davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2024

[Alliecat]

Haha! Not at those prices!!!
Is that grout or a caulking substitute? DAP is kind of its own thing, isn't it.
I have found the stuff in a tube unbelieeeeeevably tedious. But I didn't want the horribly toxic real grout. Then I thought about sealing it and have just read about how toxic THAT is too, like one drop will burn through your arm and ex!plode your eyeballs and melt your lungs, so maybe I won't seal it.

Great posing as always in today's pic.

[davidd]

Is that grout or a caulking substitute?  DAP is kind of its own thing, isn't it.
I have found the stuff in a tube unbelieeeeeevably tedious.  But I didn't want the horribly toxic real grout.  

The DAP is more like a caulk. And yes, the squeeze tubes are mind-numbingly tedious and ex-pensive if you need to do a lot.

I think all industrial and repair products are toxic. Open a window, turn on a fan, and go for it. Or let your house fall apart. Which it's going to do anyway. It's a no-win situation.

---

26 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

Stairing in to Space

Deciding to enclose the sides of the deck steps added more time to the process.

"Will it keep the snakes out?"

"Probably not, but it'll keep 'em in so they can't get'cha by surprise."

[Alliecat]

That’s… a lot of extra work. Snakes aren’t really the reason… are they? These look like nice neat boxes anyway.

There isn’t a window in the bathroom. Something else I don’t like about the house. Who builds a bathroom in the middle of the house?? There is supposedly nontoxic sealer, for something like $60 a litre. I inquired from the manufacturer and they said they don’t recommend sealing this stuff. So maybe I won’t worry about it. I still hope to be far away by the time it starts falling out if it ever does.

[davidd]

Snakes aren’t really the reason… are they?

  Ermmm... unfortunately, yes, snakes are the reason. I've never seen snakes under this particular set of steps, but I've encountered them coiled up under the open-sided steps to the storage shed and under the steps to one of the other yurts. The steps to the other yurt had open fronts as well as open sides, which I enclosed after the snake incident.

In addition to enclosing the sides, I filled each box partway with gravel to discourage burrowing creatures from creating openings. It probably won't work.

I wish the screws weren't as visible as they are. This is definitely not "finish carpentry," it is rough but functional carpentry. Maybe the screws won't show as much once the wood is stained.  

---

27 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

No lollygagging, just lagging

Janie and Triv secure stair railing posts using large lag screws.

One of the posts has a damaged edge, but that area won't show, or at least not much, and it's otherwise a very nice strong plank, so they used it.

[Alliecat]

Oooh, wow. I don't know who would be more startled, the person or the snake, encountering each other on the steps.
I guess they could indeed get into any little crevice. Maybe there's something strong-smelling like cayenne or cinnamon that you could also sprinkle under there to deter them?

[davidd]

28 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

"Are we done now?"

"Nope. We still need to stain the wood. Which we can't do until the weather gets warmer and dry."

"But the weather forecast says rain, snow, and cold for the coming week."

"Uh huh. The weather's prolly gonna ruin everything we've just done."

Everything sucks. Just... everything.

.

---

29 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

Slight miscalculation. But at least the light works.

[Alliecat]

Great balancing act with both the girls!
It does seem awfully late to stain anything outdoors; I'm not surprised you have a crummy forecast. But the steps do look very nice.

[davidd]

Great balancing act with both the girls!

It does seem awfully late to stain anything outdoors.

Yeah, those rascals are going to get hurt one of these days with their shenanigans!

I'm hoping for a warm dry day before there's too much snow and rain, but I dunno at this point.

---

30 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

Pinky Street Parcel

.

New Pinky:st figures arrive!

Well, new to me. They're actually nearly twenty years old.

This is my first new-to-me Pinky Street figure purchase in a long, long time.

I never had the Go! Go! box set, as it was always too ex-pensive and hard to find back in the day. The seller indicated that the open box Tenjou Tenge figure was missing a part, but the part is actually in the box attached to the doll body. The seller also included a cute littleTokyo Swallows baseball-themed Omiyage Danboard minifig.

Additionally, I placed the eBay order Monday afternoon, and the parcel arrived from Japan via FedEx on Wednesday afternoon. That's kinda mind-blowing. FedEx doesn't even deliver domestic (in country) parcels that quickly.

It's pretty fun to have a Pinky Street figure parcel arrive in the mail once again!

[Alliecat]

Yay for new Pinkys! Hope to see them having some adventures.
That must be a really teeny Danbo? And I guess it's the outfit but this one looks like it's wearing a skirt and at first I thought "there are girl Danbos?" You could paint some little eyelashes on it and it would be cute!

[davidd]

That must be a really teeny Danbo?  And I guess it's the outfit but this one looks like it's wearing a skirt and at first I thought "there are girl Danbos?"  You could paint some little eyelashes on it and it would be cute! 

I don't know much (or anything) about Danbo figures. Yes, I too thought it was a "girl Danbo" but my meager research thus far has been unproductive. I thought maybe the figure represented a women's baseball team, but the Swallows are a male team, and I could not find anything about baseball cheerleaders. Maybe it's just a regular Danbo wearing a jersey, but the long jersey ends up looking like a skirt. I don't know.

Here's an online source for more Danbo/Danboard info: https://danboardmuseum.com/

The "omiyage" Danboard figs are 6cm tall.

---

31 October - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

Pinky Street "Tenjo Tenge" Maya

[Alliecat]

Nice colour combination in this one with the orangey-red & blue.

It was just the colours on this Danbo that made the box flaps look like a skirt. I still think it could be
Ooh, will be fun to browse through the "museum".

[davidd]

1 November - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

Stay Tuned!

[davidd]

2 November - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

Cardboard 'n' Tape 'n' Glue

.

As I was on this project, which at this point consists of glueing two flat sheets of corrugated cardboard together, I found myself wondering if it would make more sense to have simply purchased and used a sheet of foamcore board. The cardboard was from some parcels I'd received in the mail so the cost was "free," but I used glue to glue the sheets together and masking tape to seal the edges to hold the sheets in place. Masking tape isn't cheap anymore. School glue is still relatively inex-pensive, particularly since I still have about half a gallon that I purchased a few years back. But foamcore board is pretty cheap when it is in stock at the Dollar Tree store. Not "free," but pretty cheap.

Then I thought about previous projects in which I had used Dollar Tree foamcore board which had warped or sagged, resulting in my glueing two or even three sheets together to get adequate rigidity for my purposes.

The cost comparisons for tape and glue and "free" cardboard relative to purchased craft boards led me to recall something I'd read a few weeks ago when I'd been researching the history of square-drive Robertson screws compared to slotted screws and Phillips-head screws. In the early years of the 20th century, Ford Motor Company discovered they could shave considerable time off the manufacture of an automobile by using square-drive Robertson screws. The savings in time and worker hours more than made up for the higher cost of square-drive screws relative to slotted screws. For the purposes of mass production it made sense to purchase the more ex-pensive screws.

I am only making one item, so the mass production savings over time do not really apply to my situation. The screw conversation, however, arose on Flickr, which set me thinking about Flickr, and about some comments I had posted earlier in the day which I possibly could have worded more concisely for better clarity, so I took a break from my cardboard and glue project to revisit my Flickr comments from an hour previously and edit them.

And yet I wonder why I never finish anything I start. Now you know... and in theory, so do I.

Not that it'll make any difference in how I approach things.

[Alliecat]

This reminded me of my dad who used to nickel-and-dime everything in the workshop – he would be keeping track of what percentage of the glue bottle went into the project and thus the material cost. For your one item, you used what you had at hand so why worry about all the other ways to do it, especially given that you had problems with foam core board in the past.
I wonder what the project is. I will “stay tuned”.

[davidd]

3 November - A Doll A Day 2024:

.

"I honestly have no clue!"

.

Detective Anya (Banpresto Q-Posket Spy x Family Research Version A figure) isn't sure what she's looking at, other than whatever it is, it's a mess.

But that's how most projects start out, isn't it? As a mess?

It is... right?