DIY Disney pin shadow box

Well, November came and went and all we did was spend Thanksgiving week at Disney having an amazing time. And it came at the perfect time, dealing with a ton of stressful work and school shit. Spending 6 days walking 10 miles a day and doing all four parks was the perfect way to decompress and have fun.

The kids had an absolute blast, and the boy got seriously into pin collecting. I would say pin trading, but it was more about spending his souvenir budget on every pin that caught his eye. The wife started us all out with some mystery pins to get ready for the trip, and while I ended up donating mine to the kids' trading efforts I did come away with a handful of pins I wanted to put up when we got home. Thankfully, I had a spare box sitting around from a while ago and some leftover foam, so I threw it together while we were recuperating from our early-ass flight back.

Looking at the blank box now, I can't believe I just butted the corners. Oh well. I liked the natural look of the wood at least so that would work fine.

Put some cardboard under the felt to give the pins something else to grab onto, trimmed and stapled in the foam and viola, one shadow box.

Going for simple, I drilled out a spot for a nail so it would hang flush on the wall.

And then the pins!

Two from the droid factory, one from the opening. 

Clearance pins from 2014, still $10 a pop. 

All the pins I bought were Star Wars-related (surprise), either for Galaxy's Edge opening or a sequence of older pins that were on clearance. We also built lightsabers (more on that likely later), and there was a pin from that.

I did trade for a couple of pins too. The only one that I kept from the mystery pack was the ziggystar-trooper. I particularly liked the "bummer" pin, even though the trip was the total opposite.

Good times. Fun to get some use out of something that's been sitting in the garage looking for a purpose. Now I just have to build two more for the kids.

I've been framed

I came across an old Empire Strikes Back poster that I'm always too sentimental to throw out the other day, and instead of putting it away again I decided it deserved its own frame. Thankfully I had a ton of scrap around still since I'm too busy to actually clean up the shop right now, and it came together really well.

The poster itself has really weird dimensions, which is why I've never put it in an actual frame. But something like that is a perfect chance to flex my scrap muscles. With the hard board I had left over from the desk, and plenty of 2x4 halves, I could have a pretty substantial frame put together, minus a glass or plastic cover.

I trimmed the hardboard to fit the poster, then trimmed a chunk of the halved 2x4 into quarter inch strips to fit around it.

Those got routered with a channel so they could fit around the hardboard with overlap to put everything together. Freehanding with that router is still a real adventure, but I couldn't figure out the right kind of brace. I'm kind of kicking myself for not picking up a router table yet. Oh well.

I basically freehanded the dimensions to get the channels around the hardboard, and viola, one glued up frame.

What kind of stain goes best with a yellow background? Why was this on a yellow background? Who knows. I went with the darkest stain I had around. After enough sanding and stain I thought this looked pretty good. Added a few coats of the wipe on poly and we're in good shape. Usually I wouldn't go with such a dark stain. It looks a bit rough, but it has a nice 'reclaimed' materials vibe that I like. It's more than enough to be presentable I thought.

I hadn't really taken into account how to put everything together, and for how thin I cut the frame this was a challenge. I ended up just hammering in some wood joiners. It worked, and I don't think I'll be taking this apart anyway. Added a wire across the back and snuck it on the wall.

The fam noticed it eventually, but it's still up a week later. Most b/c I've been too lazy to find a more appropriate spot, and the wife hasn't been upset to the point of taking it down herself so it stays for now. It felt good to get a small project done with classes still going on, and has me think I have a painting that could use the same approach before I take it to the office...

ETA: I just realized I posted this on the first Pulaski day I've worked on in three years. I miss my extra days off, but I also feel good about not realizing this was one of them until the end of the day. I got so much done on those days though, that part is going to be hard to deal with.

Lots of wreath progress, with one big issue

Once the frame was cut the wreath has come together pretty quickly, with one major issue I haven't addressed yet.

I hinged the two pieces together, which should give me some flexibility in storing it after the holidays. It kept things together but has also made it a little more difficult to move around, especially if I need to flip it over. Whoops.

I like that it folds, I don't like that I still need to put stuff on the back side.

But things look good; the lights still work, everything was where I left it, and now I just have to figure out how I'm going to attach something capable of hanging it for the rest of the month. You know, the little details.

Return of the wreath

As much as I hate to start another project with the last one still taking up space in the shop, it's time to Christmas decorate so the remaining twin is just going to have to get worked around while I wait for the in-laws to pick it up.

A 60-degree day over the weekend means we've got all our lights all up already, so all I have left on my decorating list is re-doing my wreath and getting it hung on the garage. This year's wreath is getting a much stronger base than last year's, and I hope that means this year's wreath becomes next year's, and the year after that, and so on.

So no drywall. While we were out picking up more lights I picked up an extra 2x4 sheet of 1/2 inch plywood to go with the one I already had on hand, and used them to cut my circle with the same technique I used last time. Unfortunately cutting each one out was as far as I got with all the other things we had going on, but that's enough for now.

I was drilling some guide holes but lost interest pretty quickly. Jig saw did fine w/o them.

A sturdier build means I also have to figure out how to store it, but with some extra hinges sitting around I think I might have that one handled. Once I figure out how to hang it and keep it looking like a wreath I think we're in good shape. The rest is just stapling and time management, something that seems to be in short supply right now.   

It's just a box, it shouldn't be too complicated.

And yet, I almost didn't find time to finish my housewarming gift in time for it to go on its delivery. Almost.

It cost me not doing a second coat of lacquer, but I thought the box was in good enough shape looking at it last night that I decided to get some of the hardware on. I taped the hinges to the lid so they'd be lined up properly and then messed with making sure the plastic and magnet would both fit and still close. It took some playing around but everything worked.

So this morning I glued the glass on and put some felt on the back and viola, one shadow box. I tested it out with some help in the shop...

and then took it upstairs to see how it looked on the wall. But it looked a little empty, so I added some more friends.

The wife did not approve of that one, and didn't want me to get any ideas about decorating the living room with more of them. Oh well.

But it's on its way to Colorado now, hopefully it's sturdy enough to make it out there while bungied to the backseat of a goldwing. I'm sure it is, and I'm enjoying feeling like I've at least done the social minimum for a family member who's just had a big event happen in his life. Good enough for me.

oh no!

Wreath down, wreath down!

Actually, it was good timing b/c it was time to take everything down anyway, but it was still upsetting to come home from a late-night shopping run and see my gorgeous wreath blinking on the ground.

ho ho...

oh no! That's what I get for going out late at night.

Looks like the hook just came off the wall, and the drywall broke both where it hit the ground, and at the top from the shock of the impact. Boo. Guess the drywall wasn't quite up to making it through the season after all.

Looking at the bright side, at least this way I don't have to store it, unlike everything else we ended up with this year. And hey, next year I guess I can make a plywood one, and anchor a hook better.

Still needs a little something

When we got our first big snow of the season I realized the wreath still needed a little something. It looked okay when I tested the 3M hook, and it looks good when we leave for the day in the morning while the sun is still out, but looking at in the dark while I was shoveling this weekend it obviously needed lights to go with everything else we have up. 

And how do you add lights to a wreath with no outlets in sight and keep costs manageable? I had no idea, but thankfully Meijer delivered with some battery-powered lights on sale when we finally made it on the road to go grocery shopping. So for another $10 I picked up 2 50 light strands for the big wreath, along with another $5 for a smaller strand for the door wreath.

Sometimes it feels like the work never ends.

Even better, they’re battery powered but both have timers, so once you turn them on you can leave them alone and they turn off, then come back on 14 hours later. The 50-light strands use 3 C batteries, which makes for a chunky control unit but they did have a loop to attach it to something with. Easy to attach a screw to the wreath backing and leave these on all night now. And with that, I think this is finally finished.  

Better

So it looked much better when I was back out there later that day shoveling yet another dump of that fluffy white bullshit. Two big snows already this holiday season and I’m ready to skip to March. Woof. 

Ugh.

Need decorating ideas? Just add another tree.

I will admit I never saw myself putting up more than one Christmas tree in the same house. But I never really saw myself getting so much enjoyment out of building my own gigantic wreath either, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when stuff like this happens anymore. With the basement and fireplace basically done and relatives asking if we want their old trees, why the hell not? The fireplace is in good shape for stockings at least, and incredibly we had enough ornaments to basically do a second tree. So I guess Christmas morning is going to be in the basement from now on. At least I can still watch “A Christmas Story.”

Actually nicer looking than the one upstairs.

Of course we didn’t get just a tree, we also got a lighted mini tree that the boy instantly claimed as his, and a host of other lights, garlands, and old outdoor decorations. I could have used some of that two weeks ago but whatever. A co-worker randomly gave me an advent tree too, with ornaments for each day. The boy claimed that one too. Things are looking very festive around the house these days.

Although I am a little worried that this signals a trend for our house to become the dumping ground for stuff no one wants anymore. I’m okay throwing stuff out as necessary but I don’t want piles of everyone else’s crap taking up space in our garage in the meantime. The wife would say this is just my inner bah humbug coming out but as good as all this stuff looks right now, come Dec 26^th I’m going to have to start figuring out where to put it all.

Things are done the way they're done b/c that's the way they work.

There’s a skylight in our kitchen, along with a sliding door that exits onto our back deck. A bright, sunny kitchen was a HUGE selling point for us and the space is one of my favorite things about the house. That’s even after we realized two doors and a skylight letting in sun all morning easily added 10 degrees to the house’s temperature, especially once it really warmed up in the spring. When it got hot early this summer we put paper blackout shades over everything in desperation; that worked well enough to at least keep things live-able. It looked horrible and it was a pain every time you wanted to use the door to go outside, especially after we added a sheet for an extra layer, but it served its purpose. 

I finally reached a point this fall where I had had enough and got the okay to buy some cordless cellular shades to over the door. They do the same job and look much better doing it. But I had to remove some trim to get them onto the wall, and was wondering how to put it back up once I was done. I trimmed a section out so it would fit where it was originally, and thought I could glue it back on. Wrong.

Obviously a cut out if you know what you're looking at, but not the kind
of detailI pay huge attention to.

Needs some touch up paint, cover some nails, good to go.

After scrambling to keep things in place with glue and tape, I finally realized grabbing two finishing brads would be so much easier b/c that’s exactly what those nails are made for. A quick run back to the garage, and 90 seconds later things were on the wall for good and we were all done.

So much better. I should probably build a valance next.

That’s a long way to express exactly what I said in the title here, but trying to be cute and glue things on was the absolute wrong way to go. Finishing nails might mean having to cover them and do some paint touch up, but things are done that way b/c it works that way. A good lesson to learn, especially if I want to repeat the process on our basement sliding doors.