2019 Christmas Ornaments

As in past years, I made Christmas ornaments for close family members. I used the Glowforge again, but instead of putting the kids' pictures on the ornaments, I put their handwriting on them.

Now, those aren't our names, but it is the kids' handwriting- I just told them to write those names for illustrative purposes so I could list these ornaments in my Etsy shop without advertising their names to the world (we're using pseudonyms until they're old enough to responsibly decide to have an internet presence). Grandparents and great aunts received ornaments with our real names :)

Weekly Mileage #135 and the Banjo Concert

foggy morning

It was a super busy week, which I knew it would be, so I took time Saturday evening to write down everything I needed to accomplish in the coming days. I didn't get everything done, but I did get a good percentage of my list accomplished.


Monday started with me calling the pediatrician to see when they could see Ocean. They were able to squeeze him in forty minutes later, which gave us twenty minutes to get ready and out the door (we were both still in our pjs). Ocean's ear had been oozing for almost a week, he was complaining of it hurting, and the ear drops weren't helping. The doctor switched medications, and we were out the door in time for preschool.

While he was at preschool, I went for a run and a hike, then ran some errands. I spent the rest of the week finishing our costumes and accessories (pictures to come later!), working on a talk, working on ornaments for my Etsy shop, cleaning and organizing the basement, and helping River get ready for his first banjo performance.

Wednesday I finally spent some time on my bike. My bum did not appreciate the long hiatus. The last time I rode it was at the beginning of May.

Thursday Ocean had a makeup preschool day, so I squeezed in another hike.

cool spiderweb covered in mist

Friday evening was our ward Trunk or Treat, and I finished our costumes Thursday night, so I wasn't working down to the wire. I'll share more pictures soon.

Saturday Sunshine had an orienteering thing with her Scout troop. While she was at that, my YW counselors and I made and photographed the samples for our fundraiser (we never held it in the spring, so we're squeezing it in now).

Shortly after we arrived home from those activities, my dad stopped in for a weekend visit. He had some training in Maryland during the week, so he took the opportunity to visit us.

We went for a hike to enjoy the fall foliage.

The kids' music teacher had organized a banjo outreach program for the local schools and topped it off with a concert Saturday night. There's not a lot of younger banjo players and she's trying to drum up more interest. The concert was mostly attended by older people, but there were also a few high schoolers.

River and his teacher started things off playing a song, and they were followed by a local lady who was very knowledgeable about the roots of the banjo (west Africa). She's made examples of the various iterations (they were first made of gourds) and played some tunes on them. Super cool! She was followed by a guy who played mostly clawhammer tunes. Jeremy took advantage of the ten minute break to take the kiddos home since it was getting late, but my dad and I stayed for the banjo/guitar/fiddle tunes and the bluegrass band. It was a lot of fun with some great music!

River did a great job and no problem getting up in front of a room full of people to play.

Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting. It's been a couple years since the last time I did, but I felt less nervous this time, so that's a plus. I think it went well. It had been hanging over my head for a week and a half, so it was nice to finally have it done and check it off my list.

Dad had to leave Sunday afternoon, but it was nice that he had more time to spend with us than he has had on previous visits.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 1.45 mile trail run
Monday- 1.75 mile hike
Wednesday- 10.00 mile bike ride
Thursday- 2.15 mile hike
Saturday- 1.20 miles hiked
total- 16.65 miles

27 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.56 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

112.38 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
41.16 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
90.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
246.10 miles total

Weekly Mileage #84 and the Super Productive Day

Halloween hike hugs

We had some warmer days pop up in the forecast, so I took the opportunity to start building our desk. Since I sold the buffet and school cupboard, we now have space in the living room for it. Which means once it's done, we will finally be able to get the laptops off the dining table.

What the desk looked like Wednesday- the pieces of plywood are sitting on top so we could get an idea of how it felt in the room. I didn't have the right size screws initially, so I just tacked it all together while we got a feel for it and decided if we liked the size or not. Then I took it apart, sanded it, and put it back together with glue and the correct screws.

Ocean had his follow-up audiology appointment. There's still fluid in both ears. His hearing in his right ear is about the same, but his left ear has worsened, though still isn't as bad as his right ear. On the plus side, they tested to see if he has permanent hearing loss, and he doesn't. His hearing is just muffled because of the fluid. We've got another follow-up in 6 weeks. Gah.

I had hoped we could move forward with getting tubes in, but they want to continue documenting the presence of fluid in his ears. I realize they want to document the on-going presence of fluid, but fluid has been an issue since he was born, so I feel like we're kind of past that at this point. If we take him to his primary care provider because his ears are bothering him, we can request an EENT referral. For the most part, his ears don't bother him, but since he's had these issues since he was born, it's probably more a matter of him not knowing any different. Though lately he has started telling us to "talk louder!" on occasion (I think it's related to his left ear being worse). Next time he says his ears are "owie," we're taking him to the doctor and getting things moving.

We got through the last of the Halloween festivities. I think the kids hit a total of 4 trunk or treats and Sunshine and River went trick or treating. Let's just say they don't need any more candy anytime soon.

Mr M's back has been bothering him a lot lately (he injured it doing PT with the Army when Sunshine was a baby), and he had an appointment with the VA Friday afternoon. Only it was canceled that morning (the dr was sick) and rescheduled for a month later. Instead of waiting four more weeks to get seen, he went to the ER at the VA clinic. As expected, it took forever, but at least he got seen. Supposedly the ER doc scheduled a follow-up with one of the primary care docs sometime this week, but we don't have the details on that yet, so we'll see if that actually happens.

this large branch fell and River wanted a picture with it before he threw it over the side of the deck (with some help from me)

Saturday I managed to have a very productive day, despite a bit of a slow start to the day. I spent some time on the treadmill, for the first time since I broke my foot. At first I was tempted to try a little slow jogging, but once the twinges in my foot started, I knew it was not the time for that. Hiking in my stiff hiking boots hasn't resulted in much pain at all. But walking in my much more flexible running shoes allows a lot more movement in my foot, which isn't what it's used to, resulting in some pain. Not bad, but enough to know that I need to be patient for a bit longer before I try any running.

After the treadmill, I cleaned up my craft area and, since I had wood and tools out already for the desk, I finally built shelves for all my GlowForge materials. I forgot to take a before picture, but trust me when I say this corner was a mess and it was impossible to find anything.

The shelves aren't fancy, but they are functional and I finally can easily find everything. While I was building the shelves, I had the GlowForge working on some ornament designs.

Once I finished the shelves, I went upstairs and worked on the desk some more. I need to caulk the base, then I can paint it. Once the base is done, I'll put the top on, which will be split down the middle and hinged so laptops and books can be stored in the desk.

ready for caulk and paint

Both boys were asleep by 6:30, which is totally unheard of, but they haven't been taking naps and they insist on getting up way too early, and it's catching up to them. Their early night meant I had a nice stretch of time in the evening to spend with the GlowForge, working on more projects. I don't always have such productive days, but it's nice when I do.

Weekly Mileage
Wednesday- 1.86 miles hiked
Friday- 2.23 miles hiked
Saturday- 1.55 miles walked on the treadmill
total- 5.64 miles

27 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

327.48 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
265.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
594.62 miles total

Weekly Mileage #81 and all the Glow Forging

totem etched on leather

We went home from Wood Badge with more homework than I anticipated: finish our patrol project, finalize my ticket (5 projects I need to complete in the next 18 months), make a patrol flag, meet with my patrol twice, meal plan and shop, and prep to plant a tree for the course service project. We're doing our own cooking this weekend, so we have to bring everything for it. Since I know what I need when it comes to being gluten free, I volunteered to do the food shopping. It's one more thing on my plate, but it means I won't have to worry about my food, so it's worth it.

pocket hangers with our totem

Needless to say, last week was super busy and I didn't get everything done that I needed to. Exercise didn't happen, other than walking around while sourcing. While not fast walking, it's tiring on several levels- walking up and down every aisle, the standing while scanning items, the very hard floor, the bright lights, all the different colors of packages, the noise... Those last three are all related to my being a highly sensitive person (HSP). Too much visual and auditory stimulation is exhausting for me, and is why I like things quiet and uncluttered.

smaller feathers for hiking poles, larger for patrol flag

I volunteered to head up making the patrol flag, and I was thinking about how I'd do it as I drove home from Wood Badge Sunday night. My initial thought was to use canvas, but then I realized I had leather and a Glow Forge. I could etch our totem on some leather and use that for our flag. I could also do some little dangly things with the Glow Forge. Then I got thinking about the pole for the flag, and I realized we had some wood that would probably work, so I wouldn't have to buy a broom handle. Then I thought, maybe we have enough wood to make hiking staffs (staves?) for everyone.

I checked the shed, and sure enough, we had the wood I thought was there. We bought the wood years ago for a project, then moved and never built what we'd planned. Two moves later, we're still hauling that wood around, and it's time to start using it.

I met with my patrol on Saturday to put the flag together and discuss all the stuff we need to have ready for Friday. We finished earlier than I thought we would, so I took advantage of the fact that nearby was a Walmart and a Target across the street from each other that I'd never been to. I found some good finds to send in to Amazon, then headed home.

I still need to foam the owl decoy in place on top. It's been sitting in the shed for several years after serving its purpose of scaring woodpeckers away from our porch columns. We were spit-balling ideas for the flag and someone mentioned using an owl decoy, which reminded me that we had one. It's hollow, so it doesn't make the pole too top-heavy.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 2 miles walked around stores
Wednesday- 4 miles walked around stores
Friday- .5 miles walked around stores
Saturday- 2 miles walked around stores    
total- 8.5 miles

22 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

303.44 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
265.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
570.58 miles total

Arrow of Light Award made with the Glowforge

When I bought the Glowforge, one of the projects I had in mind was to use it to make Arrow of Light awards. I've been cutting them with a scroll saw, which is time consuming and fiddly, and prone to mistakes. You can see them in this post and this post.

After a lot of time (more than I really had available) experimenting, this is what I came up with. I'd intended to cut all the way through the wood, like the scroll sawed ones, but the wood is too thick for that to work efficiently. I like the cutout look, but I like this engraved look as well.

I've used pine in the past, but I used oak this time. I was working under a time crunch, so I didn't have time to try it with pine. I'll have to do that next time. I'm not convinced I like the oak on pine look, but it's not awful.

I only had a few minutes to photograph the award, and the light was fading fast, so the quality isn't quite what I'd like, but you can still get a good idea of how it turned out.

I do love the texture that resulted from the laser repeatedly passing over the grain of the wood.

Anyone in need of an Arrow of Light award?

The GlowForge of Awesomeness

Last Thursday I finally took delivery of my GlowForge. I ordered it about a year and a half ago, when it was in pre-production, but post-Kickstarter, so I was at the bottom of the delivery list.

Since it was delivered later in the day, I didn't have time to do much more than open the boxes and check for damage (a wise precaution, as the main box arrived with a sizable rip and two missing handle locks). Friday we were gone all day, so the boxes sat in our library, tantalizing me. Saturday morning I woke up and built a box to lock the GlowForge in when it's not in use. I could have done this earlier, but I wanted to wait until I knew it was on its way, and by the time I received the shipping email I didn't have time to build the box before the GlowForge arrived.

Why did I take the time to build a lock box before setting up the GlowForge? These little boys.

While cute and lots of fun, they are not very trustworthy around machinery and electronics. Or much of anything, really. The box is to protect them from the laser of the GlowForge, but also to protect the GlowForge from the boys.

Locked up tight- the cable runs through loops that are attached to the base of the desk, the box itself, and the wall. Fingers crossed that that's enough to keep the boys from tipping it over or opening it up.

The GlowForge is a laser cutter that can cut, engrave, etch, etc various materials. I originally bought it to etch/engrave leather, but since then I've found a number of wood projects I want to do as well.

When I was researching laser cutters a couple years ago, I almost bought one out of Australia, but the lower price couldn't compensate for the lack of instructional and technical help and the fact that it didn't look very intuitive to use.

I'm not very technically savvy; I have to work hard to figure out mechanical and electronic things (give me hand tools any day), so intuitive is important.

The GlowForge, on the other hand, looked much more intuitive and had a forum set up already. And the demonstration videos were pretty impressive, so I bit the bullet and paid the higher price.

in the box, ready for use

Setting up the GlowForge Saturday afternoon showed me I made the right decision. It was super easy to set up, even for someone like me who isn't technically savvy. After the setup process is complete, you can make three different projects to try out the capabilities and explore the creation process for each project.

The tutorials have you use Inkscape for the graphic design elements, but I'm used to Photoshop, so I did have to spend some time figuring out Inkscape. I tried it out a few years ago and ended up deleting it because I couldn't figure out how to use it, but this time I'm doing a lot better. Maybe because now I can see the similarities to Photoshop, which I've been using for awhile now, but hadn't used as much the first time I tried Inkscape.

So there's a bit of a learning curve in figuring out how to get the GlowForge to do what I want it to. I had some problems cutting out an image that I'd engraved, but I've got it figured out now (I think).

Here's what I've been working on:

first: the GlowForge ruler 

The first project on the GlowForge site.

the paper is masking that protects the wood, leather, acrylic, etc from scorching

second: square maple syrup tag 

Different from the second project on the site, but more in line with what I wanted to do. This is the one I had a hard time figuring out how to cut out.

third: round maple syrup tag

Similar to the third project on the site, which was a gift tag created in Inkscape. I imported an image I created in PicMonkey to Inkscape to add the final details. Once I get more familiar with Inkscape, I'll try to do more creating from start to finish in Inkscape.

The round maple syrup tag turned out the best, and I'll be making a couple more to attach to small jars of syrup that will be distributed to friends and neighbors.

I have more projects lined up, but have to find time to squeeze them in among everything else I'm already doing. I knew this was going to be an issue, but this is the type of creating that I've been missing while focusing on building my online businesses, so it's good to do some creating again.

Want your own GlowForge of Awesomeness?
I have a GlowForge Basic, which is currently out of stock, but they have some GlowForge Pro models in stock and ready to ship. Yes, they're pricey, but you can get a discount of $1500 if you use this link to order (I'll receive a commission as well, at no cost to you). This offer is only good until they sell out of their current stock, so if you've been waffling back and forth for awhile, now might be the time to jump in.

with the masking still on

masking off