Baldur

I've been avoiding mint chocolate chip this year though in the past it was a favorite. Another that has fallen from my graces has been 'peanut butter cup'.

Baldur

What is amusing lately is that several major ice cream companies have removed any trace of pistacchio from pistacchio ice cream.
For as long as I can remember the green ice cream base has actually been almond flavored, but at least the chopped nuts have remained pistacchio. Alas, now many are using chopped almonds.
It's rather sad in a way.

Qsilv

...what *I* want to know (besides how to get some banana & ice cream concoction into my office here at this hour of night) is HOW Baldur knows it's hard to suppress the gagging sensation while eating that admittedly repulsive sounding bubblegum stuff...

Baldur

Baldur has had a bowl of it thrust upon him good-naturedly

Qsilv

heh heh... the obvious rejoinder being, "With friends like that, who needs enemies..." You're a patient man, Baldur.

You're also doubtlessly long asleep by now. I need to try that.. AFTER I stop at the store for a banana, some decent ice cream, and --yes, definitely-- Hershey's dark syrup! (dang you... lol)

Baldur

'All Baldur, All the Time'
It was arts & crafts time today at Chateau Baldur.
Baldur needed a small hanging planter for his rosary bead plant. Said plant has been spilling all over the table in the foyer, and really needs to dangle to look it's best. So I examined my options.
My one Roseville (Dahlrose pattern) hanging planter is already occupied, and there were no others at hand in a cupboard.

Baldur checked the garden centers and the big box home improvement stores. There were attractive options that were far too large for my needs but as for small hanging pots there was nothing at all.

Baldur then checked eBay and found several nice but highly expensive ones. Being unemployed made them unattainable (+ 10 points for Baldur).

Baldur

So Baldur needed to construct a planter.

My decor, is as should be expected somewhat eclectic (points already taken). If one would need to assign an era to my home in order to classify it a vast majority of the furnishings point to 1880 through 1915. Perhaps decorated by a rather progressive but certifiably mad late Victorian or Edwardian scientist who spent his youth robbing abandoned churches.

Baldur

Indeed there are later touches such as the electronics and a few carefully chosen appliances but by and far the effect is 'early mayhem'.

As for furnishings I love Mission, English Arts & Crafts, Eastlake, and Gothicky medieval pieces along with anything that Nikola Tesla or Thomas Dolby might dream up. I would shamelessly mix items belonging to Henry VIII, the Three Bears, Professor Higgins, William Morris and Captain Nemo.

I decided there must be enough useful material stashed away here at home to cobble together something appropriate. Baldur bravely dug into his armoire of delights, his cupboard of curious whatnots and his toolbox of trinkets.

Baldur

As the centerpiece of this project I found a food dome, that is a silverplated lid that one's finger sandwiches might arrive hidden under when the butler rolls in the tea cart at prompltly 4pm.
The butler however was too lazy to polish this and it had the dark lustre (+10 points) of a black pearl
This was a good size for my project having a miraculous circumference of exactly 21". 21 is readily divisible by 3 and since Baldur envisioned (+10 points) a triad (+10 points) of chains as the planter's suspension, all was right in the world.

I then found a good handful a tarnished silverplated chain and a few jumprings of undetermined metallic origins.

Qsilv

Qsilv lusts for Baldur's house... (most specifically the Vic cum Edw ...A&C, Mission/Eastlake (ooooh have you SEEN an Eastlake platform rocker??) with touches of Tesla) ...and wants to know how you can possibly get 10 for 'triad' ferchrissakes!

p.s. Thrift stores beat big box stores and eBay all to heck'n'back.

Qsilv

..BUT... I must admit, the pre-tarnished-to-the-point-of-black silver dome (or any epergne thingie) is a mind-bogglingly brilliant solution! I yearn to see photos of the finished project, dripping rosary beads and all.

Baldur

Qsilv, do you know anything about the 'Steampunk movement'?
I'm just learning about it now but am quite a latecomer. My homes have always fit the bill perfectly but I never knew there were others with the same sensibilities.

Baldur

Baldur just typed up a detailed description of how the planter was assembled and the Aethernet swallowed the message. Here is an abbreviated version:
I punched 3 holes in the rim of the inverted dome being careful not to scratch away any patina
I threaded 3 jumprings through the holes
I attached one end of each chain to the jumprings and closed the links.
I gathered the other end of each of the chains all together with a larger jumpring
I hung the new planter from a hook given to me by my dear friend, a blacksmith

Baldur

Steampunks live in their own alternate universe.
Their world is envisioned as precombustion engine, mainly steam powered but with vast technological leaps that allow for computers, airships and such, with huge social improvements over that actual era in matters of equal rights etc.

Baldur

When you get a chance check out:
http://steampunkworkshop.com/

Especially look at some of the cool stuff this place builds.
This is just one site of literally thousands, fashion alone for these guys is a major industry.

Baldur

-l= promptly

Baldur

Bob the Blacksmith had brought me a mission Morris chair as a gift one day that he found in his travels. It was solid but quite weathered.
Apparently it had sat out on a porch for a few years before he bought it.
The wood was silver toned like driftwood, every shred of color was bleached away by the sun.
Whatever finish had been on it was little more than flaking bits of clear glitter the fell off when touched

Baldur

This morris chair had a leather seat and a loose leather back cushion that were still quite supple but bleached to a very buff tan color except deep within the stitched seams where the deep brown color remained.

What a problem, the biggest sin is to refinish an antique. It loses so much of it's honest appeal, but this chair was a wreck.
I removed the cushions and flipped it over to find a maker's mark.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear?
Not the woodburned 'Als ik Kan' logo of Gus Stickley, not the orb logo of the Roycrofters but rather a tyvek label sewn into the bottom of the seat cushion warning not to remove the lavel under penalty of federal law.
The darn thing was modern.
The piece was made for 'Restoration Hardware' and was thus still quite an expensive piece. However, now there was no reason not to refinish it.

Baldur

Baldur took some very fine steel wool and gently wiped what few crumbs of finish off that still remained.
Then with an old tea shirt wrung out in a mixture of water and Murphy's wood oil soap I started to wash the chair.
As soon as the wood became wet the color transformed to a deep amber with a fire I never expected it could hold. I had been planning to stain the wood but this was not necessary at all.
I bought some actual non-polyurethane Spar varnish in a satin finish and gave the chair 3 coats. I was determined the wood needed better protection this time around.
Tandy's online site provided me with chestnut brown leather dye and a carnauba wax sealant.
What a thing of beauty this chair is.

Baldur

-v +b =label