Porch and Porch Accessories

         My day began with trips to two different craft stores, and even though I spent nearly $200 between the two I still didn't acquire all the stuff I wanted (namely a lighting kit), but I *did* return home with more sharp tools than I have fingers; including my new favorite craft tool:

BEHOLD!  THE MITRE SAW!

                                                                                             






















Just looking at a picture of that thing gets me weepy about the precision of my angle cuts!  I got so excited I bought three replacement blades because I just *know* I'm going to be finding objects around my home that could benefit from being cut precisely at a 60 degree angle.

Anyway, since work on the inside of the house is pretty much at a standstill until I get my grubby hands on a wiring kit (which will come after I figure out just how many lights I'm actually gonna' stick in the thing), I decided to limit my work to the outside of the house.

 I started my session first by attaching on the outside set of stairs, which included a set of inlaid magnets that I hoped would keep the front of the house from swinging open wildly at the houses' every whim.  Hours later this would result in total failure, but look!

                                                                                                        

Railings!  And my, look at the precision angles of that handrail!

While I waited to discover the verdict of my failed door latch, I made good use of my time by working on some minor fixed to the house.  I sheared off the sides of some balcony tiles that prevented the left door from closing smoothly, and added in a balsa wood support for the bottom of a weak door hinge - the most exciting part of which was using my new tungsten carbide reusable sanding block to custom shape the piece. 

    

So....incredibly....useful!  

The results of my sanding session.  

I still had time to kill waiting for clue to cure, so I worked on some porch decorations.  Here is a made up flower in the process of being built.  

But the star of the day ended up being my lavender plants.  I'm so stupid proud of how they turned out!  

So pretty!  

 And here is a finished shot of the day's work.  Not too shabby in my opinion! 

 And then I had my favorite miniature of my cat, Qubeley, model my newly made plants.  This picture is especially comical to me because the actual cat is terrified of the outdoors.   In dreams and miniatures, I suppose.