The amazing colour changing bass guitar

Some of you will know that I play bass guitar (occasionally). I have long fancied making another and adding an extra string. When I spotted this 5 string guitar kit I decided it was time to have one. This time, rather than cutting the body out myself I got someone else to do it but it still needed finishing and assembling. Here's the picture highlights!

Dry assembly for marking the bridge location for pilot holes

Testing the finishes in places that don't matter once the sanding was finished.

Dye applied to the wood (wet). I had a pile of ancient fabric dyes in the garage I decided to try and they seemed to work quite well!

And the colour once dry. It really did change that much!

With the first layers of french polish it changed again.

All polished up.

Applying lemon oil to the fretboard.

Earthing the bridge with a bit of aluminium tape.

Checking the conductivity - you want the strings to be well grounded.

More bits go on. Several of the tiny screws for putting all the bits on were useless! I snapped a few even with pilot holes.

Wired up and fitting strings.

Read More

Sewing the Seeds

Do you remember back in January how we wrote a post about getting on top of the garden? We'd ticked off lots of little jobs and were looking forward to what came next. Well what came next was - you guessed it - the bathroom, and we've not really been in the garden since. Our fairly sorted patio now has a toilet and sink sitting on it, and the old bath is still in the middle of the lawn!

Seed sewing time is upon us though, and regardless of the state of outside we're being hopeful and getting ourselves set up for another year of vegetable growing. We're using our conservatory as a greenhouse once more as this has worked well in the past. This year we've set up a simple set of shelves to rack up all our seedlings on, and over Easter we set about planting some veg.

So far we've sown these:

Broad Beans
Courgettes
Leeks
Peas
Pumpkins
Runner Beans
Salad Leaves
Squashes
Sweetcorn
Swiss Chard

It all sounds quite exciting when its laid out like that. We always try and grow those things that are nicest fresh, and that we eat lots of over the summer months, but this year we've expanded the list by trying to utilise every bit of space we've got, and also to pop in a few autumn and winter veggies too. Sounds like a plan to me....

Read More

Sleeves... there should be two!

We seem to be having a little blogging crisis at the moment. It's a bit frustrating really, having (reasonably) happily written three posts a week since we started nearly two years ago suddenly we're missing out posts left, right and centre. The reality is that time just seems to be running away with us, another Wednesday, another Sunday and - oh look, it's Wednesday again.

One thing I have been ticking over recently is my jumper. I've finished the body and have started to crack on with the sleeves. I'm itching to start another project, but masterfully resisting on the basis that otherwise this one will never get finished.

 Another couple of days like the last few though and I'll be almost there. I seem to have managed a sudden burst of speed and slightly suprisingly I'm half a sleeve closer...

Read More

Photo Friday - #eclipse special

Read More

Refitting the Bathroom: 5. Two steps forward, one step back

A misleading title really since everything is part of the planned progress, but when you spend your Sunday evening undoing the work of a weekend it doesn't feel like it!

By the end of Saturday we'd got all the cabinets in position. Much chopping and sanding was needed to carefully shape each piece so that they all slotted together really well, but we got there in the end. We'd also cut the worktop into shape and could finally get a feel for how the finished bathroom was going to look. Seeing the wood of the worktop against the white of the tiles started to bring home how close we are to done.

After church on Sunday we cut holes in the worktop for both the sink and the tap and then sat those in position too. What do you think? From the start the counter-top sink has been one of the features we've been looking forward to and seeing it in position - even if not plumbed in - was a very exciting moment.

And then we had to take it all apart again! Our bathroom is now back to how it was a week ago and all the cupboard panels are down in the conservatory so that we can sort all the final details and get everything painted.

Read More

In My Kitchen

Being completely unprepared for this months "In My Kitchen" I've taken the prompt rather literally this time - and no "pre-blog tidying" has gone on! I'm not sure we've ever shown you our kitchen as a whole. Its rather chaotic in different ways; the complete mish-mash of cupboards, empty spaces, broken drawers and different colours of worktop come to mind before we even start on the added everyday clutter.

Looking around, this month of particular note is the broken down freezer which we've decided has given itself up for lent! We were going to hurry out and sort a replacement, but having dealt with the food that wouldn't fit in the fridges little ice box the urgency has gone. It'll have to be done soon though.

The chop saw sitting in the middle of the kitchen is certainly not a normal feature, nor the large stack of cardboard packaging to its right. A birthday present for Joe which should hopefully make the upcoming cabinetry a little easier.

Talking of cabinetry, without the cabinets in the bathroom there is no sink, and so toothbrushes are sitting on the kitchen side still.

Finally, some rather pink lilies that Joe found in the reduced section at 10% of their original price. Bargain.

What's in your kitchen? Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial is collating her monthly roundup of kitchens all around the world.

Read More

Meanwhile, in Knitting News

The bathroom has been all consuming of late, but I've been trying to find time each day to put a few more stitches on my Big Cables and Little Ones Too jumper as well.

I've now separated the body and the sleeves and having less stitches to deal with is giving me the illusion of speeding up. I know I have to go back and deal with the other stitches later but I'm content with the fantasy for now.

Having finished the garter stitch yoke has actually sped things up though. Try as I might my purl stitch is still definitely slower than my knit and round after round of stocking stitch is now flowing rather nicely.

All the cables have now "disappeared" so its simply knit knit knit for the time being which is just right at the end of a busy day.

Read More