Poured Concrete Potter, version 1.0

This isn't the best picture but here is a small poured concrete potter we made. We stuck some sort of Japanese tree inside it, at least I think it is Japanese? Now those master gardening classes are looking very useful!

I swear we just put in that grass and it died due to flooding! lol, we need to step up our rain gutters.

Anyways, these are different from the previous concrete potters. First of all, it is one solid piece. Secondly, the sides are angled, which I really like. Thirdly, the mixture is different. I'd researched about people adding Perlite, finely ground styrofoam, and peat moss, among other things, as aggragate to the concrete/cement mix. It is simply a way to make it lighter, as standard concrete is really heavy. We had a look at peat moss at the store and it pretty much seemed like dirt to us. I remember watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe a while back where he was driving a truck that picked up roadkill from the freeways. They'd bring the animals :( to their lot, cover them in sawdust, and voila... several months later they were compost.

So... back to the potters. We added sawdust to the mix. We have tons of it from all the planing we've done. The sawdust absorbed a lot of water which made it a bit difficult to mix, but the finished piece is significantly lighter.

We greased up the forms very well using some VERY old cooking oil (circa 2001, amazing what you find deep in the cupboards) but as you can see it did come out rough in a few places. We are going to try sanding the forms first, which we should have done anyway but hindsight is always 20/20. We do like the rough look but there are 2 places where huge chunks came out. Still, the piece has lasted a couple weeks now and is still curing.

We have another kind of plywood with a backing on it that should make the concrete come out ultra smooth, he calls it glass. I am excited to work on those ones :)

Time to get in the garage and finish off that gardening bench! Have to cut some planks for the bottom, finish the tray, and sand sand sand.

I decided I don't get to share my cat Butters often enough, so maybe from now on I'll end with a nice picture of him.

Approx. 10 days old. We found him when his eyes had just opened, a bit crusty in the left one! He still has that pink toy too :)

<3

A Gardening Bench, in processu

Sometimes I ask myself, *WHY* do you keep posting things before they are done? Well I just get super excited is all, and this thing is about 90% done anyway.

:) It's a gardening table! The bottom is a shelf for whatever, and the top will have a bottom onto it. That's where the soil goes. I remember planting my mom's orchids and we had this tub where we mixed the soil with the bark together. So you pour whatever you want into that big tray, mix it up, then there's this thingamajig that slides across the top of the table. You put the pot there, fill it up, and... ya!

Photos taken with iPhone4

:) It's redwood. He was originally going to nail the bottom in, but I told him we should leave it as planks that sit onto the little railing. That way if it starts getting too muddy you can take em off and hose the whole thing down.

Close-up:

The legs are at 45 degrees. The planks and such are set in with dado cuts. Basically its a saw blade that's extra wide. Actually it was like 5 sawblades stuck together. Well I learned something new!

I'll have the finished one up soon, hopefully today!
:)

Rhinestone headbands @ LA garment district

I've actually had these for a few months now and finally took some pictures. My mom and aunt bought me these. My aunt started digging through the bins when someone started grabbing ENTIRE BINS of headbands. She bought about $3000 worth. My aunt had to grab whatever she could basically.

These were all taken with my iPhone4. Can't believe how much better this camera is than the other! These pics are between 1.5-2 megabytes each. All pics are clickable so that you may relish in the sparkle.

I believe I had this headband in the last post about shopping. Well here it is again, it's still my favorite :)

A white flower one. This has got some felt wrapped around it. Haven't worn it yet so I'm not sure how that'll wear but it's an interesting touch. Some of the rhinestones are AB - aurora borealis. That's the iridescent shine on them. Apparently it's done with a layer of 24k gold but maybe not all the time :)

Blue butterfly. This one is on a little spring, like those old hair clips all the kids were wearing back when I was in Junior High. It's cool but I'm not sure how I feel about it, it makes a funny sound when I'm wearing it. I didn't know it was springy until I opened it from the plastic. It's still cute though :)

White and black butterfly. I never thought that black rhinestones could be so pretty. They remind me of hematite.

White and blue flowers. This one is more symmetrical than the others, and the decorations lie in the center rather than off to one side. Reminds me of a pixie or of the 60s.

Brown and white flower. I haven't been able to wear this one because I've been so lazy to dye my hair red. It's a strange blond/brown/strawberry color and this headband blends right in.

What girl doesn't love rhinestones? I've done some rhinestone work in the past, mainly with my cell phone and some toy cars. I used to buy them at Michael's craft store for like $2.99 for 20. I found a great site that sold 1,440 (a supergross?) for $30. I ended up getting 2 shades of pink and clear. I should bust them out and find something to bling, like some heels!

I find that gluing rhinestones is easy but filling in the little cracks is the problem. Any area that is exposed will cause the rhinestones to
1) oxidize and/or
2) become clogged with dirt and then
3) fall off

These headbands are really sturdy and the metal that the rhinestones are glued into have little holes for the rhinestones to perfectly sit into. As for storage right now I am keeping them in my underwear drawer. Figure it's the softest drawer I have right now so long as I keep them away from the walls.

<3 Next post, earrings! And maybe some more wood stuff... or a nail blog considering how long my nails have gotten. Sheesh...

PS. Is it the LA garment district or LA fashion district? Just wondering!

A preview... part II

We've been working on concrete potters. Rather than poured in place (??) he wanted to try blocks that are stuck together. For transport this would be much easier. This is 2nd try and I think we got it. :)

First attempt was only concrete. Second time we added some lime and cement for more plasticity and adhesion. I think? The first ones were 3 inches thick and these are about 2. Even though they are thinner they came out much stronger. Edges remained in tact for the most part too.

I took these shots with the iPhone4 and WITHOUT contact lenses and I believe a dog present made it into the shot. BOO. You can see the grain of the wood that has been left over.

Inside shot:

So we just have another one to put together, its basically done, and he's going to work on the back, finish up the seat, stick it all together and woo!! Should be done soon :) We've been trying to keep busy, especially with the massive amounts of rain in San Diego, lots of roof and drywall damage from our friends and family. It's nice to be able to get back to house projects.

After that we're going to try some poured in place ones as well as some different finishes like stains, salt, etc. It should be fun!

Til next time...

2 newts 1 frog

Had to snap these quick before they dispersed. Taken with my iPhone4! I love this thing. Except I still had the plastic on it so it was covering the camera lens. Woops :(

They are so cute. I guess it was cold in there :) Time to go to Ross now and hopefully get a case for $5.99 and hopefully my pics will be better!

<3

Mini-Bench for my Mom

With so much scrap wood we thought it would be a nice idea to build something for my mom. She does a lot of gardening in the back and currently uses one of these:

(photo source http://www.ioffer.com/i/little-tikes-blue-table-chair-set-4-chairs-pu-in-il-170989570)

I am referring to the gray chair. Except her's is blue, and the back legs bend in a little and it's really beat up. So it's time to upgrade! She likes to eat sometimes on the coffee table (low) by the television, so knowing her she'll want to use it inside for that instead.

I got to cut out the pieces using this thingy, a Delta ShopMaster. It's a saw of some sort, not a jig saw, or a band one. Well I forgot which kind it is, so let's just call it a thingy.

It wasn't scary like a table saw. At least that one I remember! Anyway the pieces were cut out with sharp angles. We stuck them all together with some clamps and sanded them (I did). Here are the rounded edges:

These are reclaimed redwood, run through a planer (Delta of course), although there are some striations because we hit some nails along the way. You can see them particularly on the face of the first board. Time to get a new blade! Here are all the pieces separated:

The shape is so there is an indent for your butt?! He thought it was a good idea. It *is* very nice to sit on, I never would have guessed that myself. I don't spend much time looking at chair seats. And the finished product:

Ok so I lied. It's not done. Here it is only rubbed down with mineral spirit, to bring out the grain and get rid of excess sawdust, I think? Anyways there is still some more sanding to do, like between the boards. I don't think I'm going to stain it. As you can see there are some lighter pieces in there, turns out there was some cedar in the mix. But I think it'll still look nice with just some ClearCoat on it :)

Jumping ahead of myself and posting before its done! Well I was just excited is all, it's cute! Til later...

:)

PS: Pictures taken with my iPhone 3G this time. I was too lazy to bust out the real camera. But I get my iPhone 4 in a little over a week. Not sure if that's a good thing. Wish we weren't limited to certain brands just cause of our carrier!