Weekend in Review: Life is Good

Ornery and I both painted Saturday, but I think I had more fun. :)  He painted Elizabeth's shelves, I painted ATCs (pictures on the design blog).  I also replied to an intro letter that came from a woman in Massachusetts who read my comment on a pen-pal blog post, and threw away an anonymous solicitation for a pen pal for a guy in prison.  Still waiting to hear back from most of those 35 people I sent intro letters to!  I checked out one of the sites I had posted on and found an artist in Dallas that wants to trade art, so I made an ATC and sent him a note.  I don't think that is what he had in mind, but it didn't hurt to ask. :)  I would love some original artwork if it's good!

Friday night I got another rating for a swap -- a 5 with a heart. :)  That made my night!   I also got a really nice response to a custom card I made for a fellow blogger buddy.  That made me feel good, too!  I have had some very affirming moments in the past week!!

Saturday morning I sent off another swap for my first ever rolo (altered Rolodex card), and in the afternoon Ornery went over to Woodcraft and bought a couple tools. He was thoughtful enough to buy me some really nice little earplugs (for $1) to use when I am helping him in the man cave and I paid him back by absconding with his brand new sweet little silicon tray and brush for applying glue.  The glue dries and then just pops out or flakes off.  Whoa!  Way cool!  Anyway, he knows where they are if/when he needs them. :)

I would love to find a silicon tray the same size as an ATC (2.5 x 3.5") because I can think of so many things I could mold into a card, and it would need to be something non-stick.  Any ideas??  My son-in-law has a 3D printer, and I may see if he can make one for me--shouldn't be too hard I wouldn't think.  I just don't know if the product he uses would be non-stick or flexible enough to pop out the "card" once it was set.  That is potentially problematic!

Sunday we started out leisurely enjoying coffee, visiting and various little chores like hair cuts and laundry.  We started out slow and tapered off with a late morning/early afternoon nap. :)  Then Ornery finished off the shelves and we took them over to Elizabeth's.  She was delighted with the end result.

 It fit exactly in between the two door frames.  It was a good thing I had him make it an inch shorter than she asked for.  The door frame was different at the top than at the bottom, as is typical in old houses on a crawl space.

 I had her move stuff into it before we left so I could take a picture. :)  See what a good blogger I am? (sometimes!)  It really needs to have at least one more coat of paint, but it obviously doesn't match the walls anyway, so I am sure it will be repainted sometime.

These are the boxes Ornery made for my plants on the patio.  I just have to paint them and they will be ready to go.  He used his dovetail jig and learned that you can't dovetail two pieces of plywood together very well if they are different thicknesses.  A bit of putty and some paint and hopefully no one will know the difference!

As we were talking this morning we were trying to think of all the projects he has made since he got his scroll saw 2.5 years ago, and the list was pretty impressive!  One thing I forgot when we were listing was this box he made for Elizabeth for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I took these with my phone when we were over there dropping off the shelves.

The pictures are not very clear but you get the gist of the amount of scrolling he had to do!  It took him weeks to make.  All four sides are cut like the one shown at the top of this photo. 

The other thing Ornery worked on this weekend was another set of bowls that look like baskets.  It has been awhile since he did much scrolling. I think he is getting better the more he practices.  

We both agree that life is pretty sweet right now.  We are between trips with none planned in the near future and fully recovered from the last one; we are between big projects and fully recovered from them as well.  So rather than feeling stressed with long to-do lists and high pressure projects, we have been able to really spend time doing the things we enjoy.  It has been delightful!