I was still working on a Christmas present that I told you about way back when... October 20th, to be exact.
Nothing like last minute, right? Back in October when I started this project, I had the thought that I would get it done well before Christmas and it would be something that I could check off of my little list of things to do. Okay, not little. HUGE!
But, here I am tonight and just now getting it done. Literally, just now. I snapped a photo right when I completed this project about 5 minutes ago. Ugh, last minute. However, it is done and I really like it. The hubs does too. And let's hope that the babe loves it just as much. It will record his growth from now until the end of time. It really is hard to believe that he will ever need even 6 feet on this chart, let alone being able to even stand next to it with out help. Well here it is all complete.
Wanna know how it got here? Well, even if you don't, I am gonna tell you. First up, way back when I first told you about this project, I bought a lumber grade board. I picked through many boards to find one I thought didn't have a bend or too many knots. The hubs took one look at that board and saw several bends and knots. So, about a week ago I finally bought another board. this time I spend the extra money and bought a nicer craft board. It didn't need any additional work to prep it like the lumber grade would have. I spent some extra moolah, but saved myself (and by that I mean my husband) some extra time. Lesson learned.
I got it home and thought I better get to work. So I (and again, I mean the hubs) routed the sides. I wanted to be sure that the sides were rounded. I don't want to take any chances that the babe could fall and hurt his precious noggin.
After that, I applied some primer. Then I slapped three coats of paint on it - Olympic Sun Shower yellow.
Next up was the really hard part. I needed to make it look like a real ruler. I know the base color was much more yellow than a normal ruler, but I wanted the numbers to look the same. This is where I was aiming :
I made this template to show the marks I wanted to make on the board. Then I started pencil them on the board. I made a mistake or two, but what are you going to do? :)
The really hard part was next. I had to make the marks permanent. Luckily I had the wherewithal to do a little test run before I tried on the real thing. I regular marker wasn't going to cut it. Even the Sharpie that I tried wasn't working right. I went hunting for something that would adhere to the painted surface. I finally got what I was looking for. My friend at Lowes (his name, I believe, is Hank and he is about 75 years-old and he thinks I am off my rocker!) showed me this baby and I was sold! Worked like a charm!
It worked like a charm. However, it is huge. And difficult to fill in those small number and marks. So, this really was time consuming. Really, really time consuming. Again, had I not waited until today to do all of this, it maybe wouldn't have been so tough. But, I did. And it was. Oh well.
It looks so good. James is gonna love it. OK, he isn't gonna care at all. But one days he is going to use it and that is the same as loving it. Right? Well, whatever. It is done! Woo Hoo!
Hope everyone has a great night. We had a super dinner, just the three of us. I made ham and mac & cheese. So good! Here is a little look at my fellas at the table.
Merry Christmas Eve!!!
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