Author: Faith

Spice Cabinet: Update 5

So, um, remember that woodworking class I take sometimes? Class has actually been in session since September but with all the craziness of getting ready for our trip to Korea I didn’t get a chance to post any pictures of my progress (Also, I forgot to take my camera to class a few times which didn’t help.)

So to refresh your memory: I’m in the middle of building a spice cabinet with a rather fancy door. (Here are updates 1, 2, 3, and 4.) Here’s some of what I’ve done so far this semester.

Glued the diamond panel into the middle of the door and trimmed the edges of the door to size.

Hand sanded the door, the cabinet box, and the cabinet backing.

It took about an hour and a half to do a good job on the sanding. First I sanded everything with 80 grit, then 100, 120, 150, and 180. By the time I was finished my hand was numb and cramped. But if you don’t sand thoroughly sometimes you’ll see track marks after you apply lacquer to your project but by then you can’t do anything about it. I’ve put in so much time on this cabinet that I was going to make sure I did a decent job on the sanding.

Glued strips of solid mahogany onto the front edge of the shelves. After I stuck the strips on with glue a used an air gun to tack the strips down with tiny little pin nails.

The strips will give the shelves some stability and to provide a lip so the spice bottles won’t slide off the shelves. I also think it looks better.

The cabinet box and backing. The backing will be glued on after the cabinet has been sprayed with lacquer.

I didn’t get any pictures of it but this last week my wonderfully understanding instructor sprayed the cabinet door, box, and backing with several coats of lacquer for me. Going in the spray room and breathing in the fumes is a no-go for me since I’m pregnant right now so I really appreciated his help.

Next week I’ll glue on the back of the cabinet and install the hinges. We only have two weeks left of class but I think I’ll also be able to finish up a Christmas present I’m making for my dad. I have pictures of it in progress but I’ll probably post them after Christmas so as not to ruin the surprise.

Parenting FAIL

E has a way of keeping me humble. Just when I start to get a bit smug that I have this parenting thing figured out fairly well something happens to deflate my ego like a sad balloon.

E still has the last bits of a insistent cold and was sort of tired yesterday. He took a long nap but even then I had to go in and wake him up so we could go to see Yo Gabba Gabba live. N had had a crazy day at work but he managed to leave the office a couple hours early so we could make it on time.

When we got to the arena E loved looking around and seeing all the kids and the Yo Gabba Gabba stuff. And then the show started.

At first he was intrigued and even had fun dancing around to the songs. But then they shot confetti into the audience and cranked up the volume and suddenly it was TOO MUCH. E started whimpering and then full-on crying to go home. N took him out into the hall to calm down and would bring him back into the arena where he was alternatively fascinated and terrified. After about twenty minutes or so he was still asking to go to the car.

So we gave up and left the arena. As soon as we walked outside E started crying again and asking to go back to the show.

The drive home was lame. I was frustrated and sad, N was frustrated and grumpy, and E was frustrated and tired.

In hindsight, I obviously shouldn’t have bought the tickets. They weren’t cheap and I spent basically all of E’s birthday budget on them. I thought he would like it–there were kids much younger than him there happily bopping around in their seats. Maybe having some sort of ear protectors would have helped? The show was really loud. Eh, I don’t know.

But the whole experienced emphasized that I need to let go when it comes to wanting to have Kodak-moment-type family experiences. For instance, I thought this would be a special experience the three of us could enjoy before the baby comes. I get sucked into “the idea” of things very easily. Sometimes I struggle with walking the line between not wanting to deny E experiences he would enjoy and having a realistic idea of what he would actually enjoy and what’s worth the hassle and money.

Blargh.

E Turns Three!

E’s third birthday was over the weekend. E is nuts for balloons so I surprised him with a bunch and then that evening we had a pretty low-key celebration: the three of us went out for dinner and then back to the house for cupcakes and presents.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been three years since E was born. Maybe it was just the pregnancy hormones but I was surprised by how sentimental I felt about this birthday. E’s just such a great little guy. We feel so grateful to have him in our family.

More Fish Market Photos

I thought I’d be finished posting photos from our trip this week but I still have a few more that I’ll post here and there over the next few weeks. But this is the last photo-intensive post. These are from our second trip to the Jagalchi fish market. The first time we went my camera was acting up and I didn’t get any photos so when we were in the neighborhood again we made another quick visit.

These fish mongers were super nice to E and pulled a live crab and octopus out so he could touch them.

This older gentleman bargained with this vendor for quite a while.

A storekeeper makes a joking pass at kidnapping E. E was somewhat unsure about the situation.

We have a lot of stuff going on this weekend. I need to make a batch of cupcakes and wrap presents so we can celebrate E’s 3rd birthday tonight. The three of us usually hang out together on Saturdays but this weekend we’re dividing and conquering: N is attending the BYU-UNLV football game with people from his office and E and I are going to make the trek out to the Overstock.com warehouse store with my mom who’s in town visiting my sister.

Hopefully BYU wins and I find an awesome bargain!

Fun with cousins

I have an aunt and cousins who live in Pusan and luckily we were able to spend some time with them while we were there. We had a lot fun hanging out with my cousin Young-shin, her husband Ji-soo, and their super cute little girl Kon-young. E was besotted with Kon-young and doggedly followed her around everywhere.

Kon-young and E

My cousin Young-shin and her daughter Kon-young

Ji-soo working the grill at a awesome bulgogi restaurant they took us to.

Ji-soo snaps a picture of Kon-Young and E at a buddhist temple.

Young-shin and Ji-soo are thinking about moving to the states, specifically Utah. I hope they’ll be able to make it work out–we’d love to have them close by!

More Temple Photos

I still have quite a few photos from our trip to Korea that I wanted to post so I hope everyone’s not sick of them yet. I’ll be posting some more this week and then wrapping it up.

Like I mentioned before, we visited several Buddhist temples while we were there. These are pictures from our trip to Bulguksa.

The trees were just starting to turn when we were there. I bet they’re stunning right now.

E pretending to be a monster–Rawr!

E is nuts about drums and likes turtles so this was easily his favorite part of the temple.

People stacking rocks for blessings/good luck. E really wanted to get right in there but we were horrified at the idea of him knocking down someone else’s stack so we set him up off to the side with a few rocks of his own.

Looking at these photos is funny because our trip already seems so far away even though it was just a few weeks ago. Coming home to being sick, a messy house, and a lot of work to do for my job jolted me back to reality none too gently. But even still there’s something comforting about getting back to the daily grind.