The Midnight Hour Is Close At Hand

The Halloween bug has finally hit our house. Me and Ki decorated the other night....well more like I put stuff where he told me too. My niece and nephew visited a few weeks ago and I had the kids make these styrofoam and cheesecloth ghosts. I got the idea by walking past a Pottery Barn store and peeking in and saying "Are you freaking kidding me, I can make those!" They look cool when there is a light breeze and almost dark....MUUUAAAAAHHHHHHHAAHHHH!!! (evil laugh) The skeleton and spider are leftover from last year but the spider webs are a new addition and kind of fun to work with. Trick or Treaters beware, this is one scary house.

Last weekend we hit up the pumpkin patch. My wife's cousin and her husband own a ton of land in the river bottoms just outside of Jefferson City. A few years ago they started a pumpkin patch fully equipped with a corn maze, hay rides, livestock, sugary snacks, the list goes on and on. It has become a very successful adventure and they do a great job at keeping everything in order and running smoothly. We went out and cut our own pumpkins and loaded up the wagon and hauled these bad boys back home to KC. Thanks Kim and Jay @ Fischer Farms Pumpkin Patch. You guys are rocking it and it's a great vibe.

This year we decided to just paint the pumpkins instead of carving and I think they turned out pretty cool.

***EGO BOOST ALERT**** I did my annual haunted house painting...but seriously look at how cool Ki's pumpkins turned out.

Hope & Envy

Since I have started this whole blog experience and delved deeper into other peoples blogs and the way they live and work and play, it's a fantastic way to keep the inspiration levels very high. Some people like myself are still working day to day but really focusing on the after hours work and one day hoping to make the after hours the real day to day. I sometimes wonder if I watch too many romantic comedies with my wife, you know the ones where they dress impeccably and live in penthouse lofts in a big city and work in marketing or advertising, or my personal favorite where the guy basically spends his time in a workshop/barn building, cutting, welding, etc, and has the beautiful girl (my wife) drive her vintage Porsche into the side of the workshop. Again impeccably dressed and oozes a vibe of pure harmony and happiness. I strive for the day that my wife and son bring me lunch at my shop and check to see what projects are being built, or spending the day with my son building a school project, or just chilling with my impeccably dressed wife by the wood stove as snow falls (however this would not be the way she would want to spend a Saturday night.).

There are a ton of small business videos of really really cool people building and designing amazing quality handmade goods or products. This is one I ran across from Soulcraft Bicycles, a brand I have always drooled over. If you have the time give it a look, who knows maybe this will be a new segment here at the circus - Hope & Envy.


              


FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft from michael evans on Vimeo.

Up The Stairs And Take A Left

I have visited a few blogs where people have put together house tours and taken pics of their "cribs". Well our crib is nothing spectacular, however it is ours and I have tried to make it different and trendier than what I feel the other houses in the neighborhood are like. I get a lot of inspiration from blogs and visiting hotels and restaurants and bathrooms and bars, the list goes on and on. Our master bedroom is pretty minimal, but that's the way we wanted it. I do want some nice artwork on the walls and eventually will add a sliding track door going into the bathroom as there is no door into the shower and vanity area. The color is Modern Gray from Sherwin Williams with dark, almost black stain on the bed, dresser, and floating nightstands. Oh by the way I built the bed and the nightstands. I got the tree tapestry from Urban Outfitters and had my Mom "quilt" it to a bedspread we already had. The pipe shelf is a recently finished project made from threaded galvanized pipe sprayed a flat black. The wood for the shelving is from a shelf that my dad built me when I was in like the 6th grade. I kept the wood almost the way it was dismantled with all the years of use and patina it had acquired. I sanded a few spots and filled in a few dings and knots but mostly just used it as is. It's a nice compliment to the dark stains and clean square lines.

As normal the pics aren't that great of quality, but I'm a builder not a photographer. So any of you photographer types that want to take awesome pics for your portfolio or trade services let me know, until then then you get what you get.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

I have been wanting a deer or moose or rhino or some sort of animal head for my basement for a little while. The other day there was a post about making a cruelty free deer head out of foam board from http://www.manmadediy.com/. It has a template you can download and all the steps. Some people spray paint them, some people cover it in contact or wrapping paper, and some boring people like myself just leave it white. The tutorial showed using x-acto blades to cut it out, but I decided to fire up my Dremel Trio and route it out and then lightly sand the edges. Seemed to work out fine to me, I do however want to enlarge the template and make a huge on of these in some sort of crazy color or pattern.