Spoons...

Last week Brian went out of town, and I went thrifting! I had two simple goals, paint the frames and make garden marker spoons.

I had the frames painted in a few hours no prob:

I put the baby to bed, laid a tarp down, watched a little Bones, didn't ruin any clothes, two layers, good times. Now I need to figure out where to put the frames and what goes inside.

Then I started working on the spoons... See my cute inspiration picture!

Simple goal: flatten spoon and hammer in letters.
I told Heidi all about how excited I was. Then she asked the hard question... So how are you going to flatten the spoons? Like run over them with a car or steam roller? I said na, I'll use a hammer or mallet.

Within five minutes of hammering I had caught my left pointer finger somehow and given myself two welting blood blisters that were throbbing. Soo I tried the car route.




Note to self, this doesn't really work. It makes them flatter than they were previously, but not flat.

So, back to the hammer. I tried all sorts of things. Hammering on a pad, on wood, on brick, covering the spoon with a dish towel. My best results were on my carpeted concrete garage floor, with a dish towel covering the spoon, and using two hands to wack the crap out of it as many times as I could till it bounced away or till I made a new hole in the dish towel.  This resulted in mostly flat spoons, but still not that flat!

Did you see my poor finger! Sadly the spoons really aren't that flat, but after an hour of hammering I had no more energy at 1 am. Yes there was also a fifth big spoon, but I broke the spoon part off long before I even put a dent in that thing. I think it was for the best. If you try this, find old 80's spoons that are thin and light. Not modern spoons that are really thick.

Skip ahead through a night of snuggling with the puppy a crazy morning, and finally nap time!
I thought okay, THIS must be the easy part. I gathered my hammer, steel letter set, and spoons and marched down to my garage. After a failed attempt at the word "Basil" I decided to try another location. I went outside on the hot concrete and tried hammering there. I was met with slightly more success, but not much. This is as far as I got with one nap.

After you stamp in your letters, you can use a sharpie to color them black, and then use steel wool to erase the extra black. Parsley was my best spoon. Really, I would give more tips or something, but really, can you see the crappy "R" I am in no position to give tips. Here's my tip BUY THE DARN THINGS!

After lunch I was able to quickly finish the last spoon and stick my pathetic markers in my little garden.

 Bradley appreciates them. I'm not so fond of them, but they look cute enough.