With almost a full two weeks to go before Christmas, the Manger scene is complete! Now I have to figure out where to keep it the other 11 months of the year...Next project, a candle box.
16 December 2011
15 December 2011
Away in the Workshop, Away in a Manger
One of the unfortunate side effects of being an architecture student while concurrently having a full time career is the complete lack of anything that even remotely resembles "free time" (hence the lack of blog posts). However, I was recently able to sneak away from the omnipresent due dates and deadlines to spend some much needed time in the workshop (aka my garage).
For the past couple years, the wife has been dropping hints that she wanted a new outdoor manger scene as part of our front yard Christmas decorations. A few weeks before her birthday, I started looking into my options. Not knowing what to expect as far as costs, my first stop was to eBay and Amazon to see what I would have to spend to buy one. To my surprise, I was looking at a couple hundred big ones for just the manger with Mary, Joseph, Jesus and a couple sheep… and north of $500 for the entire scene! So... I decided to build my own.
My first step was to find something I liked, then model, to scale, my own version.
Next, I modeled in SketchUp a 4'x8' background and placed my individual parts on it to make sure I could get all these pieces out of one sheet of plywood. In this case, I used a 3/4" sheet of plywood having one side faced with maple and the other with birch. It was $50 from Lowe's and, other than the paint I already had, was the only costs associated with the project (not bad compared to the cost of buying I mentioned above which, by the way, did not include shipping).
While this made it a little more difficult to cut in areas with a tight radius, it ended up being a bit of a blessing because, when I later decided to build the entire scene, I only had to buy one additional sheet of plywood instead of two.
The entire time I was working on this project, I was being hounded by the workshop manager. I felt like every time I turned around, he was right there to make sure everything was being built to spec. What a pain…
The final product came out pretty nice, I think. I learned, throughout the process, the most difficult part was to hide it for a little over a month until Kelly's birthday. The morning of her birthday though, was fun. I bought a landscape spotlight and wrapped that with her card. After she opened it, I'm pretty sure I got the, "Oh…nice…thanks." But then I told her the rest of the present was outside. I think she liked it =)
14 December 2011
Away in the Workshop, Away in a Manger
One of the unfortunate side effects of being an architecture student while concurrently having a full time career is the complete lack of anything that even remotely resembles "free time" (hence the lack of blog posts). However, I was recently able to sneak away from the omnipresent due dates and deadlines to spend some much needed time in the workshop (aka my garage).
For the past couple years, the wife has been dropping hints that she wanted a new outdoor manger scene as part of our front yard Christmas decorations. A few weeks before her birthday, I started looking into my options. Not knowing what to expect as far as costs, my first stop was to eBay and Amazon to see what I would have to spend to buy one. To my surprise, I was looking at a couple hundred big ones for just the manger with Mary, Joseph, Jesus and a couple sheep… and north of $500 for the entire scene! So... I decided to build my own.
My first step was to find something I liked, then model, to scale, my own version.
Next, I modeled in SketchUp a 4'x8' background and placed my individual parts on it to make sure I could get all these pieces out of one sheet of plywood. In this case, I used a 3/4" sheet of plywood having one side faced with maple and the other with birch. It was $50 from Lowe's and, other than the paint I already had, was the only costs associated with the project (not bad compared to the cost of buying I mentioned above which, by the way, did not include shipping).
While this made it a little more difficult to cut in areas with a tight radius, it ended up being a bit of a blessing because, when I later decided to build the entire scene, I only had to buy one additional sheet of plywood instead of two.
The entire time I was working on this project, I was being hounded by the workshop manager. I felt like every time I turned around, he was right there to make sure everything was being built to spec. What a pain…
The final product came out pretty nice, I think. I learned, throughout the process, the most difficult part was to hide it for a little over a month until Kelly's birthday. The morning of her birthday though, was fun. I bought a landscape spotlight and wrapped that with her card. After she opened it, I'm pretty sure I got the, "Oh…nice…thanks." But then I told her the rest of the present was outside. I think she liked it =)
29 August 2011
Hurricane Irene - Rogue Style in Surf City, NC
This video was taken in Surf City, NC. I'm sure there was some storm surge making the water levels higher than normal, and it was also likely a high tide, but there's something scary about seeing a wave as high as the pier on the beach. I would have hated to be the one standing there watching that monster bear down. Short video, but worth the watch!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92pBX29a7HU]
28 August 2011
Hurricane Irene - Rogue Style in Surf City, NC
This video was taken in Surf City, NC. I'm sure there was some storm surge making the water levels higher than normal, and it was also likely a high tide, but there's something scary about seeing a wave as high as the pier on the beach. I would have hated to be the one standing there watching that monster bear down. Short video, but worth the watch!
01 August 2011
Kelly's Quote of the Day: Die Fly Die
I made the mistake of getting in the way of the Heralds too...
Kelly's Quote of the Day: Die Fly Die
I made the mistake of getting in the way of the Heralds too...
21 July 2011
Designing a House in Which Every Surface Is Skateable
This place is pretty cool! An architect designed a house for a former professional skateboarder in which every surface is skateable. Not a bad idea for those flat days… The full article, written by Steven Kurutz of at the New York Times, can be found through the link below.
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