Days are getting longer. The warmth of the sun brightens our spirits and it seems nature is waking from its long winter’s nap. For many … Read More
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We have “smart” cars, “smart” TVs, “smart” phones – our everyday life objects are more connected than ever, allowing us to go beyond what we … Read More
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I did a thing. And I also don’t know what to do with it now. Tray? Art? Not sure yet.
It started as a surplus of paint sticks to craft with as a goof while watching TV (crafting keeps my hands busy and mindless snacking to a minimum). I didn’t have a plan, and I was betting on it not really panning out. But as it took shape, I realized it could be used for any number of things: put magnets on the back, hang keys from it with little hooks, make it into a sign, and more…
It seems kind of strange to create something and then have too many options for it, but I basically got it finished up to a point, and can’t make a decision on the last step. So, I’m a little curious: what would you do with it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you want to make this… um… thingie, yourself, what you’ll need is a simple list of supplies (some are affiliates, which help support this site at no cost to you, but the FTC says I gotta share that disclosure with ya first):
Because I never expected it to turn into something other than an activity to do while watching TV over the holidays, I didn’t actually have photos of the first few steps (I know, I know… bad blogger!). But it’s probably pretty straightforward just by looking at the pictures I do have (and you can scroll a little further down to step 3 to see the back side).
Step 1 – Gather a heaping pile of 1-gallon paint sticks (you know the kind – the stuff people use for amazing crafts like this). I find that Home Depot is more generous with these than Lowe’s, but that’s just my experience. If you’re like me, you would have gathered them over time from the home improvement store with the intention of doing a completely different (and bigger) project and ran out of steam. Such is the DIY life.
Get bored one night with the desire to make a craft. Maybe you’ve had a beer or two? I don’t know your life. (P.S. Rogue actually sent me a few to “try”… thanks guys!)
Step 2 – Put on safety glasses and sit on your bedroom floor with your supplies, fully aware that you are going to have to clean this up later (but, that’s Sober You’s problem). If you care about it, you might put a sheet or plastic underneath you to prevent stuff from getting into your carpet… because if you wind up sawing paint sticks on the floor, even if you try to be as tidy as possible, you will make a mess.
Step 3 – In my case, I had already cut the ends off of some of the sticks (just to get rid of the handle part) as well as several more at 45-degree angles for the previous project that I abandoned. Since these were unintended leftovers, I just grabbed the wood glue and first made a square frame (sophisticated graphic below for visual help). If you work it so that one end is always the first edge of the next side, it will form a square frame.
Step 4 -To help support the top layer of sticks, add a middle piece to the frame (this one has to be trimmed a little with the miter box before it will fit).
I also added a back piece for extra support for hanging, should I ever decide to hang it.
Since this was the part where I didn’t know if I was making a thing or not, I’ll just show you the back of the frame for reference (which again, sorry… I took pictures once I started to sand and stain in the garage).
Step 5 -Start playing around with placement before gluing, or just begin without a plan; this is not a high-risk project. I wanted lines going at all different angles so just started at a random spot and fanned out from there. To get the right cut, mark things from the back side and cut each piece manually on the miter box. Glue, cut, glue, cut.
Step 3 – Once the whole piece is filled in, reinforce the back with leftover bits that didn’t make the cut on the front (hopefully, this informs why it looks so weird on the back!). Then, fill in any small gaps with stainable wood filler, let dry, and sand.
Pick a stain, any stain. Then seal.
For a finishing touch, I added some leftover mitered trim to the edge. And voilà: a thing that I don’t know what to do with yet.
I took photos of my project blank, not knowing what to do with it next, but because of the extra piece on the back, I can either hang it on the wall or lay it flat on a table (the trim around the edge is even with the piece on the back so that it won’t wobble). I think I’m going to leave it as-is for now. Plus, the staged photos above will work great as my own personal stock/prop photos if I do a giveaway, etc). Here are my thoughts on other future uses so far:
Do you have a different suggestion than my list above? I’d love to hear it!
The post I Made a Thing… Now What? (Paint Stick Project) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.
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Have you ever had a clip from a childhood cartoon stuck in your head? The kind where you can almost make out the context of why this odd little clip of some kind of person (animal?) shouting “It’s WAAAARRRR!” repeatedly is forever burned into your long-term memory, but then you go looking for it on the internet, and realize you have too little information to locate the clip to include in your blog post?
I digress. But anyway, as the title implies: it’s freaking war, folks. Meet the latest little guy in a series of assholes to decide that my house is their new BFF and food source:
What’s happening here: apparently the fixes I paid for last year on my chimney didn’t get fixed enough… or perhaps some was fixed, but other parts were not, leaving the stuff that wasn’t to still suffer from wood rot over the winter. I’m guessing on all of this, because this area is literally over my head and I have to make my best educated guess before I devise a plan of attack.
Well, not actual attack. Because that would be a crime.
Woodpeckers are a federally protected species as a migratory bird (and endangered, though you wouldn’t guess such a thing when they’re waking you up). Last I checked though, chucking a pine cone in their vicinity to get them off my house isn’t lethal (especially since the wind resistance of a pine cone makes them difficult to target accurately), so I’m good there.
Annoyed — because they come back after a little while to start chowing down again — but good.
The most annoying part? The chimney area runs directly behind the wall in my master bedroom… the wall that I put the bed and my headboard against. Meaning that a series of irritated, persistent tap-tap-tapping is how I have been waking up for the last week. Which then makes Charlie bolt upright from her dog bed, and then sometimes start barking thinking it’s the front door, and a general mix of chaos and rage ensues.
It would be funny if I weren’t so tired.
I think it’s a wood rot/insect situation mainly because of the areas they’re going after. It doesn’t seem like a territory thing, and there are plenty of pine trees around for shelter (which are other possible reasons why woodpeckers make all that noise; sometimes, it’s not for food, but I think it is in my case). Every year, I have issues with carpenter bees because the house has wood siding, and you also remember that freaking squirrel, so this is just the latest in a long, long list of dealing with pests and my home.
This is basically the price one pays for having a cedar home. It’s charming, but pests are abundant, and winter isn’t always kind… especially if the previous fix wasn’t done correctly or completely. If I could afford to replace the siding entirely, I would, but I don’t think that’s in the cards anytime soon. So, I keep fixing smaller stuff.
As you can probably guess, this means that this spring, I’m going to embark on a new series of how to deal with woodpeckers. Some folks on my personal Facebook have already advised I try aluminum tape, mylar balloons stapled to the house (house bling! score! not tacky at all!), a sticky substance that’s said to make it really gross for them to attach themselves to (which also sounds gross for me to clean up after), give them suet in a different spot in the back yard to keep them from the house, and of course, figuring out if it really is a bug thing that I have to solve first, and then hope the WP’s go away after the area is treated.
It’s going to be an interesting learning experience to see what works and what doesn’t, but I think I can handle it. I’ve got my war paint ready.
The post It’s WAR! appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.
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