Ryan McFarland

Here’s a scan of the back of the envelope that Mike and i used to sketch out the logo ideas on Thursday evening for Zoom Bikes.  I wonder just how much business is conducted on the back of envelopes and on paper napkins in bars and restaurants.

I whipped up a logo for Zoom Bikes over the weekend. Mike and i had a business meeting on Thursday and this was one of our highest priorities. Not that we really need it for the website (which we don’t have high expectations for) but for shirts and stickers and other merchandise.

I really wish that putting two things together always garnered such interest. My hybrid shopping cart and bicycle continues to gather attention. Aside from a Boulder, Colorado newspaper, magazines in Australia and Italy, and countless websites, now the a Discovery Channel website is on to it…

Good morning,I am the online photo editor for Planet Green and TreeHugger (part of the Discovery Channel family). We are recommending your Cart Bike on our website as a great idea and would love to use the image we found on instructables.com. May we have permission to use this particular image on our planetgreen.com website? If allowed, we will credit you as the photographer.

Tye Petersen, the school’s maintenance manager, mentioned to me today that he heard me on NPR.  He then corrected himself and said he heard mention of one of my projects on NPR’s weekend edition two Sunday’s ago.   So naturally, i  looked it up this evening and  sure enough, about 1:30 into the story the bike parts and crutches stool is mentioned.

The article is called Digital DIY: Web Helps Do-It-Yourselfers Share Ethic.

On Sunday afternoon we started painting the kitchen. We decided that the money i make writing for DIYlife can be used to make minor home improvements and that wouldn’t interfere with our debt elimination plans. We chose a very deep red and it took four coats to give us a satisfactory color. The first two coats looked quite pink. Here’s what the kitchen looked like in December of 2006 right after we put the new oven in.

And after painting four coats of red paint…

You might have noticed that we also have a range hood in over the oven and that the light is on. I’ve had it in place for months now but on Saturday took a few hours to get it wired. I wanted to just cut through the sheet rock behind the stove, drop wire from the hood through the wall and then run over to the nearest outlet. Unfortunately there was a stud on each side of where the hood wiring was. Also, behind the drywall was plywood. I love that there is plywood there improving the house’s structure and making hanging things easier but it makes cutting holes in the wall messy and difficult to patch. So i decided to tear off a piece of the siding on the other side of the wall. I ended up destroying a good part of the 4×8 sheet in the process of removing it. I also discovered that there once was a door where the stove is. The replacement siding piece cost $45. That means i need to do a few more posts on the Do It Yourself site. I still need to cut the piece and put it up but my saw and sawhorses are at Seth’s still. Once it warms enough to paint then we’ll paint it to match the house — well, paint it to match the slightly different color that i have been painting the house.

You also might see that there is no bread on the counter in the after picture. We decided to allocate a shelf of one cupboard for bread, muffins and bagels. we also changed the position of the microwave, toaster and toaster oven. We’ll see how we like that. we also decided to try and keep the top of the microwave, the windowsill, and the top of the fridge free of clutter.

Now we just need to stretch and frame the painting on the fridge that Seth gave Cena for her birthday and move some magnets to make even the front of our fridge free of clutter.

I received the last few pieces of my prize winnings from the crutches and bike parts stool project.  I have not even opened the one year box set of Craft: magazine (that’s only four issues but they are pretty hefty).  Also in the package was issue 13 of Make: magazine.  That’s especially nice since my subscription just ran out.  The last thing was a knitting kit to make a zippered pouch that looks like a little plate of sushi.  I doubt i’ll be writing a review of that kit.

My projects on DIYlife have become a regular column called Recrafted. Looks like i need to get my last name straightened out! I have lots of ideas for projects and now have the incentive to keep cracking at them!

Having spent time at Seth’s for the past three days i figured it might be nice to put some images to the words.

First, the long unplowed driveway…

Here you can see much of the bay and the roof of his house.   The clearing to the left will be parking and the entry to his home should his current idea for the property happen.

Earl and Cena finished up painting the second floor “spare” bedroom.

While they were doing that i was cutting and sanding boards to make a set of shelves for the room.  I also spent a bit of time mudding the unfinished sheet rock in some places.

We also did a bit of sanding of that mud — which in turn made my photos a bit snowy.  Josh and Earl stained the pine boards.

The completed shelving unit.

Seth’s wife will be here in just a few months so we’re trying to make the place a bit more presentable.  Just finishing the sheet rock, a fresh coat of paint, and some trim on unfinished windows and doors will go a long way.

I have a few recent projects that have been posted on DIY Life. I really like the CD sleeve. It made me want to make sleeves and jackets for CDs that are like the ones that records came in. Maybe that will be an upcoming project.

We had no idea that our local grocery store gave two cents credit for each shopping bag you bring of your own. Cena just found out when she brought our recycled cat food bags turned giant industrial strength shopping bags to the store. If we were to shop every week and use 10 bags that comes to $10.40 a year in savings to us.  Our cat food bag turned shopping bag is much larger than a typical shopping bag so our first time using them we only saved 10 cents (five bags).  Of course, our intent is not to save money.  We really just don’t need all those plastic bags.  We have a tote completely full of them already.