23 October 2007 9:46 pm
Chest of Drawers
After more than five years, the chest of drawers is complete and moved to our bedroom. Photos of the final product have been added to the Chest of Drawers photo album. The chest is based on Dr. White's Chest featured in Thos. Moser's How to Build Shaker Furniture. The project was a bit beyond my abilities. The plans in Moser's book consist of three pages that contain one photo and six sketches. I'm more accustomed to detailed, measured drawings and step-by-step instructions.
Regardless, I figured it out as I went along and opted for the more traditional approaches to construction. The back of the chest isn't plywood but rather secondary wood splined together to allow for expansion and contraction. In fact, the only plywood in the chest are the bottoms of the drawers and the dust panels in the lowest drawer frame. I could have made raised panels for these, but then this project would have taken ten years and weighed an extra ton. In addition to using a little plywood, I also bought the pulls rather than turning my own. All joints in the drawer panels are pinned and the drawers are dovetailed. The face frame is joined with dovetails or lap joints and is attached to the case with finishing nails. The mortise and tenon doors contain raised panels cut on the table saw. The sides and back of each drawer are constructed from aromatic cedar; a technique borrowed from Restoration Hardware's furniture. One advantage of taking five years to finish a project is that, when the project is finished, the yellow pine has already begun to yellow. I enhanced the color and added some projection with an application of boiled linseed oil. The linseed oil should provide some protection while allowing the yellow pine to continue to yellow with age.
I used practically every tool in my shop to construct the chest. Some tools, I used for the first time on this project. I was particularly impressed with the Akeda DC16 Dovetail Jig which I used for all the dovetails on the drawers. On the other end of the spectrum, I was very impressed with the Veritas low-angle block plane which made fitting the drawers a joy. I really wish I had a planer and joiner to square the stock before assembling the side panels and top. They are on the wish list for the next project.
What is the next project? I have no idea. Whatever it is, it will be smaller, lighter, cheaper than the chest of drawers and come with detailed instructions. Actually, I do have three more shelves for the family room sitting unfinished in the basement. No worries, they have only been there for a year and a half so far.
22 October 2007 9:02 pm
Baby Face
This weekend, Dylan asked to play with Photo Booth on the new iMac. He sat in Carolyn's lap while doing so. After a couple of pictures, they started playing with some of the Photo Booth effects. Soon there after, we were all laughing hysterically; Carolyn literally in tears. I threw together this video to share the pictures with all of you.22 October 2007 8:55 pm
Monkey Andrea
Andrea had her eighteen-month well check this afternoon, and even the doctor called her a monkey. She was demonstrating her desire to be held upside down, and also showing her keen interest in doing flips in the air, fully supported by Mommy, of course.
Andrea was not too keen to be measured. The weight wasn't too big of a deal, as she just had to sit on the scale. She has added just over a pound in the last three months, and is now 23 lbs 1 oz. Andrea did not want to lie still on her back, but the nurse somehow managed to measure her at 33 1/4" long, whch is an inch and a quarter longer than three months ago. The measurement of Andrea's head circumference was a bit more of a struggle. After the first attempt read 19", the nurse decided to try again. The second attempt also read 19", which is the same as it was three months ago. My guess is that the measurement was off at the last doctor appointment, but no one wanted to try a second time to confirm it. Andrea continues to be at the 90th percentile for height, to be between the 25th and 50th for weight, and is now back between the 90th and 95th for cap size.
Andrea is developing well. Her fine motor skills are well ahead of where Dylan was at the same age, but Dylan's verbal skills far exceeded Andrea's. Nothing to be concerned about at this time.
Both Andrea and Dylan received their flu shots today. Dylan's leg will likely be sore for days, as he really tensed up for the vaccination. I don't think that Dylan uttered a peep, while Andrea had a few shouts of protest. Oh yeah, Dylan gratefully volunteered his sister to get her shot first. He made sure to tell the nurse directly, so that there would be no mistakes.
Our next scheduled visit to the doctor is for Dylan's four-year well check in January. Andrea does not need to return until her two-year well check in April.
19 October 2007 11:35 am
Infant to Toddler Scrapbook
When Andrea was preparing to transition from the Infant room to the Toddler room at school, I wanted to do something to say "Thank You" to the teachers who had cared not only for Andrea, but for Dylan years ago. I decided I would attempt to put together a small scrapbook for each of the three teachers that contained pictures of Andrea and Dylan at similar ages in similar poses. I initially intended to make a fourth book to keep for myself. After I realized the effort that the first three took, I settled for pictures of the pages.
Browse the book, keeping in mind that this is a picture of pictures taken without flash through a plastic sleeve. If you want, you could always open two browser windows and find the original of each of the pictures... but you're on your own for finding the links. If anyone does this and emails me the URLs, I'll share them with everyone.
19 October 2007 11:08 am
Browsing Bonanza!
Picture pages, picture pages, time to get your picture pages...
That jingle from the Picture Pages show that aired during Captain Kangaroo came to mind when thinking about all of the pages of pictures that I have just uploaded to the website. For those interested in seeing pictures from our vacation to New York over the summer, you'll have to wait. For those interested in any other pictures taken, let's get started!
The new albums are:
- Third Quarter 2007, which includes pictures taken in July, August, and September that don't have a separate album
- Thomas 2007, which has pictures from our trip to the Illinois Railway in August to see the famous Tank Engine and to ride on the train pulled by him.
- Camping Trip 2007, which was our first time camping as a family. We went to Blackwell Forest Preserve and spent one night in the tent.
- Ribfest 2007 contains pictures at the July Ribfest in Naperville. The return of the Spongebob Bouncer was a hit for Dylan, as were some of the larger inflatables. Both kids enjoyed the ice cream quite a bit. Oh yeah... Dylan ate some sausage also. Geoff enjoyed the ribs, although I don't think we captured that on camera.
- Second Quarter 2007, which includes pictures taken in April, May, and June that don't have a separate album
- New Jersey Trip 2006 was our trip east for Cousin Abigail's baptism in April. It included Andrea's first (Dylan's third) airplane flight. We returned from New Jersey in the rental car when the weather cancelled our flight and we couldn't get on a flight until Tuesday morning. Geoff was student teaching at the time, so we opted to start driving on Sunday afternoon around 4 p.m. and returned home around 5:30 a.m. Monday. No pictures from the return trip... But, a few pictures of the four cousins are included.
The index of albums is also updated, so you can browse down memory lane and see pictures of previous events and time periods.
Can you believe that Andrea is 18 months old today? We have a visit with the doctor scheduled for Monday to confirm that she is growing and developing well. Both kids will be getting their flu shots, but I think that's it for needles. I'll get an update posted some time afterwards.
