2011 Tour De France

This years tour was quite wonderful.  Eva and I watched nearly every stage and certainly cheered our favourites.  She like Andrew and I liked Thomas.  I knew Thomas would not win but I was glad that Cadel Evans did.

It is always inspiring to see people perform at the very highest level in anything, sport, art or wood working.

Shop tip

Honey Bottle filled with Hemp Oil

  Sometimes the obvious is not so.  For years I have been buying glue in gallons and decanting it into some smaller bottle.  But just yesterday I got this brain wave.  I have been using hemp oil to finish cutting boards and to create a semi-gloss finish on milk paint.
   Typically the hemp oil comes in a tin, like Minwax Wipe On Ploy, Watco Danish oil etc. all finishes that I use regularly.  Dispensing those finishes is often a mess and guessing what is left in to bottom of the tin is always a challenge too.  But, since the tins are fairly small I had never really bothered with transferring them into another container.  Duh, from now on that sort of stuff goes into a bottle like the hemp oil.  I can pour out a very controlled amount and I know exactly what I have left.
   Good ideas can sometimes be so simple and so obvious.

Kieran the Carpenter

The trades are in good hands I think.  But of course I am not 100% objective.

Basement Family Room

   If you have followed this blog at all lately you know that I have not been very active.  I do have an excuse.  We have been working on our basement.  That is the one wall.  Eva and I put up the wall paper.

    She put in all the extra time to get it nice.  The mural did not come pre-pasted as expected.  The sales person was mistaken and instead of long narrow panels it was 8 square panels.  Now there is a seam in the middle but with careful work by Eva is looks darn good.

The other wall is panelling and wood trim, I made the and installed the trim. All that remains is for the bookcases to be refilled and the wall paper to be put in the stairwell.  At this point at least the chesterfield is out of the work shop and I can get back to cutting boards and boxes.