Strange Brew

Tonight, after painting the closet for hours, I opened one of the ales I bought last time we went to the grocery store. Then I made chocolate-chip cookie dough (baking will come later) for Thanksgiving.

The inevitable clash happened when I had the first taste of cookie dough and realized that the beer just didn't have the same appeal any more.

Seeing Stars Again

My first bit of press. So exciting. Many thanks to Jules of ikea hacker.

My full directions for this project are here...

Yesterday, I realized there was one more thing in the office left undone, so I drywalled the closet... (cue music now)... All By Myself. I am so proud of my inner contractor. Now I have only to primer and paint the closet, and together we must cut and paint the molding and trim for the room, and hang a few shelves... and then we're done. The holiday weekend and impending obligations may or may not interfere, but I think we're in single digits now, so that I should still be back in the office by the beginning of next week. What a relief it will be to really get back to work, and to have all of my supplies at my fingertips again.

Not to mention having the rest of the house back from its current state as storage facility.

So close...

We finished laying the floor last night and now we have only to cut and paint molding and window trim and put up outlet covers, etc. We'll most likely do this on Friday, and I should be back in the studio before the weekend is over. I am so excited.

The floor looks absolutely gorgeous.

Of course, now I'll need new furniture. I'm refinishing one storage item right now, about which I am very, very excited. I'll post pictures of that when it's in place.

Next, once we have all of the debris out of the garage, I want to build a custom painting table. Since I have no experience building furniture (if you don't count trying to make a prefab desk that didn't work, work), I want to keep it as simple as possible for now, so I think I will start with something like this. I'd like to add another drawer and I'd like to extend the top out further so it is more of a desk than a table. But I like the basics of it very much and it will give me an excuse to use the new miter saw and the table saw I talked Al into buying (as if he needed that much persuading... but he was trying to stick to the budget while I just kept insisting it would pay for itself. I think it already has).

Ways to Entertain Yourself

Popular Mechanics offers a fun little book (for boys and girls alike, in spite of the title) called The Boy Mechanic: 200 Classic Things to Build but there's also a 1913 version available for free here, although in the older version, as the transcriber points out:

Another class of projects illustrate the caviler [sic] attitude toward environment and health in 1913. These projects involve items such as gunpowder, acetylene, hydrogen, lead, mercury, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, cadmium, potassium sulfate, potassium cyanide, potassium ferrocyanide, copper sulfate, and hydrochloric acid. Several involve the construction of hazardous electrical devices. Please view these as snapshots of culture and attitude, not as suggestions for contemporary activity.

Still, there are also some very fun and potentially useful projects, including a secret door lock, an igloo, kites and boomerangs, your own backyard merry-go-round, scores of sleight-of-hand magic tricks, a toboggan, and a homemade butter churn, about which the contributor says:

Many people living in a small town or in the suburbs of a city own one cow that supplies the family table with milk and cream. Sometimes the cream will accumulate, but not in sufficient quantities to be made into butter in a large churn. A fruit jar usually takes the place of a churn and the work is exceedingly hard, the jar being shaken so the cream will beat against the ends in the process of butter-making. The accompanying sketch shows clearly how one boy rigged up a device having a driving wheel which is turned with a crank, and a driven wheel attached to an axle having a crank on the inner end. This crank is connected to a swinging cradle with a wire pitman of such a size as to slightly bend or spring at each end of the stroke. The cradle is made with a cleat fastened to each end, between which is placed the fruit jar, partially filled with cream. The jar is wedged in between the cleats and the churning effected by turning the crank. --Contributed by Geo. E. Badger, Mayger, Oregon.

Out of the Box

My mom said to me on a recent visit, "I wish I were creative like you."

I know for a fact that my mother is creative -- I've seen evidence of it in her home. And I believe everyone is creative naturally, but some people just don't know how to access that creativity.

So I decided to give my mom some tools to jump-start her creativity and I concocted a gift for her:

A Creativity Toolbox

I put a quote in the bottom of the box by Wassily Kandinsky:
There is no must in art because art is free.


I raided my own stash of supplies for sequins, embroidery thread, and other embellishments. I added new paints, brushes and a palette tray.


I picked out some fun and pretty papers:


And then I made her a guidebook.


I threw in some more quotes from famous artists and added some tips on how to be creative:


And I made up some "rules."



I don't know if she'll ever use it, but I think she really liked it.