Blog Post!

Hi Everyone!

It was a very exciting weekend because Emily came to visit. She brought a lot of tasty Maine shrimp with her, so we made lots of tasty food. On Saturday night, we made paella (delicious), and then we made abelskiver. No raisins, so we used fresh cranberries. They were also delicious. Since I have two pans, we did a side-by-side comparison: we used canola oil in one pan, and butter in the other. The butter was better. (Is anyone surprised by this?) I recommend it for the next time you make some. We did make just 2/5 of a batch, and that was plenty for the three of us, for dessert, bedtime snack, and breakfast.

On Sunday morning, we made shrimp scramble, with a bunch of eggs and veggies and cajun spices. Then, we went cross-country skiing. It was Bryan's second time skiing, and Emily's fourth (?). They both did very well and have way more energy than I do. We all had afternoon naps. For dinner, we made shrimp chowder (delicious again), and some pumpkin bread for dessert.

Emily left after we went to work this morning, so I assume she is safely back in Maine at this point, since she didn't call to say otherwise.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Nothing in Particular

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow.

GO PACK GO!!!!

They better win, I need a new sweatshirt.

I really need to post some pictures of something.

Christmas stuff

Christmas was just odd this year. People kept leaving and coming. It just went by too fast. I have a picture of the basket I made for Deanna as part of her laundry themed gift. She also got a clothespin apron and homemade laundry detergent and powdered soap.

I also made a few sheep by felting roving around styrofoam for the fireplace mantle. Their little legs are cinnamon sticks with black painted on hoofs. I broke 2 felting needles putting on heads and tails. I found it very difficult to make them sleeping as then they tend to look a bit like rabbits. Several have eyes. I added eyes until the girls told me they then looked like cartoon characters. I am trying to raise a flock so look for more next year or changes to the current flock. 

The sheep on the far right has eyes and I think quite a personality.

Andrew's Christmas Present

I now have confirmation that Andrew received the gift I made him for the Worm Christmas Exchange, so I thought I'd take the time to show it to everyone else (since I shipped it straight to Minneapolis).

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This is a new take on a theme you've seen before. It's a crate for carrying six bottles, though this time they're 22 oz. “bomber”-size bottles. I included bottles of home-brewed Milk Chocolate Stout for demonstration purposes. ;)

The components are:

• solid white oak ends and rails


• birch plywood dividers


• hemp rope handle

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One of the big departures from earlier takes on this theme is that there are no nails, screws, or other assembly hardware. All joints are hand-cut mortise and tenon (through-tenons for the side rails, and blind tenons for the bottom rails and dividers), secured by snug-fit and glue (though the dividers are free-floating). Lots of chisel work … I need to re-true my sharpening stone.

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The other experiment was the finish. Instead of leaving it unfinished, or resorting to my usual varnish/sealer, I mixed beeswax and mineral-oil (1:5 by volume). A small amount of heat to dissolve, a small amount of time for it to cool to a paste, and then a small amount of rubbing to spread it on. I'm very happy with the results; it just makes the wood look very healthy, and really pics out the oak grain. Many thanks to Andrew for clueing me in to the fact that old American Woodworker issues are available for free on Google Books, where I found hints for the mixture.

No burned designs this time. I couldn't decide on Andrew's style (and I ran out of time!).

Use it in good health, Andrew. Click any of the see more links for a couple more pictures.

Anyone else planning to post pictures of their work? We're bummed that we missed seeing all of the creativity this year.