My friend Matt flew in yesterday from Arizona. We ended up going to Big Al’s pet store. We where looking at the planted tank accessories, and noticed that they want $130 for a CO2 Reactor. We put one together for under $40.
A CO2 Reactor is a device used with planted tanks that will help push Carbon Dioxide into the aquarium water. Plants LOVE carbon dioxide. It is a major fertilizer.
Here are the $40 worth of parts I needed to make my Homemade CO2 Reactor. These parts include a couple of Siphon aquarium Cleaners, some Bio-Balls, airline tubing and couplers, and an Eheim Filter part I used for a water line splice.
We disasembled one of the aquarium siphons and attached the hose to the other siphon. These are Python brand siphons, they are fitted by compression – no glue, so just pull hard, they will come apart. There are enough bio-balls inside to completely fill the tube.
Here Matt and I are leak-testing the Do It Yourself CO2 Reactor in my bathroom. We hooked it up to my Ehiem Canistor Filter, ran it into a bucket of water, and turned it on. Can you believe? It works! Only a minor leak too!
Here you can see the CO2 Reactor installed on my fish tank. I wanted it to be visable, so I mounted it right up front. I just think this gadget looks so darn cool!
So, I have today off. Went to lunch with a friend from work just to tease him that I had the day off and he had to work. Well, I was hungry too, so not just to tease him I guess. Anyway, afterwards, I went to a rather large craft store by my house called Pearl’s to find a fabric pencil that will write on black cloth.
I wandered around, and wandered around, and found this really nifty small wooden chest. I looked it over, and thought, that would be kinda neat to have. I put it back, and continued my hunt for the fabric pencil. I wandered across some wood carving tools.
Well, hell.
I just couldn’t help myself. I picked up the carving tools, and went BACK to the boxes. I looked them all over once again, and picked one out. At least this hobby isn’t all that expensive – twelve dollars for the tools and nine dollars for the box. I didn’t even get the most expensive of the tools they had! I just got the most expensive of the “cheap” sets.
Oh, I DID eventually find a nice set of fabric pencils, incase you were wondering if I am THAT flighty! I used it to draw the dragon outline on my new wooden box.
I bought a 12 pack of really cheap wood carving tools. They even fit in the box! I have a place to store my tools while I am carving the box now.
I pulled out my latest Brizilian Dimensional Embrodery project, a dragon head, and copied that image onto the side of my box. I thought I would be clever and position the mouth on the seam of the lid, so when the box opens, the dragon opens it’s mouth.
I started the carving by first cutting the background to depth. I carved in in only about an eight of an inch. I probably could have gone in deeper, but I guess I will save that incase I want to touch this carving up in the future.
I think that if you squint your eyes and get really drunk, it might look good. I am not happy with the top half of the head. The scales really turned out well though. I spent 4 hours outside in the heat working on this silly thing. I guess I will get some sun somehow!
I have a few more sides to do in the future, so maybe I will like the rest of the box when I am finished.
Mom had given me as a Christmas Present the needles, threads, hoops, and whatnot that I needed to do Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery. What is Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery? Uhmm… The best I can tell is it is just plain old hand crafted needle point using synthetic threads such as Rayon. The threads where frist made in Brazil, hence the name. The shiney, silky smooth threads make doing complex stitches like Bullion stiches easier then with a corser thread.
Do you think I used one of the many patterns mother had for my first project with my new presents? HELL NO! First thing I have to do is decide to make a flower that I can’t find ANYWHERE. An hour of searching the web found a postage stamp size photo of an embroidered Columbine. Columbine – no, not THAT Columbine – you know, the flower, the one you used to pick and eat the tips off of, Honeysuckle? GREAT! At least I know it can be done. A search for photos finds a couple of photos and a line drawing that I used to start from. I did it from scratch from there.
I had started all gung-ho. Life caught up with me. I decided tonight that I was going to finish a project I had started – get at least one checked off my list for the calendar year, right? So, a long story not much shorter. I finished it tonight.
Here is the finished project still on the stitching hoop. You can see the blue watermarker drawing I had made for my pattern. To the right and left edges are a few practice stitched I made when I was getting the knack of my Bullion stitches and sizing my French Knots. The ones you see are the ones that were good enough I didn’t cut them off.
I have read somewhere that you can judge the quality of a needle point peice by looking at the back of it. Well, here is the back of mine. How does it look? Did I do well? I don’t think it is as nice looking as the front, but that is just me.
I think the neatest part of Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery is the stitches come off the material. It is truly almost 3D! Look how the flower petals stand up off the fabric. You should really see this in person, you just want to reach out and touch it. Wipe that fingerprint of your screen silly, I said in person!
Here is the final piece all washed and dried and framed and whatnot. You can really see how shiney the thread is in this photograph.
All in all, I think Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery is a rewarding needlepoint craft. I doubt I will ever go back to counted cross stitch.
Ok, so tonight I went over to a friend from works house to get my hair cut. She has been bothering me for MONTHS on how she could do a good job. Fine, let her put her money where her mouth is, right? How could I turn down a free haircut? She even promised dinner. Free haircut AND free dinner? No WAY I could pass that up.
She is Porto Rican, right? Her mom lives with her, and was doing the cooking. YUM, real Porto Rican food. Porkchops. Now don’t get me wrong, they where good porkchops, but porkchops. No Rice, No Spice. Porkchops.
So anyway, I get my hair cut. Looks good. As a thank you, I am trying to teach her bird to mew like a cat. It already does the wolfcall wistles, so why not a catcall too… After a great deal of superb mewing on my behalf, the bird rewards my endevours. Not by mewing out a perfect melody, no, by pooping in my hand. Ok. Fine. Bird goes back in cage.
Videos need to go back to blockbuster. Lests walk. I stroll along. 5 of us. Quite the party, me and 4 women… well, girls… Her daughters are 11, 8, and maybe 3? I dunno how old the youngest one is, old enough to walk, still uses the stroller, and still shy.
We stop at the gas station on the way back to get snacks. Candybars, icecream bars, sodas and a large water.
About half way back, the girls get in a water fight. I end up ending it. No, I didn’t get them wet, they got me wet, with the last of the water in the water bottle. All I have left is the Mt. Dew. I threatened, I teased, but I didn’t splash back with the Mt. Dew.
I don’t get even, I get ahead.
Getting back to by their house, we end up going through some big puddles. Did I mention that it had rained a lot today? No? Well, forgive my poor naration skills and pretend I had. This is my story, deal with it. So anyway. Large puddles. Me, being very much in touch with my inner child, or is that always childish, well… I like the former, makes me look more mature. Me being in touch with my inner child, I perform the PERFECT puddle jump. A nice, high kicked, square stepped, large splashed jump into some 3 inch deep water without getting a drop of water on either myself or my companions. The girls thought this was great. After watching a few pitiful attemps at making a mess, I had to teach them the finer points of puddle jumping. Technique, but more importantly, enthusiasm.
To make a long story short… well maybe just a little shorter… I got the whole family back. They all got soaking wet jumping in the puddles, and I didn’t splash a drop on them!
Did I mention I got a free haircut tonight? It looks good.
Oh yeah, I didn’t take this picture, it is from flickr and was taken by somebody called ‘elston’. Thank’s Elston! Nice photo!
Well after 6 months of saving my nickles, dimes, and a lot of dollers too, I bought myself a new video card for my new (6 month old) computer. $100 bought me a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS. Don’t tell me I coulda got a better card or a better price. All I care about is I got my 2nd monitor in use again. Can you imagine 6 months of staring at a 19″ monitor wishing it wasn’t dark? I have dual monitors at work, I have had dual monitors both at home and at work for years now. The new computer drove me NUTS with only a single screen.
I am happy again. Maybe I can get more work done at home? Wait… I see a video game and talking to my mother. I guess THAT cat is out of the bag.
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