The fish in the picture to the left is covered with sparurathane, to the right it is dry. The picture at the bottom shows the final finished fish! 
My weekend started with a bunch of new logs. I love thinking of all the new things I can make. I turned on some music, got out the skilsaw, the drill, the dremel and the sander and went to work. I was out in the garage for hours and loved every minute of it. Below are some of the things I made. 
These start out as dirty, sliced logs. Not the prettiest things to look at. There is a television show where they "jack up the bride" by putting on the veil and maybe a tiara, they "jack her up" and make her look pretty. I like to think that about the logs. Not so pretty at first, but once they get sanded and clear coated, they get jacked up and are beautiful.
A project I am currently working on is a custom order. It is going to be a fish birdbath. I am pretty new to working with concrete, but I love the idea and couldn't wait to get started. I first put down some plastic and freehand drew the shape I wanted. It is 19" by 11". Then I put the concrete between the lines and hoped for the best. 
I then added the sides and the rocks. I am hoping it
comes out and looks as great as I think it will. I am going to give it a
few days to dry and then add the spar urethane as a clear coat. My son
keeps checking on it and now wants me to make one for him. I have to
say that so far it is much better than I even imagined. I will post new
pictures in a few days of the finished fish. 
Mouse. Mouse 2. Mouse 3. Mr.Bitey. Jr. Jeff. Princess. Elvis. DaisyMayRosesPrincessPiggy.
What the? What are those? In my house, they are the norm. In other homes, not so much. Those are names my kids and I have given our pets. At first glance, they might seem normal enough, but let me explain why they are not.
MOUSE. Mouse was a hamster that we named Mouse. Yes, we named our hamster Mouse.
Mouse 2 and 3. When the original Mouse died and we replaced it, the next two were also Mouse with the number. Again, they were hamsters.
MR. BITEY. He was the only pet we have had that his name made sense. He was not my favorite for one reason, hence the name, Mr. Bitey. Ouch!
JR. Jr. looked exactly like Mr. Bitey and he was also a biter. He, also, wasn't my favorite.
JEFF. Ok, Jeff is a Russian Tortoise. Not only is Jeff a Russian Tortoise, but Jeff is a FEMALE Russian Tortoise. My kids liked the name Jeff, so now our female Russian Tortoise is forever branded with the male name of Jeff. People in the neighborhood call her The Jeffers. Much better. Uh-huh.
PRINCESS. This would be a cute name for a female hamster, but ours was not so lucky. Ours was a male hamster named Princess. Poor guy.
ELVIS. I love Elvis and named one of our cats Elvis. One of my kids wanted to name him Balloons, so I took over on this one. We also named our 11 fish Elvis as it made it easy to point to the tank and say, "Oooh, look how pretty Elvis is," you can never go wrong. I know, I am a genius, go ahead and say it, it's ok. I also named them all the Swimming Elvises, or is it Elvi?
Last, but not least, is the cat with the hundred dollar name. That would be Ms. DaisyMayRosesPrincessPiggy. My seven year old couldn't decide on just one name and she said her cat was so special it needed several names, so, DaisyMayRosesPrincessPiggy is the name. I just call it Lazy, or Crazy, or Getoffthecounter, but the cat prefers Heresyourfoodeatup.
(c)2007 Cindy Breninger. All Rights Reserved.
