People who make stuff know the implications of that seemingly innocent question. We think up something cool to make and we see it ever so clearly in our creative little minds, and then we set out to make that thing. That's when the trouble starts!
Last year I was embroiled in a task that seemed simple enough on the surface, but then POOF! it got complicated. The job was to relocate my garden fairy's home. Miss Mary is nothing if not a tyrant, and the fact that she had Suzy and Scott, my niece and nephew, in her corner was enough to cause a rather uncomfortable case of "diaper rash" for me. I mean, when the kids are involved, you have to deliver, right?
So, dirty pool aside, I decided to make it happen. I mulled the situation all winter, and then in the spring when I was outside cleaning up the dregs of winter's activities, I got a brainstorm. Making Miss Mary's new house was no sweat. It was the location that caused all the trouble. And, as my pal Egon would declare, location, location, location! She was threatening to move out, so yeah, location WAS a big deal for Miss Mary. It turned out to be a very big deal for me, too.
The upshot was a completely renovated Detectives' Garden, minus the noxious weeds, and a place of honor for Miss Mary. So far, so good, right? Yeah, well not so fast, my friends, not so fast. Spring came along and the noxious weeds are back. Sadly, they are in and amongst the plants, so poison - even with my sneaky method - is out of the question. The next issue is that I made the mistake of promising Miss Mary a bocce court. She was very into that, and I had every intention of having it installed before she returned from her winter home in the locker.
Didn't happen. Oops. Worse, when I was tidying up her yard, I realized how tatty her door and windows looked. And, dear me, the purple roof needs another coat of Rust-o-leum. The bocce court would have to wait. The painting began.
The woodsy door and windows are now hydrangea blue with bright yellow trim. The flowers in the purple windowboxes are a riot of hot colors - pinks, orange, red. The purple can of paint has come out and the roof spritzed. And while the paint dried, I made a set of bocce balls from Sculpey III.
Let's talk about balls. Balls should be perfectly spherical so that they roll properly. How hard could it be to make perfect little balls of red and green Sculpey, with one tiny cream colored one? Plenty hard. Even with my OCD propensity for tinkering and fiddling around, I could not get them perfect. I now understand the reason beadmakers invest in those expensive forms! If Miss Mary wants to buy me one, I'll redo the balls, but I'm not forking out for a set!
Okay, now that the balls are made (and there was a lively discussion raging on Facebook that involved one of my feminist hot button issues to while away the baking time), it was time to fill the planter and measure the basswood strips I bought for the bumpers. Uh-oh. Not only was I going to need to cut the stuff for the end pieces, but the length was also going to require trimming. After the required amount of creative profanity was spewed, I messaged my expert on wood - my lawyer. Yeah, Bubba is a handy guy with tools for electronics, wood and what have you. He's made some pretty clever stuff over the years and he has a warped mind, so I knew if I said, hey, how do I cut basswood for a fairy's bocce court, he wouldn't bat an eye. (It helps that he knows about my creative spurts.) And he didn't. Told me what to use. Trouble is, we don't have wood working stuff around here. We have stuff for electricity, water, gas and painting.
There was nothing for it but to ask if he'd make the cuts for me. (He might. We'll see. I'm still waiting for a special shelf for Little Chicago that he promised me, but that's another story.)
So, the bocce court that was to be so simple is a work in progress and with any luck, the last coats of paint on the shutters and windows will dry enough that I'll be able to spray on a clear coat of sealer. Let's just hope that Miss Mary doesn't eyeball that hydrangea blue and start muttering about planting poison ivy when I'm not looking!
Last year I was embroiled in a task that seemed simple enough on the surface, but then POOF! it got complicated. The job was to relocate my garden fairy's home. Miss Mary is nothing if not a tyrant, and the fact that she had Suzy and Scott, my niece and nephew, in her corner was enough to cause a rather uncomfortable case of "diaper rash" for me. I mean, when the kids are involved, you have to deliver, right?
So, dirty pool aside, I decided to make it happen. I mulled the situation all winter, and then in the spring when I was outside cleaning up the dregs of winter's activities, I got a brainstorm. Making Miss Mary's new house was no sweat. It was the location that caused all the trouble. And, as my pal Egon would declare, location, location, location! She was threatening to move out, so yeah, location WAS a big deal for Miss Mary. It turned out to be a very big deal for me, too.
The upshot was a completely renovated Detectives' Garden, minus the noxious weeds, and a place of honor for Miss Mary. So far, so good, right? Yeah, well not so fast, my friends, not so fast. Spring came along and the noxious weeds are back. Sadly, they are in and amongst the plants, so poison - even with my sneaky method - is out of the question. The next issue is that I made the mistake of promising Miss Mary a bocce court. She was very into that, and I had every intention of having it installed before she returned from her winter home in the locker.
Didn't happen. Oops. Worse, when I was tidying up her yard, I realized how tatty her door and windows looked. And, dear me, the purple roof needs another coat of Rust-o-leum. The bocce court would have to wait. The painting began.
The woodsy door and windows are now hydrangea blue with bright yellow trim. The flowers in the purple windowboxes are a riot of hot colors - pinks, orange, red. The purple can of paint has come out and the roof spritzed. And while the paint dried, I made a set of bocce balls from Sculpey III.
Let's talk about balls. Balls should be perfectly spherical so that they roll properly. How hard could it be to make perfect little balls of red and green Sculpey, with one tiny cream colored one? Plenty hard. Even with my OCD propensity for tinkering and fiddling around, I could not get them perfect. I now understand the reason beadmakers invest in those expensive forms! If Miss Mary wants to buy me one, I'll redo the balls, but I'm not forking out for a set!
Okay, now that the balls are made (and there was a lively discussion raging on Facebook that involved one of my feminist hot button issues to while away the baking time), it was time to fill the planter and measure the basswood strips I bought for the bumpers. Uh-oh. Not only was I going to need to cut the stuff for the end pieces, but the length was also going to require trimming. After the required amount of creative profanity was spewed, I messaged my expert on wood - my lawyer. Yeah, Bubba is a handy guy with tools for electronics, wood and what have you. He's made some pretty clever stuff over the years and he has a warped mind, so I knew if I said, hey, how do I cut basswood for a fairy's bocce court, he wouldn't bat an eye. (It helps that he knows about my creative spurts.) And he didn't. Told me what to use. Trouble is, we don't have wood working stuff around here. We have stuff for electricity, water, gas and painting.
There was nothing for it but to ask if he'd make the cuts for me. (He might. We'll see. I'm still waiting for a special shelf for Little Chicago that he promised me, but that's another story.)
So, the bocce court that was to be so simple is a work in progress and with any luck, the last coats of paint on the shutters and windows will dry enough that I'll be able to spray on a clear coat of sealer. Let's just hope that Miss Mary doesn't eyeball that hydrangea blue and start muttering about planting poison ivy when I'm not looking!
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