Various friends, commenting on my occasional “note to self” Facebook posts, about something I’ve just learned the hard way:
“I feel bad for laughing, but it was funny.”
Me: “You’re supposed to laugh; that’s the whole point.”
Thus was this blog born.
Of course, having said that, I worry that I won’t be funny. But hey, even if I’m not, you can still learn from my mistakes, right? And who knows — maybe you’ll be mildly entertained (I’m keeping the bar low here).
So, anyway: hi. I’m Catherine and I make stuff. Gardens, landscape structures, shelving, whatever looks interesting or fun or like something my house needs. (It needs rather a lot because it was built almost 70 years ago. And because, you know, it’s a house, AKA a money pit.)
Welcome to the digital version of my workshop, and the place where I’ll be playing around with WordPress — or on some days, tearing my graying hair out while I fight with WordPress — so I can learn about the Genesis framework, child themes, plug-ins, and other techie stuff. Because apparently being in over my head with tangible DIY projects is not enough and every so often I need to torture myself with intangible ones as well. (Back in 2012, I hand-coded my business website; wow, that took forever, but it’s responsive and gets the job done, although it could use an update now.)
About learning carpentry and related skills
I decided to learn carpentry because I can’t always find or afford the kind of furniture I want, and I don’t want to have to depend on someone else to build everything for me, especially if it’s something relatively simple. Or — this is how I regularly get myself into trouble — something I think is going to be relatively simple…
…which basically nothing is when you’re just starting out, especially when your spatial reasoning skills are close to nonexistent.
I’m mostly self-taught — if by self-taught you mean “reading a bunch of books and watching videos on YouTube and studying Ana White’s plans” — although whenever I can, I rope my contractor friend into teaching me more. Among other things, he’s taught me how to hang and tape drywall and how to use his cool sliding compound miter saw to cut window and door trim. I haven’t yet determined how often I can pester him for more teaching before he’ll start to run screaming from the room the minute he sees me. (Come to think of it, as I write this I haven’t seen him in a while, so maybe we’re already past that point.)
These projects are what I do when I’m not editing books, and sometimes even when I am editing books but need to get up and move around and let a manuscript’s ideas or structural issues percolate a bit.
What else might you find here?
Once in a while, I might write about personal or serious things. For instance, you might find yourself eavesdropping while I talk myself through a panic attack. Lucky you!
I might also write notes to other people rather than to myself, or let my inner curmudgeon take a turn with the writing. Consider yourself warned. 🙂
What won’t you find here?
This blog won’t be providing tutorials or step-by-step photos of my projects. I can’t teach you something I’m learning as I go, and the Web already has tutorials for everything under the sun. Seek and ye shall find (and find and find and find; have you seen how many carpentry videos are on YouTube? Yowsa).
And because the Web doesn’t have enough cat pictures yet…
Here’s Lexi — AKA Lexikins, Tiger Baby, and Miss Floofy Tail. Isn’t she gorgeous? I mean, look at those big green eyes. 🙂
For anyone who’s wondering: when she comes outside to hang out in the yard with me, she is always on a leash and she’s had her anti-flea-etc. medicine applied.
* * *
June 17: While I was designing and setting up this blog, my beloved Lexi took ill. She was diagnosed with advanced lymphoma; it was so aggressive that it brought her to death’s door within a couple of weeks. To prevent her from suffering, the vet came to my house, on a sunny Friday afternoon, June 9, and euthanized her. (Lexi and I spent our last few hours together hanging out in the backyard.) I don’t have the heart to change the text above to the past tense just yet, and obviously, my first few posts are not the least bit funny. On my to-do list for this blog is to set up the mailing list so that if you want to subscribe but get only the goofy posts, you’ll be able to.
I’m not sure when I’ll start my next carpentry projects, so to get some posts published here, I’ll probably cheat by mining my journal and using some of those Facebook posts I mentioned above.