More Blackboards!

I still had half a tin of blackboard paint left over and a request for a kitchen blackboard. I wasn't totaly sure how to approach this but I gave it a go..

There's that tin - still plenty left..

 

Pre-staining the frame was a waste of time - it just meant I had to wait til it dried to put iot together - then mostly restain it as one piece anyway.

More clamps! I always need more clamps!

 

 

However, please notice creative use of bike stand (skutter) as a clamp..

Notice the 'load bearing' mini shelf brackets. They serve almost no purpose, but I think they're cute.



 

Must take better finish product photos. Anyway - happy bithday Sis!

Garden Lights

Grabbed this one straight off a nice little site called Design Sponge.

Their photos are better than mine and the instructions are all there so take a look. So, a lazy project but it proves I haven't been sitting around all summer. Although there was some work involved in translating American sizes and names for plumbing bits.  I can't tell you how frustrating looking at plans for projects on U.S. websites can be. Metric! It's called metric! It's so sensible, seriously try it some time. It makes so much more sense..

Anyway, lanterns.

They look better in the dark...

Blackboard

Quick, is there an amusing Blackboard related pun? Hmmm I can't think of one so I'll assume there isn't. So, straight to it.

For work I made a small blackboard to use at events. I liked it and so decided to made one for my nephew's birthday, for him to draw on. Made purely from scrap or recycled wood (the doors of some old cupboards and part of a futon) and a tin of blackboard paint.

This is how it turned out:

and thus, a blackboard. Looks better with his drawing on it...

How the tables have turned.

Spring is finally here and so I can stop trying to make my kitchen double as a workshop. Now I can get back outdoors, where I belong.

In celebration of this fact I decided to make a mini garden table. The equivalent of a coffee table, but for outside.

I've had a big slice of Pine (possible the Scottish variety) burning a hole in my shed for a while. Seemed like it was about time I did something with it.

Read on to see how it turned out.

Also, just so you know, my evenings now look like this:

I love Spring!





Anyway, I digress, back to 'table' making. I got a nice new saw for the occasion;

It's quite sharp! As i discovered when I dropped it on my shin.

It was about the only thing that was going to let me get through this log though:

I had to use some quite creative clamping techniques. Turns out it's quite hard to saw a straight horizontal cut in something that's only vaguely straight in places, and bumpy in the rest.

I do prefer my new workshop though, the kitchen was getting tired..

And thus I created somewhere to put my beer.

Just as a side note, this was the first use of some very nice tools I got from my Grandad, which he is no longer using. Including the highly useful combination square set. Aprat from being useful they are also making my shed look retro and cool, I assume.

More Establishments for Bees

More Bee Hotels!

Due to the (assumed) popularity of my first Bee hotel I have endeavoured to make a second, slightly more elaborate, version.

This Hotel is a birthday present for my talented other half who made me this lovely gift for Christmas:

Could probably do with more chocolate and less chisels but you can't have everything in life.

As I explained how amazing bees are and why you should make them somewhere to live in my earlier post (lazyprojector.blogspot.co.uk/byobeeb), I won't go into it here. Instead here are some pictures of the latest addition to my ever growing empire of hotels, B&Bs, hostels and rented spaces for the discerning bee.

Again made entirely out of recycled (or upcycled?) material, mainly an old pallet and a fruit crate. You can find the original design here.

 Thank God for Instructables.