Not Yet

 For a week or more now, I've been meaning to write a post about the spotted lanternfly, but I have not because I have to do research for it. Well, this evening, I have been doing that research, and I'm starting to get creeped out by them, so I have reached my lanternfly saturation for the day. I am saving that post for another time. So "Not Yet" for the lanternflies.

Onto some flower pictures from around the yard, but first a look at Ward's latest creation. 

Ward had never made a cabinet before and wanted to learn,
so he made this trash can cabinet for Wally and Theo's place.
He used the same maple and blue paint 
on the console table he made for them.

It has a handy drawer for trash bags or anything else you want.

Nasturtium

Sunpatiens 

Zinnias. You may remember that I fought a fierce battle with earwigs over these flowers,
but I eventually won. 

Beauty berries. The birds will like these in the winter.

Black-eyed Susan

Cherry laurel. This usually blooms in spring.

Butterfly bush. We're still seeing a few butterflies on it.

We cut the fig tree to the ground in the spring, but it has grown quite nicely.

However, this is only the third ripe fig on it. Our growing season
just doesn't seem to be long enough to get many ripe ones.

Anemone. I have discovered this plant is hard to control,
but it makes a nice display in the fall.

The anemone was buzzing with bees. Notice the yellow pollen sac on this bumble bee. I always get a thrill when I see one of these brightly colored sacs.

Abelia

That's it for now, so until next time...

Ward's Been Busy

Ward has been interested in woodworking since he was a kid. However, most of his life he has not had much time to do more than read about it, but he always hoped that would change. And because of that hope, when we were shopping for houses before our last move, one of the requirements was that it had to have something he could use as a shop or a space where he could build one. This house came with an extra garage, so as soon as he saw it, he said, "Sold!"

Fast forward to a few years later, and Ward has been spending time in his workshop upgrading his equipment and honing his skills. Retirement has helped with that. He's happy, and I'm happy. And he's getting pretty good.

Here are some of the things he made for Christmas gifts this year.

This is a console table he made for Wally and Theo. They have a niche at their place where this table fits perfectly. (Painted pine base, maple top.)

A cutlery tote. (Cherry)

Kindling box filled with hardwood scraps. (Pine)

M&M dispenser. Ward's father always has peanut M&Ms around for visitors to enjoy, so Ward thought this dispenser would be fun for him. Peanut M&Ms are irregularly sized and shaped, so he had to go through several prototypes to find the best design. (Fir)

This was one of the earlier prototypes. It works great with regular M&Ms, but he is redesigning and putting a different base on it. I told him I wanted to keep this one. (Pine)

Next up, Ward is building a kitchen island for a friend. I want to get on his list because I have several things I want him to build.

Until next time...

Boxes and such

The walk to Ward's shop has been slippery since the snow
and ice storm we had last Wednesday.

 

Ward has been interested in woodworking for years, but had spent more time reading about it than doing it. That is until recently. Teleworking has added extra hours to his day which has given him more time to spend in his shop. Much of that has been spent setting things up, but recently, he has been able to actually make some things. Most of these are Christmas gifts and I'm going to show you a few of them. As in most many things, I think they are prettier in person than they are in the pictures.

This is a pencil box made from poplar he recycled from a pallet.

This is a dresser top box made from maple and sapele.
The sepele is a fun because depending on the light,
 it forms different patterns.

This is a puzzle box made of oak. There are four different slides
that have to be done before you can get inside.

Inside the puzzle box, he is hiding M&Ms and a gift card.
Now that's fancy, but perhaps cruel, wrapping. 

These are drop spot trays--one for each son.

This is a wooden puzzle that he is making for his co-workers.

Can you tell that Ward likes puzzles?
He's good at all kinds of them.

Note: Few if any people from our families read this blog, so I'm safe in revealing things before Christmas.

Simple Crafting

 or How to Overthink a Craft

The finished product.

A couple of months ago, I heard about a children's memory game made out of wood that I thought I might want to try. The game set was made of round disks cut from a branch and then stamped with pictures to form a matching game. It seemed just about my skill level, especially if I could get help from Ward. I thought I would make a couple of sets for gifts and maybe one for the library.

And then my mind kicked into high gear thinking about the actual construction. First consideration was safety. The pieces needed to be larger than choke size and be made of a non-toxic wood and finish. Luckily Ward knew a lot about finishes, but we still spent a fair amount of time shopping for what we thought would be best. Next, I considered using natural cut wood from a branch, but worried that as it dried over time, it would crack. So we went with a 2" pine dowel. We experimented with thicknesses--thick enough to not break and easy for little fingers to pick up. But not too thick. Then came the hard part--getting pictures on the pieces. I tried stamping, markers, stenciling, ink transfers, painting, stickers along with gluing, decoupaging, and various finishes.

 However, even with all of those methods, I was not happy for various reasons including look, durability, water resistance, etc. In the middle of the experiment, we changed from a pine to a hardwood dowel because the wood grain pattern of the pine competed too much with the pictures. 

A few of the prototypes

Finally, I came upon a workable solution. I used clear address labels which I printed letters onto and then put on the finished disk.  That was covered with another coat of finish. But, of course, it wasn't quite that simple. The hardwood (poplar) didn't finish well, so we switched back to the pine.

Then it was onto making a bag to hold the pieces. What should have been a simple, straight seam project turned into hours of frustration with the sewing machine which was having all kinds of adjustment problems. I was able to get something workable, but the machine needs some serious attention before I use it again. 

The finalized pieces.

So despite all of that, when it's all said and done, I'm happy. It was nice working on a project with Ward and I think the children I'm giving these to can have fun (and learn) from them. It should have been so easy, however that would have been only if I hadn't thought so much about it. Oh, well. Onto the next project.

Until next time when I'll show you some things Ward's been working on.

Note: Fitting in perfectly with the theme of aggravation, Blogger is frustrating me with its formatting and spacing. I gave up on those for today so the post may look a little strange.