Ryan McFarland

On Sunday i cut out some letters to stamp Lux Boutique t-shirts. I used most of my $50 Michaels gift card to buy 12 blank t-shirts of different colors while in Anchorage.  I used the t-shirt printing press method Kevin Dean and i worked on to make them and the enamel paint we tested.  Using the EVA foam is quite easy and very forgiving in making the letters.  You just need to keep in mind that everything will be backwards so it is important to make sure the smooth side will be taking the paint (although the texture might look cool for something).  The shirt definitely has some irregularity to it — both on the edges of the text and in the actual paint.  I really like the uniqueness.  No two will look the same.  I plan on hand painting the word “boutique” below.  All of the shirts are men’s styling though so i really need to get Zoom Bikes shirt designed.

Today i received the Coby personal multimedia player that i won as part of the Instructables contest with my crutch stool project.  I already received my t-shirt and the Michaels gift cards.  I’ll probably use part of the gift cards in Anchorage on Saturday.  The picture on the device?  Beats me - that’s the image on the box!

A long time ago Tiffany gave me a night light base to make something neat for her daughter. It has occupied an outlet in my project room ever since. I see it every now and then and contemplate a fate for it. I have a start - the light bulb. Most night lights are designed to hold a small clear light bulb like the strings of Christmas lights used to use. Well, white isn’t a good light to use at night - it ruins your night vision. And one of those small incandescent bulbs is so 20th century! It just so happens that these LED lights fit the socket of the night light. They also use 1 watt or less of electricity. Now i just need to come up with a decoration for the light!

I’m finally spending some of my evenings writing up projects for DIY Life.  If you my list of published articles you’ll see what i have written and has been published.  I have a few drafts and lots of little things to write about.  Some of the other contributions are pretty dang neat too!

Looks like my efforts of fiddling with optimizing my site may have literally paid off. Final Impressions would like to hire my services to help increase traffic for their contemporary photographic art. Final Impressions is, of course, my dad’s artwork so this isn’t really a huge deal. In fact, i think i’m the last child to be employed by the business - must be that whole thousands of miles and 4 time zones thing. Since i’ve been working on some SEO (search engine optimization) techniques not only for this site but also for Alaska’s Rainforest Islands and also SEAtrails (the Southeast Alaska Trail System) i actually have been gaining some valuable knowledge on the subject.

Today i received part of my prize from the Readymade and Instructables mash up contest today. Two gift cards - one for $50 and the other presumably for $200. Also included in the envelope was a gift card from Empower Media Marketing with a hand written note.

Ryan,

Congratulations on your Readymade/Instructables.com contest win!
Happy shopping!

Sincerely,
Michaels Client Team

I posted a message on Mitkof.org tonight hoping to trade them for a decent sewing machine. I can certainly use the gift cards but i have wanted a sewing machine for quite a while and hopefully this can leverage a good trade without costing me any more.

We kind of waited to the last minute to finish it up but we squeezed an entry in for the Instructables laser cutter contest. We used a table, LCD mounting arm and foam pad from the thrift store to make a press to make custom shirts.  The shirt idea that we decided to make was of a 20 sided die and the text “High Roller” which is a Dungeons and Dragons reference.

Every now and then i have a brilliant shirt idea.  While in Vietnam somehow this spilled out of my mind.  Take a wife-beater (tank top) and explain that you don’t beat wives.  So now it is time to protect my intellectual property… “No wives were harmed during the making of this shirt” copyright Ryan McFarland.  I made a prototype of this white using a white v-neck and wooden block letters dabbed in enamel paint.  I like it.

It was pretty excruciating waiting for the results of the Instructables and Readymade Magazine mash-up contest. We were in Vietnam and everyone was relaxing on the beach and i just wanted to be refreshing the Instructables blog to see if they had posted results. They announced the date that they would announce the winners and i was finally able to quit my addictive search for internet access. When the mash-up contest results were posted we were in Bali. My submission won the grand prize - a Coby Personal Media Player, a $250 Michael’s Gift Card, and an Instructables robot t-shirt.  I am still pretty stunned.  I was hoping for one of the two first place prizes (sewing machines) and having looked through many of the other 180 entries figured that i had a good chance of winning one of the 10 second prizes (Black & Decker tool sets).  The media player has a 30 gig hard drive and a 4 inch color screen.  It has a memory card slot that uses the same cards as my Treo.  It plays music and video as well as displaying images.  If i buy an adapter for my digital camera i could use this device to store images on a long trip instead of hauling my laptop.  It has an AV output so it can play content on home stereo or video equipment and can record audio or video from AV sources also.  It even has an FM receiver.  There’s a microphone for voice recording and speakers built in.  I’m sure that i’ll find stuff at Michael’s (perhaps even a sewing machine?) to fuel my crafting needs.  And another Instructables t-shirt?  Great!  I wear my charcoal one often - this one is tan colored.  I hope i have not worn out my good fortune.  The Instructables contest that the top prize is a $13,000 laser cutter (just plug into your computer and it acts like a printer that can cut paper, cloth, or thin wood or engrave plaques or other materials) had the deadline extended.  Now i have the time to get a project completed and submitted.

Well, i finished my crutch/bike part stool today. The “upholstery” ended up being done with a piece of foam, a thin piece of plywood and a few inner tubes stretched across the top. I wanted it to be suitable for outside and to maximize recycled materials. I spent about $8 making this and perhaps 4 hours of time. In hindsight i would have made it 4 legged - the three is stable when you’re on it but hopping on and off it is prone to tipping when set at the higher leg heights. Yes! It’s adjustable! As usual, the full instructions are on Instructables - this time for the Mash-Up contest. My entry is way earlier than usual for me - the contest ends on the 25th of November but we’ll be gone. I hope to figure out one more entry to write up for the contest with a $13,000 laser engraver/cutter as a prize. Time is quickly passing for that one which also closes while we’re on our trip. I expect this project to generate some interest!