Today I will have not merely a working refrigerator, but a new refrigerator, courtesy of my parents. My dad went and bought it and arranged for delivery. We would not have given up anything like this soon. “Use, it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” is our motto, and buying new stuff is a last resort.
Plus, you know how I am about shopping.
However, it is a great relief. I didn’t have to shop (and I wouldn’t have found this good a bargain, I assure you. My dad is an Olympic-quality shopper), I didn’t have to be the one to suggest that my husband couldn’t fix something, I can pay for it gradually, and I will have a working refrigerator. It will probably be more energy-efficient as well, seeing that our current, broken fridge is older than I am. I base this dating on the color, Harvest Gold. I think I was born during Avocado. I could be wrong, though.
Anyway, I am actually looking forward to grocery shopping.
Congratulations on the new refridgerator!
That book on jewelry making was fabulous. I don’t remember the name or author and I got my copy about 34 years ago. I’ve been looking for another copy for the last ten years without luck, so I guess it’s out of print. Which means I could probably get a copy if I knew the name.
I got through about half the book, and it had some pretty advanced stuff at the end. I’d love to get another copy so I could do some of the more advanced stuff. It was really the perfect book to learn to make silver jewelry.
In the first chapter, there were projects that only involved bending wire.. I learned how to make fishhook earwires from that. I always used handmade earwires.
The second chapter added more wire, a leather mallet, and a chasing hammer. You learned to make a wire pin, and work the wire in certain areas to make it act like spring steel. And it taught about the molecular changes you were making in the silver and why.
It also taught how to produce a hammered finish, which is not as easy as it sounds.
If you just keep pounding away at silver, you will produce a smooth finish. A hammered finish creates fascets which create sparkles of light.
Someone looked at some beautifully fasceted earings I had made, and told me that if I worked at it, I could probably learn to make a smooth finish so that it would look machine-made!
I’d love to get another copy and get back to making silver jewelry!
You inspired me to look on amazon.com, and I may have found the book. It had a later copyright date, but when I looked at the cheapest copy, it had an earlier copyright of about the right timeframe. I ordered the book. If it’s the right one, I’ll let you know when I get it.
congratulations! it’s almost like welcoming a new family member into the house, having a new appliance that is. 🙂
Well, I’m getting excited about this, too. The only thing that gives me a chance that it’s the right book is the copyright date.
But the book was only about $2.50, so the shipping was more than the book. I really hope it’s the right one. I’ve been looking at torches for a while. They have some really great
If it is the right one, don’t expect to make something really advanced right away. As I said, the first chapter is just bending wire. But you could make really neat jewelry for months without repeating yourself just from what it teaches in the first chapter. It eventually works up to real chasing, like knitsteel does, but I didn’t get that far.
One of the chief obstacles to finishing the book is that you get to a point where you’ve learned so many techniques, and there are so many things you can make using those techniques, and you get side-tracked doing exactly that. Well, that’s how it worked for me, anyway.
I’ve seen at least ten whole books that had a lot of stuff that I wanted to make in them that just depended on the skills in the first two or three chapters of this book. And the that’s not counting the other 15 books I’ve seen that had projects that I didn’t want to make.
I can’t wait!
A new appliance is a great addition to the house… yeay for for you and wow! Such sweet parents you have!