Seats for the weekend!

I carved up the last few seats we could find tonight. This might be one of the last posts for carved seats until we find a wholesale seat account. There just are no more solid wood seats out there. So this might be the beginning of a career change for the midnight carver. I don't know what else I will do, but it will not be the first time I changed occupations. Let me list the things I was to become.... Teacher, cook, taxidermist, fisheries biologist, truck driver, soldier, and now woodcarver! Quite the little resume' eh? But i still have not been able to make a "comfortable" living at any of them. ( Or I just get bored of the job) So we will have to see how it all pans out. I know I was in the same boat last year at the same time. Somehow we made it to the point, but we are still in the same leaky boat. Time to shake things up! Oh! I posted a new panel on Etsy. Who knows? Maybe it will sell!

The end of a slow week

Have you ever just wanted a week to end? Well, this week has been very slow, sales wise, and there comes a time when it starts to get annoying. Well, enough complaining! I carved up 4 seats tonight. I have several more panels I will work on tomorrow. For the rest of the time, more Origami! Another swan and Pegasus. I really love the way the wet folding turns out. How the sculpture keeps its shape. Each of these are folded slightly different from previous attempts. The changes are subtle and probably remain unnoticed to the untrained eye. Every time I fold one of these, I experiment a little more to see what I can do. I will work on my elephant again. It did not turn out very well for this first attempt. Maybe in tomorrows post!

What a wonderful customer! Happy Anniversary Cheryl and Eth!

First of all, today was our anniversary, ( July 20th, 13 years!) And to kick it off, a dissatisfied customer sent back his seat. And to make it all really wonderful....It was totally destroyed in shipping because they just threw it back in the box and sent it. Nice! Then! He sent a snarly comment that we did not inform him of our return policy ...are you ready? Get this. ON THE VERY EMAIL PRINT OUT MY WIFE SENT HIM WITH THE POLICY ON IT! Well, we were not going to let that ruin our day, so we just want that sale behind us. The rest of the day we spent as usual, but decided to finish off and paint the outdoor furniture. So far it's looking pretty good. It was unfortunate that we could not sit in them and enjoy the cool night air while they were drying. Second coat comes tomorrow! Will take daylight pictures then. Have a good one!

Sunset For the middle of the week.

Mark three more seats off the list! Only 4 more to go and I'll be all caught up! The sunset was quite stunning tonight, with the actual sun making an appearance for a change! Only a couple more days before the solstice. It rained most of yesterday and all of today until the final few hours. Hope everyone Else's week is going by splendidly. Oh! I found a picture of a lovely carving I want to try to make on my next tree. I'll have to see how it goes. My goal is to make a ship figure head similar to this one out of laminated pine. All I need is money.....$$$

Tuesday seats

Carved up three seats tonight. It's one of those accounting situations that would make Wall Street proud but Government Angry. That is to say you see...We paid our HUGE Ebay bill so we are now all caught up. The Catch? We are broke at the moment. ( well not totally, but awfully close)We have neither the money to buy the seats we sold nor ship them out! So we have to sell seats so we can buy and ship the previous batch. So for tonight, we got enough money to buy three of the nine that need to go out. Great huh? All we need is five more and everything will be good, fine, great and you will never have known. But don't let that distract you.. the main thing to take note is that the HUGE Ebay bill is paid off and that was nothing short of a MIRACLE! (This is not shortchanging the water to wine, feeding 5000, or walking on water. As far as miracles go, this may be a minor one to anyone else, but a major one to us!) I took some pictures of the Wood Nymph that I was working on last night in the daylight. She still has a ways to go with her hair and wings. But a picture of the progress is always nice.

Where did the week go?

For some reason, I'm missing a day. I was convinced that yesterday was Tuesday. Which doesn't make much sense. So I am missing a day but that puts the weekend that much closer. It's funny how a week full of carving flies by! Anyway, I carved up only 4 seats tonight because our stores have not replenished their supplies yet. We already have a rather large order starting for the weekend, so I'm hoping they get some seats back in soon. In the mean time, Cheryl found some old carving pictures that we took a while ago for our old website. They were with the old camera so they are not the highest quality. Anyway, enjoy! Someday, I'll have to post the story behind the moose antlers. A tease, I got them while on a super secret mission in the Army in Alaska. Super secret location. Are you impressed yet? Wanna know more?

Glory hallelujah! 5 sales!

We sold five seats today! Yeeah! So that is all I did for the most part. I'm hoping that the sales slump is over. Or at least the sales will Begin to climb. Or just continue at this rate. IT was getting a little scary there for a few. Then again, this always happens at this time of year. Hope you are having a great week. As for us...We'll continue to pray for more sales and make make everyone's bathroom a brighter place.

Another Flat tire! And I'm an idiot!

Well, how can you make a wonderful Saturday end up cold, dark and gloomy? Well, Go out after 10 pm with only 4 tires and no spare. Easy! Yep, That's right, We got a flat tire and our spare is still messed up from last time. Now a wise man would have fixed the spare when they fixed the last flat. Or better yet, they would have gotten all new tires and replaced the old ones. Ah, But I'm not wise you see. And how often does a tire go flat? Well, long story short, We must have run over something and the tire went flat before we got to the store. After failing to re inflate it with our emergency compressor, We drove home and totally ruined the flat tire now beyond comprehension. FUBAR! My only consolation is that I now know that adults are just as dumb as teenagers. because I have not gotten any smarter in my old age! At least Cheryl talked me into driving it home instead of walking in the dark , in the rain, and approx, 8 miles. Now we must figure out a way to fix a shredded tire on a Sunday with no spare or money in the bank! Yeah! Oh, and I did manage to carve tonight. After all that, I still have to make the Doughnuts. Hope your weekend is better than mine!

Another day, another carving

Well, I finally finished painting the cat furniture. I now have to add the scratchers and carpet tot he shelves. Cheryl has pointed out the crappy job I did of painting it, but showing me all the missed spots that she can see from below. ( Must be nice being that short!) Anyway, I'm done painting. She can touch it up at her leisure. I carved up 5 seats tonight. I was surprised to carve up the zebra! I have sold it only one other time. Maybe African or safari themes are coming back. What a differance a little color makes! I decided to add a little origami to the post tonight. It has been a while and I have been exploring the "insect" theme once again. I am quite happy with my ant. I took an existing pattern and added a couple of my own folds to it to give it a better shape. I still might work on that one some more. I still have trouble with the dragonfly, but I think I have the various beetles down. Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Sunday night carving

It was a busy weekend for me. I finished the cat pole, but it took longer than I thought. It still needs to be painted and have the carpet cut for each level. you can see the "old" cat pole beside it. ( it's getting kinda ragged looking) I was going for a contemporary look that would match the rest of the display stands I made last week. I also made some adjustments for the CPU to fit on the bottom shelf. so we can have more leg room under the computer desk. I'll add some better pictures after it has a coat of paint on it. As for now...the cats seem to enjoy it just fine. As for seats, I carved up 8 tonight. We are out of boxes, so they will not be shipped out tomorrow. But it is nice to have them done and ready for Tuesday. Red, the shop cat, has discovered that my table saw makes for a great nap stand. Yes, yes, I made sure it is unplugged when not in use. and No I would not dream of scaring my furry little friend.