Archive | Activity RSS feed for this section

A Quick Job

9 Aug

Within less than a week, Monument 11 was completed! I ought to give myself a pat on the shoulder as it took less time than I anticipated with the usual steps (after carving) of sanding down to shape, patching any unwanted gaps, painting the base coat and applying the finishing colors.

I am finalising my thoughts to begin the glued two-piece Meranti. However, with several golf games lined up this month, one being a tournament, I will only begin after all the golf in case I aggravate the tennis elbow whilst carving away on the hard Meranti.

As for the idea, I am actually contemplating something new, a Gnome home! I hope I can pull it off.

img_4494

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Empty Nests

7 Aug

The trays that I use to house all the Citizens of Gigglesville look so empty these days despite a population of 170. Well, when so many of them migrate, 90 to be exact I am bound to have empty nests. I need to step it up to fill the void.

Forget the big Meranti pieces for the time being, just focus on the Citizens and I shouldn’t have any problems to fill up the trays again.

img_4491

The Giant Citizens, Superheroes and Baby Whales decided to take one tray to fill the void

Tags: , , , , ,

The Trophy Owl

6 Aug

A friend recently requested for a white colored Citizen of Gigglesville. Now I have never done a white one as the end result because white is always the base before any colors are added.

But I obliged her for special reasons and voila! I now have what I call the Trophy Owl. This could be the beginning of something new or a whole new category by itself. Hmm…

img_4330

Tags: , , , , ,

Stuck Yet Again

3 Aug

After that creative run to carve up 36 Citizens of Gigglesville, I now find myself suddenly stuck for ideas. I have been staring at this two-piece glued Meranti block for some time already but just cannot figure out what to carve. Another Gandalf-like Gnome? Or perhaps a Gnome abode, something totally different? Hmm…

Actually I am caught in between wanting to start a new piece on a Meranti and wanting to play more golf. Knowing that working on big Meranti pieces will aggravate my tennis elbow will inadvertently affect my golf, the balance is tough.

Then again the itch to carve is strong. That’s why I have continued with more Citizens on soft balsa to preserve the elbow after the 36 Citizens was done.

The block beckoned again. In the end, I opted for a one piece Meranti and started on Monument 11. The block would have to wait.

img_4432

Tags: , , , , , ,

Battle of the Boxes, Part 2

2 Aug

I seem to be losing to hubby as far as our battle of the boxes is concerned. I have stopped my online shopping for the time being because there’s nothing more for me to buy to enhance my carving tools while just about every week, he’d received a box or package at the office and it’s usually an air plant, what else? Haha.

This latest package came and for once, it’s not an air plant but a dozen plastic garden pots that are not available at the regular nursery.

img_4270

Tags: , , , ,

All Packed and Ready

31 Jul

This is it! All 36 Citizens of Gigglesville are finally packed and ready for their mass migration tomorrow. I hope the recipients will treasure and love these Citizens as much as I do. It has been very therapeutic and satisfying for me carving and painting each and every one up.

Goodbye my Citizens, be good, behave and be happy in your new homes!

img_4267

Tags: , , ,

Weekend of Champions

30 Jul

I have amazing girlfriends and they inspire me with their grit, mental strength and focus. Over the weekend, three amazing women came out tops in their respective activities, two in golf and one in an ultra-trail race.

Girlfriend #1 defended her Champion title in the Women’s category in her golf club’s Annual Championship, Girlfriend #2 was the Nett Champion amongst men in a golf Invitational tournament while Girlfriend #3 romped to fourth placing in her category in the 100km race. A weekend of champions indeed! Well done, girlfriends, you ladies are simply amazing.

Tags: , , ,

Change of Colors

27 Jul

Out of the blue, I decided to change the colors of two Monuments. I felt the original colors were not contrasting enough. Also the fluorescent green on the smaller Monument was patchy, I didn’t like it.

The new Martha Stewart Granny Smith green color beckoned and lo and behold, I painted it over the fluorescent green. But I couldn’t do the same for the blue on the bigger Monument because there’s green already. So I used Fire Engine red instead.

I like both the Monuments much better now. All they need is just a final gloss varnish for the finishing touch.

img_4318

Tags: , , , , ,

700 Days

24 Jul

This is a crazy milestone and I’m not even sure why I am keeping up with it. Sometimes I can’t even play the game on my iPad Mini because the device has been unstable but I can launch the app just to get this.

For the record, I have kept up with the Daily Bonus for Candy Crush Soda for a span of 700 days; I think it is rather mind boggling, almost two years.

I started out on both the iPad and iPhone but somehow, on the phone, the chain has been broken several times. However on the iPad, it’s still going strong. So for every 100 days, you’d see a post on this crazy number.

img_4317

Tags: , , , ,

No Clearance to Migrate

19 Jul

I don’t normally do mass migration for the Citizens of Gigglesville. Every now and then, only one or two would leave with the max being five. The last big migration was back in January when M1 brought nine Citizens and one Friend (Spiny Lumpsucker) of Gigglesville with her back to the US. Thankfully, all passports issued had no problems.

This latest mass migration, a huge one with 36 Citizens, had been very challenging. First, to meet the deadline, all Citizens were carved almost daily. Then they were prepped just about every other night. However, I encountered a major hiccup at the last hurdle.

Sixteen Citizens have no clearance to migrate just yet because the passports issued for them had control issues. The numbers did not tally in other words. The immigration officer must have be sleeping on the job to cause such a boo-boo. The affected Citizens are the orange, red and purple species.

Luckily the next day the problem was resolved and they are ready to join the 20 to migrate. Thank goodness.

img_4252

Tags: , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →