Slacking…

Yes. I have been slacking on the uploading of posts here. But, although I haven't posted in a little while, I haven't neglected the blog.

I've actually been working to spruce things up around here a bit. So by the first of September, the site will have undergone a complete makeover…and I am very excited about that.

I’ve actually managed to accumulate an alarmingly large number of posts. So, on this hot and humid Saturday night,  I will eat whole wheat Ritz crackers with cream cheese, edit pictures, and draft the tales from the adventures of the past few weeks for your reading enjoyment.

Talk to you in the next one!

My New Tablet

Today, I got an awesome package from my delivery man.

I’ve been excited to play with this thing since it came out. I’ve been working on an old Wacom Bamboo for a while, and being the tech lover that I am, whenever something new comes out, I have to have it…but that is never practical considering how often things change in the tech world. I was a bit leery of purchasing this, because I always feel like as soon as I upgrade my tech, it’s pretty much obsolete within a couple of years…but the sleekness of the Intuos 4, its price point, and the PEN had me sold.

I’m a lefty so I like that it works for me with and comes with the extra equipment. Well, that it’s supposed to work for me. I hooked everything up, installed the software, downloaded the latest drivers, and I found out the the pen won’t respond to the tablet properly. I spent a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot, but no success.

So so so so sad….well I’m off to go unplug and pack everything back up, because this baby is going back to the store.

Talk to you in the next one!

Ikea Lack Lookalike?

I’ve been in the mood to build lately.  Yesterday I finished an Ikea Lack inspired bookshelf from the plans on the Ana White site.

I have to say, of everything that I’ve made so far, this is my favorite. It was the most fun to build, and I finished it, start to finished, in about 8 hours. And that includes painting and dry time. And I love the color. Its the banana yellow by Benjamin Moore from the Natura range.

I chopped and sanded everything in the garage, then assembled inside because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to move this thing too far on my own.

I used 2 drills to speed up the process; one with a countersink drill bit, and the other with a square head driver.

I used it initially because I was using Kreg screws, but I found that the square head works well with phillips head screws too.

Assembly was quick.

I drilled my holes as I went along because I attached each shelf  to the sides in the back first,

then checked to make sure everything was level, and that all of my corners were square before attaching the shelves to the front sides.

Then I painted her yellow, and call her my sunshine. It makes me happy just looking at it. It’s a bright, creamy yellow, so it isn’t overpowering. 2 coats of paint, light sanding, and 2 coats of poly.

Right now, I’m debating whether or not I want to build a twin, or if instead I’ll make a table to sit behind my Kivik. I’m leaning toward the latter.

Talk to you in the next one!