Weekend in the FP

This weekend my dad and brother came to the FP to golf, but there was a tournament in the morning, so we took a drive down a dirt road that we'd never really been down before. We parked when the mud got too fierce and tromped down into the canyon to take a look at the creek. Pretty soon someone found a Huge moth tucked down between some rocks by the water. The moth was dead, but beautiful. I wanted to take it home, but couldn't carry it as I scrambled up the canyon. My dad devised a solution: he took off his hat, set the moth in the hat, and then put it back on his head, careful not to tug it down too far (lest he squash the moth). He kept the moth safe up there for the whole hike, and now the moth "lives" under the leaves of one of our tropical houseplants. It startles me every time I look over, because it takes a few minutes of looking before I realize there is something under the leaves--and then my heart rate increases until I remember that it's just the moth.



I love it's "fur" and it's antenna things with their little spines.



What else we saw on our excursion:







It was as if the FP wanted to show off just a little for our guests.

When we finally went golfing in the late afternoon, The Rock and I made the most of our time. Neither of us is even remotely interested in even pretending to like golf, so we found ways to entertain ourselves. I perfected the art of scooping up golf balls while the golf cart is still rolling (I had three or four balls on the course almost the entire time, and most of them weren't worth hitting a second time, so there were always a few to round up using this method). The Rock insisted on doing doughnuts every so often (slowly, so as not to hurt the grass) and in speeding around my brother's cart.

The Rock, it turns out, has a natural talent for hitting a ball a long ways. Usually not in the right direction, but a Long Ways is worth something in my book--I need at least four swings before I can even make contact with the ball, let alone send it soaring across the course. By the last hole, The Rock volunteered that he had taken fifteen swings on that hole alone. I had lost count, and at some point The Rock had tossed my ball in the general direction of the green so I wasn't sure how many swings that counted for.

Overall, I would say it was quite a delightful first time golfing on a Real Course (my prior attempts were solely in the world of goofy golf (or putt putt as they say in Virginia)) and if someone pays for the golf cart, I'll happily go again.

Mossy Storage Space Tutorial

I have some velcro rollers that I use on a few rare occasions. Because I use them so infrequently I didn't want to use up precious space storing them, so I devised this as their permanent home:





It was surprisingly quick to put it together.
I used cardboard from an picture frame box, Super Moss Brand Instant Green (re-usable moss cloth), masking tape and tacks.


I turned the tin container upside down on the cardboard and traced around the opening at the top--the cardboard needs to fit just inside the tin container, without being so small that it slides to the bottom.



I tested the cardboard on the container, and trimmed off a few places so it fit how I wanted it to.
Then I taped one edge of the cardboard to the container. I left the tape on the outside of the container because no one will see that side, but you could put the tape on the inside if you want to make it look good from all angles.



Then I pulled the cardboard off, and used it to trace the oval pattern onto the moss--the moss cloth is easy to work with--I had no trouble tracing or cutting it out. (aside from little piece of moss getting all over the floor, but that was expected).



Then I cut the moss--I didn't cut close to the line because I wanted to have enough moss to fold under the edge of the cardboard if it would look better that way.

Then I folded some tape, stuck it to the top of the cardboard and pressed the moss cloth into place. I folded under the front edge of the moss and used tacks to hold it in place, stretching it a little to get rid of any bumps in the moss (its fold lines were pretty well creased in place). I ended up cutting off the rest of the moss close to the edge of the cardboard because folding all of the edges under made the lid poke up too much.

The moss is VERY messy--little pieces fall off at every touch, so beware. Also, I've had the mossy container in my bathroom for a month or so now, and I still find little pieces of moss on the floor, but there are fewer and fewer as the days go by (and yet the moss still looks good, no bare patches or anything), so maybe I was just knocking off pieces that were already loose.

I found the tin container at Home Goods--one of my favorite stores for home decorations (especially things from the clearance racks)--and the moss was from Joanns.





--Lu

Utah Extravaganza

Hi. Last week I took a road trip to Utah. All By Myself (The Rock had work, and seriously people, do you really Think he would have liked having a girl party for an Entire Week? Exactly.)

It was a great experiment in whether I could actually drive all that way alone. Turns out, Yes. Yes, I can. And it was cake. I was bored the last two hours of the drive there, but that was my biggest complaint. If I have a decent audiobook to listen to I'm capable of driving long distances--even without cruise control.

It also turns out that I'm pretty scatterbrained these days. Let me describe my attempts to leave Utah:
1. Wake up, pack, get in the car, sit there, ready to go and realize haven't seen phone charger for a few days. Rummage through luggage: no chager.
2. Return to house, search for and find phone charger.
2.5 Pat self on back for being observant AND responsible.
3. Get in car, drive to gas station, gas up and realize have left pillow at house.
4. Return to house, nab the pillow, find favorite water bottle skulking in a corner and rejoice that have noticed it and not left it behind.
5. Get in car feeling good about self and trip and life.
6. Drive 3 hours and stop for gas (Used up most of my gas on the wind alone...or else the first gas station lied when it said my tank was full)
7. Find gas station, but fail to find wallet.
8. Call Moo. She leaves work, goes to house and finds my wallet. In the HOUSE. 3 hours away.
9. Ask Moo to bring it to me as I can't drive back--seeing as I'm almost out of gas and have No Money.
10. Drive 45 minutes back to another little town to wait for Moo.
11. 2.5 hours later, meet up with Moo.
12. Gas up and head for home.
13. A majillion hours later, pull into my garage in the FP and realize I've left my Brand New Flower Vase at Moo's house.
14. Decide not to call Moo and ask her to drive it to me.

I'm becoming Very Experienced at waiting in town's for someone to come and bail me out.

These are the fruits of my wait:







I owe my successful return home to Moo who braved the snowstorm and the wind to come find me. Thanks Moo and thanks Geologist for supporting her (and thanks too for the sweet sharktooth earrings you gave me)!
--Lu

Ending and Beginning

Today I sang at a funeral for a little friend that I grew acquainted with while substituting in the little kids class at church (nursery). He died last week in an accident and...I'm full of sadness. Mostly I'm sad for his parents and for his brother--I'm sad because they miss him very much, and because he was so young, and because it's hard to say goodbye to someone....

I love the restored gospel that makes it possible for families to be together forever (and his will be because they were sealed in the temple), and that death, while difficult for those left behind, is not the end. At stake conference this weekend one of the speakers reminded us that our spirits are eons old. That we should care for and nourish our spirits as much as we care for and nourish our physical bodies. This funeral has hammered that point home even more.

So.
I wanted to send out a tribute to my little friend. I'll miss you buddy.

--Lu

Beans and a Craft Project

Guys. I cooked pinto beans for the first time last week. The results: so easy. I'm such a weenie for avoiding it this long. Lame-o Lu! I'm quite taken with how little effort I put into them and how yummy they tasted. Drawings and Photos too. Check it out.

And, now! craft project!

The apron I told you about--I finished it. And it was very blah so I added a little something.

Before:


After:


(yes, that is my vacuum cleaner modeling the apron in this picture. And so help me! I am through ironing...as you can tell from this picture.)


I drew the leaf/vine design on some tear away embroidery paper (the workers at the Joann's cutting counter helped me pick out the tear away paper). I pinned the paper to the apron, threaded my machine with green thread (which I bought purely because I liked the color. When was the last time you bought something because you liked the color and not because it matched anything?! It was an exhilarating feeling). I used an open toe darning foot and went to town. It was grueling work. Not gonna lie. I enjoyed it for the first 10 minutes and then I plugged on because I wanted to finish--not because it was enjoyable. I'm pleased with the results, though. (and thank you to the Town Library which carries this book (apron pattern inside)--Amy Butler is amazing. I oggle her website every so often and dream of someday finding a pile of cash so I can buy her fabric).

Can I tell you a story about my car cd player now?
It goes like this. My cd player jammed. For months it's been inoperable. That makes for long, long trips to Town. Especially since the radio cuts out every so often and there are long stretches of static only stations (and even one station that is just silence. No static. No music. Silence. Curious isn't it?)

Finally, I went to Best Buy and asked what they could do for my car. I started out with the caveat that I didn't want anything that would make my car deseriable to theives. (Tucson. It'll do that to you.) The guy helped me pick out a low end CD player (which was a reasonable price) and then added all the gear to install it, plus the cost of the labor---the total wasn't nearly so reasonable, but I went through with it with that funny feeling in my gut that happens when I spend much much more than I anticipated.

I drove to the back of the store, met the nice guy who would be installing it and we reviewed what he would do. He asked if I had any external devices that I wanted to hook up to the player (such as an MP3 player). Since an ipod connector was part of the package I said, "No."

Car guy: You sure? You won't need to hook up an MP3 player or anything?
Me: As long as I can hook up my ipod, I'm good.
Car guy: Ok, if that's all you need....
Me: Yep. Just the ipod.
[thought strikes me!]
Me: Oh! Wait! I do have something. I have this little portable cd player. I need to hook that up so I can listen to audio books.
Car guy: [hesitantly] Okaaay...but, um, this IS a cd player. [referencing what he was going to install in my car.]
Me: Yeah, but, I....Oh. Right. Duh. That's why I'm buying it, huh?
Car guy: [politely not laughing] Uh-huh.


Wow. I said that. To another person.

--Lu

NEW BLOG!!!

Guys. I know I've been posting like a maniac the past weeks...and in keeping with that I've started another blog.

lufoodstorage.blogspot.com

I'm jumping up and down in my chair! I'm pretty excited about this New Blog. It's all about food storage--but this is food storage like you've never seen it before. Yeah. Exploding food storage. (no, not really "exploding." I just wrote that because I think it would be cool if there was explosions. Oh! Brilliant idea: we could have Jason Bourne food storage day. That would involve some explosions. Or at least pellet guns). Anyway, I've been buying up some sweet canned goods lately and I'm going to be reviewing them and recipes and places to buy the stuff...

And it's illustrated.
By me. (so you know it's gonna be classy).

There aren't enough exclamation points to convey my excitement.

Tell your friends. And email me (lufoodstorage@gmail.com) if you have info you want to share--you could be a guest author! All guest author's will receive a prize. (Seriously. I will send you a prize. check the new blog if you don't believe me. It says so right there.)

--Lu

Table, Redone

As one of our wedding presents, my parents gave us an oak table and matching chairs. The table and chairs were put into storage because we were barely moved into our apartment and we were in the midst of the hustle and bustle known as Getting Married. Two years later, the table was still sitting in storage. It's not that we didn't like the table or that we didn't want it. Rather, we were really short on space, and our apartment conveniently (or not) came equipped with a table.

Now that we're in a bigger space we thought for sure we'd use the table. But then we opted for a bar in the kitchen--it's a small space and there are only two of us and we both like tall tables. Those factors added up to: a counter top and four screw on legs from Ikea (our current landlords are picky about installing things into the walls, hence the four, instead of two legs). That left the oak wedding table still in storage.

About this time I was scouring the internet and the ikea catalog for ideas for a craft table. In the midst of my scouring it hit me: I owned a very sturdy table already. And so, the table came to live with us in the FP.

Since I was a teenager, I've wanted to repaint furniture--all of those home decorating books at the library sparked the desire and the home improvement shows that have exploded in the past eightish years only added to it. I (with some serious coaxing from The Rock because I wanted to chicken out and just keep it the way it was) decided this table was The One. I researched how to repaint (using YouTube, of course). I stocked up on primer and paint during my many, many trips to Lowe's during our House Painting Extravaganza. And then, after the House Painting Extravaganza had finished, I started on my table.

Here's some pics and my notes on the process:




My dad took the table apart when it was put in storage so that part was already done for me. (I forgot to take a "before" picture of the table as a whole, so you get to see the top only.)

I started by sanding with fine grit sand paper. My can of primer said it could be used on cabinets without sanding--so I figured I didn't really need to sand, but it couldn't hurt to do it anyway. I used a fine grit (120, I think) sanding sponge that I found in the paint section at the hardware store. (it's on the left in the photo above)

After sanding:



Note the watermark on the top--I didn't think it would be a problem, so I just treated it the same as everything else.

Here's a close up view: you can see how the sand paper took off some of the finish, making the surface rougher. (I don't know if I was supposed to sand until the whole table looked like the lighter parts...I didn't though.)


Then I wiped all the dust off the table.

Now comes the primer. I took this picture in part to show you that the primer looked splotchy--that happened when I painted the walls too, but the top coat always seemed to go on without any problem, in spite of the splotchy primer. So I took a gamble and hoped it would be true here too (it is). I used a roller on the top and a brush on the sides.



The sides (underneath the table top) were tricky, but I plugged on in spite of drips. (In this photo I've propped the tabletop on top of the leaf, then covered the leaf with plastic. Later, I rigged a better system: two boxes (full of No. 10 cans--food storage comes in handy!) with a plastic drop cloth on top.

Then I sanded the stand--this is where I was grateful for the bendiness of the sanding sponge. When I finished sanding the stand it looked the same as the table top did. Then primed. I tried using a roller, but failed. So this is all brushwork. Note the brushy strokes.



A word about the table feet (they aren't really legs, are they? And they have claws. I love the claws. Need some for my bathtub too.)...the feet were tricky. I took them off and sanded and primed the stand by itself first. Then I painted the stand. After the stand dried, I sanded the feet and attached them to the stand. I kept them loose so I could pull them away from the stand when I painted close to the stand. I primed the feet and then gave them a coat of paint.

In this photo note how the stand is shiny with paint while the feet are not--they only have primer at this point.



If I could go back in time, I would have checked the paint and primer (on the feet) 15 minutes after I was done painting and mopped up any drips. Since I didn't do that, there are a few now dry drips on the stand. Don't look too closely when you come to visit.

Everything got a second coat of paint. (High Gloss White)

It took forever and three days for the table to mostly dry. I must not have given the lower coats enough drying time. And the table top is still a smidge tacky. I'll let you know if it ever dries.

Painter's remorse thoughts:

If I catch it at the right angle, I can still see the watermark. Go figure. I would have researched how to deal with watermarks.

As for brushes vs. rollers---the roller gave a more even coat of paint, but it also left some texture. The brushes left brush marks, but they applied a smoother coat of paint. (I used both sponge and regular brushes--I think it comes down to personal preference on that one.) In hindsight I don't know that I would have used brushes instead of the roller though. The uneven gloss/brush marks on top would have driven me crazier than the texturized top does.

I don't know if I should have bothered with High Gloss paint. I probably will end up putting on a clear coat anyway so I could have used satin. It would have eliminated any issues with seeing brush strokes from uneaven gloss application. But maybe a clear coat will have that problem in the end anyway. I'll avoid the issue next time by spray painting instead. I've heard spray paint leaves the finished product looking awesome. I'll let you know.

The End.


--Lu