Happy Bronze Anniversary

This year marks eight years of marriage for us!  We are supposed to give each other bronze gifts.  Rather than giving each other gifts, we decided to find a lot of bronze statues throughout Kansas City and Independence and have our picture taken with them.

We started here with breakfast.  Yum!

Some of our favorite bronze statues were in Independence here is Girl with Dove.

Stella at the Spring. Another one also in Independence.

In Independence

This one is in the middle of Paseo.  You can see I-70 behind us.  This is Rev. John Wesley Williams.

The great Charlie Parker.

Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad.

Andrew Jackson and me riding?

This is one of my favorites.  It is called Modern Communication.

Ilus Winfield Davis.  Ian trying to do his best imitation.

Muse of the Missouri

Core of Discovery

James Pendergast

We don't remember the name of this statue, but it is at Barney Allis Plaza.  Jen wanted to pet the dog.

Bronco Buster.   Jen is still trying to tame Ian too.

Our 1st President.

Put your hands up!  Us hanging out with the Spirits of Commerce and Industry.

The Hiker

Pioneer Mother

The Scout

Memorial for Fallen Firefighters

Citizen Soilder

The Pioneers in Westport

Visions of children.  During school time we have visions of children all the time.

Lunch at Winstead's.  Jen had her one bite and was finished.

I'm just getting started.

Massasoit close to Winstead's on the Plaza

The Crying Giant.  I guess Jen is the giant here.

Us about to meet our fate at the Spider outside of the Kemper Museum.

We don't remember the title, but it was someone taming Pegasus.

Nelson-Atkins Museum Rush Hour.

Two of these things are not like the others.

Ian not getting the Thinker pose correct.

The Boar.  It is supposed to be good luck if you rub his snout.

Out to Lunch

Jen should have given him a shoulder massage he looks a bit stiff.

Ian doing his penguin in the Court of the Penguins.

Pamona Fountain on the Plaza.

Monkey Business

Ian getting a little too into making the statue try to smile.  Chinese Warriors...there is another one to the left, but to get him in the picture we would have to place the camera in the street.

Harry Truman on the Square in Independence.

Jim Bridger. Last stop on our way home to change.

Cafe Verona for dinner that evening.  You will notice that I am a few shades bronzer than when I started the day off.

You might be thinking what does this have to do with DIY.  It doesn't technically fall into the DIY category, but we are always working at our marriage to make it better.  We also just wanted to share a great day of celebration for the both of us.  Eight years isn't close to any record, but we feel like what we have with each other is perfect.

Dovetail Boxes

Now that school has been out for one day, at least for me, (sorry Jen) I have time to show you what I have been up to in the Carle's Workshop.

My grandfather-in-law (John) gave me some pine that he wasn't going to use.  I was very grateful and decided to put it to use.  John is a very skilled carpenter.  He is always being asked to make something or other for people in his town or his family.  One of the things he makes regularly free of charge are flag boxes for fallen veterans that are buried in the Iowa Veterans Cemetery, which he lives only a few miles from.  So I wanted to make sure that I didn't disappoint by wasting the pine on something I wouldn't use. 
Starting back in January I started making wooden boxes using dovetails as joints.  Dovetails are supposed to be the strongest joint you can have. You can make dovetails using a router, but I wanted to try it the old fashion way using a dovetail saw.

A while back John also gave me  an orbital sander which uses discs for sandpaper.  I decided to make  boxes in order to hold the different grit sandpaper.

Orbital Sander

 Box Number 1

Here is the first box I made. Don't judge.  The number represents the girt sandpaper each box will be holding.

Box Number 2

This was probably the easiest one I made with the big pins.

Box Number 3

This box was going great until I made a mistake and routed the wrong side for the bottom of the box.  To fix it I did some inlay work and placed a piece of walnut inside the mistake and it came out pretty well.

Box Number 4

This isn't really a dovetail box.  It has finger joints that I made using my Uncle Bob's table saw.

Box Number 5

This was the last box I made.  It was easily my best.  The pins are narrow and the tails are different widths on purpose.

Here they are all in a row.  I'm thinking about building a little cabinet for them to sit in two rows of six, which means I'll need to make one more box.