Quantum Leap Music Video | Mambo No. 5

This video took me a while on and off to do, but here it finally is! It's a Quantum Leap video about Al and his frankly unending list of lady friends. The song is "Mambo No. 5" (A Little Bit Of...) by Lou Bega.

Captain Jack Harkness Digital Art

So I was playing around with some digital sketches and then I started coloring this one and then I felt compelled to finish it. It's Captain Jack Harkness, a character on Doctor Who and the main character of the DW spin-off Torchwood. His face isn't quite right, but it's pretty darn close and I'm still working on faces in general. His face took about 4 hours and the rest of him was like an hour and a half. Worked off a photo.

Book Carving

Recently I've been seeing some really cool book carving art on the Internet, and decided I would try my hand at it. Unfortunately, the experts online weren't spilling any secrets on HOW they made their works of art (seriously, just Google "book carving" and be amazed), so I had to come up with my own method.

First, I selected five victims *cough cough* VOLUMES from an old incomplete encyclopedia set we had lying around.

I then sort of designed in my head what I wanted the landscape to look like (valley with a path and a river). I then sketched out in pencil on the book covers what I wanted to cut out on each volume, and numbered them. I also made sure to number them on the inside cover, down by the spine where it wouldn't get cut out.

From there I cut out the negative space on a band saw. I couldn't cut the curves or change angles too drastically, so I cut it out in triangle-shaped bits and shallow slices.

Before cutting the books I had selected, I grabbed five OTHER books, traced the contours from the other volumes, and rough-cut the sample books on the band saw. Then I arranged those and noted which cuts and angles I would need to alter for the actual books.

After cutting the actual volumes, I set them up in a clamp on the bottom and also along the top to keep the books nice and closed and tight.

I then set about the actual carving by using a dremel. I tried several different bits on a space piece of wood first, and finally settled on a spherical bit with blades that looked like a star from the top. That seemed to take off the most book/wood at once. 

This process, the actual shaping of the landscape, was the most time-consuming, and took about 7 hours on and off. The most important thing was that the edges of the books lined up (one book couldn't be taller than another, they all had to flow together). I did the left hills first, carving them down until they were flush, and also giving them a very rugged appearance.

The second day I roughed out the trail that would go through the middle, the river that would come down the third volume, and the hills on the right.

Once I was done smoothing all the books together, it looked like this:

Next I wanted to give some texture to my rugged landscape, so I took a flat circular bit and etched some scratch-like marks into the hills. I also took a drill bit and deepened the ravine where the river would be coming down the hills on the right, flowing underneath the path, and joining the river at the bottom of the hills.

Once I was happy with the way it looked, I set about coloring it. I wanted to avoid water- or oil-based paints (in case they wrinkled the pages or stuck them together), so I experimented on my spare books with several types of media. I ended up using pastels and colored pencil.

And that was all there was to it! 

Hobbit Day (Year 2)

Following the success of Hobbit Day last year, my family and I decided to do Hobbit Day again this year. That means 7 meals during the day, each one with Hobbit-ish food. The meals were smaller than regular meals, and were all made by me.

7:30 am : First Breakfast: cinnamon bread, green peppers, tomato(es), doughnut halves, water, and juice

9:00 am : Second Breakfast : seed cake, crackers, cheese spread/spray, whipped cream, fruit, water

11:00 am : Elevensies : nut mix, crackers, cut cheese, cucumbers, cookies, dinner rolls, water

1:00 pm : Luncheon : pasta salad, nut mix, ham/turkey sandwiches, juice

4:00 pm : Afternoon Tea : tea, root beer floats, cinnamon bread, seed cake, cookies

6:00 pm : Dinner : pie and shakes

8:00 pm : Supper : pasta salad, dinner rolls, ham/turkey wraps, water

In greater detail:

First Breakfast

Originally we were slated to have toast and jam, but a last-minute doughnut purchase replaced the toast. The green peppers and tomato were left over from the pasta salad. The cinnamon bread was store-bought for convenience.

Second Breakfast

More of a fruit-based meal, second breakfast featured strawberries, grapes, and bananas, to be eaten with whipped cream. We used the spread cheese we had on hand to compliment the crackers. The seed cake was made using the traditional recipe here, and turned out very well.

Elevensies

We had more crackers for elevensies, though this time they were joined by cucumber slices and several types of cut cheese. We also had a nut-M&M-raisin trail mix, lightly buttered dinner rolls, and sugar cookies. 

Luncheon

For the main course, I made two sandwiches (one ham and one turkey, both with lettuce, pickles, cheese, and a tad bit of butter) and cut them into quarters. Again we had nut trail mix. We also had a large bowl of pasta salad made using the recipe here. I used rotini pasta, provolone cheese, pepperoni, cherry tomato halves/quarters, green peppers, and zesty Italian dressing.

Afternoon Tea

Since we had a surplus of root beer on our hands, we decided to forgo the tea and instead have root beer floats. Another option for the wintry months would have been hot chocolate. We ate some more seed cake, cinnamon bread, and sugar cookies.

Dinner

Dinner was planned to be BBQ beef sandwiches with dinner rolls and possibly some potatoes. The day before, however, it was decided that we instead go to a local county fair, so we ended up having pieces of pie and shakes.

Supper

Our last meal for the day, supper consisted of sliced wraps (ham/turkey, cheese, and pickles), lightly buttered dinner rolls, and more pasta salad.

The first time around, we overate at the early meals, making us terribly full by the time dinner and supper rolled around. This time, though, armed with that knowledge, we took the meals more as snacks, and I was perfectly alright until halfway through supper, when I think the other six meals caught up to me.