I feel like I should have sounded more excited in that headline, but it feels silly to add an exclamation mark to a title about making magnets. Either way, I was excited to finally get my package! Ok, the craft package was almost three weeks late, but I’m cutting them slack because they are located in Texas and I’m sure the recent issues with weather haven’t made it easy to get anything in or out of Texas. So this time its magnets. I started thinking they would probably be a snap, but have decided to withhold judgement until after I am done assembling them. I remember thinking napkin rings would be easy, so I just want to err on the side of caution this time.
Seems pretty basic so far, sand the blocks of wood so they’re smooth. The problem of course being that they are cut en masse and have rough edges and splinters. The unspoken problem is that the top and bottom surfaces aren’t so smooth either. No matter, I have sandpaper and will endeavor to smooth as best I can!
Approximately a lifetime later, and nothing is smooth except the sandpaper. It’s totally fine, I’m going to paint them so I’m sure that will make it all look the same. Right?
So I painted them, being careful not to overuse the paint and run out. I was apparently too stingy because I painted them the first time and they barely changed color and I had 2/3 of the tube left. You wonder how I knew it was 2/3? Good question. I know because I painted them again, and they were still not white, so I did it a third time. Yes, I painted them three times when the directions said to do it once. What can I say, I’m a perfectionist and didn’t want to waste any paint.
So now I’m going to wash my sticky paint covered hands and wait for this stuff to dry. I got paint everywhere because I was trying to hold the corners of the blocks with my fingernails to get them to hold still while dragging the blue foam ‘paintbrush’ over them trying to get my absolutely minimal amount of paint to spread over the flipping wood blocks!
Ok, so maybe I took it a little personally that I had to keep painting them…lol
Anyway, I cleaned up and decided I’d move them out of the way to dry. At which point I had more paint on my fingers. What I meant to do was delicately place the wood blocks on a tray. What I did was forget the wet paint was wet and pick the blocks up and get paint all over my fingers again. I’d say something you it being an accident but the reality is I forget a lot of things and this was no exception. I wonder sometimes where my mind goes that I forget such basic things that are so immediate but I can remember the name of my second grade teacher, she was Mrs. Chakin in case you were wondering. I think part of my memory problem is that unless something is interesting I tend to put it in line behind other things. So I can remember where I got the rocks that I picked up at the beach to draw mandalas on, but I can’t remember to buy milk. One is exciting and esoteric and the other mundane and boring. But I don’t think that’s all. I think there are some things that just beg to be remembered and some that don’t. For example, I don’t remember people’s birthdays because people in my family aren’t hung up on numbers. Which happens when they live into their hundreds. But for me, someone who is clearly not 100, it’s still not a piece of information I find particularly useful. So I forget dates like it’s my job. I also forget the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, the washing machine is full of wet clothes and the dryer is ful of dry clothes. When I write it out like that I sound like an 18 year old away from home for the first time. Which I am absolutely not. I don’t know why I forget things but for now I’m sticking with, I remember what matters to me and forget the rest.
Ah well, however I got them painted they are done, and I didn’t leave any fingerprints on them. I’m going to have to try to remember that I need to handle them more carefully when I put the clear coating on them in the last step. Good news is that I rarely forget a lesson where I get messy 😉
Duct Tape and Dreams 