Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Dec 31
Merry Christmas!
Staying true to family tradition, we hosted Christmas.
My wife did a great job making sure everything was perfect and that everyone had a really nice time.
Here’s a quick picture of out cat Leo all concerned how Santa is getting down the chimney with that fire going.
Santa brought Missy a new nutcracker this year.
It’s an Ebeneezer Scrooge that is smaller than most I’ve seen, but still has a ton of great detail.
She also got an espresso machine and bean grinder which she has been practicing making Lattes for us today. Nice!
Santa brought me a drone!
Well this is just a small glimpse of some of the really cool stuff we got this year.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a great new year!
—– Brandon
Christmas Lights!!!!
Christmas Lights!!!!
Dec 06
Here’s a quick video I put together of the Christmas lights:
Christmas!
Christmas!
Dec 05
It’s been a really busy year. So we’re a little behind on getting the house decorated for Christmas.
I custom build a lot of our outdoor display pieces. Unfortunately a power surge ruined all the lights on a piece I built a few years ago for the garage.
So last week I spent some time removing the lights, repainting the wire frame, and wrapping new lights to the frames.
Here’s a quick picture of one of the deer frames being wrapped with the new lights:
Here’s a picture of both deer all done:
Both deer flank a wreath that also was damaged by the surge.
The wreath also had to have all the lights removed and new ones added.
Will post a video of everything up and working soon.
—– Brandon
Ugh, some days…
Ugh, some days…
Nov 05
Yep, some days just don’t turn out as expected.
Still had a couple days off to burn from my day job. Had plans of getting my oil changed Friday, get the deck railing stained, and the outdoor electrical stuff fixed; but the day had other plans for me.
Started off with a dull headache, then our cat Leo made a jig saw puzzle out of one of our Halloween busts we got a few years ago from Home Goods.
Here’s Leo looking innocent.
While being petted, he accidentally knocked the pirate bust off the end table.
The wrought iron railing took the head off and the 4 foot fall to the tiled landing did the rest. It was totally an accident so I can’t blame him or be mad.
I set it all aside and went to Home Depot for electrical parts n pieces. While at Home Depot the headache started getting worse and showing signs of a migraine. Still stuck to the plan and stopped to got my oil changed, but started feeling worse.
When I got home, I stained the new deck parts real quick.
Then I fixed the broken Halloween bust.
Luckily all the pieces were accounted for and the breaks were somewhat clean. With some patience and a lot of 2 part epoxy, I was able to fix the Halloween pirate bust.
After that, I was done. The headache progressed to a full blown migraine and I was down for the count.
Not at all what I had planned for Friday, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
It’s now Saturday and I’m trying to take it easy and fully recover from the migraine.
It’ll be a few days before I get back to “normal”. Again, that’s just how it goes sometimes.
—– Brandon
The Deck
The Deck
Nov 03
Took a few days off work to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather for November over here in Ohio and get some much needed work done around the house before the bad weather hits.
The deck railing’s bottom board split and a baluster had come out. This made the rest of them loose which left this section of railing very unsafe.
As usual, I got too eager and forgot to get a before shot of it all screwed up and in need of repair.
Here is a shot of it just after I pulled the damaged railing section off. It came off way too easily which means it was really unsafe and way over due for repair.
Here’s a quick picture of it all put back together, fixed right, and most importantly it’s rock solid and safe!
The project looked easy, but I way under estimated it and it ended up taking me all day to finish.
If the weather cooperates, I’ll get it stained to match the rest of the deck soon. If not, it will have to wait for Spring. Regardless, it’s one more item off my list.
As with any home, there are many more things that need fixed around here. Gonna be tackling them one at a time in hopes of getting most done before the holidays.
—– Brandon
Rolling Eye Anri – Man
Rolling Eye Anri – Man
Apr 20
Here is a rare Rolling Eye Anri that came in for repair from the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum.
As you can see in the pictures below, this piece had a bit of damage around the mouth.
The face was also starting to split on each side of the nose where the wood runs thin.
Here are a few pictures of the piece after the repairs:
This picture shows how the eyes roll when the lever s pulled to open the mouth:
As I mentioned before these are very rare. I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on a few of these.
—– Brandon