Final toilet seat carvings

Tonight I finished up an order for a customer. The toilet seat supply is totally gone now and there will most likely be no more of those. Cheryl and I have been thinking about what it would take to get us back into them, I'm not sure, but the money just isn't' there for the headache that they have become. So we are off to rethink things once again. I still might post a panel here and there from time to time, or maybe a wall hanging. We'll see! I still have to fix up the pics for the bird panel from yesterday. I'll post more later.

Yellow bird on blue cherry blossoms

An older carving that I never quite finished. So tonight I finished painting it and polying. It should be done later tonight and ready to be listed. I put the Bluejays panel on later last night as well. I'm having trouble thinking of what my next carving should be. I have three panels left, but I do want them to sell.

I found out last night that the second part of one of the Animes I was following has been put online! Kaza No Stigma! It's a great series to get into. Here's the opening and you can find the complete series on UberAnime.com Enjoy!

New panel listing!

Hey hey! I found a couple of panels in the garage I had forgotten about! So tonight, I spent time taking new pics of them, polishing them up, and listing them on Etsy. With a little luck, perhaps I can Eek out another sale. In other news, Cheryl and I went to buy some new feathers for the fly tying. Unfortunately, I didn't find any that I liked or could use. I still need new hooks and for that, we will have to go to Orvis. It's like a candy store for fly fishermen. They have just about every feather you can get ( legally) and a large assortment of hooks. Regardless, Cheryl experimented with the ones I tied up last night to see if she could seal them up in resin. With what I had, the flies were a little too big for the mold. We'll see how they turn out.

Tying Flies!

In case you have been following my blog and never read my bio, I used to be a fanatic fly fisherman! I lost most of my sanity when I spent several years in Alaska. Until then, I was just a pan fisherman who switched to flies at dusk. When I say I was a fanatic, I mean that I tied my own flies, had more flies than I could ever fish with, even tied up and finished two of my own fly rods! While in Alaska, I was in the water whenever I was not at the lodge cooking. That said, something happened since then and I am now a shadow of my former self. First: we moved where fly fishing is not really a great idea. ( muddy waters, busy bayous, and BIG water of Lake Michigan. ) I find that I just don't have the drive to get up early in the cold rain to go fishing anymore. Maybe it's age catching up with me. However, I still like to tie flies! Cheryl wanted me to whip some up for her resin jewelry collection. I started out with the best of intentions tonight, however, I discovered that most of my feathers, hair, fur, and yarn has all been thrown out! I still have many of my hooks and some of my "expensive "feathers, But I now realize that I need more if I want to tie up some of the really fancy ones. Until then, I'll try to stick to small easy ones that still have a little flash to catch a customers eye.

Bat house and panels! YEAH!

So tonight was "finish all the projects you started earlier" night. I finished carving in the bat on the bat house and painted it. I may touch up a little bit later with paint, but for now, it should be ready to hang. Or at least have it's picture taken. The other project was a panel requested from a customer to match one of the bass panels. She wanted one that would face the other. This weekend was pretty good for me, I sold the peacock panel and one of my boxes! (YEAH!) I was quite fond of the peacock one and I'm glad it is finally getting a good home.

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!

New and improved Bat House

Tonight I built another bat house, hopefully for sale! I guess my crazy bat personality has been getting around and people are asking about purchasing them from me. Well, Ihave never made bird or bat houses professionally, but this might be a new direction. Well, I actually bought new wood for this project instead of just cutting up old bits of scrap I had lying around. We'll see hot it pans out when the glue is dry and it is painted. I may even add a nice carving detail to spice it up a bit.

Bats and moths welcome

Tonight, one of the bat houses I put up in my neighbors yard has become popular! I'm thrilled that one of the houses that i built is now being used! I'm kinda bummed that the bats have left the store bought one in my yard to set up shop over there. It's all good though as long as they keep eating bugs! There are still a lot more houses to fill up all over our yards. Jeff has a MUCH better camera than I do and took some really great shops of the bats and of one of the Io moths. I am too embarrassed to show off my comparison pictures.

Seat carving catchup!

Finished carving the remaining seats tonight. We are going to have to move quick on that wholesale seat gig, because all the stores seem to be running out of solid wood seats. Well, I might have a few more seats on deck for tomorrow, but for right now, I'm all caught up! yesterday I listed one of my hummingbird cupboard doors, I have not gotten to list the second one, but for now I'm just too tired. As for keeping the anime theme going, Here's the closing of Karau, Phantom memory! I love this song, Moonlight! Enjoy!

Monday seat carving.

Carved up 4 seats tonight, even though only three are going out tomorrow. ( boxes) It's funny, we sold another Zebra seat! We have sold a grand total of 4 over the last 3 years, and two of them within the last week. It's funny how trends work. Cheryl hates paining tree frog seat. Other news for the day, Cheryl's shop was featured on the front page of Etsy today! I had to take a picture and show it off! ( She is the one that makes the cute little felt owls!) Now if only wood carvings were featured...