Friday Night Photos #134

I didn't think I took many photos this week, but I just found a LOT on my camera roll. Lots of random stuff! Here goes...

First, the belt I ended up making for Eli's Han Solo costume. I bought a faux leather bag at Goodwill for $6, then took it apart to use the faux leather. I had NO idea what I was doing--I'd never sewn faux leather before, I know nothing about Han Solo, and I just had to wing it. It's not accurate to the actual Han Solo belt, but that one is much more detailed than I wanted to get into. The main part I wanted was the gun holster. I still have to attach the belt buckle.

I also wanted to stain it darker. From what I read online, you can't stain faux leather; you have to paint it. Well, I wasn't going to go buy paint for this thing, so I tried using wood stain anyway. I loved the color when I applied it!

Unfortunately, even after several hours, it still wiped off. So it's the tan color and I'm not worried about it. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the buckle. The Han Solo buckle basically an elongated silver hexagon. I thought about using 1/4 inch plywood and spray painting it gray. Or covering it with foil. But after looking around the garage, I found a very small piece of craft sheet metal. I can't remember why I bought it, but it was years ago and I'd held onto it. It was perfect!

Because it was so thin and could basically slice open Eli's abdomen while wearing it, I used CA glue to attach it to a scrap piece of 1/4-inch plywood. I cut out the hexagon shape and to keep it from looking too shiny and new, I used sandpaper to scuff it up. Then I spray painted the back and sides gray. I'm kind of impressed with how it turned out!

When I was laying out the faux leather to figure out what to do with it, I just tossed it on the floor (that's basically my "table" when I do projects). I turned my back for a second and the cats proved just how predictable they are, hahaha.

Set anything on the floor and the cats are immediately drawn to it.

Duck was so funny yesterday morning. He "helps" me do the Wordle and Connections puzzles after my run in the mornings by settling himself on my shins for a nap. Yesterday, he sprawled out like this--and he slept that way!

I guess I took a lot of pictures of Duck this week.  These ones were impossible to take without them just being a blur of black cat. Duck is obsessed with spaghetti noodles. He somehow knows when we make spaghetti and then he will literally try to play with it by batting at it with his paws while you're eating it. When you dangle it for him, he likes to hit it hard enough to break it in half--over and over--until you're left with a couple of inches.

Last night, Jerry and I were dangling the spaghetti for him and he was going nuts. Then he got a strand stuck to his head, with just the end dangling behind his ear. He was trying so hard to get it--he was basically chasing himself in circles with his mouth open (like a dog chasing his own tail). 

While I'm on the subject of cats, Noah and his girlfriend made a cat pizza, which I thought was cute! They both love cats and they volunteer at a local cat shelter.

When I was at Goodwill, I saw this little hat with some dog costumes and it was only $1. I thought it would be funny to get for Joey. I had to bribe him with a treat for him to keep it on long enough for a photo.

Becky sent me a super cute video of Riley getting her ears pierced, and she was SO brave. I commented on how cute her outfit was, and Becky sent me this picture so I could see the full effect. I love it when kids choose their own clothes!

My friend Paul, who I went to high school with, plays his guitar at a bar once a month. I've been wanting to go see him, but each time he's playing, we've had something going on. Finally, we made it up there (it's an hour and twenty minutes away). The bar was really cool--I love the mural. And Paul sounded fantastic, as usual.

And last but not least, I went to my mom's today to get these film slides from her attic. My grandpa (her dad) took most of these pictures in the late 1960s and I was very curious to look through them. I put them through the slide viewer and most of them were pictures of different landmarks and things while traveling. There were some pictures of people, though, which was fun to see. There are a few I'm going to get prints of. (What is pictured below is only about 5% of the number of slides!)  Next, I'm going to watch his 8mm films with a projector. I wish I could transfer them to digital, but I'm sure it would cost a fortune. Hopefully my dad's projector still runs ;)

Have a great weekend! xo