I had grand ambitions for crafting this weekend: welding! silkscreen printing! and while the heat overcame us and I forgot various necessary components at home we did still manage to eek out a crafty domestic scene in the wine country.

There are three spinning wheels in that photo! You can see my suzie peaking out in the foreground.

And the best entertainment of all were the kittens. Five of them! Unfortunately none of them appear to be named gravy.

The view is pretty neat too.

I had the stomach flu last week. Eyuck.. Anyway in the moments when i wasnt feeling like death I was actually enjoying the view from my bed.

You know those people who live in glass houses? Well that’s us. And it can be damn sunny. Most of the time the sun is really wonderful but occasionally, like when you need to lie in bed all day, its a little too intense.

A while back I tried to fix the direct-sunlight-in-my-eyes-while-lying-in-bed problem by sewing a canopy for the bed. Its a little like if we had a four poster except without the four posts…

I bought 5 yards of fabric on sale at Ikea for $0.50/yd and used the hemming foot on my sewing machine to finish all the edges. Then I sewed “walls” on a few sides of the “ceiling” where the sun can potentially infiltrate the sleeping region. I mounted hooks on the wall above the bed and sewed loops in each corner to make the canopy removable. So far we enjoy it too much to take it down but it is always an option and takes no time. The third corner is tied to a nail on the wall with an adjustable line (truckers hitch anyone?) and the fourth corner is held up by a lamp which is in turn stabilized by the programs from the 2005 and 2004 AGU meetings. Those damn books had to be good for something!

Someday maybe ill make a more permanent corner-holder-upper but for now its doing a great job helping me sleep a little longer…

My dad and I did some playing with glasswork this Christmas. We used his welding torch with a rosebud tip (multiple flame holes) and propane/oxygen flame. We used clear glass tubing and rod to which we added colored glass from rod and frit (ground up colored glass pieces of varying size). Our shapes were far from symmetrical but the process was pretty fun anyway. The glass turns to a honey like material when hot. Our flame wasnt hot enough to heat much more mass of glass so our projects were limited to small items like blown glass bulbs and icicle like items.

This is my dad’s garage and our glasswork set up.

notice the mill and silvertop toyota engine in the background! Not pictured are the band saw, metal lathe and MIG welder. Ahhh tools…

A few more of our creations