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By kilax, June 4, 2015 10:06 am

• Beyond Kelly being my training partner (read: close friend/unofficial therapist), she’s also my wreath supplier! She helped spruce up our front door last spring (top left), this winter (top center) and currently (bottom left). She also made a wreath for my paternal grandma (top right) and maternal grandma (bottom right). She is talented!!! It impresses me when people have a vision of how they want something to turn out, and make it all come together from separate elements, like with these wreaths (and like Steven and his welded art projects!). You can check out other wreath styles on her Etsy and Facebook pages.

• National Running Day seems to always be on a Wednesday, which is typically the most difficult day of the week for me to workout at all, due to my commuting schedule. So no run for me. But! I did do something kind of running related – went to a free skin cancer screening. I don’t wear sunscreen when I run, and wanted a dermatologist to look over my skin. He said everything looks okay, and that I should get checked again in one to two years. He also gave me a recommendation for a sunscreen that might let my pores breath when I run (that’s why I don’t wear it).
• This year, my dad, brother-in-law and I ordered the RAGBRAI jerseys in advance and they arrived this week! Here’s my snis modeling mine (she ordered them all, hence it being at her house). I love the design! And my sister said one of her husband’s sisters is joining us on the Thursday ride – we need to get her a jersey, too! This is one event where it’s not lame to wear the shirt while you’re doing it!

• My Nike Dri-FIT shirts came! Yay! Now I have several colors to choose from!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 72

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By kilax, May 22, 2015 7:05 am

Make them in to art!

Steven ordered new brake shoes for my car in February, and when he and my dad began to install him, they found out he was shipped the wrong part. So they went to three different auto parts stores and realized the wrong item is listed for our car in all of the catalogs! They resorted to looking at brake shoes from several similar models until they found the right one. Fun, right?

And what are brake shoes? The owl’s wings! Beyond that? No idea.*

We didn’t keep the unused shoes in the garage with the intention of using them for a welding project, but when Steven had the idea to make something for our neighbor Jen for her birthday, and I told him she likes owls, it seemed like a perfect use for them!

We spent a bit of time looking at pictures of owls to decide how we wanted our caricature to appear, then laying out the pieces of metal to get the right look.

When Steven went to work on it the first time though, he found out that he couldn’t weld the can bottoms directly to the shoes – the weld went right through it. So we waited until we ate more canned young corn, to try again (hee hee). The second time, he attached the cans to the ears, and ears to the wings, and that seemed to hold better.

Steven decided he wanted to rust the medal. Here is what it looked like before:

To get the rusty look, he first “etched” it (sprayed it) with vinegar so that the acid in the vinegar would eat the medal. Then he sprayed it with a solution of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and salt, and that makes it rust.

Ta da! Rusty Owlie (I know, so original with our names). We’re excited to see where our neighbor puts it!

*Just kidding, after reading this draft, Steven explained them to me.

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By kilax, April 20, 2015 10:23 am

Nah, she’s too tiny to be friends with Fluffy!

Steven welded this little dog for my coworker, who has a long haired dachshund. Steven really likes working on these sculptures, but found out when working on the dog that he’d prefer something at a bit larger scale. I think he should make something for Luca next… maybe a train or plane!

Side note: you won’t see poor quality photos like this on the blog much longer… I ordered a new phone with a much better camera! (Ha, composition and content will still be the same!)

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By kilax, March 12, 2015 6:22 am

I arrived home from my trip Sunday to find Steven working in the garage on this:

Meet Fluffy, the cat!

I smiled so big when I saw he made me this for me while I was out of town! What a sweetie!

Steven’s had a MIG welder for awhile, and recently purchased a TIG welder so he could weld some different types of metals (and expand his tool collection, of course!). He wanted to work on his TIG welding skillz, which requires a lot of coordination and practice, so he made Fluffy! Fluffy is composed entirely from random parts and pieces Steven’s saved from various assembly kits (hope we don’t need any of those pieces in the future, ha ha!).

As suspected, Data does NOT like having a sibling.

Data was actually scared to eat his dinner around Fluffy. Oops. Guess we need to keep them separated for awhile!

I love Steven’s homemade gifts!