worked on the disaster of a cabinet yesterday, Prying off the
doors and gluing up new ones. They still are not as square as I had hoped! Even Cheryl had a hard time drawing on the pattern. ( HA!) Well the doors are now glued on and Cheryl painted them. I'm carving three seats tonight. I'll post again when they are done being painted.
! sold seven seats today and 
only had to carve up 6! ( one was already carved up and ready to go!) The Tree frogs have been very popular lately and they are a favorite of Cheryl ( sarcasm) to paint. She just LOVES to paint the tree frogs! ( More sarcasm) Seriously, the tree frogs are a challenge because there is a lot of detail work and she refuses to leave them to me to paint. ( You see, I'm a slob. And I slather paint all over the edges.) Cheryl is a single- color- stay- in- the- lines kind of painter. I'm a blender ( not the daiquiri kind) I like shading. Monday was a day of disaster! I worked on finishing the cabinet for Cheryl and had everything carefully planned. It was working out fine, until I assembled the doors! Now before I go into the disaster part, I want to say that I was focused on the "sliding" part 
of the doors making sure they did not bind up and slid smoothly.
It was great! I sanded and waxed the rails and "dry fit" the doors several times to make sure they were silky smooth and slid like air....( pats self on back) then I put the second one in and ...the patterns did not match! Cheryl was wonderful enough to 
point them out to me and was also thoughtful and caring 
to remind me over and over that I spent all day carefully cutting and gluing up the doors only to have them look bad. And it was a fatal flaw. It was the second time I seriously considered throwing the cabinet out on the burn pile! I don't have a picture of the two doors, it was too embarassing, 
Let's just say it looked like someone dropped a puzzle. So tomorrow I will be working on day 4 of the Cabinet. Hopefully with better results. As for Cheryl, She is too cute to make me angry. And after the Ethan " hammer and chisel "time we both had a good Chuckle over the mess.
total of 7 seats tonight! YEAH! 
And now for the bad news, First, We were shocked and appalled when we found out that the store that supplies our seats raised their prices $2! The closest store raised it $3! ( can you say goodbye to profits!) Well, not goodbye,,,,but it will 
cut in to them. We took almost all year to finally raise our price to where we were getting into the black. Now we will have to gradually creep the price 
up once again. The second bad news is that I broke my Guenevere. That is the hand sanding unit that fits onto a bench grinder. I use it to remove old finish and sand small boxes and carvings. It works great because it is gentle on the carving. Well, that's $70 gone! I was 
wobbling ever since I first got it and I guess it just finally broke cleanly off. I have rigged up my WeCheer as a
substitute for the moment. The cats have finally warmed up to the new cat furniture. ( Ethan 3, Cheryl Zero!) Cheryl has been threatening to move the new pole out into the garage or outside and bring back the old ragged one. It was finally sealed when I got Cheryl's cat to join the crowd! As for Red, who has been most supportive, He still remains my shop cat and sleeps on the table saw whenever I'm in my workshop painting. 
think it is called a cabinet. I'm not sure. I know she eventually 
wants to put it in her sewing room and have it act as a place to put her sewing stuff including her machine. Anyway, I made some real progress on it tonight. But as of right how, I have to wait for it to get some paint before I can drive on. Cheryl has "volunteered" to paint the doors. ( she is going for a red 
background with a black frame. ) While she has the paint out, 
she offered to paint the rest of it before I assemble and install the doors. Fine by me! So I'm done for the night! While we wait for paint to dry, I have five seats for tomorrow. So I will not be working on it then. So I will sign off and send pictures as they paint drys and we get to the finished assembly.
I dove into another project tonight and only got a small
ways into it. I made the mistake of trying to "improve" a design of Cheryl's so I would not look like the Red Green Handy man special. But in the end, I just should have bought some milk crates and duct taped them together! A word to the wise. Don't let your wife peek in on the half done project. I shouldn't get too grumpy, It was late and I was tired and I needed to rethink a couple of items. I can probably finish it tomorrow. 
Oh! And I got a new Craftsman Shop Vac today. It's identical to the old one. and the best part that I discovered was the the old one is STILL under warranty! We'll see how Sears handles the paperwork. ( Hey! I Did Spring for the extended plan....) I'll let ya know how it goes If I can talk Cheryl into letting me go there on Saturday. Have a great Weekend!
up 5 seats tonight. Like an Idiot, I forgot to pick up an additional seat which would have
made 6. So that makes three seats for the weekend so far. In other great news, My shop vac died tonight half way through my first seat. FUN! I know the 
problem, the brushes have burned out. To its credit, the Craftsman shop vac has been the most dependable I have found. I have had it over a year ( yeah yeah I had the warranty too!) and I run it almost everyday for one to three hours at a time! Most shop vacs i burn up after only a couple of months under that use. So I feel I got my money out of it. But it is always a hassle to have to get it replaced. my wife listens to this song all the time. Figured I'd add it to the post. for all those Full Metal Alchemist fans.
the cat furniture is officially done now. I even 
put the computer on the lower shelves. The cats have not been hanging out on it much yet. But I'm sure that will change. At least red posed with it for a couple of publicity shots. I also worked on the boxes 
( remember those...three weeks ago!)
I cut out the inserts and glued them up. That is pretty much all. Waiting for glue to dry is not fun. So then I worked on a 
few more bugs using the blinzt bird base as my starting point. 
I even took a stab at a hornet/ bee. I should have picked a better color though.
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!
taking a "break" tonight and concentrated 
on painting the Cat pole. It is a bear to get the underside all painted. Usually, Cheryl volunteers for this job. But tonight she is sewing wristlets for her shop. I decided to paint it in my room, which shows off just how small my room is ....
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.
