Don’t Break the Chain!

Since we both have rather sedentary jobs, Katie and I decided a while ago that we wanted to go on a walk every day after dinner and do a more intense workout at least once a week.  The problem was that we weren’t very consistent.  It was easy to find an excuse to skip a day, which made skipping the next day even easier.  Then we discovered The Seinfeld Method for keeping goals and forming habits.  Here’s how it works:

1. Put a calendar in a prominent place.  Write your goal on top that you want to do every day.  Place a red pen or marker nearby. 
2. Every day that you accomplish your goal, put a large ‘X’ through the box, forming a chain as you keep your goal for multiple days.
3. Don’t break the chain.  

Now this is the surprising part: it actually works!
I had read about this method before, but dismissed it thinking, “That can’t possibly be a good motivator”.  However, this is what our calendar looks like:

Draper Flight Park

Since we moved to the Salt Lake Valley, we have loved watching all of the “flyers” on the point of the mountain. From a distance they seem so peaceful, like little human butterflies. I’m sure if someone strapped me to one of those puppies and pushed me off a mountain, “peaceful” would be the last word to come to mind.  I imagine there would be more blood curdling screams and mental images of failed childhood egg drops. All splatting fears aside, watching them from the ground makes me feel like I could lay down in the grass and take a happy little nap, counting fluffy little floaters as I fall asleep. Colin and I drove up here to take a walk around, and we must have stayed for an hour afterward watching people take off and land. It was just one of those happy moments for me when I felt totally content.

My new favorite vegetable

The Parsnip.

Also known as “The Albino Carrot”.  Well, that’s what I call it.  It’s my new favorite vegetable. 

Tasty foods you can make with parsnips:

• Parsnip chips—fried parsnips slices, like potato chips but (slightly) healthier
• Roasted vegetables—chop up a bunch of root veggies, toss with olive oil, salt & pepper, and cook at 400 until sufficiently crispy (about 20 minutes)

So I’ve basically only made these two things with parsnips, but both were incredibly delicious!  Looking forward to finding new parsnip recipes.

Salt Lake Farmer’s Market and the Kimball Arts Festival

This was a really fun day our for us. Well, maybe it was a very Katie-centric day out for us, but Colin is always a good sport. We started out getting lunch at the Salt Lake City Farmer’s Market, which I had always wanted to try. It makes our little beloved Provo farmer’s market look like a dude selling knick-knacks out of the trunk of his car. We lucked out by coming near the end of the day. We bought some AMAZING fresh bread and had another loaf just given to us so that, “he could have a good home,” as the baker said. We paired it up with some cheese and fresh peaches, and pure heaven.

Heaven’s knows I love me a good troubadour, and there was one on just about every corner. They had some crazy band thing in the middle blasting 90’s grunge music. Nothing against 90’s music, it’s just the wrong Seattle music period for the setting. At least half of the market goers have hipster leanings. Try a little Fleet Foxes, or at least get a lady with a banjo! On second thought THE WHOLE MARKET IT FULL OF TRUBADORS! How about we nix those mammoth amps?

After the market we took off to Park City Utah for the Kimball Arts Festival.  It was awesome to see how many artists come out for the event. I would have taken more pictures…but people don’t seem to like you taking shoddy pictures of their work and posting them on your own blog. Go figure. I made Colin pull over the car so I could take a picture of this barn that I thought would look great in a sheep painting I am working on. Little did I know, when we got to the show, I spotted at least 3 paintings of the very same barn! Great minds must think alike.



My favorite parts of the day?
1. Looking at all the creations (obviously)
2. Petting the lump-of-a-cat that lives at Dolly’s bookstore (pretty sure I could live there too)
3. Sitting in the shade splitting a giant coke with my Colin. Don’t know why that part sticks out, but I remember it being particularly nice.
4. This crazy metal rooster. I automatically thought of my Mom. We had both read this blog post and it’s been a bit of an inside joke ever since. As a joke on her birthday I had my sister’s ding-dong ditch a smaller version on out family’s front porch for her birthday.

I love podcasts!

Since getting a smartphone, I’ve been listening to podcast during  my commute.  It makes my drive so much more enjoyable.  I used to listen to NPR, but the political news just made me mad and frustrated.  Now, I feel like I’m doing something useful with my time. 

Here are my favorites:

• LDS general conference
• Easy way to review the talks
• The British History
• Very entertaining speaker and fascinating topic
• Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
• Not chronological, but just random periods in history with intelligent discussion
• NPR’s Science Friday
• I love Science Friday, but rarely get to hear it because I’m usually at work when it’s on
• The History of Rome
• Self explanatory
• TED Talks
• “Ideas worth spreading”.  Kind of like BYU forums speeches.  Topics range from science to law to politics to art to programming to well, basically anything

Lessons in furniture building

For the past 6ish months I've been building a console table (thin table designed for placement against a wall).  Now it's finally done.  It's been quite an process, and very frustrating at times.  I thought I'd share some of the lessons I've learned, in no particular order.

Use good materials

Try to find good materials.  This doesn’t mean you need to use fancy wood like walnut or maple, the pine (or whatever it is) lumber at Home Depot works fine.  It's not always easy finding good pieces if you're trying to stick to a budget, but it can be done.  It may take a lot of rummaging through the 1x3 pile, but it's worth it.  Starting with good materials is so much easier than trying to fix bad. 

For this table, the grain and color on some of my 1x3s was different than the others, which I didn't think would matter since I'd be covering them with paint.  It turns out, however, that the paint stuck a little differently on those pieces.  Doing it again, I would have tried harder to get matching pieces.
Speaking of paint, if you are going to use spray paint, get the 2x coverage kind.  It really does go a lot farther  (further?) than the normal stuff.  Also, buy enough to begin with so you don't end up making several trips to the store.

And regarding wood choice, if it's going to be painted anyways and you don't care about seeing too much grain, the pre-painted boards are the way to go.  It's easier to find straight pieces without as many flaws than in the regular lumber, and it's not that much more expensive.

Measure twice, cut (hopefully) once

I know it's a cliché, but it's true. But don't just measure twice, check that you are measuring the correct length. Check your plan, it you're using one.  For this console table, I needed to cut a 1x12 for the top surface.  The plans called for two boards stacked on top of each other, with the bottom board 4 inches longer than the top.  Not paying close enough attention, I cut them both to the shorter length, necessitating a lengthy fix (because I’m a cheapskate and didn’t want to buy a whole new 1x12).  Part of that fix involved adding an extension and putting a 1x2 piece of trim all the way around to hide my fixes. The problem was that the table was just the right length to fit into nook in the living room.  With my fix, it became 2 inches too long.  Aaargghhh!  If only I’d measured more!

Don’t assume boards are square

I understand why “real” woodworkers buy raw wood and use a planer.  Dimensional lumber, (they type you buy at a big hardware store and comes in measurements like 1.75” x 3.5”) is rarely perfectly square or straight.  I found this out when attaching the legs to the top.  Make sure you have a good square and use it every step of the way. 

Finishing

A few lessons on finishing.

Use a pre-stain treatment when working with pine.  Pine (your standard 1x and 2x boards) is rather porous.  Consequently, if you are staining pine, the grain shows through very strongly, which you might not want.  In this case I didn’t want it, but forgot to test my stain on a scrap before applying it to the tabletop.   

Also, know what you want.  After making several trips to the store to find the painted we wanted and putting on the first coat, we decided we didn’t like it.  Sigh.  Back to the store.  As a side note, use a primer coat and Minwax Polycrylic for the clearcoat.  Apparently this will prevent the finish from yellowing as it ages.

Why it doesn’t matter

Locking my keys in the car made me realize, none of the previous discussion really matters for making furniture. 

Reading woodworking blogs and flipping through Fine Woodworking at the library made me feel like my table was crap.  I didn’t use dovetailed joints or fancy materials, didn’t patch up my mistakes well enough, didn’t sand sufficiently, etc.  Then, while waiting for Katie to pick my up after locking my keys in the car, I wandered around a furniture store looking for inspiration.  What I found was that “distressed” and “vintage” is very much in fashion.  Many of the items I saw had a lot of blemishes—and these were professionally made and being sold for big bucks!

$5 TV Table Make Over

Found this little table in a thrift store for $5. It had nasty orange marmalade looking glaze on it and lots of paint splatters etc. Colin tightened up the joints, sanded it down, and repainted it. It’s just a temporary table, but I’d say it’s a major upgrade from the rubber made box my plants used to live on.
Of course when I saw a brand new clone of our table at Wal-mart the week after for $8, I just about had a big-box breakdown. Was it worth the time and effort? Probably not. But I like it all the same.

A little Pintrest Lovin’: Gallery Shelves

Finally finished our long planned over-the-couch picture shelves.We made white ones for my parent’s at Christmas that were a little longer, but these fit just perfectly in our little living room. The frames are under-a-buck thrift store finds (DI for those of you in Utah). Everything got spray painted the same color.
The shelves themselves are inspired by a genius Ana White design.  Her Blog is like DIY crack. Colin has already begun to show early signs of a junkie. He’s coffee table, bench, book self, and half a console table (work in progress) in “Knock off Wood” Fashion. Next thing you know he’ll be squaring up the condiments in the fridge. I’m pretty sure that given enough screws and a pocket hole jig, he could conquer the world (or at least make it a bit more sturdy).  

Life’s a Happy Song

Yesterday Colin and I were listening to Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords be interviewed on NPR. Apparently his song “Man or Muppet” from the new Muppet movie has been nominated for an Oscar (awesome). We  sat in out garage and listened to him explain little known etiquette of Muppet culture. For example: one does not ask if the chickens can sing the chorus of a song because chickens—obviously  birds with innate dignity—do not use words. One must never refer to a time when a Muppet was say, a piece of felt, because a Muppet was NEVER a piece of felt. The whole interview can be found here:

I’m an easily delighted person in general—embarrassingly delighted. Often I’m delighted in a way that undermines my intelligence (assuming I have any) and makes me downright silly. That’s how I feel about the Muppets. I love those fuzzy little balls of sunshine and I am not afraid to say it!

I like to think when Colin wakes me up in the morning I look like this:

In reality, I’m pretty sure it’s more like this:

I was having one of the latter mornings when Colin put a Kindle on my night stand playing “Life’s a Happy Song” from the Muppet Movie. Even though, I’m pretty sure he was mocking me at least a little, I had an awesome day and went off to work with the little tune stuck in my head.  I even hummed it to myself during the day.  I know it’s dopey and I just don’t care.

Café Rio Dinner

Last night we did a grown-ups night out with our ward. It was a café Rio style dinner with the surprise version of the dating game played after. Somehow the game looks a little different played in person. Everyone seems more embarrassed. You’d think being on TV would cause you to be more red faced than playing in front of a group of friends, but maybe the point is that the only people who do this kind of stuff on TV are people with a high embarrassment threshold to begin with. Good times had by all.