Little Tweeks on Beesley's Flag Case

A few weeks ago, I called Trooper Aaron Beesley's wife to see if she needed help getting the flag case set up with Aaron's medals.  She said she had gotten that set up fine, but the flag was too bulky to fit in the case and the door would not stay closed.  I used rare earth magnets to hold the door closed, but that was not doing it.

She also said that all his badges and medals were making the satin covered foam, sag in the case and asked if I could fix that.

My new miracle cure for what ails me is Industrial Strength Velcro.  Put velcro on the back of the foam and on the back inside of the cabinet to help hold up all the medals, pins, etc.

Bought some brass clasps and mounted those on the side of the cabinet to help hold the door closed.

All in all, the cabinet looks really good.

BYU Football

Utah State University  was playing BYU in Provo.  A few months ago, I invited all the kids to go to a football game.  Musingi's came down for the weekend, Jacob went and Louise went with us.  Mariah and her family went to Disneyland that weekend, so they could not come with us.

The kids had a ball.  The band was great.  The crowd the great.  The weather was a bit chilly, but  light coats felt good.  The game....well it was not that exciting.  I had hoped for more scoring and more excitement for the kids, but they had fun.

Slaying dragons!!

I have had a list of projects to get done and luckily I have been able to get alot of them completed.  The arrow above is for a wedding reception for a young woman in our ward.  She wants to be able to mount some small lights on the arrow and use it some how in her reception decoration.  I still need to put the wood through the middle so they have some where to attach the lights, but wanted to make sure the size was what they wanted.  This means 49 inches long.

This is a stand for an iPad.  Scott has a co-worker who's daughter was involved in a car accident several years ago and it has left the daughter bed ridden.  The daughter loves to use the iPad, but it moves around on her table.  Made this out of walnut.  The biggest unknown on this was at what angle she needed the iPod to sit, so the block behind the main board is one of three that I made.  The leading edges on the blocks are cut at three different angles.  The blocks are attached to the base with industrial strength velcro.  As the iPad is put on the stand, it will be held at whatever angle they decide.  The wood is walnut,with hand rubbed Watco Danish Oil.

Last week I finished cutting all the wood for the Relief Society craft meeting.  I cut about 20  of the turkey/sucker holders.  They are in a previous post.  I also cut three of these witches boots for a neighbor.  I really liked the pattern, so I cut enough so we had a pair at all of our grandkids houses.  Musingi's were down this weekend, so we painted witches boots during conference.  Painting with kids is always an adventure, but we had fun. 

Shop Time!!!

Been busy in the shop lately.  I do the missionary plaques for our ward.  I buy the rough cut walnut, make all kinds of saw dust, glue them together, route the edges and then sand the heck out of them.  Once they have alot of oil on them, I take the plaques to an engraving shop and they engrave the map of the country where the missionary is going, as well as their favorite scripture.

We have had four young men in our ward get their missionary callings, so I did a bunch of plaques.  Those are done and ready to go.

The Relief Society is getting ready for their fall craft meeting and asked me to cut some things out of wood.  The turkey's are small, probalby only about 4 or 5 inches across.  They asked for five, I did ten and then found out last night I need to do five more.  Just when you think you are ahead???

Then they asked me to do some witches boots.  I really liked these.  Got the RS ones done and made a bunch for the grand kids.

These could work for witches boots or elf shoes, depending on how they are painted.  Have to get some paint and now I have a project for the grandkids to paint.  They like helping!!

Time in Chicago

My sister Jan's friend Jean has been very sick in Chicago.  I have made a few trips back to Illinois over the past few months to help.

On one of our trips downtown Chicago to the hospital, got a glimpse of Lake Michigan from the 13 floor of the hospital.

Beautiful lake and blue skies.

On another trip, that my sister Pat went with me to help Jan and Jean, we went by the old Masonic Hall.  When we first joined the LDS Church in Illinois, there was only a branch in the northern suburbs.  We met  in a Masonic Hall.

Lots of times when we showed up for church on a Sunday morning, we had to clean up the bingo cards, cigarette butts and beer bottles, to hold church.

The Masonic Hall was located in Libertyville.  We met in this building for a few years until we built our own chapel in Gurnee.  At that time, church members helped with the construction of the building.  There were many YW activites spent at the construction site cleaning up garbage and debris from the construction workers.  I remember pouring concrete down the cinder block walls and tamping the concrete down so the walls would be very strong and durable.

On another trip, I 'll have to get a picture of the chapel in Gurnee.  It's still standing!!!

Anderson's cabinet

Some of our neighbors asked if I could build a cabinet to cover their power boxes for their house and a new generator, they recently put it.  Both boxes are in the kitchen, so I tried to make the cabinet to make their other kitchen cabinets.

The kitchen cabinet doors are raised panel, cathedral doors, out of oak.  This was a first for me.  Learned how to use a set of 3 router bits to do the raised panel doors, then used templates to route the shapes of the panel and rails.

This is the door, without the panels in place yet.

Dry fit on the doors.

The finished product.  Yes!!

Babysitting grandkids

This past weekend, we watched Jacob and Becca's kids while they went out for the evening. 

One of the "activities" we did with Bailey is something my sister Pat found on Pinterest.  She is addicted!!!

I had a glass dish with baking soda in it.  Put food dye and vinega in four different glasses.  Bailey used an eye dropper in the glasses with the food dye and put it in the pan with the baking soda.

When the vinegar/food dye mix hit the baking soda, it would buble up, fizzle and change the color of the baking soda. 

Bailey was fascinated and so intent on doing it right.

She kept all her colors separated and they did not touch for a long time.

Ta da!!  The finished product.  Thanks Pat for sharing the idea.  Bailey loved it!!