Recent Projects

These are the most recent projects I've been working on. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures before they were started. :(
My picture placement is still iffy so hopefully my captions will make a little bit of sense.


This is a table that had layers of green and white paint mixed with many grease/oil/gas/diesel fuel stains. Lynne and I worked on this most of last summer and fall. We decided not to sand it till all the stains were gone since that adds character. :)


These are a couple of cabinets that were in the backroom of the shop. They were that ugly gray that you see lots of utility shelving/cabinets painted. Since it was way too cold to try and strip them we decided to attempt one of those fancy paint methods you see in Lowe's or Home Depot. They actually didn't turn out half bad considering it was a first try at anything of that nature.



Ted has been doing some logging in the woods and after seeing some of the items at a recent craft show I got the brainy idea to make a hat rack out of a slice of cherry log for Lynne's Christmas present.

When we were kids we spent a good amount of time at our next door neighbor Ruth's house. When her estate went up for auction I bought this cabinet, which she used in her cellar for storing canned goods. It was painted that ugly utility gray and had double paned glass in the doors. Much of the glass was cracked or broken so instead of replacing it I decided to do punched tin. The refinishing is done but I have not yet started the tin.

Firefox vs. Internet Explorer

Curious as to which you people use....firefox or internet explorer. I use firefox but for some reason signed into by blog the other day with internet explorer and saw that the layout changes. My picture captions are all messed up with IE whereas with firefox they look ok. I also still cannot align or readjust picture placement....all it will let me do is stretch them out of shape....any help??

Vermont

We traveled to Vermont to take Trevor to Marlboro College this past weekend. It's a small private liberal arts college (enrollment of 330) pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. The closest decent size town is about 20 miles away. Their philosophy is quite different from your average college and they are included in "Colleges that Change Lives: 40 Schools that Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges". The trip there was nice, with decent weather everywhere except, of course, right here in our own backyard where we were driving on hard packed snow and ice roads in blizzard conditions with 30+ mph winds and good ole whiteouts. Once you travel out of this area you can actually see sun and blue sky, both rarities during the winter months here.

I've included a picture of Trevor in his dorm room and a shot of a couple of buildings at Marlboro, the admissions building in the foreground and the dining hall in the rear. I have yet to get a grip on adding pictures properly or putting them where I want them placed in the blog. I can't see a way to adjust their position once they are there.......is there such a thing?

Winter Fun

Hooray! I finished Trevor's quilt!!! This was my first time ever to machine quilt one of my creations. Up to this point I have hand quilted them all, but given the time factor.....
It would win no prize at a quilt show, but all and all it turned out ok and was definitely faster than hand quilting. I used mostly straight line, in the ditch quilting but the six middle blocks also include free motion stipple quilting.

The other "Winter Fun" was attempting to run Lynne's snow blower....ha. It seems we are approaching or possibly have by now passed the average snow fall amount for a season. I know I have a few relatives that think we've hardly had a winter but all they need do is take a trip up my road and/or driveway. :) Anyway, Lynne's snow blower was here for a short time and we decided to try it out in the back yard, which seems to me to have about 10 feet of snow. :)

Winter Fun

Trevor's quilt....with Missy
























Look carefully....you might be able to see the quilting on the back.



Such fun!! How I love winter. :P

Fishes Continued

Well that was interesting....figured I'd take a break from pinning the quilt layers together and see if I could upload some pictures. That went fine but I have yet to figure out how to type along with the pictures sooooo.....now we have "Fishes Continued".....

Anyway.....I am typically not a fan of owning animals that must be caged, so whats with the aquarium? I inherited it, so to speak, from Lynne. When she decided to move back east and had no place to move her little fishies, I, being the gallant rescuer (ha) said she could move it to my place. I must say it has turned out to be quite enjoyable. I spend more time than any sane person should, watching the aquarium. Just in case anyone out there is just on pins and needles wondering what fish are pictured and if they in fact are named I shall now enlighten you. The two angel fish are named Jet and Freida (guess which ones which). The bright yellow guy at the bottom of the tank (golden chinese algae eater) is of course called China Boy. The other named guys that apparently were too shy for the photo shoot are Al and Ernie. An albino and non-albino pleco. The others remain nameless, poor things.....and include two clown loaches, giant and zebra danios, 2 hatchet fish, and a couple of siamese algae eaters.

Well, wasn't that fun and informative boys and girls? :)

Fishes

Ta Da

Well, here I am at the urging of a few people. My posts won't be as eloquent or interesting as other family members, but it's my life. :)

I'm currently working on a quilt for Trevor to take with him to Marlboro. Since he leaves on the 17th it's a time crunch project, but it seems I am more likely to get things done under those conditions. I had a moment of attention deficit and came to create this blog but now must get back to the project. Hopefully I can handle posting pictures in the very near future.