BruceHartman.net

I’m off to Mom & Dad’s tomorrow morning for Christmas. In the meantime, here’s another something I made as a gift for a dear friend.

Unless she was acting, Ginny absolutely loved it and has already hung it on the wall over her desk.

I really need to come up with a name for these things… any ideas?

I hope you all have a great Christmas!

For anyone still interested, I put the finishing touches on my painting from last weekend.

I went out this morning and bought three rolls of two inch red oak iron on edging to apply around the outer edge of the door. It went on quite easily. I used a piece of kraft paper between the iron and edging to keep the glue from making a mess. Once it was on, I used a craft knife to trim it to the proper width and then sanded the edges to remove any splinters.

I’m glad I decided to stain the wood. I think it makes the piece fit better in the bedroom (plus it just looks so finished now). I was concerned about being able to get the stain right up against the edge of the painting without making a mess of it, but I managed pretty well and only crept outside of the lines once or twice. It’s hardly noticeable even to my overly critical eye.

These pictures better show some of the subtle colors, but pictures just can’t capture what this thing is about. Not to toot my own horn, but it’s pretty impressive up on the wall.

Looking at it now, I sort of wish I had used a 36″ wide door, but once there’s a headboard underneath it to fill in some of the space, I don’t think that it’ll bother me anymore.

I’m really looking forward to getting some new furniture in there.

The exit fees keep going up and up at Lowe’s and Home Depot. Every time I go in, it seems I can’t leave until I part company with some more of my money. Apparently when the see me coming, they lay stuff out in my path that I just can’t leave. And somehow, the damage always comes to right about $100. Go figure.

December is a tough month to begin with. Start with the regular monthly bills, add in Christmas, and then for good measure toss in a bunch of extra bills (like the annual webhosting payment, the ransom to Microsoft for my Action Pack subscription, and the final payment on a computer for Mom and Dad)—suddenly I’m looking at my account online asking myself where did it all go?

And no matter how inexpensive I think a project is going to be, I always end up increasing the scope of the project far beyond the original goal. I truly only intended to open the closet up after Thanksgiving… not paint, put in shelves, or install curtains. I put a lot more money into the house after Thanksgiving than I planned to.

At least all that’s all done now.

Now it’s time to do some remodeling on the bank account.

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I’m really looking forward to tax time this year since this will be the first year I get to take full advantage of the tax benefits of my mortgage interest.

More art for the bedroom…

I’m not sure where this sudden drive to actually make stuff is coming from, but I’m going to ride this wave all the way to the shore.

Not sure how I missed this site for so long, but I figured I’d share it with everyone else… Curbly: a crafty sort of site that provides a lot of good tips on DIY projects around the house. If you join up, be sure to let me know so we can link up as friends.

And so that I don’t lose all of my macho guy cred, my other recently found favorite website: WillItBlend.com. I mean, come on, this site is exactly what the internet is all about.