Bottle Cap prep
Prepping caps with Rustoleum – these are going on the roof of the car.
Bottle Cap Art Car Project – the finale
We took the Art Car to Michigan City this weekend to turn it over to Stephanie’s niece Raven. Stephanie went up on Saturday and taught her how to drive a stick, and I went up on Sunday to help finish up work on the car and to drive Stephanie home. We ended up finishing most of the car – the roof and two corners of the bumper are all that remain to be covered with bottle caps, and Raven has enough to finish them up.
It was kind of bittersweet; we love the car but really don’t need it. Raven most certainly will benefit from a way to get to and from work without having to catch a ride. But working on the car was so much fun, and the finished product turned out really awesome. We’re anxious to do another one someday.
Damn, where’d all my free time go?
I’m sitting here making out our “To Do” list for this weekend, which includes:
- Putting together new treadmill
- discarding non-functioning television
- putting loads of stuff on ebay or craigslist.
- taking all the recycling to the recycling center
- laundry, laundry & more laundry
- Garrett’s birthday
- Church on Sunday
- Visit the rental house & install locks and pick up old lawn mower
I haven’t written a recap of last weekend’s festivities at the Kentucky Art Car Weekend yet – although all the photos are on Flickr so you can work out a general narration for yourself. I must say, driving down the street being chased by a Giant Red Phone that keeps ringing at you is quite surreal.
I also took a spin around town yesterday hunting down some elusive Big Things – something I haven’t done in quite a while. Those photos are still on my camera, though. Will need to take them off this weekend, if I get the chance. I found a hippo that I thought had disappeared, and a giant tomato, and also found nice retro 50’s signage and a cool diner on U.S. 40.
I really need to rework my “Big Things” pages again. I so want to get comments on the pages, and there are lots of things I need to add. I hope now that Movable Type is upgraded to 4.1, I’ll have less frustration building new sections. Although the upgrade has stopped posting my links regularly, which I need to figure out. That’s annoying, because I’ve written a lot of funny commentary in link descriptions that haven’t made it to my site. My wit should be preserved for posterity, people.
Bottle Cap Art Car Project
Our Bottle Cap Art Car Project in progress. See the whole set on Flickr.
This is a project that Stephanie designed and is working on, with my help.
Bottle Cap Art Car Project – Ready, Steady, Go!
This weekend we worked on a couple of big things — lots of lawn and garden work, and the beginnings of the art car.
Dunno if I’ve written much about the Art Car Project – it’s something Stephanie has been wanting to do for a long time, and now is a great opportunity for her to tackle it. She has a couple friends who have Art Cars, and in 2005, we visited Louisville, Kentucky for their annual Art Car Weekend:
[ See the whole set of photos ]
We’re replacing Stephanie’s 1993 Honda Accord, which is her currently daily driver, with a new little Smart Car, which should arrive sometime here in April. The Honda is in pretty good shape, but just turned 200,000 miles and essentially has no trade-in value.
So it make sense for her to hold on to it and have some fun doing something creative. Stephanie toyed with several different design ideas, but finally arrived at an intersection of the art car she’s always wanted, and her childhood love of bottle caps. Her dad even dug her original collection out of the garage attic and brought them to us.
We’ve been collecting and sorting bottle caps all winter long, with the help of friends and the nice folks at the restaurant Ralph’s Great Divide, who have contributed many of the caps.
Stephanie prepped and adhered the first 70 caps to the car. This was basically a test run to see if the adhesive works and if the caps stay on; so far, so good. They stayed overnight an were still there this morning.
[ See the whole set of photos ]
Since they seem to be holding up quite well, we’re getting ready to scale up production; I’ll prepare the caps with Rustoleum, while Stephanie uses a high temperature glue to secure them in place.
We also did a ton of raking (our leaves come down in mid-December, so we never got them completely raked last year), bought 20 bags of mulch and started spreading it in the front flower beds, and mowed the lawn for the first time. We did a lot of physical work this weekend, it was very nice out and felt good.
Wanted: Bottle Caps
Wanted: Bottle Caps
Just to put this out there into the ether – my lovely girlfriend is working on an project(s) involving bottle caps, and is seeking as many as we can find. It doesn’t matter what kind they are, or if they’re new or vintage, (although colorful and rare would be treasured and appreciated). If you have a bunch, or would be willing to save them up from your regular beer or soda usage and give them to us, I’m sure she’d be grateful. Contact me here if you want to know how to send them.
We’re going to ask some of our neighborhood restaurants if they’ll collect them, but that’s a toss-up as to whether it will be worth their while. I’ve also got a post on Craigslist and on the local freecycle list. But, you know, we have lots of friends who like beer, so…
