Sanded and sewed today !

Current Mood : Energized !

Ginger cares not for sanding nor sewing, just sleeping and sulking !
(Flea bath, she's fairly miffed)

One of the joys of apartment living – no water today. Not really surprised, TownOf has had pipes dug up and torn up since  last Thursday around here. No big deal, I’m sure it’ll be back on by the time this is published. Glad I did dishes last night !

Not sure if I told ya – my ‘big’ birthday present, the unassembled, unpainted podium and three sets of large bleachers from Monster Mini Customs on Etsy arrived last week. I probably didn’t say anything because I just started working on them today. Sanding. Lots and lots of sanding. I’m hoping to sand smooth one set of bleachers a day, then get them all painted this weekend, weather permitting. It took me two hours to get halfway through my first large bleacher set – did the hard parts first. The rest will probably take an hour total. Then I can start on the second set, if my arms hold out ! There’s lots of what Beloved Hubby called ‘saw burn’ to file off almost each piece. The podium I want to stain instead of paint, so I may hold off sanding it ‘til the bleachers project is done.

Finished today’s sanding – one bleacher down, two to go ! – by spacing it out during the day. Took about four hours, off and on. Hopefully my arm won’t ache tomorrow. In between, there’s plenty of time for other pursuits. Was idly flipping through an old doll magazine when my eyes found a scrap of fabric I’d always liked. It was in the craft/scrap bin because I thought it was too ‘busy’ for doll clothes, but what the heck. Plenty there for my next efforts ! Since the magazine was more boring than my ideas, I got up and got cutting.

And guess who bonked herself on the head again ? I couldn’t find a non-pitted place on my old rotary cutting mat/board – I’ve had it as long as I’ve used a rotary cutter (2002 !), so we learned together, and we both bear the scars. Luckily, 99.9% of those were to the board and not me, but believe me when I say I pretty much pitted it, scraped it, and dug deep trenches. It’s been very well used – and in those earliest days, when I actually broke my first rotary cutter from pushing on it too hard, deeply abused. I change my blades a lot more often these days (embarrassed blush). Not much to salvage there…but what about the other side ? It wouldn’t have that cool grid and helpful inch markings, but while it had a few skids and scrapes and stains, the back side was otherwise pristine. Could I use the other side ? Once I scrubbed it up a bit ?

YES ! My Olfa cutter glided like a skater across the green surface, and we were both reacquainted with the simple joy of a smooth, precise cut. I bonked m’self on the head and cut out some more. Oh, so nice. I almost feel sorry for that poor cutting board/mat, it was so close to some easy time in a landfill, but since I’m gonna tear up the backside first, it could have years of cutting ahead of it still. And Hobby Lobby won’t get to see me, clutching a 40% coupon for an item that’s less than ten bucks, full price. But you know it’s a rare day I buy just one thing at a craft store, so it’s for the best I use some of the largesse I have for a while.