I strapped the trail cam to a tree at about calf height rather than a stand, which made for some interesting extreme closeups.
Extreme closeups
Chair reupholster
For our monthly craft day, my neighbor and I reupholstered two dining room chairs.
The seat was only laid into the chair frame, so lifting it out was easy, then we removed the staples with flathead screwdrivers and serrated needle nose pliers.
There were so many staples. The velvet had a set of staples, then there were three layers of thick cotton surrounding cotton filler and each layer had a host of staples.
When we got down to just the frame, it was obvious that the seat had been reupholstered many times. The jute webbing was in good condition, so we left it in place. To rebuild the seat, we found a 3” dense foam chair cushion, some upholstery quality heavy cotton, and some beautiful red velvet. The cushion was the same depth and width as the chair seat, it just needed some trimming with an electric knife to match the profile. We secured the pad to the frame with the heavy cotton cloth and heavy duty staples.
Because we used a foam block, we didn’t need as many layers of cotton as was previously installed. The cotton layer did help to do the initial shaping of the pad and make applying the velvet easier.
We did have to switch to longer staples, particularly in the corners, with the velvet. It was good that I brought along a selection.
We were able to refinish both chairs, including shopping for fabric, in about three hours. Chair seat reupholstery is a very doable project with a good heavy staple gun, selection of staples, and a pair of pliers.
Roll reversal
Thor the gray tabby cat is thoroughly confused by the antics of Sophie the dilute calico cat. Thor is usually the one in the box taking swipes at passerby. He isn’t quite sure what to do about this development. Missy the small black dog is on hand to break up any fights.
Thaumatrope Valentine
My youngest needed Valentine cards for school, but didn’t want store bought. I like toy-type cards, and if I can sneak some science in all the better. This line of pursuit led us to create a Thaumatrope, which is a spinning toy invented in the 1800s with two different pictures on each side of a disc. When the disc is spun, the pictures appear to combine. The original thaumatropes used string to suspend the circle, but a similar action can also be achieved with a stick mounted disc, and rolling a stick between two palms is easier than twisting string. My youngest chose the elements to go on the card, and I drew them up in Adobe Illustrator. Pro tip for getting colors right from screen to print: don’t go by screen color. If you want a bright yellow, go into the color picker and make sure that your CMYK color is all Y, with no cyan or magenta. High contrast images work better for this visual trick as well. I printed the images on card stock, and used my laser cutter to cut the circles (so much more precise than my old electric cutter). I used hot glue to secure the paper stick (I used a 6” stick marketed for cake pops), and keep the front and back together.
I like that when the disc spins, the bee and sun are smiling at each other. It came out cute. What wasn’t cute was making 35 of them. Phew.
Tea jar terrarium
We had an old tea jar that lost its lid, so I made it into a terrarium. Since the top was open I opted for succulents, which like the dryer environment.
I plugged the tea jar spigot hole with a silicone wine bottle stopper, which worked perfectly.
I wanted a two layer layout, with the back plants visibly taller and higher than the foreground plants, but I struggled with soil depth and the root systems of the plants I purchased, so it didn’t quite fit my vision.
For the non-plant decor, I raided my childhood rock collection, adding some amethyst crystal, pyrite, fish fossil, and two carved stone figures. Although the container and rocks were no cost, the soil layers and plants added up. I do have left overs that can be applied to a different project, though.
I do like the cactus color pop, and that I have a spiral feel to the layout. Now to see what lives.
Critters and Craft 