Finished!

We did it!

I think this is the final little thing we had to do to our lamp. We "re-patina ed" the color of the solder to a more brown to match the base better and put little blue beads on the pulls. We had to drill the holes bigger in 3 perfect little blue beads with a little diamond bit on a dremmel tool. That in and of itself was a project! We've had the beads since before Thanksgiving! But now it is done and Mom can check that "little project" of her list! I think she is now on to a side panel for Kate's front door. I'll try to document it with photos too.




Mom truly was the inspiration and motivator for this project. I did the little blue top pieces and the blue borders. She did the very intricate flowers. We have 662 pieces total in the lamp. Not sure if you can see our little blue beads on the pulls, but it truly makes the final little detail to our year long project.

I am so proud of our efforts. Mom is an amazing inspiration. She enjoys her lamp every night at 5:15 it pops on and gives her a little thrill. Spring is pushing hard here. Soon it will be time to adjust her timer for her lamp to come on later! Love the longer days. Come on spring!

One year of blogging, and one long year of loss

What a year. I started with thoughts about loosing my beloved friend, mentor and plastic surgeon; Thomas Sanzaro suddenly. It was exactly one year ago today. I have honestly missed him daily since I heard the awful news from Ashley in Rehoboth Beach. Good news for him, he has had a wonderful addition to his family, a new granddaughter Carolina Chase Butler on 9-9-10. Hard to believe, but she actually looks like her beloved Grandpa. I am thrilled for the whole family.


This year has been a year of changes for me too, in a much better way than above. Tim quit his IT job at Sibley and become a full time student for the first time in his whole life. It is much harder than he thought, but he is now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for his Bachelor's degree in IT and a minor in computer securities! Waaaahoooo! He has 9 of his 15 classes done and is already registered for 4 more this fall. Then two in the winter and he can start looking hard to find the perfect match for employment and qualifications. We have had an interesting year of major changes in life style, spending habits and no dining out. We are doing quite well, better than we both had hoped. Amazing what you can do when you make a budget and stick to it, even when it is easier not to! We both are working hard in our own ways, and are working toward one goal together. What doesn't kill us will make us stronger!


I have posted 95 blogs. I think I am getting better every time. Some are short, some are long. Some I expect responses from and get none, some I only have my faithful commenter Bethany, and occasionally I get 3 or 4 comments! I'll have to join a blog community like Bethany did and diverse my readers! And my reading. I'm looking for good gardening, cooking, organizing one. Any suggestions will be welcome!


And on a much happier note today Mom and I picked up the lamp base. Major changes to it, the addition of 3 bulb holders, a top to accommodate the shade, six pounds of lead in the bottom to keep it from toppling over from the weight of the shade and viola, we have a renovated lamp base. They cleaned her up and she is shiny new. And looks spectacular if I do say so myself. Here are a few photos, we still need to darken the silver solder, and we will soon. (or maybe after Mom gets back from Portland/Chelan)






Pretty impressive! And we are not done, we also want to find the perfect cobalt beads for the pulls. But that will come in time.

Almost, but not quite

Well here she is, not quite done, but we are getting there. We needed to lower to top and the light rigging done underneath, hence the measuring. The base is Mom's from her junior high school years. I'll pin her down on when. The lamp base is being modified to fit such a lovely top! We still need to patina the soder and "get er all washed up". I have been the main slow down, being number one tutor and paper editor! This is from July 24, 2010. So the base was promised "around Labor Day", which has now come and gone, so maybe this week!


We are getting there, who knew it could take so long (mostly me the hold-up!)

The lamp, veggin', vacation a go go

So, where did today go? Oh! We went to see Salt, a good spy mystery with Angelina Jolie, Tim loves her, and she is a pretty good actress. Did some snipping of skin tags on the man o my dreams. Soldered a bit o finishing touches on the lamp....still working on that project!
Read a bit o my book. Puttered in the garden. Took photos of the sunflowers, will post, just this computer does not like the card, so have to go home to do that.

This week Pat did "put up" a bushel of tomatoes we got at our local favorite farmers market...that will taste like heaven in the winter! If they last that long!

Tomorrow the plan is to do my toes, proof a paper, finish up the house projects. We had a leaky back hose bib, fixed! An ice maker not wanting to make ice....still perplexed by that one. And two spots that need to be replaced in the siding....It is always something with houses, I suggested Ice trays! Did not go over too well! :)

Cannot believe my week of vacation is over again! But I've had a lovely time and mostly did not HAVE to be anywhere or DO anything!
But next will be a conference right back here in Sept. with Audrey and Kate in Ocean City, MD, we will commute from here! Should be fun. And then our 6 year anniversary! Talk about where does the time go!

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes to Tim!

Just a bit-o-what I'm making

This with Mom........And finally here is a preliminary look at the lamp. This really has been a chalange. Actually the final soldering has really worked on Mom and I. It seems like such a simple thing to do. IT IS NOT. We are so close to done. Now to wait till the base is done.......by Labor day. Which is getting closer and closer.




And this with Tim..........I had no idea this fountain would take so much puttering with. But I love it when it works and the birds love it too. I love the sound of moving water.

Memorial Day 2010

What a beautiful HOT weekend we are having. Tim and I decided to stay in Maryland for the 3 day. The traffic is not worth the fight, and we have lots to do here too.
Tim spent the weekend in his long final push towards finals. I helped with a Humanities paper. I think he wrote 5 papers and took 4 tests so far! Only 2 weeks to go and 5 classes will be done! YIPPIE!
I also puttered a bit in my office. I think I'll post photos to shame myself into cleaning it up.
Monday I slept in and then headed to Mom's to do the first soldering on our lamp. The finish line is in sight. The lamp is in it's ugly duckling stage. Today we spent 5 hours just spot soldering the joints together. We have 662 pieces and that makes a lot of little spot soldering. We also started outside and had to move inside as the pieces started sliding off the wax. It was 99 degrees today (Bethany and Andy you came at the right time!)

Before we began on the porch, we did not get 3/4 of the way around the top part before the sides started sliding off! Funny now, not then! :)



Rosie the riveter! Oh Momma the soldier!
Note the pure concentration.


They fell off in this position too, but were not slowly sliding down the sides!



So we are ready for class! Yippie! The end is really in site! Now to learn to make the solder look perfect, get the lamp base made to accommodate the top, attach the ring to the bottom, solder the inside, betina it, clean it and then we are done!

From Christmas to Memorial day in 6 short months of a project!

Panel 4 cut and "only the foil" to go

This has been an amazing process. Mom was very overwhelmed at first. The thought of 664 little tiny pieces and 4 panels to cut really had both of us frozen for a time. After the second class we realized we needed to jump in the pool and go for it, others arrived at that class with a panel done and we had not made one cut in glass! We got one panel cut and from there Mom has been the deadline Queen. She gets all the flowers cut and puts just a little pressure on me to come and do the "easy" squares that I volunteered to cut when we were picking out a shade. Little did we know what we were in for or I think Mom would have said no thanks, and never looked back. Now she is already talking about "the next one we do"! The "we" may have to be Kate, not me, but I somehow see more "easy top part squares" in my future!

Below you can see what we were up to tonight on the final panel. The lamp really is looking quite impressive. I love the foil in copper, but it will look so much better once we get going with the soldering.


This is only 3/4 of the panels, although is looks complete, it is not. I agree with Bethany that it actually looks better in person.




Here is proof that I too have been cutting glass.




Mom making sure all her flowers are just right.



This is what I arrive to for each panel waiting for the blue sky and borders to be cut.



Panel 4 with almost all the glass grinded, it is cut, just needs to be grinded and fit on the dome shade.

One better disc, and 3 panels foiled

Mom had her kyphoplasty today and is actually feeling better! YEA! So glad there are procedures to take care of aging, broken back bones. Everyone drink their milk.

Mom is really doing so well that she insisted on going to our 5th of 6 stained glass classes tonight, she did fine. Only complained about her neck! And we got many oohs and aaahhhs about our 3 done panels. Bethany said it looks better in person! I'll add photos soon.

I am too overwhelmed with the past 5 days to post about our Kestner/Kuchta/Haywood vacation. Just see Bethany's, she is doing a great job so far! Letme just say I'll vacation with Bethany and Andy ANY time. But I will add my thoughts too.

Let me get past this week. I'll back post! I cheat like that all the time, so just when you think you've seen all my thoughts! I put new ones in!



Here is what we took to class tonight, impressive, but the back side is blank!

Stained glass project

sketch of how we want the lamp to look


just a beginning of the black eyed susans


So here you have our lamp in progress.




Mom has been wanting to use up some of her stained glass she has had from prior projects. Being the good depression girl she is. So, Mom wanted to make a Tiffany lamp, and did not want to drive to the classes in the dark from 7-9pm in Kensington. The classes started in December are every 4 weeks for 6 lessons. That takes us to June for our "showing". SO. Guess who said yes she would take her and "help" with the project. Above you see the coloring for our pattern. We are in the mode of black-eyed susans (me being the only Marylander in the group, other than Todd!) They are supposed to be poinsettia's but we did not want that much red in a lamp. So we are going with the yellow and blue theme, which is always a good thing.
So here are 2 photos, we are actually further along with the project than this. One panel down, only 3 more to make. I'll get another photo of this panel this weekend when I do my squares.......I am good at cutting straight lines! Mom is in charge of the flowers. And she is doing an amazing job!

I'd say there are about 12 of us in the class, Mom and I count as one. A bit unusual, but the owner of the shop is cool with Mom needing toting help and help driving in the dark. We are all at very different stages. But this 4 weeks will separate out those that will finish and those that will not. This is labor intensive, and fun, but a lot of work.

So stay tuned for more panels and to see how they start to look on the dome we solder on! Quite complicated, but fun and I am learning a lot.

Life, Blogging and comments

So, I have become one of those people who do not blog, but read others blogs and get sad when there is not a new blog daily from everyone. So, I better get my act together and blog more often. Here is the latest in my life.

Life is fine here in Silver Spring. No prying little fingers in the kitchen to distract me from my blog! Last night I made a batch of chicken soup for my husband who has a cold. He says it is healing him.

Tonight is the retirement party for my Dr. Gray. I've worked with him for 20 years, and will miss him tons. I am jealous for him and his retirement. Only 20 more years for me! Oh joy! I am truly blessed to have been able to work with such a man of great stature.

My "lights only" tree is still up, with one ornament only-all 4 of us have a little bird ornament this year. Actually pretty funny about the 4 of us. Between us we have all options covered. Mom: tree, ornaments, no lights, Holly lights, ornaments, no tree, Me: tree, lights (one ornament after Christmas!) and the best one this year, Kate: Tree, ornaments and lights! Silly I know, but fun!

We have not seen temps above 32 in 3 weeks. It is wicked cold here, and with the wind, the wind chill gets us to single digits. Tonight we are expecting more snow 1-3 inches. Oh joy. I am on call this weekend and really do not want to deal with snow on call.

Tim is in class again. Only 14 more classes for him to get he BS in IT. Five more and he will have an AA. Yea!

Mom and I will be back in class on Tuesday for our stained glass lamp shade....watch out Tiffany lamps!

Not much else.

10 days till Christmas and I did what?

This ia a stained glass window Mom made for me over 10 years ago, she is now inspired to make herself a tiffany lamp!

So, tonight Mom and I ventured to the land of Kensington's mini warehouse district and Mom signed up for a Tiffany lamp class. It is from 7-9 pm and she does not like to drive at night, in fact the last time she did she was in tears. SO. I drove her tonight. I will be the facilitator for her lamp project. I am a bit excited, just not so sure how much help I'll be, other than encouragement and the ability to help her with glass selecton and to cut the easy little square bits along the top and bottom. We chose a poinsettia pattern with a grid at the top and bottom. We will make the flowers pink and whitish, with blue and green back rounds (to keep me happy!)

My tree is not up, my cards are out. My presents are mostly wrapped thanks to the lovely weekend Mom and I had at the beach. We shopped till we dropped, watched "you've got mail". I cannot imagine Mom had never seen that cute movie with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Very cute Little romance movie. Almost as cute as how I met my Tim. Maybe one day I'll write the screen play and we'll all live happily ever after on the royalties......not, but it is always fun to dream! Drew Carry could play Tim and me..........Queen Latifa! ha ha ha.

Anyway all is well here in the un-chirstmas tree house. We'll get er up soon! I am sure. I am done with call for the week, I've done my promised class with Mom, now all I have to do is work about 30 more hours, mail a bizillion packages, decorate a tree, wrap more packages, bake 2 yummo pumpkin treats for Christmas dinner at Mary's, help Mom with her Christmas eve dinner.........have I forgotten anything? I am sure I have.

Merry Christmas everyone!