Hi everyone! Welcome to my bookshelf this week! Here's what I've been reading.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

For any dog lovers out there who currently do not have a dog, this is not the book for you...but only because it'll make you want a dog really bad. And for those lucky bums of you who already have a dog, well, reading this might make you wish you had a different dog. In short, I loved this book. Author Garth Stein tells a story of grief and loyalty, love and persistance in this creative novel, and he tells the whole thing through the voice of a dog--an intelligent, well mannered pup who insists that the key to dogs remaining subordinate to humans is their lack of opposable thumbs. It's sad, it's frustrating, but it's also lovely. I would definitely recommend this book. 

Messenger by Lois Lowry

Most people in my generation grew up reading books by Lois Lowry. In my family, her WWII novel Number the Stars was a favorite. If you aren't familiar with that book, you may be familiar with her novel The Giver. The Giver is a popular classroom book telling the story of a young boy growing up in a society bereft of emotion, differences and even color. He eventually learns disturbing secrets about his community, and flees, but whether he survives or not is very ambiguous. I read this book in fourth grade, and it's taken me 15 years to discover that Lois Lowry actually wrote a pseudo series of two books based on The Giver--this series includes Gathering of Blue and one of the books on my shelf this week, Messenger. The books are not necessarily a series, but definitely make more sense when they're read together as their location and characters overlap. Each book raises a lot of questions about how societies work, indiviualism, and morality, which is why they are perfect for a fourth grade classroom. But they're just mature enough that they make compelling reads for adults as well. So if you feel like some quick, thought provoking books, these three are great choices.

  

I love books about the supernatural--vampires (yes, I loved Twilight) werewolves, witches, wizards, I love it all. And fortunately for me, supernatural books are definitely in vogue for YA literature. These next two books fall within that category, and they have the same sort of underlying romance as the Twilight books--girl meets boy, falls in loved, discovers that the supernatural is a reality and that her newfound love could be life threatening. Now, I know that whole storyline can get a little bit redundant, but I still always enjoy seeing how the authors pull it off. So these are two of my bookshelf reads this week:

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl  

This is a sweet, supernatural story set in Southern USA, a mix of fantasy and the south. The lovely and unique thing about this book is that the main character is actually...a boy! Yes, this is a boy meets girl story, and for once, the boy is more vulnerable than the girl. Sort of. In this book set in a small southern town still clinging to its Civil War roots, things start to get interesting for main character Ethan Wate when a new girl shows up. And she's not just any new girl--she's the niece of the town's mysterious recluse. Ethan finds himself falling for the new girl, and soon discovers that his world is a much more complex and dangerous place than it seems. Oh, and best of all (to me), it's part of a series! I can't wait to read the next one, Beautiful Darkness.  

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

 This book is a fun, modern day twist on the classic story of Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. After her father is mysteriously murdered, main character Jill Jekel finds her entire world turned upside down. And the mysterious, aloof Tristen Hyde, who is smart, intelligent, and truly understands her situation, only complicates matters. When brainiac Jill is invited to take part in a chemistry scholarship competition, she first decides it's not worth it. But when she learns that, before his death, her father spent her entire college fund, she finds herself desperately teaming up with Tristen Hyde in an experiment that soon becomes much bigger than just school. An interesting book that follows the classic battle between the good and evil impulses within, as present in the original Jekel and Hyde, this book is cute and creative, an appropriately spooky read for the Halloween season.

 

During my last post, you were introduced to my beautiful new chairs. This post, I'll show you the progress I've made so far.

Prep work: Chair 1

My first chair actually needed fairly little work. It was solid, fairly smooth, and hardly creaky at all.

 However, as you can see the seat caining had busted right through. So my first step was to take a pliers and rip that seat right out of there.

 Now, I know ripping isn't exactly the best way to get rid of these, but we're a little short on tools around our basement, so I use what I have :) That left me with a bunch of ragged edges around the seat though, which I then tackled with whatever sandpaper we had around.

 

The rest of the work, I did in Howell. For this chair, it involved just sanding off the finish with an electric sander.

Prep Work: Chair 2

The next chair, on the other hand, needed more than just a little work. It was creaky, cracked, and to be honest, I was a little afraid it might collapse any minute. We took it to Howell, where I could get help from a pro--Jared's dad, Jeff. 

We began with the most basic issue--fixing the structure. This involved adding screws, replacing screws, gluing, and regluing rungs. This was fun, because for me it was a major learning experience. One of the most valuable things I learned to do was to reglue the loose rungs. And it was easy--we pounded them out with a rubber mallet, reglued it with some Gorilla Glue, and then clamped the chair together and moved on.

Fixed rungs

With that fixed, the chair actually became pretty stable. All it took then were a couple new screws, and it was all set. Mostly. I was still pretty concerned by this cracked seat corner. Not only was it a gaping crack, but it was also kind of unstable.  

 So we used some wood glue and clamped it together, and then I filled the crack with some Plastic Wood. This is what it looked like after.

Once this chair gets a new coat of paint, it'll look like nothing was wrong to begin with.

Seats:

Now, just looking at these chairs, it's pretty easy to see what's wrong with them:

No seats!  So the next obvious step is to make them some seats. For this, I had a couple options, some complicated, some not so much. But what I wanted (and still want) is a seat that is solid, snug, and can be removed easily, with hopes that the final product will be a cushioned seat that I can lift off and change fabrics at a whim for a new look. Jeff came up with the design we ended up using--a fiberboard seat that extends to within an inch of the edge of the frame. This seat is attached to a wood insert that fits into the frame hole, preventing the seat from sliding and adding weight to keep it tight. 

I made a basic pattern for the seats using poster board, traced it onto the fiberboard, and then faced my greatest fear: the band saw. Ok, so it's not my greatest fear. It's just that everytime I think about an electric saw, I get images of severed fingers and hear echoes of those woodshop horror stories teachers like to tell students to scare them. But it ended up actually being pretty fun. 

So brave... :)

At the end of the weekend, this is what we ended up with:

Freshly glued, sanded, ready for painting, and now, including seats! The next step will be painting, and  adding foam padding to the seats to make a basic cushion. Thanks for reading!

 

  

Hi Everyone! 

This is the first "his" post, but I've got to admit, he's not the one writing this. Jared's been putting a lot of work into fixing in his bike, so I'm here to show off all that work to the world! 

The "Before" Picture

A couple weeks ago, Jared adopted this 1979 Schwinn Traveler from my dad. He had originally purchased this bike before marrying my mom, before the kids came along, and most definitely before me. He got a lot of use out of it, but eventually it just became an ornament hanging on the wall in their pole barn, collecting dust and, unfortunately, a whole lot of rust. When Jared and I were in town on a visit, we saw this beauty sitting outside, ready to be donated to a rumage sale. Ironically, though, Jared has been searching Craigslist for a road bike for months now--when we move to Vancouver, we're not planning on bringing Vanna Green (my old green minivan) along, leaving us with only one car, so instead Jared's planning on commuting via bicycle. So he immediately snatched the opportunity to adopt this bike. Considering its age, this bike was in pretty good shape. There were some issues though:

Worn tires, a little bit of rust

More rust...

And more rust...

And a couple spider webs too :)

 Jared started out by stripping off parts of the bike, piece by piece, to decide what all needed to be replaced, and what just needed a whole lot of cleaning. Within a couple evenings, Jared's bike was in pieces.

Baggies of parts--all labeled 

With the help of WD-40, steel wool and a whole lot of elbow grease, Jared was able to scrub the rust off the bike. Eventually, the wheel spokes and other parts were actually shiny again. 

Jared was able to remove most pieces by himself, but found that, for those pieces where a special tool was necessary, many bike shops in the area were willing to help out--most of the time for free, too. And the one shop that did charge got a nice little surprise--apparently, at one point or another some bees decided to make this bike their home, and unfortunately, the shop ended up with a floor of dead bees. Oops! A couple parts did need replacing too, like the tires, but Jared was able to find some great deals shopping at nashbar.com. 

By the next weekend, the bike was down to just its frame, ready to be sanded, primed, and painted.

 

That's all for now, but check back again for an update on the painting process!