Dale & Rebecca in Oak Park » hobbies

Dale’s New Hobby

Rebecca — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:12:12 +0000

Dale has a new hobby! (I know, I know, doesn’t Dale have enough hobbies? That’s what I said.)

He’s taken up wood carving. He’s always been interested in woodworking but since we live on the third floor and have a two-bedroom apartment? It’s not the most practical hobby. Feeling especially couped up due to the heat, Dale needed a creative outlet.

He bought some chisels a couple weeks back, a chunk of wood and some work bench thing to work on (dining room table is out of the question, obviously). After a few days he decided he needed some sort of dedicated work surface that is larger than the work bench thing, so he made one this past weekend. So far he’s put more work into the bench than in carving but it seems to be making him happy.

He says he is proud of his new work bench for carving because the only tool he could use to create it was the circular saw I bought him for Christmas, a drill and some wood planes his grandfather game him.

Dale says, “Hopefully there will be no blood letting and I will have photos of carvings to show.” Show to whom? Hmm. Maybe he’ll take 3D photos of the carvings for those of you still hoarding your 3D glasses!

I’m pretty sure this means I’ll never get the vacation photos out of him–let alone some photos of Transformers 3 filming.

New Cabinet

rkilbreath — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:57:00 +0000

Dale and I are always on the lookout for new and better way to store our crap. And we have a LOT of crap. Enter Craigslist! We were going to buy some new shelves and some new storage containers for our new shelves at Ikea. We figured it would be a better solution than the innumerable small plastic tubs that make up our office. Then Dale found a set of drawers on craigslist that just might fit our weird needs.

And there she is in all her 1970s glory! We plan on giving her a paint job someday–probably when we buy a house or have a specific and exciting plan for our office. Anyway, I have a TON of craft supplies and paper and these very large flat drawers were just the trick–and our printer fits in the bottom and the scanner fits on top! So exciting (you have no idea).

Have a peak inside our drawers…this is the embroidery drawer. See the pretty floss!

A drawer filled with scissors and hole punches. That’s right–I have that many scissors. Don’t judge me!

Jewelry making supplies, beeding and wire. No, I don’t make that much jewelry. Why would that keep me from having supplies? I’m too embarrassed to show you my other drawers–needless to say all the ones that Dale didn’t stake out immediately as off limits were filled to the brim!

Even Dale gets some drawers! So far he’s filled one with paper and one with drafting supplies. Heh. He’s got a few empty drawers to fill.

Happy 4th of July–fireworks pics to come–as well as a bunch more photos from our camping weekend.

Since Memorial Day…

rkilbreath — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:56:00 +0000

What have we been up to since Memorial Day? It’s been pretty random…

I made Dale his favorite pancakes! This mix is from American Spoon and is one of our favorite things. They turn out brown and thin and tasty!

When my Aunt Diane and Uncle Randy came to visit a few weeks back we took them on a little mob tour and we meant to stop at Al Capone’s grave but it was closed when we got there. Dale and I just happened to be driving past the cemetery on Memorial Day and stopped to get a couple of photos. The gold cross is made from clothespins, oddly enough.

For some reason Mother Theresa Capone seemed like a funny name to me.

Matthew Capone was Al’s brother and somebody left him an offering. He couldn’t refuse it, obviously.

Further Randomness…

Dale reached way back in our hall closet and pulled out the crate that holds the hats and scarves. And he thought, “Gosh this feels heavy…” and out popped Sidney. Heh. And, oddly, Dale rifled around under him, got what he was looking for and put him back in the closet without Sidney ever feeling the need to get up.

I was making us some eggs and I cracked the egg and as I went to put it in the pan the egg FLEW out of the shell and landed under the pan. So, yeah, that’s not something you see everyday.

View-Master of Love

rkilbreath — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:30:00 +0000

I have long wanted a View-Master Model D. It’s considered the best of the line. It features an internal light source and a focusing feature that allows me to view the reels without my glasses.

I gave the old gal a cursory cleaning today and she’s lookin’ mighty fine!

You press that “View-Master” sign on back to light it up inside.

I took a picture of the image inside! Hott!

Gingerbread House!

rkilbreath — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:11:00 +0000

Dale bought me a gingerbread house kit waaaay back in January because we’d seen one of those gingerbread house competitions on the Food Network. Fast forward 10+ months to a lazy Sunday in November. It’s time to get ready for the holidays, right? I pull out the kit. I put up the walls. Dale put on the roof. Then Dale did the piping and I added the candy…

We decorated the walls first and then the roof. The wreath above the door? Was a NIGHTMARE! But it looks pretty cool.

The final product! Dale did an awesome job on the roof piping and the “icicles” along the roof! I am proud of my work on the roofline and the front yard! Ha!

3D Experiment!

rkilbreath — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:22:00 +0000

When we went to the National Stereoscopic Association’s trade fair a couple of weeks back Dale picked up a couple of photography magazines that gave him pointers on how to create 3D images using his digital camera on a tripod and a couple of tricks in Photoshop!

Coincidentally, TV Guide and Wal-Mart have teamed up to give out 3D glasses THIS WEEKEND! So if you’re at a Wal-Mart this weekend–or anywhere that sells TV Guide–pick up your glasses and check out these images! Can you believe we got such big corporate tie-ins!? Okay, Miley Cyrus’s big 3D concert on TV tonight also helped.

Feel free to click on the photos to make them bigger…

This is the fence in front of a Frank Lloyd Wright house in our neighborhood.

This is the cat’s scratching post–strategically placed by Dale to provide depth in relation to our TV and chair!

This is the plant that sits in front of the window in our living room. Ooh, you could reach out and touch it.

And this is the bust of Frank Lloyd Wright that sits at the edge of the park near our house. Ghostly in 3D, in my opinion.

If you somehow miss all the 3D giveaways this week, feel free to check out the Rainbow Symphony store where you can get FREE 3D glasses by sending them a self-addressed stamped envelope! Click here. I don’t know how legitimate this website is but I’m guessing nothing bad will come from sending a SASE to a random company?

And just because we’re nerdy? Check out images from Nasa in 3D by clicking here!

National Stereoscopic Association trade fair

rkilbreath — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:42:00 +0000

Last weekend Dale and I went to the National Stereoscopic Association’s trade show. A tiny collectibles fair filled with nothing but 3D nerds! I was excited to go because I love to collect antique view-master reels!

Dale was a trooper. We drove to Grand Rapids at the crack of dawn, got some view master goodies and encountered some nice (and some kind of crabby) nerds. I like the photo above–vintage stereo cameras! Neat!

This is all the loot I bought! VERY exciting! My favorites were the Chicago and Chicago at Night reels I purchased.

After our close encounters of the nerd kind we headed home, stopping for dinner in Kalamazoo with recent frequent blog guest, Sarah G. No pictures of Sarah this time, sorry!

We had tasty pizza and stumbled on an odd metal work shop that had a garden filled with neat metal work in back. It was called the Smartshop and it features the work of the artist that owns the place and they offer classes. Neat! Check out their website here.

We drove on home staring straight into a spectacular summer sunset that went from a fiery orange to a dark pink. It was a fun day.

Rebecca's View-Master Collection….

rkilbreath — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:01:00 +0000

Finally! Whatever evil bug was keeping me from uploading pictures has eased off this evening. As a test post I offer you my view-master collection.

There are my viewers. I have 16 in total.

That’s right, I like the old view-masters! I love the older viewers and I especially love the older vacation reels from the 1940s and 1950s. Whenever I go to a new place I like to collect all the old view-master reels from that place. Dorky but fun!

These are my reels.

I have tons from my own childhood and many, many more that I’ve collected in the last few years. I especially love finding some in the back of an antique store I’ve never visited before. I LOVE that.