#dad projects

[martymango0]

Rockin’ Around the Oyster Tree: Day 2

Having left our oysters to soak overnight, we return to work the next day!

So, first things first, we started our work day rising off the oysters. This was done outside because 1) there was more room to work there than in the sink & 2) bleach water can’t really hurt a gravel driveway when you dump it there. Maybe not best practices, but it’s Dad’s house so whatever; I follow his lead. Basically we just poured off liquid, diluted what was left with water & repeated until we felt comfortable we weren’t gonna burn our hands with bleach when we handled the shells.

[ID: a man turning on an outdoor spigot beside a building. Water pours into a plastic tub full of oyster shells on the ground below the spigot]

While those dried, I started on an idea we had to improve upon the last tree. 

See, for structure the tomato cages are great, but you have to wrap them in something to fill the gaps to really make a tree - namely, chicken wire. In our case, coated chicken wire, both because it’s more durable & because it’s green, which is Christmas-y. 

On our first oyster tree, we just wrapped the cage in chicken wire & scrunched it to make it fit. This worked fine, but resulted in a somewhat lumpy tree & an ugly bunch of wire at the top. Dad had a role of butcher paper lying around so on this go we decided to make a pattern for our wire wrap so we could cut allowances into it.

[ID: two stacked tomato cages, one red & one green, lying on a length of brown paper on a concrete floor]

[ID: a red tomato cage wrapped in a cylinder of brown paper stood upright on a concrete floor]

[ID: the wide end opening of a red tomato cage wrapped in brown paper. the paper is attached with blue painters’ tape and overlaps in such a way that a corner sticks out past the edge of the cage]

The problem with wrapping something conical is that one assumes it’s as simple as making a cylinder & cutting wedges out of the top until it tapers properly and it is that, except for the fact that the bottom of your cone is still a circle. Which has a curve to it. Which means the bottom of your pattern also needs to have a curve to it or else you get what happened to me where you have a big wedge of corner sticking off the bottom of your cone.

That said, I wasn’t trying to make an exact pattern here; my plan was for “close enough” both because I wasn’t about to spend more than 20 minutes on this and because I am well aware that no plan survives contact with the enemy & chicken wire doesn’t behave the same way as paper. Heck, my paper wasn’t even tall enough to go all the way up the cage! the idea was just to have a sense of the size of the allowances we would need to create.

[ID: a red tomato cage wrapped in brown paper upright on a concrete floor. The paper has cuts in the top half of it so it can be tapered into a roughly conical shape. It is held in shape with bits of blue painters’ tape] 

[ID: a finished brown paper pattern for a conical wrap laid out flat on a concrete floor and tacked down with blue painters’ tape]

My cuts ended up sorta off center but because I misestimated how many I might need to make and determined where to make them based on that misestimation. Live and learn, I guess. It’s an easy enough thing to account for later though, so I wasn’t too concerned.

My finagling with the pattern took enough time that Dad had time to drill the new batch of shells. This meant we could implement innovation number 2: shellacking the shells. (No pun intended.)

Because we string lights in these trees, Dad thought it might be nice to add a bit of shine to shells with varnish to heighten how much they reflect the light. The mother of pearl in oyster shells naturally has a bit of a gloss to it, but it’s not exactly shiny; the unvarnished shells on our first oyster tree sort of diffuse the light from its bulbs. The idea with this one was to make it glimmer more. As with most of our supplies, the shellac was scavenged from the hoard that is my dad’s garage.

[ID: a table covered in a sheet of cardboard on which oyster shells of various sized are laid out. A man sits at the short end of the rectangular table using a sponge brush to paint the inside of a shell with varnish from a tiny brown paint can]

We only shellacked the inside surface of the shells, that being the outward-facing side when we put the tree together, because we were’t looking to seal the shells. The varnish did cover the holes we had drilled in the shells, but this ended up not being an issue.

Once we finished painting we had to let them dry so that was that for the day. 

Also, we had to go eat turkey dinner ‘cause it was Thanksgiving which, if I’m being honest, was probably a greater factor in calling it a day there than anything else.

.

A masterpost for the rest of this project can be found HERE

[missjashin]

Okay we all know that Eddie was (is) a Garfield kid, based on the multiple Garfield mugs that we’ve seen hanging in the trailer.

But I am absolutely making Steve a Winnie the Pooh kid. Because just look at Christopher Robin and tell me that the little lonely polo shirt wearing boy is not the core of Steve Harrington.

Just look!

That is little Steve Harrington no question about it.

[machairocat]

no i am not over how one of the first things kris does of their own accord without our input is to lay down their life for this weird ipad kid they met five hours ago no i am not over "hell yeah i am here to humiliate you fucker" no i am not over "did you miss me? because i missed you!" no i am not over how much not only susie but also kris (and ralsei) genuinely care about their new adopted little cousin guy and the fact that he went from having no friends at all to 3 ride or die bffs who were willing to do what every adult in his life failed to do which is stand up for him i-

[blusandbirds]

i’m thinking about sam naming his passion project after his father and jamie’s father naming jamie after himself

[littlemushroomboi]

oh uhh,, patho stuff

[noretreatnancy]

no but I actually adore the idea that the kids spend so much time together/at each other’s houses over the years that their wardrobes kind of merge… like there are certain shirts that belong to everybody, they’re all borrowing the same sweater, Lucas’s mom buys him a new button down and then three weeks later Max walks in wearing it like a jacket. None of their socks match because they keep accidentally spitting up the pairs so there’s one red stripe sock at Mike’s and one at Dustin’s. Will and El share a closet. Will comes to dinner wearing a flannel he stole from Lucas who stole it from Max who stole it from El who stole it from Hopper

[emoreooo]

“My dad didn’t care if I failed that project, but I didn’t want to fail him.”

gus week 2023 by @sapphic--kiwi | day 2: family/school

[redinthesea]

A pretty old, messy and unfinished doodle of baby Marisa hanging out with her favorite uncle.

[webshood]

headcanon that jason sometimes hates his height, because he's too big

like he'll try to lay his head on duke's lap bc duke likes to brush/braid/play with hair, but he's so tall that his legs hang out of the sofa and his shoulders are too broad compared to duke's thighs so his neck has to be in a slightly bended angle

he has to sit on the floor so alfred is able to cut his hair every month

finding clothes is a burden bc he's a large man so xl should be his go to, but he has a hourglass, so sometimes it's tight on the shoulders/chest area but too loose on the waist, or the clothes fit on his shoulders and chest, but they shrink when he puts them on and suddenly he's wearing a crop top. pants are a nightmare of their own, he doesn't wear a lot of jeans bc he has thick thighs, but a small waist and he hates loose jeans bc you walk around with half your ass out

he sometimes forgets he's a big guy now, so he'll hug Cass and end up squishing her a little too much, she says it's okay, but he always feels a little guilty

when he's in civies in the streets, women and children are more wary of him, he'll be crossing a street and people will avoid crossing his path, more often than not he notices children hiding behind their mothers or any less threatening adult, and these are the demographic of people he tries to protect the most, so it hurst a little to be avoided by them

if he's out with damian or cass, people will often approach them "discreetly" asking if they need any help, talking to damian in condescending tones asking if the big man with him is his parent, damian often gives them the stink eye, but cass usually grabs his arm and says: "he's little brother !"

if he's out with steph at a club or something and he's scolding her for accepting a drink from a stranger or talking a little more loudly so she can hear him, bartenders will ask if she needs a special drink and jason almost got into a fight once with a dumb fool that was trying to defend her from him

[skrunksthatwunk]

something he can't put into words.

[martymango0]

Rockin’ Around the Oyster Tree: Day 1

Part of our Thanksgiving ritual (fit in between the three feasts our family ends up having) is that my father & I end up doing a project - sometimes artsy, sometimes practical. After the success of our first go last year, my stepmother decided she wanted a second one, so that was this year’s. This time, she wanted it with multicolor LEDs instead of the red traditional string of lights we used last time. It being the second tree meant we got to learn from last year’s mistakes... & make new ones.

First, the existing tree (plus cheesy got-it-on-a-wine-bottle-gift topper, to replace the wire star that was apparently lost at some point):

[ID: a conical structure hung with oyster shells to resemble a Christmas tree set on a small table in front of windows at night. It is lit with red lights and topped with a little cloth chimney with Santa legs sticking out]

We started with these green tomato cages & a bag of clean oyster shells

[ID: two stacked, bright green tomato cages in a wagon in a garage]

[ID: a brown paper bag half full of oyster shells in another brown paper bag]

My stepmom decreed that the bright green was too bright so we spray painted them black outside on a very windy day...

[ID: a man’s arm in a white shirt holding a can of spray paint aimed at a pair of tomato cages on a piece of cardboard and a tarp set out on a patio. The nearer cage is partially painted black over its base green; the father cage is still green] 

 ... at which point Dad decided the cages we had were too flimsy for our project - which was the correct assessment, but meant we had to go out and try to find sturdier tomato cages. In rural Virginia. In November.

Luckily, we’re not the only people around here who repurpose gardening supplies for Christmas crafts; the lady behind the counter at the local garden supply even asked us if we were using our cages for trees or for angle bodies!

[ID: stacks of tomato cages in many colors under the awning of a metal building surrounded by faded potted plants and garden/home care supplies]

We bought one red and one darker green cage of sturdier construction, as well as a masonry bit for Dad’s drill. The bit was because we has remembered how long it had taken to drill through the shells with an all-purpose/wood bit last year & Dad figured a masonry bit, specifically meant for harder materials, would probably be more effective & less likely to break. He was right, so chalk one up for experience as a teacher!

Now properly supplied, we got to the grunt work. 

I sorted our clean shells into Good, Maybe, & Bad piles based on flatness, the flatter the better, and a little bit on how nice they looked and - at Dad’s request - how thick the part he’d be drilling was. 

We’ve found that when working with oyster shells one is looking for a thinner spot to drill through, as this reduces the likelihood of breaking a bit or of misaligning the hole. It also goes faster, which is a plus. I’m always worried we’ll break one, but that’s yet to happen; the only ones we’ve had to toss over the course of both trees have been shells Dad drilled too close to the edge on and broke open the hole.

[ID: metal pans containing oyster shells on a table covered with a sheet of cardboard. Visible behind them is a man’s hands and torso as he uses a hand drill on a shell placed on a piece of scrap board]

While Dad was drilling I made jump rings to hang them out of armature wire he had lying around. We couldn’t find a dowel of the right size anywhere in the garage - though I know we had one last year - so I wrapped the wire around a sponge brush handle.

[ID: piles of oyster shells, a twist of silver wire, a pile of finished rings, pliers, and a wooden brush handle wrapped in wire all on a cardboard surface] 

[ID: a hand holding an oyster shell which has been hung from a silver wire ring. Behind it are a piles of rings & shells and a sponge brush on a cardboard surface] 

 I made so many jump rings, y’all. The pile in that last pic has over 80 in it & that’s not even all I made for this project. It was enough for the amount of clean shells we had, but we quickly realized that we did not have enough shells to cover our tree. But that’s okay. WE HAVE MORE.

[ID: black bins and an orange bucket with oyster shells in them on gravel outside next to a wall]

Both of those black bins are full of oyster shells. The orange bucket is a 5-gallon bucket, for scale. None of these oysters were purchased, by the way; my parents raise them, which is kinda the impetus for this whole idea. There are so many oyster shells in this house, y’all.

Back to the project though. 

I was sent out to the side of the garage to collect more shells - preferably large ones, ‘cause our first batch didn’t have too many of those - while Dad finished drilling the ones we had. The new ones needed to be cleaned, which meant a soak in bleach and water. It also meant that was all we could get done that day, so we called it there.

[ID: a tub of oyster shells in a utility sink into which a hand is pouring bleach]

Thus was spent the Wednesday before Thanksgiving! 

.

A masterpost for the rest of this project can be found HERE

[annaizscribbling]

Concept: Teenage Miri always shows off her little outfits for her parents. Always. Before she leaves for school, even when she eventually gets a job, she always takes a moment to show them and do a little spin so they can appreciate and compliment her outfit choice.

Rei and Kazuki never get tired of the routine, and genuinely enjoy seeing her little outfits and praising her choice in shoes. Rei in particular is hardly a fashion enthusiast, but it will never stop either of them from nodding and commenting like high fashion experts.

[aimlacely-sapphic]

🔥Fire Lord Zuko Headcanons🔥

My semi-canon compliant headcanons of Zuko after the war with a side of Zukka

Zuko's first few months as firelord are a bit of a mess. He's desperately trying to put together some semblance of functional governance in place of the corruption left in his fathers wake, while simultaneously trying to negotiate peace treaties and settlement agreements with nations his predecessors attempted to destroy.

He's overworking himself, not sleeping enough, forgetting to eat and overall just not doing a great job taking care of himself, convinced if he doesn't take care of things instantly then he's not doing enough.

It all comes to a head once the assassination attempts start getting out of hand. At that point Zuko is simply not sleeping so Sokka, Mai, Tylee and Iroh stage an intervention (you cannot convince me Iroh would stay in Ba Sing Se once things start getting out of hand)

His security get upgraded, Toph gets brought in to vet the staff (she can tell when people are lying!! why wouldn't she get to kick people out of the palace?)

And finally things start to settle down

Once the peace talks and negotiations are done he starts transforming the Fire Nation itself

A lot of people have written about this but I am absolutely convinced that Zuko spends the first year trying to get the palace staff to trust him not to hurt them

By the second or third year they are willing to speak to him and have more than small talk

He goes about making a lot of changes in policy but first he disappears for 2 days only Sokka and his head guard knowing in advance

He goes incognito through dozens of towns and villages

He visits schools (putting his blue spirit skills to use)

He goes to orphanages and homeless shelters

He goes back to the Sun Warriors to tell them about the end of the war and seek advice on how to reshape the way firebending is taught to everyone (and maybe he ends up adopting a dragon egg in the process...)

When he returns to the palace he is ready to transform the nation

He makes it a crime to use corporeal punishment

He brings back old traditions and rule for Agni Kais where they can only be fought by adults against adults provided they both agree to the fight. The Agni Kai stops when a person surrenders or at first burn.

He wanted to completely end the practice of Agni Kais but tradition could not constantly be broken by his reign (according to his advisors) so the changes just make them less common or harmful until they go obsolete

He puts in place programs for veterans to get the treatment and support they need.

He creates a fostering program where children who have been left behind can find love with parents who have lost children or veterans who want to bring love and hope to the world

He works with Aang and Sokka and Master Piandao to create new curriculum for the schools which is historically accurate, brings back culture and joy and teaches students to think for themselves

He includes some of the wisdom from the sun warriors in the new curriculum so that firebending, and really all fighting forms can be taught with their duality in mind. Fire burns but it is also life. Martial Arts can be use to kill, but they are also an art form.

Making the curriculum stick is a longer process but with help from people on the inside, slowly but surely schools start to teach in a better. kinder way

Its around the time of Zuko's 20th birthday when advisors start to bother him about marrying.

It is while trying to avoid their matchmaking that he start realizing that he likes Sokka (he's an oblivious biromantic asexual, why would anyone expect it to take less time)

Not much changes when they get together, they still spar and go to the gardens to feed the turtleducks together, Sokka still makes silly faces behind ambassadors backs, Zuko still goes down to the kitchens to make them a pot of tea to have together witting in his room (the kitchen staff are used to this by now)

But they start sharing more intimacies, finding what feels comfortable for them in the form of hugs that last just a bit longer and chaste kisses on shoulders and cheeks and foreheads.

And when the egg from the sun warriors hatches and a tiny dragon comes tumbling out, they name him Druk and take care of him together

Zuko continues to go on trips incognito a few times a year and it is on one of these trips what he finds a young child alone on the side of the road. When he learns that she has know family he tries to taker her to the orphanage in the town near by. She runs away and there is nothing Zuko is willing to do to get her to go.

She has a grittiness and fighting spirit that reminds Zuko of his younger self, an independent streak and impulsiveness that border on dangerous. And even though Zuko has to leave her that day he can't stop thinking about her as he returns to the palace.

Sokka notices right away and they talk about her, and adoption, and the fact that Zuko needs an heir and end up figuring out that they want a child of their own to raise now that Druk is all grown up

When Zuko next returns to the town he brings Sokka, a legal witness and adoption papers with him.

He introduces her to Druk and when she pets him and falls in love they start to talk to her. She begins to trust them, telling them her name is Izumi and that she doesn't like the orphanage because it reminds her too much of her past.

They stay for a few days getting to know her and when they ask if she wants to live with them she does say yes.

Over time Zuko comes to find balance and love in the peace he created in the Fire Nation<3

Note: I cannot take credit for all of these ideas, some of them come from a bunch of fanfictions I've read over the years and especially Post-Canon Fire Lord Zuko (and his staff) by RejectsCanon

[yunyunbby]

"It's just outfits"

Their outfits:

Better image:

[koiinoborii]

They deserved better

[canolaaoil]

To all my best friends, only twelve leagues and one text message away

1. Dearly Departed, Brockhampton. // 2. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion. // 3. unsent project. // 4. I am in Eskew. // 5. His dark materials. // 6. Where did you go? Hishaam Siddiqui. // 7. parts in motion, Vera Much. // 8. Your Name Engraved, Herein. 9. Hmu, spacegirl GEMMY.

Description follows

[ID: song lyrics reading, "What's the point of havin' a best friend if you / end up losin' him?" end ID]

[[ID: a photograph in the style of an early digital camera of two teenage girls cuddling under blankets on a couch watching something on a computer. end ID]

[ID: a poem reading, "Life changes fast. / Life changes in the instant. / You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. end ID]

[ID: a fuzzy photograph in the style of an early digital camera of three people huddled around a fridge. All of the people have brown hair, glowing golden from the lighting and only one of their faces is turned toward the camera. end ID]

[ID: a text entry on a pink background reading, "To: Harry I / i've written 43 / poems about you. / come back and i / won't have to write anymore. / -asle" end ID]

[ID: a photograph in the style of an early digital camera of a couple in a photobooth with only their feet and legs visible behind the curtain. one is sitting on the other's lap. ]

[ID: text reading, "The problem is, my love, is that I can't sustain the fact of your death. / I can convince myself that it's true, force myself to picture your rotting, ruined face dumped in a mass grave somewhere out in the world... / ...and then my phone buzzes and I'm still expecting an unexpected message from you, telling me what corner of the globe you've holed up in, the foods you're eating, the card-players you're outwitting." end ID]

[ID: a photograph of two people in an aquarium, shot from behind. they stand in front of a large window showing a tank of water and seaweed. the two pose as if dancing grandiosely with no one else around. end ID]

[ID: a paragraph reading, "And it was comforting to think she and Will had another thing in common. She wondered if there would ever come an hour in her life when she didn't think of him- didn't speak to him in her head, didn't relive every moment they'd been together, didn't long for his voice and his hands and his love. She had never dreamed of what it would feel like to love someone so much; of all the things that astonished her in her adventures, that was what astonished her the most. She thought the tenderness it left in her heart was like a bruise that would never go away, but she would cherish it forever." end ID]

[ID: a photograph from behind of a group of people walking together down a city street. two of the people have their arms around each other shoulders. another two link arms. the image is slightly blurry. end ID]

[ID: a couplet reading, "One day I woke up and we no longer spoke the / same language. I haven't heard from you since." end ID]

[ID: a photograph of two people, focused on one in the foreground. A young woman looks lovingly towards something out of frame, her face resting on the meat of her hand. In the background a man looks away towards another subject. The lighting is dreamy and yellow. end ID]

[ID: lyrics reading, "Show me it all / Tell me what's wrong / You got your hard drive stolen / Your phone's been broken / Play me a song off of mine / Show me it all / Show me a rise / Show me a fall / Pay me no mind / Paint me in gold / I don't mean to pry, but give me a call" end ID]

[ID: a gif from the movie 'Your Name Engraved Herein' of Birdy and A-han riding a motorbike through the streets at night. Both smile widely as they breeze along, Birdy sitting behind A-han with his shirt off over his head, yelling happily. End ID]

[ID: lyrics reading, "They say everything has reason / Life fluctuates like seasons / And maybe someday soon we'll both find our reason / But bitch you're still the bro / Never letting go / Of the friendship bracelets we made when we were twelve // I'll be waiting by my phone / For you to hit me up / For you to hit me up / Hit me hit me up" end ID]

[ID: a photograph of a plaque on an outside wall reading, "LIFE HAPPENS BUT I STILL CARE FOR YOU. I HOPE YOU'RE DOING WELL." end ID]