Thursday, September 10, 2009

Here Is Your Blindfold, M'Lady.

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At our last dance practice we had an interesting proposal.

Remember I told you about the young man who knows how to lead in dancing? He was given a short opportunity to talk about it with the other gentlemen. It was WONderful!

His sister also had a terrific idea.

She suggested that the girls be blindfolded, and be completely unable to dance UNLESS the boys actually did the leading.

Brilliance!

It was great! I would love to use this method over many practices.

In the dances, very often it is the ladies who do a larger percentage of the footwork. If the young man does not know how to lead, he could begin to feel unimportant and non-participatory. This really caused them to see how important their part was.

So cool. Wish I had pictures. It was great, and you can imagine the laughter as the girls made their best attempts.

I think Michael is coming down with the flu. He was very tired today, and is achy.

But he did a great job on finishing up the bed. He, Seth, and Mikka did the sanding.





I made an error. My dad had loaned him a dremel, since ours is no longer working, to sand down the nooks and crannies in the scroll work. I assumed he knew that's ALL it was for. But he used it for sanding the rest of the pieces as well. Needless to say, it was a little rough. So Michael spent a lot of time trying to sand out as many dips in the wood as he could. It is here that we find them...

Whoops.





Our power sander is missing, along with our jigsaw, sadly. But with a bit of old fasioned elbow grease and 100 grit sandpaper, much of the roughness was removed.

And while I worked on my sewing...





... he got the rest of the pieces done for me to put together.





Budget project - no available batting in my closet. I had to use stuffing. It's a little lumpy, but I choose to call it "Period Correct".





Here's the little reversible spread I made for it. I used available scraps from my sewing and fabric stash, and then used those for the paint selection.





And with the pillows.





I don't want to paint it. I love the natural wood, and would just clear coat it. But Maddie likes pink, so pink it shall be. Likely tomorrow.





Since it will have a thick coat of enamel, I won't tap these nails in and putty over them. The real reason - I'm not sure I have putty that's not dried out.

If you have an interest in making something like this, the wood for the project cost about 20 dollars. It was made for an 18 inch doll. I bought a 4 foot piece of 1x2 pine; a 4 foot piece of 1x8 pine, but 1x10 would give a better look; and a set of pre-cut scroll decorative pieces.

If I'd been doing it myself, I'd have taken step by step photos, but I was off picking apples.

Cut the bed base and rails to 22 inches, and then cut your headboard and footboard into whatever decorative design you choose. The headboard on this one was about 9 inches high, and the footboard was about 6 inches high. Glue on the decorative scrolls.

Use wood glue and small nails, I like paneling nails, but headless nails are nice for a less obvious look. Use 1/5 inch length. Affix the rails to the sides of the base first, then affix the end boards next, making sure you keep the whole thing level, so it's not catty-whompus when you are done.

I might add these to my ETSY, don't know.

~Faith

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18 comments:

  1. WHOA! Absolutely fantastic work! It looks great!

    I hope Michael feels better soon, and I hope you don't get anything either. If you all need anything, just give me a call! Love~

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  2. oh mthe bed look so good! I love the little pillows! That's a great idea about the blindfolding. Nobody knoks how to dance anymore, myself included!

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  3. Oh, did I not tell you that I was going to dye my hair black and have it highlighted? ;-D I think that I will go in this afternoon for a salon visit! Busy day! Love~

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  4. Your son is VERY talented!

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

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  5. wow that is going to be amazing.

    Hey i finally updated my blog with the big surprise..sorry so long

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  6. The bed is so cute! They do very good work, dips and all. lol

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  7. Leah,

    Thanks! He's a little worn out after yesterday.

    I gotta say, they left you a little dry and crimped looking, and rather alpaca-like. LOL

    ~Faith

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  8. Jo,

    Thank you. :)

    I don't know how to dance either. I'm just learning. But I really enjoy how the young men are loving learning to dance and lead.

    ~Faith

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  9. Tracy,

    Got it! He's cute, in a huge sort of way. LOL

    Hoping the kennel works out. :)

    ~Faith

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  10. SFG,

    Yup, it really was a team effort. Michael did the easy part of sitting and holding the board and tools, Seth took on the important task of looking bored while keeping vigilant eyes on the back of his lids, and Mikka did her best to make Michael's vicious sweat pant leg sumit to her feline authority.

    I'm proud of them all. :)

    ~Faith

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  11. *Chortles* I love it! I can't believe I forgot about that! Love you!

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  12. That was a beautiful piece of woodwork. I can see why you would not want to stain or paint it.

    Your blog post about getting the boys to lead in dance class made me smile.

    Nice blog!

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  13. I was checking in to see if you had updated when I spotted boyscouts on the quick links to the left. It took me to june 17 and what a cool link. beautiful log cabin, cool friends for you and Michael, and BOYSCOUTS! lol
    Hope all is well. I am home with(flu? cold?) who knows. Just looked at the coments. Are you guys sick too??

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  14. That bed is adorable!!

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  15. Velva,

    Thank you! I really enjoy woodworking and would love to have my own shop. What fun I could have! :-)

    It seems a surprise these days when kids like dancing, but I've found that with the right kind of dancing and atmosphere, they really do. This is a family, social event, and they boys are learning skills that transfer into feeling more confident with themselves.

    I'm sure it might have something to do with being able to do a lot of spinning and moving around. LOL

    ~Faith

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  16. Tracy,

    You sick too, huh? Michael's been struggling for a week now. I have been feeling it coming on, but I'm hoping it will not be too bad. I don't seem to get sick very often. Maybe I'm old enough now that I've caught most of them already.

    Yes, that IS a beautiful house. They built it themselves and we enjoy the fruits of their labors a lot. Especially that porch.

    How are you enjoying Scouts?

    ~Faith

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  17. Sharon,

    Thanks. Maddie liked it, but was even more excited about the Christmas ball she is going to attend with us. It's hard to beat dressing up for a Christmas Ball.

    ~Faith

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I always enjoy hearing from others. If you become a regular commenter, I'll assume you are being friendly and pretty much comment regularly right back. :o) God bless and have a terrific day!