The BIG MOVE! Part 2

OK so I started moving stuff out of my shop and cleaning things up a bit. I have to get out so Cheryl can get in. SO....Here are the pics of my dust bomb! Yes the walls are suppose to be kinda off white. Not really the brown that the dust makes them. We had a little challenge moving out my special custom made dust table. It would not fit out the door. SO... Plan B You probably guessed what plan B was. What do you do with the table after Plan B is implemented? That's right! TO THE FIRE! So now Cheryl is in charge of fixing the Swiss cheese walls and touch up painting. It is turning out pretty good at the moment. Cheryl currently is moving small bits of furniture in there so that she can work with the arrangement. Once her stuff is out of the garage, Mine will move into the open space. We'll think of the next step after that. For your Anime pleasure: School Rumble! It is a very funny show! I feel for Harima and think he shodul end up with Eri, the rich girl who hates his guts but is strangly attracted to him. Tenma on the otherhand is just clueless, and unatainable. But that is what he wants. Here's the openning. Enjoy!

The BIG MOVE! "Before" Pics!

Well, this week will be the beginning of a few changes around here. Namely we are retooling our business to match up with the changing times. And to start things off, we will be closing up my old shop and moving my stuff into the garage while we fix the place up for Cheryl's shop. I should say "Cheryl and Ethan's shop" since I will most likely be drafted for unknown manual labor. But bottom line is that the shop seen in the pictures before you, will be changed, so I'm posting the "before" pictures of the progress. I feel pretty good about it surprisingly, since for the past three years I've been doing all of my magic in this tiny little room. We'll see as the week goes by! Oh! And you should have seen it before I got it. Blue shag carpet is not the best for carving! I think Cheryl will find a really good use for the wood floor. Please note: This is a 12' X 12' room. Don't be fooled into believing it is this huge shop! If you remember me carving the bed, you will remember the challenge it was moving that monstrosity around this little room. So I may have to start a new blog to

begin the cataloging of the new shop and how it goes. For the Anime sellection, we have been watching Rah Xephon. A great anime about tuning the world with sound. Enjoy!

Listing the yellow bird!

Just listed the yellow bird on the cherry blossoms. It's true that cherry blossoms are not blue, but I just wanted to be different. Maybe it will match someones living room decor. Kind of a boring post tonight. Ah well, It's the weekend!

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.