Woodworking Fall 09: Week 6

Woodworking was fun this week. I spent a lot of time gluing stuff together. I just realized that I never explained my plan for the new jewelry box lids: the lids are going to have center panels made up of diamond shapes banded by walnut.

I’m turning these panels 45 degrees so the lids will have a diamond pattern instead of a checkerboard. But if I turn them on a angle there isn’t enough surface area to cut out a large enough rectangle.

So I cut off the corners.

And then I glued them onto the edges so I can cut a bigger rectangle out of the middle.

I couldn’t use clamps because of the angles involved, so I tightly stretched masking tape over the joints while the glue dried. I was kind of dubious this would work but my instructor said it’s what they do in situations like this.

While I waited for the glue on the lids to dry I started another cutting board. (I’m kinda addicted to making them lately, in case you haven’t noticed.)

But this cutting board is special–after it’s finished I’m going to have a giveaway and one of you lovely readers will win it! I wanted to say thanks for visiting my little corner of the internets and following my woodworking adventures. And I conveniently had a bunch of wood leftover from the other cutting boards. I wish I could make more than one for the giveaway but class time is already short as it is. It’ll be a couple of weeks before it’s finished, but be sure to check back for it then.

Later this afternoon I’m dressing E in his dog costume and taking him by N’s office for their Halloween party. Pictures on Monday. Have a happy Halloween!

First Snow

Even though I’ve lived in Utah for a number of years now I was still surprised when we got three inches of snow earlier this week. (Bleh.) Last year E was too small to really care about the snow but this week he was excited to go outside and explore.

E’s plucky, can-do attitude lasted all of about 30 seconds…

…or the amount of time it took him to trip and plant his hands in the frozen snow.

(I know, I know–he needs mittens and a new coat. But cut me some slack; I had naively thought I had until November to get them.)

Two Cousins at Two

My sister-in-law Miranda asked me to take a few photos of her son L to commemorate him at two years old. L’s a real cutie and it was fun to take his photo. L is two months older than E (E’s birthday is next week) and it’s always fun to see the two of them together.


Unfortunately E’s been having bouts of separation anxiety lately and he really freaked out when Miranda held him out of the way while I was taking L’s picture. He thought I was trying to dump him off for babysitting.

Miranda, unlike me, is a great seamstress. While we were at her house she presented E with his birthday present: a stylish three-quarter length coat she had sewn herself.

Unfortunately even receiving such a great a gift did not do much to assuage E’s abandonment fears.

But eventually time did. After a while E figured out I wasn’t going to go anywhere and relaxed enough to play with L. The two of them looked very dashing together in their coats.

Sewing Machine

For a while I’ve been setting aside some money for a new sewing machine and keeping my eye out for a good deal on one. My old one, a basic Brother machine that my parents got me in college, has had more and more issues as time went on. I’ve had it in and out of the shop but still dreaded starting any big projects on it because I didn’t know when it would flip out on me next.

I saw that Costco had a good deal on a basic computerized model and after talking it over with N I went and got one over the weekend. (It was $10 cheaper at the store than online.) One of the reasons decided to buy this model at Costco (besides the $30 off coupon) was because of Costco’s lenient return policy. I know that if I have any issues with it and need to return it that they’ll take it back, even if it’s months later.

I haven’t gotten it out of the box yet but I’m really looking forward to using it. I don’t know what I’m going to make first, though. E already has a Halloween costume, so that’s out. I think it’d be good to start with a small project that would help me get to know the machine but is still very doable (I’m not an expert seamstress by any means).

What about you guys? Does anyone sew? Have any suggestions?

Woodworking Fall 09: Week 5

This week woodworking went really well. Last week I ran into some issues and so this week I came prepared with a list of tasks I wanted to accomplish and I pretty much got them all done.

I made some good progress on my box lids and also on my cuttings boards. These first boards are for my jewelry box lids.

I cut the blanks I glued up into strips and then flipped every other strip over to form a checkered pattern.

Then I glued them together, paying special attention to matching up the lines.

The panels after gluing (left to right): purpleheart and curly maple, walnut and bloodwood, and African lacewood and maple.

My unfortunately non-square cutting board.
You can kind of see how the strips shifted while they were being glued and it turned into more of a parallelogram instead of a rectangle. Lame.

After I trimmed the edges off on the band saw it looked more squarish.

I went over the edges on a router so they would be slightly rounded.

And then I started sanding the surface of the board.

I have some more sanding to do next week and then I’ll slap a couple of coats of mineral oil on it and call it good. It still won’t be totally square but after giving myself a mental pep talk I’ve managed to let go of the notion that it needs to be absolutely perfect. I’m okay with it being slightly wonky. (It helps that it’s only for myself and not someone else).

I also re-sawed and re-glued the other cutting board that was having issues. So I think I’m in good shape for next week. Who knows, I might actually have time to make E a toy afterall.

Plastic Cameras

Posting those Holga photos yesterday reminded me of this great book that one of my sisters-in-law sent for my birthday, Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity (Thanks, Gwyn!).

I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s chock full of great photos shot with Holgas and Dianas and is very inspiring. The book also includes helpful technical information on modifying toy cameras and tips on using different types of film.

If you’re interested in shooting with a Holga or a Diana this book is definitely worth checking out.

Fall Holgas

It has suddenly turned chilly here–bleh! While I love autumn I hate the long snowy Utah winters. And even though I’ve been trying to take it easy and I drank almost a gallon of orange juice yesterday I still feel like crap this morning. So I thought I’d post these pictures I took with my Holga back with the fall was bright and lovely to cheer myself up.


Woodworking class is tonight. I’m already running through my mental checklist: camera AND memory card–check!, the plans for E’s wood bulldozer–check!, extra glue for cutting boards–check!, a determined but patient attitude–check! (?)

Wish me luck. Project pictures tomorrow or Friday.

When Blogs Collide

Over the weekend I met up with another blogger; Elaine and I both brought along our husbands and got together at a Korean restaurant for some delicious soon dubu (spicy tofu soup). It was my first blogger meet-up. I confess, I got a little nervous about it beforehand–it almost felt like a first date! Even though I’m sometimes kind of shy around new people it was a lot of fun.

Check out Elaine’s blog, clothed much. Her and her husband are both still in school and have somewhat limited resources so on her blog Elaine focuses on creating stylish and modest outfits out of the clothes she already has. She has a real eye for fashion and I like seeing what she comes up with. And she’s adorable.

Concert Photos

I’m feeling worse today than I was last week. This cold has settled into my chest and I have a lovely hacking cough that makes sleeping difficult. But other than being sick this weekend was quite fun.

On Friday night N and I went and saw BrakesBrakesBrakes and Ezra Furman and the Harpoons play at the Kilby Court in Salt Lake. Both bands were really great which makes it even sadder that there were only 14 people there (unfortunately, not an exaggeration).

On the upside, I was free to move around however I liked to take photos because I wasn’t getting in anyone’s way. So there’s that.

BrakesBrakesBrakes

BrakesBrakesBrakes

Ezra Furman

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons

You can kind of see how the Kilby Court is basically a glorified shack. It’s one of my favorite venues in Salt Lake though. It’s too bad no one was there for this show. I hadn’t listened to either band before we went to the show but I liked both groups. If you’re interested N has a review of the show up on his blog.