to activate.
I have made minimal changes to my existing content. I tweaked the width of some photos in several posts. I added an About page, and a few other pages which can be navigated via the menu bar at the top. I plan to expand content further, but for now am taking Twenty Eleven for a test ride.
Apr 30, 2011
After little over six months in dry dock, today was the day we relaunched Cupholder. Thanks to Marty and Sue for the ramp duties. Here she goes! She’s back in her slip where she belongs.
This auspicious occasion also marks the beginning of lake playtime. We had a great turnout today: Joe, Kurt, Wally, Kevin, Shannon, Lori, Dave, Marty & Sue, and we even had a drive by from Ken and Chris.
We missed you Teri & Ace!
Oh, yes, she is a sailboat, but we still have a little work to do on the masts, so we may need to do the next raftup as a motor yacht 🙂
Apr 20, 2011
When I was a kid, my family moved every 2 or 3 years. But wherever we lived, my dad always planted and tended a vegetable garden with an amazing variety of things including carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, chard, brussel sprouts, rhubarb, beets, onions, peas, beans, corn, spinach, potatoes, etc, etc.
My dad instilled in me a love to play in the dirt. I can’t say I spend a fraction of the time he did in the garden, or have nearly the variety of things that he planted. But I certainly do enjoy the little patches I have.
This is a shot part of my perennial herb bed, with sage, rosemary and oregano. Savory!
P.s. Yes, the lawn needs some edging work. My weed eater has lost its spring, so I’m waiting for Mr UPS man to bring me a package. Hopefully, before this weekend.
Apr 14, 2011
For those that have been following the boat refurbishing project… Monte has been working diligently on it and it looks beautiful. All the mahogony trim and brightwork was sanded down to bare wood and has its many coats of varnish. The decks have been sanded and repainted with gritty bits for traction. He’s added fishing pole holders (YEAH!), some bronze bits, fixed the swim ladder mount, sanded and painted the cockpit floor (we know that get’s a lot of abuse), repainted the toe rails, etc etc.
The big thing we have to do before launching is to put on new bottom paint. We’ll work on the mast and spars after it’s back in the water. That way, we can at least play, even if we can’t sail yet.
This is a shot looking aft taken through the eye on the bowstrap where the mainstay attaches (when it is there).
It won’t be long now!
Mar 8, 2011
Today is the 1 year anniversary of my starting this blog. To mark the occasion, I made a collage using all 365 of the moments that I’ve posted here.
I can recall taking each one. 🙂
I started this in early March last year, in time to capture the signs of Spring, and into the Summer as things began to warm up and as we spend so much time on the lake… then through the changes in Fall and Winter when we spend more of our time on projects and playing with friends on land. I’ve come full circle, and am looking forward all the moments from the coming year.
Happy Mardi Gras! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lori and to Mary!
Sheila365 