At the beginning of May this year I (mostly) quit my job(s). My idea was to take time off from work, although I’m still doing a minimal amount of things for a couple of different companies.

I came up with the idea as a serious thing sometime in 2020 although it took me a while to actually implement it. I don’t remember exactly when I started thinking about it, but I was rereading some journal posts from 2020 where I started writing about it.

The COVID childcare hell

(I realize that “The COVID childcare hell” may sound a bit dramatic. I know that anybody with kids during this time period knows what I’m talking about and those without have no right to judge although some of them may anyway.)

There was definitely a part of my decision that was influenced by COVID.

For the first year of COVID I was working 20-40 hours a week as a data science bootcamp instructor and did some big contract projects on the side. My son was not in daycare. The whole situation was a lot of stress for my family.

Looking back on the whole thing, I sort of wished that I hadn’t even bothered to work through it. Although I had no idea at the beginning of it all how long it would last or how stressful and hard it would be. Plus I was too busy to even really think about whether or not what I was doing made sense.

Eventually I started to feel like what I was earning was not worth the stress for my whole family. While I was spending a ton of time with my son I was so burnt out that it didn’t even really feel all that enjoyable. And I just didn’t want to tell B one more time, “Mom is working. You can’t be in here right now.”

There were also a lot of factors for me that were more about having the time to create the things I wanted in my life.

Exploring

I wanted time for exploring both on my own and with my son. Some people might use the word ‘travel’ for this urge. For me travel is a part of exploring, but there are other things too. Going on hikes and bike rides close to home, checking out new places close by and going on camping trips.

Even trying new restaurants or visiting a new museum or store can make for a fun exploring trip.

Also since I got a new RV I wanted time to take it out. Plus we wanted time to go on a family trip to Maine over the summer, which was so much fun for all of us, especially my son. I just wanted to wander.

My Son

I also really wanted to spend more quality time with my son and have the flexibility to do cool things with him.

I see how fast he is growing up and I want to make the most of this time. Sometimes I think of career opportunities that I am missing, but they just are not as important to me as quality time with my kid while he’s little. I really don’t like the feeling of regret and I don’t want to look back later in life and regret not spending more time with him.

Some day he’ll have his own friends, his own hobbies, his own life. Some day he’ll move out on his own. There will probably come a day when he doesn’t want to spend time with mom anymore.

I don’t want to spend weekends trying to just recuperate from work- trying to come up with meal plans, do the laundry and wishing that I could just nap for half the day all the while with B saying, in his whiniest voice, things like “Moooooooom!! I want you to play with me.”

I dream of craft projects, camping trips and bike rides. (Realistically though, all of these things can still be a lot of work to pull off with a young child and there is no predicting when a bike ride is going to turn into tantrums and tears.)

Hobbies

Another big driver for me was hobbies. I have more hobbies than I know what to do with. I am interested in so many different things and I just never have enough time to do them.

I wanted time for:

• Gardening
• Hiking
• Biking
• Art
• Woodworking
• Photography
• Writing
• Reading
• Learning new things
• Drinking coffee
• Hanging out at the makerspace
• And my favorite hobby… starting new hobbies!

Time to do nothing

I also just wanted space. Quiet. Time to think. To dream. To do nothing. To rest or do yoga. I wanted to have hours that weren’t scheduled. I wanted to have time when I wasn’t busy.

I think that time and space breed creativity. They create ideas. They are restorative. I knew I needed this.

My health

There were some general and some specific health-related things I was noticing. Almost all of the work I do is computer-related (programming, teaching Data Science via Zoom, etc) and I don’t believe there is anything healthy about sitting in front of a computer all day every day.

For a couple of years I’d been having trouble with daily, chronic headaches and I’ve long had occasional, sporadic bouts of cluster migraines. The almost constant headache state has totally gone away since I mostly quit working. I have also not had many migraines, but it’s a little harder for me to tell if there is a correlation there because good streaks are normal for me.

In a physical sense, I’m not sure I can go back to the combination of sitting and staring at a monitor all day. (Also, I have some wrist problems from projects involving lots of mouse work. S tells me that this is not something that gets better.)

Sometimes when I think about what sort of job I’ll take up next I dream of things that involve zero time on a computer like mowing grass or putting toilet paper in outhouses in the National Forest.

Business ideas

I also wanted time to explore some of my own business ideas. I have a few different ideas I’ve been tossing around and I just wanted the freedom to test them out a bit.

I’m unsure what is next for me career-wise, but I do think about it quite a bit. I’m sort of looking for increased clarity. I know that sometimes things just happen, but at this point in life, I want something that is really a good fit for me.

How it’s going so far

Time off has basically been amazing. At first, it was a little weird to get used to. I definitely had some early anxiety around the financial aspects – maybe some time I’ll write about that side of this and how I’m making this work. Oddly, that anxiety has faded a lot.

I had grand ambitions for the summer with B, which I half met. We made the first successful garden of my life, did lots of craft projects, spent time outside, visited the splash pad, went to the zoo and cooked things. Also, I spent some days counting down how many days it was until he would start pre-k.

I wanted to take some RV trips with him over the summer, but the AC that runs in the truck cab needs fixed and there is no generator so there is no AC with off-grid camping. The summer was hot and then it was rainy and all the places I want to go have dirt roads. I don’t want to camp in a parking lot. I also don’t want to get stuck in the mud with an RV and a four year old.

As the weather has turned cooler though B and I have made it out for a few trips. It’s a lot easier now that he is in school because I have a little time when I can plan and prep things without him trying to be on top of me all the time.

In general, things are easier with B finally in school. For the first time in four years I actually have ‘me time’ which has been so nice. I’ve been riding my bike more and doing short hikes. Catching up on lots of random things that I didn’t have time (or the quiet needed to focus) to get to. Learning some new things. Even taking on small work commitments for things that are interesting to me.

I am really, really enjoying this time and looking forward to what I’ll be able to do over the next few months.

The post Why I (sorta) quit working appeared first on Live Hoppy.

April was a great month. Spring made itself felt. It was a nice change after the misery that was March. I found myself outside, riding my bike, enjoying the nice weather, looking at flowers, and creating lots of stuff.

This squirrel above had raided our bird feeder but I didn’t care because it gave me the perfect photo op.

Nature photos- wildlife & plants

Also along the wildlife line of things, I found this butterfly outside one day. It was vibrating it’s wings and it was basically impossible to get a really sharp shot- plus the sun was setting so there wasn’t much light.

Still, the butterfly was cool and it was good practice learning to take pictures in difficult conditions. I’m slowly figuring out all the settings on my camera.

A bird couple moved into the birdhouse I made last fall and it makes me so happy to see them and think of them all nice and snuggly in there. I put it up right outside my bedroom window, so I get lots of opportunities to see them come and go.

Our flowers are starting to bloom and I learned something new. I always thought tulips looked like this:

I had no idea that they open up when it’s sunny.

Speaking of tulips, one day S came in and said our flower fell over. I went outside to see and sure enough it was lying on the ground. This seemed very strange since I had seen it a few hours before and it had been fine.

A while later S came and asked me if I’d taken the flower. I said I hadn’t, that I was going to so I could take some pictures of it, but hadn’t had the chance yet. He said it was gone.

Did the mailman steal it when he dropped of a package? Did the lady who delivers us eggs steal it? We started coming up with theories.

Then we looked closer, and not only was the flower gone, the whole plant was gone. And there was a hole. A tunnel hole.

Apparently a gopher stole our tulip plant. I like to think that he brought the flower to his gopher wife.

It turns out that S was quite protective of our flowers and I don’t like to think at all about what happened to the gopher and his wife next.

Creative projects

I learned how to use the laser cutter at Quelab and started experimenting with it a bit.

My first real project was making little garden stakes to label my plants. I’m proud of these because they are the first thing I made that I really designed from start to finish for the laser cutter.

The first thing B did was come along to pull out my stakes.

I also made a cool step-stool that also converts into a desk for B. (You can read all about the process and see a zillion pictures of it here.) I am so proud of it. The above picture was part way through the process.

Bikes!

It’s my personal opinion that what’s in somebody’s car says a lot more about them than the type of car.

Toddler B

I save the most important for last.

Easter was exciting for me because it was his first year actually being able to participate. Once he discovered there was candy in the eggs, he just sat down in the dirt with his basket and went for it.

I just let him eat his jelly beans off the ground, but when he tried to eat chocolates with the wrapper still on, I had to intervene.

B loves his new stool. He watches everything I do. Here he is helping me run the salad spinner.

B is dressing his train cars with doll clothes. Isn’t that just the cutest?

Do you have a favorite picture out of the bunch? Let me know in the comments.

The post Favorite Photos – April 2019 appeared first on Live Hoppy.

This is gong to be a beginner level overview of the process to give you an idea of how it works. If it’s something you’re looking to learn, it will be enough to give you some direction to start with. Or if you’re just curious how pictures like the one of this ride-on giraffe are taken, it will provide an overview of how the process works.

What is product photography and what else are these techniques good for?

The class I took focused on taking pictures of things to list for sale online. Some of the same techniques would be good for other things like documenting work on a project or taking artistic photos.

The basic goal here is to have the picture be just of the object, not of the weird miscellaneous stuff you may have in the background of your house. It is also to really give people a good idea of what the thing looks like.

And to make it look good so they’ll want to buy it!

Have you ever wondered how people get those pictures of things that just appear to be floating on white?

I have. And this class answered my questions about it. Most of the tricks are in the setup.

Setting up the studio

The setup for this does not have to be too complicated, but a few key items are necessary to create the wanted results. One could spend a small fortune on a setup, but it’s not necessary.

All that’s really needed is a good back drop and a few lights.

The backdrop

The first trick is a good backdrop. After taking the class, this was the one thing I felt like I couldn’t live without. They make all different types, but the one my class used was a roll of paper specially designed for photography.

It features low reflectivity and a very unnoticeable texture. I ordered a roll of Savage Seamless Background Paper to start playing around with.

One thing I’ve learned in life is to try to practice any new skills I learn as soon as possible if I hope to retain the information. I took the class on a Saturday and ordered my background paper the next day.

The nice thing about a paper background is that it comes on a long roll. If the part you use is still clean when you’re done, you just roll it back up. If you scoff it up or somehow mess it up, you just tear off the bad part.

The key with setting up the paper is to have it start higher than the object and then to make sure that there is a gentle curve between where the paper is vertical and where it’s horizontal. This makes the background totally continuous without any sudden changes in lighting or shadows.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Actually, this part is just about lights.

The class talked about a few different options including using real flashes that are meant for photography. Maybe I’ll get there some day, but I’m not looking to purchase a ton of gear at the moment.

I focused on the cheap and easy option of using a couple of lamps.

The tips I took away about lighting were to:

• Use at least two lamps
• Use the brightest bulbs possible
• Use the same bulbs in all lamps for consistent light color
• Make a shade for the lamps using wax paper to diffuse the light

For my current setup, I’m just using a couple of cheap lamps I already had around. I haven’t tried out the wax paper yet. It’s supposed to help diffuse the light to prevent hard shadows.

Camera setup

The biggest idea I learned as far as camera settings was to manually set the white-balance before starting.

I had seen the white-balance setting before, but I never really learned what it did until now. And it’s so cool!

This process tells the camera that the white background is supposed to look white. Then if the lights have a yellow tint (or blue or red or whatever color), the camera will adjust everything to compensate for it.

The exact way to access the white-balance on each camera is different, but once you find the setting all you do is point the camera at the white background and have it measure off of that.

You can see that the backgrounds for the photos on this post are clean grey tones and don’t have a colored tint to them.

Now you’re ready for the Action! step. Oh. Wait. These are still photos, not video…

Editing

Once you have your photos, the last step is a little editing.

This could be done in Photoshop, Lightroom or another program. I won’t get into steps for how to do it on any specific program here, but you can always search online for how to edit the things mentioned here using your software of choice.

The four things we talked about editing were:

• White balance
• Contrast/tone
• Sharpness
• Cropping/straighten/rotate

The hope with the white balance is that setting the custom white balance on the camera does most of the work. Doing it with editing software is just to get any final tweaks.

My camera did a good enough job that I didn’t actually edit the white balance or sharpness of the photos here.

The tip I took about straightening/rotating is to aim to make the vertical lines of the subject vertical. Especially if one is looking at an object from a corner rather than straight on, the horizontal lines of the object may not appear horizontal in the photo and that’s ok.

Enjoy! Or get out there and sell!… Or whatever you want to do with your photos.

Yep, that’s it.

The photos on this post are the first ones I took using this setup. I just used a few items that were close to hand.

The whole thing went super quickly and I’m quite pleased with the results.

My photos do sort of have a double shadow thing going on which would probably be reduced if I used real flashes, was a bit more skilled with my editing or maybe if I’d rigged up some sort of wax paper shades over my lights.

But if I wanted to sell something on eBay, I feel like they would be more than good enough to show an accurate representation of a product and make it look good.

I’m happy with my photos for a first time with this sort of photography and a setup that cost less than $50.

Questions? Thoughts? Tips? Leave a comment!

Thanks to Ethan from cameradactyl.com and Quelab for the great class.

The post A beginner’s guide to good photos for selling products online or documenting projects appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I recently made this kid’s step stool for toddler B. (Plus it folds into a table!) In this post I’ll share my process and steps.

After joining Quelab, I knew I wanted to come up with something to make in the wood shop there. They require training on any of the equipment that is potentially dangerous before you’re allowed to use it and the best way to get trained on a lot of things is to have something you actually need it for.

Then one day I was searching for kid’s step stools on Amazon. B is at an age where he needs one. Whenever I’m cooking in the kitchen, he wanders around underfoot trying to get my attention, making noise, trying to figure out the child latches on the cupboards and fussing.

Mostly, he’s just curious and wants to see what is going on but is just too short. He likes it when I pick him up so he can see, but a lot of cooking tasks are hard to do while holding a child.

Eventually I found a couple of cool kid’s step stool designs that also fold into little tables. They were sort of expensive and I decided I’d like to give building my own a shot. In retrospect, considering the extensive amount of time it took me, it wasn’t exactly economical. But I wouldn’t go back and just buy one if I could. I learned so much through the process and I just love the feeling of having something that I made.

I sent out an email to the Quelab mailing list and one of the guys volunteered to help me with my project and train me on the equipment I needed for it. (Thank you D!) Have I mentioned on here how much I love Quelab?

Making Plans

The first day we met, we just talked and discussed the plans. He insisted I draw up plans for the project. (I just wanted to dive in, but my plans really did pay off.)

Cutting out the pieces

The next time we met, we planned out how the pieces would need to be laid out to cut them out of a piece of plywood. We figured out we could do it all with a four foot by four foot sheet. Then we made a trip to the hardware store to buy the plywood, some hinges and some clasps.

The first order of business was using the table saw to cut the plywood down into the pieces I’d need. I also got instructions on running the shopvac. The table saw made me crazy nervous, but I’ve since used it again for another project and I feel more confident with it. I’m still super cautious though. I know somebody who chopped off the tip of their finger on a table saw and I don’t want that to be me.

Then I had a stack of rectangles, which I was unreasonably proud of.

Shaping the pieces

The third day D and I met up was to start cutting the curved edges for some of the pieces and cut out the inside holes. When I started the project, I did not think holes were necessary, but D explained that they actually served a purpose by reducing the weight of the final project.

He taught me how to use the bandsaw to cut some of the curves for the outside edges, but I ended up thinking the scrollsaw was easier for it.

The bandsaw won’t work for cutting out inside pieces, so I got to learn how to use the scroll saw for those. But first up was learning how to use the drill press. One needs to have a hole to start with to put the blade through in order to cut out an inside piece with the scroll saw.

The scroll saw

The cool thing about the drill press is the ability to drill holes that are straight up and down. This is nearly impossible to do with a handheld drill. This wasn’t actually an important thing for what I was doing, but I can see where it could come in handy.

Once I had a few starter holes drilled, I got to work with the scroll saw. It’s a super fun tool because you can basically cut whatever shape you want.

D said my cutouts could be whatever shape I wanted, so of course I picked bunnies for the bottom part. For the cutouts for the top parts, I kept it simple because that piece turns upside down when the stool is converted into a table. I didn’t want upside down bunnies.

As a side effect, I ended up with scroll saw bunny puzzles. And something in my head clicked about where the term ‘jigsaw puzzles’ comes from.

Sanding

Then there was lots of sanding to get all of the edges smooth from my scroll saw cuts. I like things to be sanded, but the actual process is just dusty and not that much fun. I also put wood filler in any places that needed it.

Routing out dados and making rounded edges

On yet another day, D showed me how to route out little indentations (officially called dados) for the back supports and the step/seat. He also showed me how to use the router to round the edges of the pieces. Hearing him talk about it, I wasn’t convinced this was a necessary step, but when I saw how sleek the rounded edges looked, I was sold.

I came home from Quelab and told S that we should get a router. He replied that he has one. Then I remembered that I had seen a box in our shop one day that said ‘Plunge Router’. I had asked S about it, and he’d described to me what it did a little. It didn’t really seem relevant to me, so I promptly forgot about it. Now that I know how to use the thing, I have lots of ideas for it

Finally! Time to assemble my step stool!

After what seemed like forever, but was really only like four or five weeks, I was finally ready to start my assembly process. I used a combination of a few screws and some wood glue to hold everything together.

It was so exciting to see everything start to take shape! I stained the red step before assembly because I figured it would keep me from having to tape as much when I painted later. Then I ended up sanding it more and re-coating it anyway.

Adding hinges

This was the first time I’d ever put hinges on anything, so I practiced on a couple of scrap pieces. I was quite proud of my hinged scrap pieces, even thought they did nothing but open and close.

Then I got to put the hinges on the real thing. I put them on before painting to make sure that I had the spaces for them properly routed out and then took them back off before painting.

Painting the step stool/table

I’ve refinished some other furniture and the painting step is nerve-wracking to me. I don’t really make plans ahead of time. My visual imagination sucks and I can’t imagine how certain colors would turn out. I just start painting and pray for the best.

For this project, I used some colored stains that I’ve used on other projects like the coffee table I refinished. I love these stains because they’re easy to apply, they come in several cool colors and it maintains the character of the wood. Then I just put some clear coats on top.

Finishing touches

Finally it was ready for assembly. I put the hinges back on and added some clasps that lock it into position. I had routed out little indentations in the bottom legs to put in felt pieces so that it would slide easily and quietly on the floor and I cut out stick-on felt pieces. Suddenly, I was all done!

There is also a removable safety bar to keep a young child from falling off. When it’s not in use, there’s even a place to stash it under the seat. I made it so it would come off without any tools, but it’s still a tight fit. B took off the safety bar within the first 2 minutes of standing on the stool.

Final product!!

I can already tell B is going to love it. He really seems to enjoy being able to see what’s going on. Oddly, he hasn’t yet figured out climbing up and down on it, but I’m sure that won’t take him long. He climbs all over everything else.

Final thoughts

In some ways, this project was super over-engineered. It’s probably strong enough to support the weight of 20 toddlers. On the plus side, it can double as a step stool for me when I need to get in our tall cupboards. I was super perfectionist about all of the details, but since it was my first time with a lot of the tools and techniques, a few things still came out a little funny.

When I told S it was taking too long, he told me I was doing too much to it. Which was why at the very end, I quit after two clear coats instead of going for like six.

The last thing I did was to put on the clasps and while trying to put in one of the screws, I gouged the wood with the drill. Gah! Probably no one will ever notice the spot but me. I did put a little green stain on it to help make it blend in.

Overall, I’m psyched with how my kid’s step stool turned out

I’m proud of how it turned out and I’m really happy with the things I learned doing it. I feel like there are so many things that I see how to make now that I would have had no idea how to approach before I started this. The scroll saw and the router are my new favoritest tools.

I love making things. I love learning how to do things. It just makes the world open up. And also, did I mention the bunnies?

Update

Now that I’ve seen toddler B use this step stool for a while, I am so glad that I made it for him. He’s so much more involved when I’m doing things in the kitchen. I like knowing that he is learning about what is going on.

It did take him a little while to learn how to climb down off of it. We had to show him how to climb down backwards. Now he’s a total champ at it. And this helped him to learn how to climb down the steps on his playground.

He also recently learned he can push his stool around. This is the sort of thing that is amazing and scary to see as a parent. I have to be much more careful about what I leave out on the counters.

P.S. I hope to start making these to sell at some point so if you’re interested in one, let me know.

The post Making a kid’s step stool/table- with pictures, lots and lots of pictures! appeared first on Live Hoppy.

So when making pinhole cameras was mentioned at the recent photography class I took at Quelab, oatmeal came to mind. As it turned out, the cameras we made were a tad bit more elaborate (and also much, much cooler).

I got a kit made by Ethan of Cameradactyl (who also happens to be a Quelab member and was one of the teachers for the class). The kit included wood pieces cut on the laser cutter and a few 3-D printed plastic pieces.

This is not the first camera Ethan has designed and the attention to detail was clear. All of the pieces fit together perfectly. The first step was using wood glue to stick all of the wood pieces together.

We went in the darkroom to slurp up more knowledge from Ethan on making prints while the glue dried. Then we returned to our projects to spray paint the inside black. The black cuts down on the light that reflects around inside the camera and also serves to seal off the joints where the wood pieces meet so no extra light seeps in.

Then I sanded it all down. The final step was adding a plastic knob to advance the film, a viewfinder, the shutter and what else but the pinhole itself!

Ethan showed me how to load the film and I snapped a picture so I wouldn’t forget. For real use, a second film canister goes in the other side and the film is started in it. Then when the film is advanced, it goes from one canister to the next.

The entire design is super slick while also being elegant and simple. It was so much fun to put together and I love the way the end result looks. I can’t wait to try it out.

The post Making my own pinhole camera appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I do take a lot of pictures of B, but some days slip by and he changes so fast. I also want to challenge myself to find other things to take pictures of and to develop my skills as a photographer.

Ironically, I have been unable to get my new camera to work recently, but I’m hoping that it is just having trouble charging the battery and that an external battery charger will solve the problem. In the mean time, I’ll just use my phone.

I’m sure I won’t post my pictures from every day, but I’d like to share some of them. I’ll start by sharing the ones from the last two days.

We have had so much snow in the last week. Yesterday I dug out a path to the compost bin and then since it was the only clear path, it was the obvious place to take B. So here are S and B posing in the snow by the compost bin. This must seem like a lot of snow to B.

Here’s another canvas print that I made a frame for. This picture is from the trails a few miles from our house.

Today I paid somebody to plow our driveway since it’s really long and there was no way I was going to be able to get my car out otherwise. The plow got down to the ground in some places. B was unimpressed when I took him out into the snow today, but was quite happy when I plopped him down in the clear area.

I am sitting in the cold, pokey, slightly wet gravel and holding my hand out so that he can pile cold, pokey, slightly wet gravel in it. I am not sure why, but it was terribly important to him to do that which meant it was terribly important to me to be obliging. Part of my parenting philosophy is that things like this are very, very important.

This is the same path that leads to the compost bin. It snowed another inch or so after I shoveled the path and this morning there were lots of bird prints on the path. I was very amused that the birds had chosen to travel on my path.

The post 2019 – Picture a day challenge appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I didn’t really think over much about the process, but it definitely went in the this is something that I have to pay somebody else to do because I am completely clueless category.

Today, I made my own canvas print all by myself.

It turns out that the word print in canvas print sort of says it all about how the photo gets on the canvas. A roll of canvas is loaded in a big printer and it prints on it pretty much just as if it was paper.

I sort of stumbled upon this discovery. I’m a member of Quelab- a hacker/maker space in Albuquerque and they have a large printer and vinyl cutter. Somebody else had sent an email asking to be trained on them so I asked to join in. I didn’t know what I needed the printer or vinyl cutter for, but figured that if I knew how to use them, I would find something.

At the training, the guy mentioned that they had rolls of canvas to print on. So a few days later, I went in to print out a few experiments.

A quick search online lead to some videos on how to frame a canvas. I had to get S’s help building my first frame, but the second one I put together all on my own. S has this cool thing that I think is called a pocket jig that drills these cool angled holes that worked really well for how I wanted to build my frame.

Attaching the canvas to the frame basically involves a staple gun and a lot of staples. One does have to make sure it’s stretched tight and the corners are a bit of a trick. (Thank you YouTube.)

The first canvas I framed turned out to be a total disappointment. It was a gorgeous picture, I was so proud of my frame… and I screwed up my math by a half inch so the frame was just a little too large and the white edge of the canvas was just barely visible on the edges. It was almost perfect, but not something I could ever hang up in my house. It would drive me nuts to look at it.

I did learn something from mistake. I adjusted my math for my second frame and added in just a little extra leeway.

Today making a canvas print goes in the I will probably never pay somebody to do this for me again category.

I love the fine control I get with doing it myself. I can make my canvases whatever size I want. If the brightness of the print is off, I can adjust it on the spot. I can make overly sturdy wood frames.

I love the feeling of accomplishment and pride in making a thing with care and attention to detail. I love the process of creation. I love having things I’ve made around the house.

(This picture I used for this came from the Pecos Wilderness on a trip you can read about here.)

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These pouches/envelopes are quick and easy if you have a laminator (you could also try using self-sealing laminating pouches if you don’t have a laminator).  They’re a fun project and make a great place to store any mostly flat objects- papers, receipts, etc. 

For this example, I made a pouch to store these cool snow people I have.  (I also recently laminated the snow people so that they will be protected and last a long time.  They’re made out of a thin cardboard and the laminator didn’t do a great job sealing all the funny edges so I then had to carefully trim them all the way around to make them look better.  Note to self: thicker things with funny edges don’t laminate well.  This may also be related to having about the cheapest laminator money can buy.)

Check out my other laminated project ideas!

As with many discoveries, this one was something of an accident.  Once I saw the potential, the accident didn’t seem like such an accident after all. 

To start out with you will want a laminator or self-sealing laminating pouches.  The self-sealing pouches are fairly expensive compared to the pouches for use with a thermal laminator and you can pick up a decent thermal laminator on Amazon for $20-$30. 

The self-sealing pouches really only stick on one side, so you’d want to modify the instructions to just use one sheet of paper instead of two and then one side of the envelope would still be see-through.  This might even be a nice effect depending on what you’re looking for. 

You want to start with two sheets of paper which you can decorate however you want.  The red thing in the picture is a MyStik that I picked up at a scrapbooking store.  It basically applies double-sided tape and I used it to stick down my snowman so he wouldn’t move around before being laminated.  It’s totally not a necessary tool for this, but I’ve found it to be handy for a lot of my little craft projects. 

The two sheets of paper go back to back into a laminator pouch and through the laminator.  You’ll want to line the pieces of paper up as closely as you can.

Then the very top edge gets cut off.  A paper cutter is the perfect tool for this, but of course is not necessary. 

All done. 

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After I first got it, I spray painted the center piece, which provided suitable decor for my late teens and early twenties.  At some point, part of it also got covered with glow-in-the-dark spray paint that was invisible during the day, but provided a faint glow at night and allowed one to ‘draw’ on it with a laser.  This was a very amusing thing to do for the first ten minutes.

Then one day, the coffee table no longer seemed to fit ‘me’.

So I started a project to paint it a second time.  This time around I sanded the entire thing and completely redid it.  I wanted something artsy and colorful, but in a mature sort of way.  I wanted a timeless effect that would still fit ‘me’ in another fifteen years.  (Of course, only time will tell how I did at that.) 

I am thrilled with how it came out.  It adds a focal spot of visual interest to the living room without being too loud.  The legs are black while the rest of the frame is brown which provides just a little bit of extra contrast without distracting from the center design. 

And I left the original spray paint design on the underside completely untouched.  I just love knowing that is secretly there where nobody will see it. 

The process:

1. Sand it down
2. Tighten all screws
3. Add a support on the bottom (not visible in pictures) to make it less rickety
4. I used several different colors of Minwax Express Wiping Stain and Finish (affiliate link).  I’ve used this same stuff in multiple projects and just love it.  I just wipe it on with blue shop towels.  There are several different colors from those that provide natural wood looks to cool colors.  It tints the wood, but doesn’t cover it up so you can still see grain and other features of the wood which creates a really cool effect. 
5. Three coats of semi-gloss polyurethane.  Three coats may have been a bit of overkill, but I wanted my work to last a long, long time. 
   

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A couple of days ago S came home from the store with a bird feeder and the declaration that he was going to make a bird house.  It sounded like so much fun, I decided that I needed to make a bird house too. 

So yesterday we buckled B into his stroller and headed out to our shop for a bit of construction.  The previous owners left a little bit of scrap wood here and there which has been amazing to have around.  We scavenged through the scrap wood and picked out our pieces. 

Mostly we just started measuring, marking and cutting.  And then sometimes re-cutting when we realized that we hadn’t entirely thought through our plans. 

S recently bought a new circular saw for our shop and this was my first time using it.  It’s definitely a tool that makes me just a little bit nervous, but it makes cutting wood so easy.  I feel like learning how to use a new tool always opens up so many new options.  I don’t consider myself terribly handy, but I like tools.

Once I had all of my pieces cut out, I sanded them down.  Then I learned how to use S’s nail gun to put them all together.  It also feels a bit like a dangerous tool, but made quick work of the task. 

I screwed the roof on because I had read that it’s good to leave a way to access the inside of the birdhouse so that one can clean it out between residents.  I also drilled holes in the bottom so that water won’t collect in there.  My reading online suggested oiling the wood so I finished it off with a coat of the oil I use on my cutting boards.  I have no idea if that was the right choice of oil or not, but I think it will be ok. 

I am ridiculously proud of my bird house.  S did help me a little in figuring out the saw and nail gun, but I pretty much built it all by myself.  There is something about building things that is just such a great feeling. 

It was interesting to see how S and I’s bird houses each turned out so differently given that the wood pieces we started with were basically the same.  I love the peaked roof on his. 

I already have some new ideas on what I’m going to build next.  I am so psyched about knowing how to use the circular saw and the nail gun.  They open up so many options. 

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