Kerry'd Away

When You Catch ‘The Old’…

Posted on May 31, 2019 by civilwarrose5

It was Memorial Day. I saw Jay filling up a mug of beer.

jays-anniversary-kegerator

“The neighbors are having a picnic so I’m heading over there. Do you want to come with me?” he asked as he topped off his glass.

“No, I have some things that I want to do here. Be careful that their dogs don’t sneak out when you go in through their gate. Zeke likes to escape,” I informed him.

“I’m not walking all the way around! I’m going to jump the fence like I always do.”

Cucumbers 7-9-18

“You’re too old to be jumping the fence. Just take the extra time to walk around.”

A gasp escaped his lips. “Too old??” he said in horror. “Do you know what I’ve done in my life? That tiny fence has NOTHING on what I’ve hurdled in the past!”

“I started out canoeing the mighty rapids.”

Jay in a Canoe

“At a young age I was working on the roof.”

Jay up on the roof

“I wasn’t old enough to drive a car so I rode a dirt bike to preschool.”

Easy Rider Jay - 26 months

“Then the energy crisis hit, so I pedaled my bike and possibly jumped a few buses when I arrived at school.”

Cropped Evel Knieval Jay

“I tamed wild beasts.”

Jay and the Beast

“I stared death in the eye and didn’t blink!”

Karen and Jay 1987

“Yes, but Sweetie, you were a LOT younger back then,” I said, trying to reason with him.

“Okay, so maybe I was a bit young, but those were just mild stunts. I’ve done a LOT more in more recent years and didn’t get a scrape.”

I just looked at him.

attitude

“You don’t believe me? I’ve dived from the highest diving boards in the country.”

Diving Jay

“I trained pilots in the Navy for three years. Talk about some close calls!”

Jay in the Navy

“I even took my own life in my hands when I built my own airplane and flew it.”

Jay in his plane

“Jay, I’m not talking about flying a plane. I’m talking about jumping over the fence. Your joints can’t take it. You’ll hurt yourself.”

He looked at me and almost tsk’d as he said, “Jumping? I’ve made 748 jumps in my life from a lot higher than 42 inches!”

Jay Skydiving

“One of those jumps was with my own mother!”

Jay and Karen Skydiving

“I think that I know what I’m doing when it comes to jumping!”

<<< A few hours later….>>>

“At least I didn’t spill my beer!”

Jay's Broken Foot 5-30-19

(3 broken bones in his foot and 6-8 weeks off of work)

Posted in Humor | Tagged Humor | Leave a comment

Prayer Shawl #3

Posted on May 28, 2019 by civilwarrose5

Last week my friend Chrissy had to rush home because her mom needed emergency surgery. She ended up having a quadruple bypass! YIKES!

Chrissy is a sweetheart and we have a great time together. In this picture you can’t tell that when we’re together we typically cause trouble.

me-and-chrissy-s

Her mom has a long road of healing ahead of her so I was going to ask the ladies at church for a prayer shawl for her mom. Then I thought that it might mean more to both of them if I actually made the prayer shawl myself. So I did.

Prayer Shawl #3 5-25-19

And I didn’t have to buy yarn for this project because I already had it on hand. In fact, I had the pattern ready, too. I had seen the pattern and wanted to try it, but since I’ve got a zillion kits waiting for blankets I hadn’t picked up this project yet.

After I decided that I was going to make this for her I was on a mission to get it done. I started it Wednesday night and finished it Saturday afternoon.

I used self-striping yarn cakes again because the pattern I had found called for four skeins of it. I used all four skeins to make the body of the shawl and then pulled out white yarn to do a border. I wanted to make it nice and wide. I’m not sure how they managed to make the following with only four skeins of yarn, but supposedly they did.

Crocheted Poncho

This was supposed to be a poncho, but I wanted it to be a regular shawl instead. I think that they might have blocked this one because you can really see the holes in the picture. All I did was wash and dry the shawl, just as I would expect Chrissy’s mom to do. I don’t want to give her something that needs to be blocked every time so that it looks nice.

Posted in Crochet, Faith, Prayer Shawl | Tagged Crochet, Prayer Shawl | 1 Comment

Beginning to Garden – 2019

Posted on May 24, 2019 by civilwarrose5

Two weeks ago I posted about Real Life and how my gardens look like this:

Fence Garden 5-9-19

To be fair, that garden STILL looks like that. Between my various activities, my sinuses/allergies and the rain I just haven’t been able to get much done.

I did manage to get my vegetables planted in between rain drops.

Before & After

Back Deck 5-18-19

I have cucumbers on the left and zucchini on the right.

And I decided to try something a little different. Usually I plant flowers in the pots that hang on the deck railing, but this year I decided to try some herbs. Even though you can’t see them I have planted parsley and chives. We’ll see how well they do.

I also purchased two containers at Lowe’s for my tomatoes and green peppers:

Tomatoes and Peppers 5-18-19

These containers allow you to fill a reservoir at the bottom of the pot so that the plants will be watered all of the time. Except… there were a zillion steps to complete in order to “properly” set up the container to function properly and I didn’t have time to deal with it. I was trying to get soil mixed and installed before it rained on me again. So we’ll see how well they do. I’m going to move the peppers somewhere else. I’m just not sure where. I wanted to use these containers so that they would be easy to move.

And I did get my flowers planted on the other side of my back steps. Now I just need to add the mulch.

Back Door Pansies 5-18-19

Snap Dragons and Pansies. Snap Dragons are becoming one of my favorite flowers to plant. I have some taller ones in my front garden that actually came back this year. As for the pansies, who doesn’t love them? They are my FAVORITE non-rose flower.

Speaking of roses, I did get all of the bushes in my gardens trimmed and fertilized.

Corner Rose Bushes 5-23-19

Oh, and the stupid irises! I don’t know how many times I have to tear them out of this front bed. As you can see they are stubborn critters. I hacked into the set on the left the other night. The others are almost blooming, so they were spared.

Along with the only lily that I allow to be in my gardens:

Permitted Lily 5-23-19

I’m not a big fan of lilies growing in my gardens. But this one blooms once and then goes away, so it can stay. Oh, and to the left in this picture you can see the newest rose bush that I purchased. *sigh* I couldn’t help myself. This area is where the bush was that I thought might be dead, but turns out there was a little life left to it. So I transplanted it over to be next to its buddy.

Porch Roses 5-23-19

You can’t see it very well in this picture, but it’s between the middle one and the one on the left. You can barely see the reddish leaves poking up by the porch. I need to mulch these ones, too. It looks a lot better than it did, though. Oh, and to the right of the trellis is the Snap Dragon that came back this year.

Before & After

It’s actually quite interesting to see just how much the rose bushes have leafed out in two weeks! I know that a couple of them already have buds so they should be blooming soon!

The other garden area that I was able to clean up was the little one outside my bedroom window. This is the area where I want to put the Mary statue that I purchased a few weeks ago.

Bedroom Roses 5-23-19

I did manage to mulch this flower bed. I think that I need three more bags of regular mulch in order to finish tidying up these beds.

The bird seed area hasn’t been touched, yet. I will need an entire Saturday morning to get that done. I need to pull up everything that is there and then lay down new landscaping fabric. I would like to cover it in little stones so that the birds can’t throw them around, but I don’t want Jay hitting them with the mower. So I will probably end up using the pine bark nuggets again.

All of that gardening gave me three big garbage containers of yard waste to put out with the garbage this week. Can you imagine using all of them and still needing more?

Oh, and I seriously have run out of room for roses. I honestly don’t know where I would stick another one. My boss and coworker were asking me how many rose bushes do I have and I was a bit embarrassed when I counted them up. I think that I have a problem. The total currently stands at 16.

I told Jay that when we move I am digging up almost all of them to take with us. After all, I know how much of the previous owner’s plants I removed. It would break my heart to leave the rose bushes here and then drive by and see that they were all gone. I just hope that we move in the spring or summer. It will be a bit difficult to transplant them in winter.

While I was out ‘playing in the dirt’ (as I call my gardening) I heard Jay busy in the back yard. On one of my trips to the shed I saw this:

Floor Frame 5-18-19

“Yes, Sweetie, there will be room for everybody to sit at the table for Thanksgiving dinner, but I don’t think it will fit in the dining room.”

This is what happens when you measure once, cut twice.

Posted in Garden, Real Life, Roses, Wood Work | Tagged Garden, gardening, Roses, woodworking | 1 Comment

Yarn Organizing – Spring 2019

Posted on May 21, 2019 by civilwarrose5

Rain had been in the forecast for the weekend, but by Friday night the Weather Channel was telling me that there was only a 10% chance of rain. Great! I can spend all day Saturday trying to clean up this mess:

I was at the nursery by 8:05 Saturday morning and managed to buy all of my vegetable plants, plus another rose bush (I can figure out where to plant it later). As soon as I got home I started ripping and tearing. I had just finished turning the soil where I wanted to plant the cucumbers when it started to rain! It had been cloudy, but there was only a 10% chance of rain! GRRRRR. I finished planting my cucumbers and zucchini in the soaking rain, then went in and showered. I was NOT a happy camper. The sun was bright and shining when I got OUT of the shower! Except now everything was wet and muddy.

I needed to put myself in a happier frame of mind, so as I waited for the sun to dry out the dirt I decided to tackle another mess that I had been avoiding…

Yarn Mess 5-18-19

Isn’t that horrible?! Yes, it really did look like that. I would buy yarn and just toss it on the pile. Or, once I had finished a blanket, I would toss the yarn that remained on the pile as well. Since I couldn’t work inside I decided to work in here.

I used a Jumbo Ziplock Bag for the baby yarn so that I could easily keep it separate. I love these jumbo bags! I usually buy them at Wal-Mart and then put the Project Linus blankets in them after they are washed and de-furred. Since they zip closed I feel better knowing that stray hunks of fur are not going to make it into the bag. Also, once the blankets have been delivered to Project Linus they can easily be reused.

Once the baby yarn had been separated, I used the same process that I always use to kit up more blankets. If I could get some more yarn kitted up then that should leave me with less yarn just sitting around. Right?

Kitted Blankets 5-19-19

I have 14 blankets kitted up and ready to be crocheted. I’m a Cost Accountant, so earlier I broke down the numbers as I was telling my coworker about this project. At that point she responded, “Wow. You sure can tell that you’re a Cost Accountant!” Yes, it is that scary. So, here we go…

14 blankets made up of 88 rows each, gives you 1232 rows to crochet.

On average, I get about 2.42 rows per ounce of yarn. That means I will have around 509 ounces of yarn in these blankets (which is 31.82 pounds).

If an average skein of solid yarn is 7 oz, that means I will have the equivalent of 72.72 skeins of yarn in these blankets! If you take into account that most of the yarn I use is variegated, they are typically 5 oz skeins. That would give me 101.82 skeins of yarn!

If I average out those two numbers, that gives me 87.27 skeins of yarn. Do you realize what that means?? I have around 87 skeins of yarn that are ready to be crocheted! After kitting up all of those blankets I should have very little yarn left in my cubbies, right?

Yarn Cubbies After 5-20-19

WRONG! This is the yarn that hasn’t been spoken for, yet. Theoretically I could kit up more blankets, but I’m running out of room for the bags. I had Jay pick up a few totes so that I can store the bags for now, but good grief! I think that I might need to attend a 12 step program for my problem! I think that I might be able to crochet one blanket every month and a half. That means technically I won’t have to buy blanket yarn for almost 2 years! YIKES!!

(I really hope that this post is one that Jay won’t read every word and will just skip by because it is all about yarn)

In the midst of this organizing I realized that I have a lot of partial skeins that were becoming quite a mess. So I grabbed the yarn swift that Jay made for me and my yarn ball winder. I decided it was time to give them a try as I haven’t used them at all.

Yarn Winding 5-20-19

That’s quite the basket of messy yarn, isn’t it? I also have an electronic kitchen scale so that I can mark down the weight of each yarn ball (I use that information when figuring out my blankets).

First, I started by weighing the yarn before winding it.

Yarn Before 5-20-19

0.7 oz of messy yarn.

Next, I needed to wind it onto the swift. Since these used to be skeins I couldn’t neatly place it on the swift (like almost all of the information states to do when I was looking up how to use yarn swifts earlier). I knew that I would have to guide the yarn out of the skein without it knotting and get it to stay on the swift. I solved this with masking tape.

Holding the End 5-20-19

I just needed it to hold it while I started to wind the yarn.

Winding on Swift 5-20-19

So far, so good. While I was doing this step Jay stopped by to visit. He has decided that he needs to add a stepper motor to my swift so that it can automatically wind while I guide it out of the skein. We’ll see how that goes.

Once the yarn was on the swift I threaded it onto the ball winder and started cranking away.

Winding the Ball of Yarn 5-20-19

Holding the yarn with my left hand helped to keep tension and to control the yarn a little better as it came off of the swift.

This ball winder makes center-pull balls, which are what I prefer.

Finished Ball of Yarn 5-20-19

It’s so neatly wound!

After I removed it from the winder I weighed it again to confirm the original weight.

Yarn After 5-20-19

Cutting the yarn color and description off of the label I would also include the yarn brand and weight. The label then gets stuffed in the middle and I go onto the next ball of yarn. Currently I have three down… a bunch more to go.

I am really pleased with how nicely the swift and winder work. The only bad thing about the set-up is that I have to bend over quite a bit. It would be nicer if the table was a bit higher. If I would clean off my kitchen counter I might be able to use that surface. That would be the ideal height.

So I guess all I need now is for you to wish me luck. It’s going to be a full time job just to use up all of that yarn and feel like I’ve regained some control over it!

Posted in Blankets, Crochet, Project Linus | Tagged Blankets, Crochet, Project Linus, Yarn, Yarn Swift, Yarn Winder | Leave a comment

Hard-to-Finish Projects

Posted on May 17, 2019 by civilwarrose5

I have to admit that I’ve had a few projects on my finishing table that I’ve had absolutely no motivation to work on. Probably because they don’t involve yarn, fabric, or flowers. *sigh*

Do you remember these:

Paper Plate Holder 4-1-19

Cord Organizer 4-1-19

I have made a tiny bit of progress on them. The dumb thing is that I would like to start using them… but I can’t until they are finished. You would think that would be enough motivation for me. Nope.

Yes, I was actually sleeping!

Here’s where these projects stand as of today:

Paper Plate Holder 5-16-19

This one needs two more coats of poly and it should be done.

Cord Organizer 5-16-19

This one has been primed. Now it needs a final coat of paint.

Speaking of paint, guess what else I picked up?

Mary Statue

I decided that since we’re Catholic we need a Mary statue in one of my gardens. I think I’m just going to paint her gray and then age her a little bit. After all, I’m not good at painting eyes. They either look psycho or some other kind of mentally unstable.

I’ve been working on this guy for two years:

Civil War Soldier and Fat Cat Statues

I just can’t seem to get him right! Oh, and then there’s the fat cat that I have to paint, too. That is, when I’m bored and have nothing else to do. lol

Posted in Catholicism, Cats, Civil War, Garden, Wood Work | Tagged concrete statues, woodworking | Leave a comment

Blankets, Blankets, Blankets!

Posted on May 14, 2019 by civilwarrose5

Recently I’ve been on a bender. Every time I go to Goodwill or the Salvation Army I make a bee-line for the linens. It seems to be my never-ending quest to find the really nice sets of flannel or fleece sheets so that I can make blankets.

Sheet for Blankets

I use the flannel to make receiving blankets for my Dresses for Missions ministry at church. The blankets are included in the Baby Boxes that are given out at parenting programs in Haiti. Not only does this give the newborn a safe place to be placed, but the program also includes diapers, receiving blankets, hats, and other baby necessities. The receiving blankets that I’ve been making will be placed in those boxes.

One reason why I’ve been doing more of these lately is that they are quick and easy to make. They don’t all have to be the same size, either. I try to make them large enough to be really functional (around 36″ x 40″ or so), but I try not to make them any smaller than the receiving blankets that can be purchased in the store.

On my last trip to Goodwill I found a twin and a full sized sheet. I washed them, cut them into various sizes, and rounded the corners. Then I sat down to serge the edges. That’s the easiest way to finish them:

Finished Blankets 5-13-19

Some might not think that the serged edges look nice. Yet, at Goodwill I bought a blanket that I thought somebody else had made and yet when I looked it had a major manufacturer’s tag on it. After seeing that I no longer feel like I’m slacking off by only serging the edges. I was happily serging along last night when I ran out of thread on one of my bottom loopers (of course!).

Empty Thread 5-13-19

I pulled out the box where I have quite a few cones of thread… but I don’t have any white left! I have lots of black, some red, one off-white, and a pink cone. But no white! *sigh* I guess that I will be running to Wal-Mart sooner than expected. (That will make the birds happy because I need more bird seed, too.)

Once I get more thread I can finish up the remaining blankets that I had cut to size.

Unfinished Blankets 5-13-19

Earlier I had mentioned that I’ve been buying fleece sheets, too. When I was looking at the Amazon Wish List for the local cat shelter I noticed that they had fleece blankets listed. It hit me that I could easily make those instead of buying the pricey brand new ones. After all, these will just get covered in cat hair and other things. For less than $10 I managed to purchase these at Goodwill:

Fleece Sheets

I’m not sure how many blankets I can get out of them, but I know that I managed to get 12 decent sized blankets out of an extra set of king size fleece sheets that I had in my linen closet. I really only need two sets of fleece sheets, and I could really use the extra room in the closet. These were dropped off last week.

Fleece Blankets for Cat Shelter

Again, they are just for cats so I didn’t really care how the edges looked. I left the hems and serged around the edges that I had cut. Being able to get so many items completed in such a short amount of time really gives you a feeling of accomplishment.

The biggest down side to all of this is that I am now seeing visions of an over-flowing cart when I head to the Goodwill-by-the-pound this summer with my sister.

Thrift Shop

Jay will not be impressed.

At least it’s not yarn!

Posted in Blankets, Cats, Charity, Sewing | Tagged Blankets, Cats, Charity, Sewing | 1 Comment

Real Life – 5-10-19

Posted on May 10, 2019 by civilwarrose5

Do you need a pick-me-up? Do you feel like you never make any progress on any of your projects, but people all over social media are somehow able to get their projects completed perfectly? Well, I’m here to make you feel better about yourself! We must all try to keep perspective. Yes, on my blog it appears as if I am very efficient and manage to get a ton of stuff done. However, let me show you what I am letting fall to the wayside in order to work on those projects.

It is the beginning of May and I have yet to even start to work in my flower gardens. Every morning when I walk out to my car I see this:

Fence Garden 5-9-19

You can’t tell where the lawn ends and the flower bed starts.

Fence Garden Weeds 5-9-19

Look at all of the vegetation that needs to be pulled.

More Garden Weeds 5-9-19

Not to mention that I really need to get out there and do some trimming on the rose bushes. Oh, and the burning bush needs a haircut, too.

Burning Bush 5-9-19

Look at all of those spikes! *sigh*

And those aren’t the only gardens that need tending. I have to figure out what I’m going to do in this area this year:

Back Deck 5-9-19

I have no idea where I’m planting any of my vegetables this year. I know the cucumbers didn’t really care for where they were placed last year, so I need to move them somewhere else. *sigh* I just don’t know where.

As I walk around the front of the house I take stock of my corner rose garden. Everybody is in bad need of a trim, but then I look and it appears that one of my rose bushes died.

Rose Bush Lives 5-9-19

Or did it? I see a little bit of growth down near the bottom. *sigh* I guess I will be trying to nurse this one back to health. I really am not good with roses! At least, not the hybrid tea roses. They are so delicate.

My other roses seem to be doing okay, but they need attention, too.

Porch Roses 5-9-19

The bird bath will go in this garden once it’s been fixed, but I have no idea what else I’m going to do with this area. As you can see, I need to clean out all of the dead leaves that blew there this fall.

Plus, I have to do something with my bird feeder area because it’s looking horrid.

Bird Feeder Area 5-9-19

The landscaping fabric has started to flop in the wind because the birds scatter the pine bark nuggets that I use under there when they look for seed. If I leave it with just dirt then I’m constantly weeding it. I don’t want to put a border around it because then it is more difficult for Jay to mow. Oh!! And this is still happening:

Bird Feeder Poop 5-9-19

POOP!!! I think it’s from the possum. I chased it out of there Saturday morning, but Jay wishes that I would get dressed first before running out on the porch yelling at the possum to get out of my bird feeder. He also thinks that I should use something other than the Swiffer to chase it out, too.

Now that I have bared all of my unkempt gardens, do you feel better about yourself? Or at least feel that maybe you’re not the only one falling behind on the yard work? If that hasn’t made you feel better, let me try one more thing…

I have been trying to clean up my office for over a year now. Just when I think I’m making progress, I get behind again. I have a TON of paperwork that I need to shred. This is the sight that greets me:

Office 5-9-19

And that is an improvement compared to how it looked two weeks ago! I have two and a half garbage bags of shredded paper that need to go up to my dad for use in the barn.

I hope that helps you out today. Whenever you need to feel better about yourself just come back to this blog post and be glad that these areas aren’t screaming for your attention. You’re welcome!

Posted in Garden, Real Life | Tagged bird feeder, Real Life, rose garden | 1 Comment

Front Porch Swing!

Posted on May 7, 2019 by civilwarrose5

Last Fall my mom asked me if I wanted the swing that she had purchased many years ago for my older sister, Boogart. Of course, I said yes! It was a porch swing that Boogart used to love. I love a good porch swing, too, so I brought it home. That’s when I informed Jay that he would need to build me a frame for it.

Front Porch - New Concrete - 6-3-16

When we redid our front porch three years ago (it’s been that long already?!) we had to pay extra to get the support beam fixed. The previous owners were supposed to do it, according to the contract, but they just pretended like they had fixed it. We knew that anything in that roof was not going to be able to handle the weight of a porch swing plus me on it.

I went online and found some examples of frames that I thought might fit on our front porch. I wanted it to go on the end, to the right of our front window. It’s an awkward space that I haven’t really known how to use in the summer. So last week I made Jay his annual To Do list and placed the porch swing frame on it. I want to be able to enjoy it once the weather is nice enough. Luckily, it was one of the projects that Jay decided to start. He cut and assembled it in the basement, then brought it up to the front porch for final assembly.

Porch Swing Frame 1

I thought it would look cute if we could place it on an angle.

Porch Swing Frame 2

After double-checking the dimensions, though, we realized it wouldn’t fit because of the extra support 2×4’s that had been placed on the outside of the frame.

Porch Swing Frame 3

We ended up putting it at the end, but that’s okay. It’s a better use of that space.

Porch Swing Frame 6

Doesn’t it look so comfortable?!

Porch Swing Frame 5

Jay was trying it out. He wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t tip easily.

I kept having to explain to him that a porch swing is for leisurely swinging and that you’re not supposed to try to break world records for how many times you can flip the porch swing around the top beam.

Porch Swing Frame 4

I might have to keep an eye on him, though. I can tell that he’s itching to see how fast he can get it swinging. I might have to teach him the fine points of Front Porch Swinging. I come from a long line of Front Porch Sitters with a strong leisurely style. It’s coded deep in my genetics to be ready to relax at a moment’s notice. Jay is just the opposite. It’s what keeps me on my toes.

Jay hated that I wanted him to use pressure treated wood because it’s “ugly”. I told him that I was NOT going to refinish it every year just because he wanted to make it out of regular pine. Once the pressure treated wood weathers for a year I’ll be able to use an outdoor stain and make it prettier.

Posted in Garden, Wood Work | Tagged Garden, Porch Swing, woodwork | 1 Comment

Happy Star Wars Day! (2019)

Posted on May 4, 2019 by civilwarrose5

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the Force be with you!

(and with your spirit…)

Posted in Gary, Humor, Penny | Tagged Ewok, Gary, Penny, Star Wars, Star Wars Day, Storm Trooper, Yoda | Leave a comment

Dog Clocks

Posted on May 3, 2019 by civilwarrose5

I know that I posted about these in parts and pieces, but I thought I would write one post with all of the pictures in one place. It’s more fun that way.

At my previous job one of my coworkers had seen the cat clock that Jay had made me years ago.

Teasingly, she told me that Jay could make a dog clock for her. Then she added, “As a retirement gift!” I chuckled, but tucked that thought in my mind’s filing cabinet.

Well, today is her last day of work before she retires. Technically she was supposed to retire a month ago, but her boss talked her into staying for another month. This worked out perfectly for me because I had asked Jay to make her a clock.

First he found a picture online and, using SketchUp, he drew out all of the tiny little details. He then fired up the CNC router and produced the clock.

We ended up making two because his mom saw it and loved it. Not a big deal. Twin dog clocks were now on the docket.

I wanted to stain it, but I had to be careful. I wanted the lines to really stand out without the rest of the wood being too dark and obliterating the lines.

Here you can see the difference between the non-stained and stained clocks. Quite a difference! I couldn’t decide between two of the colors, so I used them both. Each dog is a different color.

Since this is a clock I wanted to be able to easily tell the time when glancing at it. That means the hour ticks have to be made more visible than what they were at this stage. Jay and I decided to deploy the use of acrylic paint. First, however, you have to lay down a base coat of poly so that if you color outside the lines it’s easier to clean off of the wood.

(You can’t tell, but these have one coat of poly on them)

Then it was time to do some painting. I like sparkle so I found some metallic-ish paint with a hint of shine to it. There were two colors of this paint, so keeping with the theme, I used one per each dog.

Mint:

Sapphire:

I think the colors worked out really well with the stain.

After the paint was dried and cleaned up, I added two more coats of poly to the front and back. They were then handed over to Jay for installation of the clock mechanisms.

I had him color the hands of the clock black because I was afraid the gold wouldn’t stick out well enough to be able to tell the time. I’m really glad that he did because I like the look of it.

A hanger was also added to the back and they were done!

Posted in CNC Router, Wood Work | Tagged clock, CNC Router, Dog, woodwork | 1 Comment