Button cake

Yesterday I went down to our local library for their twice-monthly craft circle. Most of the folks there were knitting or crocheting but one woman was making cakes - for Barbie dolls or for doll houses. As we all sat there talking, I mentioned the doll house I had made (and am still working on) in a previous woodworking class. So the cake lady made me a caramel cake for my doll house. What a great gift!!

A Pile of Sticks

Monday night was woodworking class again. I got there just before class starting time and only a couple of other folks were there - sitting in their vehicles. The door to the woodworking shop was closed and locked, everything dark. Even though it was a holiday, our instructor had told us we would have class but he hadn't yet appeared. It was cold, very cold and I started hoping that the instructor wouldn't show up and I could head home to some nice hot soup and watch the basketball game. More students arrived. Finally, about 15 minutes late our instructor arrived, let us into the building and we all got working on our projects. Many other students must have assumed that it really was a holiday from class because they did not appear - making it much nicer for those of us who were there as it was easier to get help from the instructor and to get time on the machines.

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My planned task for the night was sawing my wood into equal depths. The width size won't matter and the length will be modified after I've glued the pieces together. I chose 1-inch for the depth of my pieces so when it was my turn, I adjusted the saw and got going. It went smoothly, no problems, but the woman after me had the saw break down on her. Besides the table saw, I also used the miter saw for one of my longer pieces of wood. So - now I've worked on 4 power tools: jointer, planer, table saw, and miter saw. The picture on the upper left shows my result - a pile of sticks!!

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Yesterday I went down to the homeless shelter as I do on Tuesday mornings. It was pretty quiet for the most part. However, I did have to help one of the guys as his resume was showing up in Japanese, really confusing him. This was resolved when he accessed his email through the icon on the screen rather than going through a Tokyo site. Magically, his resume now appeared in English. (Because the guys are not allowed to save anything to the pcs, many of them save them out on their email site so they can get to them easily.)

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We have finally gotten some sunny weather though it is very cold. Our bushes, especially the roses, look quite sad but I expect they'll revive as the days warm up. I am enjoying our longer days - in December it got dark outside by 4:00 PM but now it stays light until 5:00.

A winter day

I've had two woodworking classes so far. Last week we choose wood for our project and then began to get it ready. I spent some time on the jointer so I feel relatively comfortable with that. There was only a little time for the planer and one of the saws so I definitely need more experience with them! It'll probably take me the entire class - 10 sessions - before I really feel comfortable with all the various basic tools. I'm sure I won't get to some of the fancier tools this time around. This picture shows the wood I selected - after it has been through the jointer and the planer. Next class I plan to saw it into usable pieces.

I'm reading Sacred Games, a novel of a policeman in India - 900 pages!! The sheer size of the book is rather overwhelming and the pages have small print but I am really enjoying it. Of course I'm only at about page 100 so I'm hoping it holds up throughout. I haven't read anything of Vikram Chandra before but I am happy to see that he does have other books.

The cold weather lately has inspired me to make soups - lots of soups. We've had lentil, vegetable bean, black bean, and today it's potato corn chowder. Nothing like a nice hot homemade soup on a winter's day!

New projects

Yesterday I attended a craft class at the local library. This one was about the uses for recycled sweaters (easy to find at nearby thrift stores). The instructor gave us plans for three possible projects - a scarf, a business card case, and a toy animal. Most of the class chose the animal but I was the only one making a cat. My classmates made bears though by modifying the ears, you could easily make a dog or a rabbit, too.

I learned how to do the blanket stitch. Since I'm not much of a sewer, that's something I've never done before - something readily apparent if you look closely at the stitches on this little cat.

It was certainly easy enough to do but probably not something I'll be doing again. I already have too many knitting, crocheting, and embroidery projects to take on sewing projects too but I did like that things were being recycled. And old sweaters work fine for this.

My main reason for taking the class was to get to know some more people in the neighborhood, people who enjoy crafts. Most of my classmates were from the neighborhood and there were a number of them that I'd like to know better. A few of us plan to get together at the next craft circle at the library and I'm looking forward to that.

In spite of not wanting to take on another craft, I have signed up for a woodworking class through our local community college. It starts tonight. Will we get to make our own projects? Or will there be something already planned? All the other woodworking classes I've taken (not all that many) were based around a specific item that we were making. If we make our own projects, I have a lot planned - kids' building blocks, a bench for the yard, bird feeders, bird houses, some further work on the doll house I built a couple of years ago, some bases for B.'s mosaic work. My main goal is to become more skilled with tools, especially the saws, so whatever I build will probably help with that. If this class works out as I hope, I may sign up every year just to have use of all the tools and expertise of the instructor.

And on to 2008

Devin at the computer

2007 was a good year for us and we are hoping 2008 will be, too. I've signed up for a couple of classes at the local community college - one on cooking greens and one on woodworking. A few years ago I made a doll house in one of my woodworking classes but it needs some more work. The windows and doors don't fit quite right as the spaces for them need to be slightly enlarged. I'm hoping I can get to this in my class. And maybe make some bird houses, too.

I've never cooked greens and have never eaten cooked greens either unless I ran into them at a restaurant. So, even if I were to cook some, I won't know if I've done it correctly. Last year's classes on tofu & tempeh were both helpful and I'm hoping the greens class will be too.

This year I'm planning to continue my volunteer work down at the shelter but I may also volunteer to do some office work at the Red Cross. Haven't decided yet. I don't want to over-schedule and not have the time I need to work on family history. I'm currently working on a book about our family in the 1940's using letters that had been saved from then.

Took down the Christmas tree yesterday and have that all put away for another year. Seems a little empty without it brightly lit in its spot above the fireplace.

I did make it to some of the after-the-holidays sales and got myself some cards and wrapping paper for next year, much of it at 75% off. Yesterday I stopped at Michael's where they were having a 30% off sale on yarn so I stocked up on yarn for hats and cat blankets. I picked a brand of soft knitting worsted and bought one skein of each color. I'm eager to get started using them but I have a few other projects to finish first. I LOVE starting projects but sometimes its a struggle to finish them off.