Month: November 2012

new orleans

last month mathew and i went to new orleans! mathew was competing in a national karate tournament and i tagged along because i’d never been there before and i’d heard there was good music and good food. 🙂

(left) here we are a little nervous before the tournament. (right) i was “volunteered” to help with the competition even though i knew nothing about score keeping! it turned out fine, i learned a lot, i think i even had fun!

mathew competing in kata.

we bought a new camera before our trip. i decided to get a canon since everyone seems to love them but i was extremely disappointed as almost every single photo was blurry! at first i thought it was “user error” but the camera turns out to have been defective. it’s at the manufacturer getting repaired or replaced. honestly, after all that, i’d rather get a completely different camera model and/or brand. oh well, maybe we’ll resell it.

this photo, of mathew competing in kumite, was taken by someone else’s big fancy canon.

that night there was a “banquet.” here is mathew with some of his friends/teammates: hans, john and christina. they look pretty tough, don’t they? christina has consistently been one of the top competitors in the nation for several years.

a blurry group photo of mathew’s team. notice every single person is wearing at least one medal? they are an impressive bunch.

(right) how did we celebrate? over 20 of us went for a walk in the french quarter that night. more than half of the group were kids and we didn’t lose anyone! (right) of course we ended up at cafe du monde for beignets. here mathew is standing on a table (ack) giving a karate demo. just kidding.

after the tournament most people flew home. mathew and i moved to a hotel in the french quarter to spend a few days exploring the area. here is our fancy jr. suite. i think it looks much fancier in the photos, but it was a nice, quiet room in a convenient location.

cafe du monde? again!? this time without 20 other people.

and just as the weather dropped to unusually cold temps, we went on a swamp tour.

…we only saw a few alligators. (they hibernate when it gets cold.)

…but it was a beautiful and scenic tour. here’s a stereotypical swamp photo, complete with spanish moss.

a very cool new orleans boy band: the drunkin’ catfish ramblers.

the band was playing across the street from the most photographed building in the french quarter.

the next day we walked to the garden district, had an amazing brunch at Surrey’s and looked at some beautiful, big, old houses.

that night we waited in a really long line at Preservation Hall.

this tiny concert was one of the highlights of our trip. the first song they played was “bourbon street parade,” one of mathew’s favorites.

it’s always nice to come home to our furry children. here’s bella playing in her paper cave.

i hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving. i can’t believe it’s almost december!

Gold Numbers

We’ve been procrastinating on the transom house numbers for a few years. It’s intimidating doing sign painting. Finally, I got around to doing it.

Mole made a template printed on paper, with the numbers reversed. She just printed the black outline and shadow. I’ll be painting the black outline and shadow on the glass first, then filling it in with real gold leaf.

After thoroughly cleaning the transom glass, I aligned and taped the paper template to the outside of the glass. The numbers are going to be painted on the inside, so I can look through the glass and paint over the black areas. Using ‘One Shot’ sign painter’s paint, I painted the number outlines on the inside of the glass.

There was quite a bit of involvement by our usual inspectors. Arwen couldn’t resist climbing the ladder to get a closer look.

There are two things that make this painting difficult. Firstly, painting is a skill that I’ve never practiced. A paintbrush is much more difficult to control than a pen or a pencil. I kept misjudging how close the glass was, and making a mess. It’s really difficult to paint a smooth, straight line. Secondly, the glass is about 1/8″ thick, so I had to look perpendicular to the glass at the outline drawing on the outside, or the lines would be offset slightly.

A few hours later, I was done with the outline. Next time, I’d make a template with just thin lines for the edges, and paint up to those, or use a color for the template. It was hard to see whether I’d painted, or it was the template, because it was black on black.

I let the paint dry for a few days, then on to the next step.

To get the gold leaf to stick, I painted gilder’s size onto the inside of the glass inside the black outline that I’d already painted. The size has to dry before the gold leaf is applied. The mistake I made, is that you only need a very thin coat of size. I painted it on too thickly, so the size wasn’t uniform and perfectly clear. Oh well, it looks a bit more aged… Then, once the size had dried, carefully, I placed gold leaf onto the numbers. Lesson here: whole sheets are better than pieces. At first I was tearing the sheets, and trying to lay them over only the number. The problem is that at the joins, there is sometimes a gap. Also, the leaf breaks whenever there’s any wrinkle in it, so it makes another gap.

I gently rubbed the gold leaf to burnish it flat, and the leaf that did not have size behind it rubbed off.

Ta-da! Our transom number completed. It looks fine from a distance. Up close, you can see my slightly jagged painting: Mole will be doing the other one, because she’s much better with a paint brush.