What Free Trade Has Done to the Marketplace

We channeled 1988 and flagged down the ice cream van for an afternoon snack.

1. Ice cream van/truck merchants are still scary.
2. He tried to stiff us a dollar.
3. It seems the product has really suffered over the past few decades.

Speaking of channeling 1988:

1. The Dow Jones crashes to just over 1911 points.
2. Ronald Reagan asks Congress (and is rejected) for $36m to support Nicaraguan contras.
3. Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs.
4. The Soviets are defeated in Afghanistan.
5. Microsoft releases Windows 2.1.
6. Michael Dukakis.
7. The Ocean Odyssey drilling rig suffers a blowout and fire in the North Sea.

Storms that send us to the closet

These are the hazards of this great state. Storms like these send us to the closet, knock out our power and ruin or roofs.

The power turns up around the 1:15 mark.

The Cubby Upgrade v1.0

Sarah is in full-on decorator mode, which has relegated me to the role of handyman that gets a mere two minute per episode cameo where I teach the awkward husband how to refinish a reclaimed dresser with white paint and walnut stain so he feels useful.

We have this terribly dated (1968, to be exact) built-in that needs some new life. Our really white walls probably need some life, too. We'll save that for another day...

I am too ashamed to post a pic of the cubby with the mirror and glass shelf that once inhabited the space. Yes, unpainted wood paneling is better than reckless mirror placement. Side note: Why were our parents (and there parents) so susceptible to the ad campaigns by the coalition of mirror and popcorn ceiling producers that claimed an increase in space perception and living room acoustics? I'm on a mission to right these wrongs.

I'm putting wood where glass once was. Paint where mirror sat.

So we removed all breakables. We would have painted last night, but a massive storm saw to it that we spent the evening huddled in a cramped closet with flashlights and a battery-powered radio as a tornado that wasn't, then was, then wasn't again moved through our neighborhood.

The wood shelves are cut (and one is pictured; we named him Adam). I got some nice decorative wood trim from our local home improvement store to maintain a little charm.

I'll end the barrage of run-on sentences now.

Pimp my windows, and you can, too!

The shutter job is getting close to completion, and I'm ready to move on. I'd really like to reclaim the work space that 6 shutters, tools and paint are taking up in my shop.

I got everything assembled, caulked and painted before I realized that I can't get any of my brushes into the 0.25 inch expansion gap I left between the planks. If you're trying this at home, I'd recommend painting the pieces before assembly.

Since I'm getting close to finishing this one, I can safely say that I was able to build six shutters for the price of two manufactured ones online (that are identical, no less!).

Pricing materials has begun on my mobile shelving system for my shop, and this excites me greatly.

Cover Me in Reagan Bones

The National released High Violet on May 11th. Prior to this release, I'd never taken the time to listen to the band, though their previous release (Boxer) was well received by critics.

I'd written the band off as a cheap imitation of Interpol. However, after a slew of disappointing releases, I'm convinced that it is Interpol who is the cheap imitation.

It's easy to group these two bands together. They are both somber with similar percussive styles and are fronted by rich baritones. However, The National has layers where Interpol is lacking.

The video above is Bloodbuzz, Ohio. It was recorded last year.

Breakfast of Champions

I haven't had a bagel (or a hot breakfast) in a long time. You can't go wrong with the plain bagel/promise fat-free fake butter/cranberry pomegranate green tea combination. Really, you can't go wrong with the scrambled eggs/bacon/orange juice combination, but who wants to get up an hour early to make that and clean up afterward?

We added strawberries in a hanging basket. It was an idea that we got from the Oklahoma Gardening magazine. It was a basic hanging basket with coconut liner that we cut holes in to poke strawberry plants through. I have my doubts as to whether the plants will live, considering that I'm currently sitting in a monsoon less than 12 hours after planting them.

We also picked up some mint and passion flowers. I'm fairly certain that my gardening reputation killed the passion flowers before we even reached our house. I'm pretty sure you can't kill mint. So far, I've been able to plant hollies, a thundercloud plum tree and a hibiscus that haven't died. That puts any plant I encounter at about a 5% chance of survival.

I can taste the strawberry-mint lemonade already.

A Nod to India

India and sari inspired art is creeping into the American psyche. Perhaps it's just the mandatory two-year gap between current events and American mainstream culture. I guess 2012 Christmas will be dominated by oil-covered penguins.

In honor of our new trend direction. I've paired the almighty Christmas tree with a very Eastern ornamental cap. Something just doesn't feel right about this. I'm pretty sure the Hindu don't celebrate Christmas. There's no time to feel dirty in this business.

Cookies are a sometimes food

The etched type series continues with "C" (which is really for "Christmas").

There's not a whole lot to say about this than that which has been said before. It's a little loose in style. I'm not sure I'm buying the horizontal lines in the body of the letter.

The foliage turned out nice, though. I should do more of that.

Red Viney

This is the newest addition to my textile pattern series that is yet to be named.

This one is pretty dramatic. I'm going to break from the rigid patterns soon in favor of something more organic (and difficult to build out a repeat) to gain some variety in my online offerings. I'm leaning toward more illustrative script, as well.

M is for Merry

I'm working on an etched type design at work. Since everything we do is Christmas related, we tend to do a lot of "H" (happy), "M" (merry) and "C" (Christmas) lettering.

As with just about anything, the more you do the better you get.

I had a personal success last night. I have a new follower on my abandoned Twitter account. I haven't posted anything in about 6 months, so it's a little creepy.

If you're into floral M's, H's and C's, then I'd suggest you stick around.

DIY Shutters

After pricing wood shutters online, I quickly decided to use my fairly average knowledge of wood working to piece together some black cedar shutters for the front of our house. This is a pretty simple project (and cheap, too!).

Our house already has spots where it appears shutters once hung, so it's really just about taking some measurements and making a trip (or two) to the lumber yard.

Six inch cedar fence pickets were a few bucks each. Altogether, I think I ended up needing 12 pickets and 72 wood screws to complete the job. Luckily, these really easily assembled plank-and-batten shutters are in style all over our city. On the scale of DIY projects I've done, I'd put this at or near the bottom in difficulty.

In contrast, my recent decision to replace a few rotten soffits on my house was probably the hardest and least rewarding in my lengthy list of home improvement projects.

The Garden Window

We added exterior lights recently that automatically kick on at dusk. The system has some walkway lights and a few directional lights that can easily turn your trees into creepy horror film trees if you aren't careful.

We got the idea when we saw this really great green antique stained glass window that we could put it in our new flower/herb garden and add a directional light to shine up through it. The picture is of the back of the window. There is some peeling white paint on the front.

A coat of sealant and a directional light, and we'll be in business.