Day Off!

I am most of the way caught up with work from everything I missed being out in Arizona all of last week on vacation.  I didn't have any conference calls scheduled, so I decided to take the day off to get things done around the house.  

 

 After weeks of looking at all those whiteboards resting on the garage floor, I was ready to do something about them and finally make the shelves I had promised the boy child.  I wanted to clear my desk and clean out my studio cabinets, as well as spend some time on the torch catching up on orders.

The morning got off to a great start with cheerful, well behaved kids.  Then I pulled out the power tools and borrowed a measuring tape from a neighbor, since I learned this mornings ours had been broken.

I had drawn out plans with measurements of the shelves weeks ago and stuck to them pretty closely, with the exception I built them in two sections....a top and a bottom.  Since they are 6.5 feet wide and over 7 feet tall, I wouldn't be able to get them through doorways in our house.

No, I don't wear safety goggles or use real saw horses when operating power tools.  Please do not try this at home.  I still have all my fingers and toes, but I have cut a recycling bin in half. 

I used a brad nail gun (hooked up to my air compressor) to nail the shelves together and tightened it up a little with a couple of L-brackets that I'm screwing in here.

As I shut down after finishing the bottom section, I found this feather.  I wonder how it got in our garage?

I headed inside to eat lunch and spend an hour on the torch before returning to the garage to finish the top portion of the shelves.  I started off by cleaning my rods of clear with little alcohol swipes to mitigate any smurkiness from appearing on my beads.

I started working on orders, but had only made a few beads before my tank of gas ran out.

That threw a three hour monkey wrench into my plans.  My wrench didn't work for removing the hose and regulator from the tank of gas, so I ran out to Home Depot to buy a new wrench.  Came home, removed the hose and loaded the tank to drive to a welding supply company in the next town over to get it refilled.  

Yes, my shirt says PLAYS WITH FIRE.  I love it.  Was a great birthday present last year from a good friend.  I loved that I was warm enough to wear it today. :)

I finished building the shelves and got the first coat of paint on them.  I hope to finish painting the shelves tomorrow to get them moved into Owen's bedroom on Sunday.  After the kids went to bed, I fired up the torch again and spent an hour and a half melting glass before I felt too tired to safely continue.  

I hope to get more time on the torch this weekend, but we'll see.  Soccer games for both kids will take up Saturday morning.  And Sunday I'll be helping my good friend Tabitha on a photography shoot of the newborn of one of our other friends in our neighborhood.  Good weather is coming our way and I'm looking forward to playing with my camera to capture all the good things going on.  I had fun using my tripod and remote today.  Could you tell? :)