Tag: pieces of wood

I Got Wood…

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

… for wood burning lol.  What were you thinking?  You dirty birds.

My package from Walnut Hollow came tonight with 4 medium pieces of wood and 2 large pieces of wood.  I also got a book and the numbers and letters as well as some fun shapes to burn with that all screw onto the wood burning tool.

I was going to do my own font for the Spirit board but considering the large wood is a bit smaller than I thought it would be I’m gonna have to use the smaller letters and numbers and since I bought letters and numbers then why not use them right?  Then once I’m done with it then I can just do some other designs on the board.  Although, now I need to make a smaller planchette lol.  I have another piece of wood so no biggy.  I want to make a different one anyway without the hole inside with just a pattern on the top of it.

Anyway, I can’t wait to see what I’m going to make.

New Purpose for Stakes

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

Years ago we bought these stakes from the garden section of the local hardware store.  No, we don’t have a vampire problem.  We were putting grass seeds on the grass to grow new grass and to prevents people from walking all over the new grass we put the stakes in the ground and used this green tape on the stakes.  Although, that didn’t do much good, people broke the green tape and walked on our lawn anyway.

We still have all these stakes though and don’t really know what to do with them so they just sit on the patio collecting dust.  I just got an idea today…

I’m going to take the sander and sand the sides of them then use those zig zag type of metal nail things that you hammer into 1 piece of wood on the side then you hammer another piece of wood onto the other side of the zig zag nail to join the 2 pieces of wood.  I’m going to put some wood glue in there and attach maybe 5 of the stakes together then press them tight and let the pieces dry.  I’m going to do this with several of the stakes so I have more than just 1 or a few pieces.  I’m going to keep 1 stake for every board that I make so I can use them to stake the board into the ground.

Why would I need to stake boards into the ground?  Because I’m thinking that maybe I can use these boards for wood burning projects.  I can wood burn patterns for gardens as gifts for Christmas.  I think it will be neat.  I could burn maybe a picture of fairies sitting on or flying around mushrooms or maybe some gnomes or something lol.  I think it’s a neat idea and it gives me free wood to burn on since we already have the wood lol.

My Spirit Board

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I’ve been wanting to make a spirit board for a very long time.  I don’t want to buy one because I want it to be personal, something that I made.  Perhaps when I die I might be attached to it some how lol.

I just haven’t had the money to go out and buy all the stuff for it.  A friend of mine, Alyce, bought me the wood burning kit which I am totally grateful to her for because it’s a $30 kit and even though I can afford to buy that I just would’ve never been able to because there is always something that is going to take precedence over a hobby.

All I need now is to buy the piece of wood to burn the letters and numbers.  I’ve mainly been waiting all this time because I wanted to practice wood burning to make sure I’m good at it before I even try to attempt it for fear of screwing it up.

So when Alyce first sent me the wood burning kit we went to Wal-Mart looking for cheap wood to burn on and I found these little pieces of wood in the craft/hobby section for .99¢ but the wood is so difficult to burn on so I just figured that since it’s so cheap I will do my best to try but no guarantees on it.  Well one of the pieces I ended up using to cut the Planchette with yesterday and I burned the Charmed triquatra on it.

my-planchette

It’s not perfect by any means but it’s mine.  Of course I’m going to stain it a little and put lacquer on it to keep it clean.  Then I’ve got to put the bottom pieces on it to make it slide easily on the board.  Here is what the board is going to look like:

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I like this wood, I like that it has the bark on it and I think it’s about $20 or $30 at Michael’s.  I don’t remember.  Of course I want a very big piece.  I think the piece that is probably the better size because it is paper size is about $15 or $20.  I want it to be bigger than paper to give the planchette a lot of room to work with.  Also I don’t want the letters/numbers to take up the whole board because eventually I’m going to add a pattern around the whole thing to give it character.

Ok I know what people are going to say about spirit boards.  They are dangerous and they open up a portal that you cannot close blah blah blah exorcist yadda yadda yadda.  Whatever.  I don’t believe in all that.  Personally I don’t think this is going to work with just 1 person anyway and I can’t ask Darrin because he doesn’t believe in the spirit world.  He is taught as a born again that the only spirit he is supposed to acknowledge is the “holy spirit” despite the fact that he has had an encounter with a ghost cat in my bedroom.  He knows they exist but he’s not allowed to acknowledge that because of his religious beliefs.

Well, I don’t go to church, I don’t believe in organized religion.  I don’t believe that if “God” does exist that he would want us to sink all of our money into a church to worship him/her/it when we can do that at home.  But that’s a debate for another time or never lol.  My point is, I do believe in ghosts and no church is going to tell me that I can’t believe.

Well, in July I’m going to buy the board to make this because I want to.  I’ve already made a commitment to buy some other things like a new seat for my bike which is about $30 – $50.  I’m thinking of just buying the cheap $30 one even though it’s probably hard as a rock but then in August I can buy the sheepskin cover for it.  And I’ve also made a commitment to buy a cigarette kit for Chips cousin for her birthday on July 4th.  It’s the injector for around $5 plus a cartons worth of tubes and a can of tobacco which should only be about $25 total.  So I’m pretty sure that after all that I can still afford to buy this wood to burn on.  Plus I want to buy some other wood burning accessories to go with it all lol.

Of course when I make this I will post the board picture.

Michael’s

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I know the economy is bad and most businesses are suffering greatly because of it.  I’ve gotten a coupon just about every day for the last 2 weeks from Michael’s.  This is a company who I hardly ever get coupons from but maybe 4 times a year.  They are so hard up for business they are practically giving away their merchandise just to keep their stores in business.

I really do have some things that I want to buy but I just can’t afford it.  I want to buy the wood burning kit along with some plain wood boxes and trays and round pieces of wood and rectangle and I would like the grease pencils that you use to color the wood when wood burning.

Wanting however and needing are 2 different things.  I can’t afford so I don’t need.  I want sure but do I need?  No.  I want them so I can learn how to do it so hopefully I can sell some stuff and make some extra money for the household but can I afford to find out if it’s my thing, if it’s not going to turn out to be another craft fad that I won’t be able to figure out and it will sit in the corner?  No.  I can’t afford to take that risk right now.

I think 6 months ago we were there so Darrin could buy some painting stuff and while we were there I bought some drawing stuff that was on clearance but I knew I wouldn’t get that into it so I didn’t buy much.  Needless to say I didn’t get much into it.  But I can see me using that as a tool to sketch out ideas for wood burning.  So who knows, I might not have wasted money on that stuff.  But for now, I did waste money on it because it sits in a drawer.

Sorry Michael’s, your name is my name but that just isn’t enough for me to be able to spend money to keep you afloat.  I really do wish this economy wasn’t in the toilet though because if it wasn’t believe me, I’d be there in a hot second buying stuff.

Oh, with this economy people aren’t going to buy art so buying wood burning stuff to make money isn’t going to work.  People are burning through their savings account to keep from becoming homeless, I highly doubt they are going to buy a wood slab with a picture of a horse or a dog on it.  And the people who still have their jobs are probably having to save all that they can just in case they lose their job.  Or their spouse is out of work so they are scraping by to make up for the loss of their wife or husband.

Broken Rocker

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, WeightLeave a comment

Well it finally happened.  I broke a chair.  Actually it has happened before.  It’s an old chair so leave me alone lol.  This chair that was in Chips moms room that she’s had for a long time, when she passed away we put it in the living room.  It’s not a rocking chair, it’s a regular chair that rocks.  A rocking chair would be all wood, this has fabric and springs etc.

What makes the chair rock are these 2 giant springs that are attached to 2 pieces of wood at the bottom of the chair and the springs are also attached to the chair.  Well, a year ago the springs broke where it’s welded, 1 spring broke and we asked our neighbor Dan who worked in a shop if he would re-weld it for us because that’s what he does.  So he did and then the other spring broke in the same way and so he fixed that too.  Well, it didn’t take long before one of them broke again but we never had him fix it a 2nd time.  The other spring just broke at the weld again so we’re retiring that chair lol.

I’m just too heavy to be able to sit in an old chair and rock it.  If it were a new(ish) chair like a recliner chair then I’m sure it would be a lot better.  This one made so many noises when I would rock in it, like squeaking sounds, you know because the springs needed oil or something.  I’ve sprayed WD-40 on them and they didn’t stop squeaking.  But I’ve sat in recliner chairs at the furniture stores and they never squeaked.

I would love to get a new chair but I just can’t afford it, even a used one.  So, I moved the rocking chair and put a regular chair in its place so now no more rocking hehe.  Oh well.

Pez Dispensers

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

This Christmas I was given 3 new Pez dispensers to add to my growing collection.

I actually started this collection in 1999 when Star Wars Episode 1 came into theaters and the stores started selling the Star Wars Pez dispensers.  I decided to buy each individual Pez dispenser which were just under $1 I think.  I can’t recall.  But when we got home I didn’t have any place to put them so I placed them side by side on a very large mirror which was on the wall where my desk was so as I sat at the computer I’d be looking at Pez dispensers.

I told a few people about them and next thing you know people are sending them to me in the mail and when I visit people they are giving me these Pez dispensers.  I never asked for them but I won’t refuse it either lol.

All of a sudden I had a huge amount of these little things that I went to the hardware store to buy wood to make a shelf and found these really thin and small pieces of wood so I got a bunch and some little nails and built me a shelf.  When we moved to Bakersfield in 2000 I put the shelf up in the kitchen right next to my desk and at first there were maybe 20 Pez dispensers but now there are 104 Pez dispensers on the shelf in my bedroom.

I have 5 Pez dispensers that are in their original packaging (although the packaging is getting too old and is tearing) because they have no feet which means they are valuable.  And I have the 3 newer ones still in their tin which I will never take them out of because again, it gives them value.  When I think about it I should have never taken any of them out of their package but that’s ok, what’s done is done.

Here is a picture of all the Pez dispensers on the shelf as well as the new ones in their tin.  Click the image below for full size.

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