Some photos taken on a sunny Saturday in West Vancouver, while visiting my wife’s amazing Aunt El.
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Click on any image to open a Gallery Viewer |
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Aunt El… a fabulous lady! |
Photos: West Vancouver © 2013 Bob Gray – BobSongs
In the last post, I took some photos of our back yard and garden.
A friend commented that I had given short shrift to one aspect of our “decor”… the assistance we have given Faeries and wild birds to decorate their homes.
With that in mind, please enjoy this addendum.
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We have several repositories of wool snippets for birds to take wool snippets to dress up their nests… but this one is our fave !!!
A few folks have been asking about the latest project I’ve been working on.
(Well, in addition to working on websites, Social Media, helping friends with their campaigns, and such…)
It has been a fun project, that takes me to the toolbench, away from the keyboard for extended periods.
I’ve been making buttons.
Early last week, Lorie needed some buttons for a craft project fundraiser for Katie’s Place, and she asked me how hard it would be to make buttons from tree branches, as she had seen some on E-Bay, but they were quite expensive.
The next day, I went “shopping” at the local green waste centre, and found some perfect cherry and birch branches.
I guess this would qualify as the “before” shot.
Carefully, over the following days, I dried the moist branches in the oven, putting the branches and pieces into the oven, on low temperature, or when it was off and cooling down.
Only had one mishap, the day I slipped, while sanding a button, and removed a great deal of skin and some nail, from the tip of my thumb.
In the ensuing rush to stem the bleeding and get a bandaid, I forgot that I had turned on the oven, with a tray of buttons in.
Anyway, apart from that, the drying process was slow, but gratifying, and I think the end results are quite cool. So, I thought I would share.
Lorie added an artsy touch to some of them, with her craft dyes, and some we left natural:
However, as cool as I think they are, by far the best one has nothing to do with anything Lorie or I did… It is the hidden treasure, trapped in the wood… a tiny star pattern we found, buried in the wood, in the centre of one small section of a branch:
I just heard that November 30th is Shelter Pet Day.
Of course, our cats came from Katie’s Place, a shelter in Maple Ridge that we love and support.
The people there are loving, wonderful people, and do so much for not only the animals of Pitt Meadows & Maple Ridge, but throughout the whole Province.
That is where we got Barnum & Bailey, and I realized it has been a while since I have posted cute cat pics… so here they are !!!
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In my downtime… (read: whilst job hunting) …I have slowly been knocking jobs out of the job jar.
Down in the basement, I have, for a while, been building a bar… and it is very nearly done! I thought I would, upon the occasion of my first (apparently) drunken customer, post some photos, in an (almost) Wordless Sunday. The glass shelves for the Single Malt Scotches went in on Thursday Some folks call them shelves. In the Black Cat Saloon, they are Kitty Steps to the window ledge. Hockey is played all year round, here on the Original Six Hockey Master game. Not being a woodworker, I’m quite proud of the cabinet for the Blu Ray, X-Box & HD PVR… Digital Toys. King George V is representing the Monarchy, and a dram is always raised in Toast. Overall, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out !!! On Thursday evening, my wife and I came downstairs to look at the newly installed shelves, and found someone passed out in the bar…
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In order to make another attempt at a Wordless Wednesday Blog entry, I resorted to badgering Chloe Woodin to allow me to post her photos.
I had received a framed picture of a guitar, as a Christmas present from her, and it is displayed proudly in my BobSongs Studio.
I pestered her into creating a Flickr Account, and posting some of her photos there.
In addition to having (IMO) a stunning eye for composition, she is an amazing talent, as shown by one of the pairs of Chuck’s All Stars she’s designed… and the pencil drawing of the Flower. She also plays the piano amazingly well… despite the fact that she is not yet out of High School.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds, with so many avenues open…