Easter 2013

Easter - the day that says rebirth, Spring, new life!

This year Easter was on the date that was the saddest day of my life.  Don died on March 31st.  I should, and probably will someday, associate his death with a rebirth and new life, but right now it's still a date that makes me sad.

So, I kept myself busy!

I don't have any big projects going now, but I managed to do a couple of things.

Fixed the very first tables I built after Don died!  The tops are just cedar fence posts, cut to fit.  What I learned is that the quality of the cedar Dale provided that I used on the cooler box is so much better than what I used on these tables!  Oh well, the previous cedar fence posts held up for almost 4 years.  Hopefully, these new boards will last that long, too.  What I wondered about was why I was able to stain those new boards after I'd applied a coat of Thompson's water seal.  Wouldn't you think that if the seal causes water to bead up, the stain would
n't have soaked in?  I hope this doesn't keep me awake, night after night, year after year...

Old and new tops, with the light green legs - they worked but aren't very pretty!

With the 2 work tables I have just over 8 feet of surface for serving food and beverages.  And, I have a smaller table just to the left of the BBQ that give me about 2 feet of counter space.

You really can't see it, but I rubbed some of the stain all over those ugly green pieces.  They're still pretty rough looking, but now they look like they're supposed to look that way!

I learned how to use my new keyhole router bit.  The router is the tool that stymies me the most.  There are a gazillion bits you can use for so many different things.  I have several bits that Don used, most of them for trimming laminate counter top material.  And, I do have a couple that I've used to add a nice decorative, finished look to the edge of a board.  I've built a few things that are for hanging from a wall.  If you use some of the typical "hangers" you end up with the item set out from the wall the depth of whatever hanger you use. Then the bottom of the item tilts back to the wall.  For lots of things, this just doesn't matter.  But, if it's a shelf then the shelf won't be level and square to the wall.  Anything you put on the shelf will look like it's tipping.  So, I wanted to experiment with a keyhole slot.  I bought a bit several weeks ago, but just hadn't gotten around to trying it.  The bits are hard to change out - at least for me.  This weekend I just did it.  My first attempts were not very good.  They looked like I'd been doing some heavy drinking!  But, after building a jig I can use to keep the slot straight and the same length, my keyhole slots were looking pretty good! And, they work.

 
I think this bit is a keeper.  I need to plan a day when my son and SILs can spend several hours with me in the garage.  We could brainstorm and "play" with the hand held and table mounted router, and I'm sure we would all learn something - maybe I could put aside my fear of the router (I'm sure the three of them together would give me something else to be frightened of)!

Then I made a few stands for either an IPad or Kindle that can probably be used anywhere, but I made them thinking they would be great for use in the kitchen.  When you're trying out the latest recipe from Pinterest, do you really want flour or oil or whatever ingredients you're using to end up on your device?  NOOOOOOO!  So, stand it right up on this and you can cook or bake or fry or whatever without worrying about ruining your electronic device.  I saw this on a site that I frequent, Shanty-2-Chic.  These 2 gals make a ton of things that are really useful and cute, and usually pretty cheap to make.  They added a small chalkboard area to their stand so I did, too.  Not sure how useful that is, but I suppose if I had kids around I could leave them sweet notes!  Pretty cute, isn't it?

   

But, sssshhhhhhhh, don't tell my kids, I think this is a Christmas gift this year.  I wonder if it will fit in a stocking...

And, wine bottles - have you seen my collection of wine bottles???  Well, it just kept growing and growing and growing and... well, you get the picture (I couldn't bring myself to actually take a picture - way too embarrassing!).  And, you know, you can't take those suckers to a recycling center and get anything for them!  So, before I toss them all I thought I'd see if I could do anything fun with them.  So far, I've discovered that the glass cutter for bottles really doesn't work very well, but with a drill bit for glass you can, fairly successfully, drill a hole in the bottle without cracking it!  Now, if I can find some twinkle lights that I can fit through the little hole in the pretty bottles I just might have something.  But, I'm thinking you need to use battery powered lights, how else can you use them outside on tables??  Am I missing something - I don't have power outlets all over my yard, do you??
Anyway, ta da - a couple of bottles with a hole in them.  I'm just so proud of myself!

  Picture's lost - oh darn!

Anyway, that was my Easter.

I'm fortunate to have such wonderful kids, who while every year on March 31st are trying to figure out how to get through the saddest day of their lives, take the time to share themselves with me.  This year I had breakfast with the docs, flowers and dinner (Carl's Jr, woo hooo!) with camping daughter and granddaughter (they should have been camping, but that's their story to tell!), a glass of wine shared via phone with logger daughter (wine provided by logger daughter via special delivery by her Aunt Mari).

Here's wishing you a blessed Easter season of new life, resurrection, and joy!
Love you!