Just realised I didn't upload the final picture of my van to my blog. I've redone it to what it was... with more emphasis on what I do. Signwriting. Although someone bought a bag off my etsy site yesterday, and now I'm really desiring to make more! well maybe I can, just do it more in my spare time... why can't I stick to one thing??

Yay!

I finally finished painting the last panel on my van today... I think I started in about

August of last year? I could have done it faster if it wasn't for this crazy summer... if you can call it that! Raining , sometimes for weeks on end!!

Just one more thing to do... (if the weathers good) I'm going to cover the whole thing in a clear coat and make it nice and shiney....ohhhh.... shiney!

Lately I....

Well, yesterday I made Catherine some leggings... this was the closest I could get her to modelling them, since she was tired from after school. Now I know the pattern fits, I have 3 more pairs cut out and ready to sew tonight.

Today I took out the window on my van and took out the rust which also came back on this side. I used my heavy duty grinding disk on my drill again, so hopefully it won't come back this time. And this is the last panel!! Although I am contemplating doing the roof too, and then finally a clear coat, then shell be all ship-shape, ready to signwrite...

And I fixed this scooter that was given to me for Catherine. All it needed was a couple of washers, a nut, and another nut and bolt for the back wheel... hopefully I've fixed it alright and she doesn't have an accident from shoddy workmanship.
All I had to do was go into the garage and look through the treasure trove my Dad left me....

We have a whole chest of drawers of old nuts bolts and screws. He used to selvage them from different places and I can remember my Dad telling me that if I found a washer on the ground to pick it up and put it in my pocket. Infact I remember one time... I had this dream, and right in the middle of my dream I saw a washer on the ground and picked it up and put it in my pocket!

Lesson learnt

Well, what can I say? I am extremely happy in my new flat. So much so that I don't have much to blog about. I can just mooch around there, enjoy the solitude and get this... I can tidy the whole flat in an hour! I mean it's done...at mum's it was just an unending battle. So it's like, I AM happy. I don't have to create some artificial happiness existing only in blog land. But I will still blog...

I still come here..my computer is still in my old room and I come here to work, but I can go back to my flat (which is literally across the road) and have my very own space. And it's dumb because Mum now gets her house back and gets to do her own cleaning again...only now I realise I should have done this year's ago! I just thought it was my God given duty to stay and look after her, but no... she's fine on her own! And I learnt a valuable lesson which I hope I won't forget. Some times when you have a God given desire to do something, you have to step out and do it... and only then will God confirm you made the right choice. I mean, I waited for 5 years for a sign I should leave.... didnt get one... just decided to do it anyway and God confirmed the decision the very next day in my quiet time. Next time I hope I'm more willing to step out and trust Him a bit more.

5 hours of Dora the Explorer on the internet.

Well, here's yesterdays effort. I feel like a bit of a bad mum coz I left Catherine infront of the computer from 12:00 to 5pm so I could do this! But she pretty much never gets to go on the computer anymore, so maybe it adds up to even.

I have done 4 panels now. Only 2 more to do and I've done the whole thing. Then I 'm going to signwrite it back to definedesign.

  And only 2 more sleeps and we're off to the Auckland Folk Festival again!! Doesn't really matter if it rains... I find it kinda fun (but I can think of other people who don't share that view!!)

In between showers...

Well the friggin rust came back in my back window! So I've had another go today. This time I cleaned the rubber as well (which may have been the problem), and bought myself a stripping disk for my drill. No 45 min sand and scrape.. just 5 minutes with my drill!

But whataya know... this has been the rainiest summer ever!! I thought I could get this done inbetween showers... well, I felt I had to. We might not get many sunny days... so while it rained I covered the window with a drop sheet. But I don't know if it was wise, coz as I went to paint, the branches overhead dripped water onto the wet paint!! Oh well. It's gonna be hidden under the rubber anyhow.

Check out my bogging anyway. I'm totally getting better at this!!

Hopefully we get some sunny days in the coming months before winter sets in again. I want to get the whole thing painted and re-signwrite my van to what it was.... before I peaced-out my van in an attempt to get some freedom. 

Did I tell you? My new neighbour is a christian and hes gonna get me to signwrite his ute, and he said he'll pray for my business to pick up. I really feel God wants me to do the word of mouth thing. I keep hearing that phrase.

ouch

Poor little Catherine... I shouldn't be so hard on her. She's had a stiff neck for a week and someone suggested I take her to an Osteopath... and it turns out she'd put her neck out! They had to click it back into place. We don't know how she did it but it might have been something as simple as leaning on her elbows all day at school and while she watches tv.

And this is what I got up to today :)

Wow. I was looking back through my blog the other day and realised the last time I painted a panel on my van was August! At this rate, I thought, it'll be 9 months before it's done. So I sanded another panel today, and hope to paint it tomorrow.

Here's Catherine at the book parade. Her class did the Lion King.

She is also in the Christmas Drive Thru at Greenlane Christian Centre... and I sit there as she practices thinking "why is my kid the only kid that is twirling around, not listening and crawling along the floor like a dog with an itchy bum? Is it my fault that she acts so A.D.D? Did the fact that I had a mental illness with the concentration span of a goldfish a few years ago get passed on to her some how? Or will she just grow out of it? Who knows.

Garden's going great and it's my first time growing peas. They are loving this hot weather with occasional rain showers!

Hairdresser logo.

Still chugging away at my van, panel by panel...

...and been working on a logo for a friend. I like no. 2 the best.

This blog is gonna start to get seriously boring with all the pictures of my van. I'm just so dang proud of myself I can't wait to upload what I 've done, even if I'm the only one who keeps coming back to take a look.

Well, I've challenged myself to draw some more pictures next week, and for every blog entry I do about painting my van, I will put a drawing to go with it... just to keep this blog from becoming unbelievably self-serving! Let's hope I can keep to it!

Daffodills

And it's not even Spring! It's knocking on the door though!

And some more photo's of my van, and an unattractive picture of me!

I'm feeling pretty brave though. I'm painting it tomorrow. I just hope I put enough time into the preparation. I've been telling myself I'll look for work as soon as I've done my van.... scary stuff... I keep going through different scenarios in my head of what I may face if I do get that job. But like it said in word for today. When Peter got out of the boat to walk on the sea towards Jesus, and then started to sink... he wasn't the failure. The failures were the ones who didn't even try to get out of the boat at all!

And finally, the back!

Are these pictures of my van becoming tedious? Well never mind... this is the last window done! So I've done all three without smashing any of them. If anyone is reading this and wants to try it but has heard it can't be done without smashing the window, my panel-beater friend, Rob, said you have to hit the glass pretty hard for it to smash. And when my friend, Teresa, said the panelbeaters can't gaurantee the window won't smash... I'm guessing they are just taking human error into account. Like when an apprentice stuffs up the job, or maybe just someone being a bit rough.

I wouldn't mind doing a You Tube video on how I got it out, because there are none on this method. But you know the stupid comments some of those videos get...

The other side...

Of my van that is. No lengthy explanation this time, I think you get the idea. I just have to do the back window now.BTW I bought another can of paint and while there asked for a quote for 4L of white.... $162!! can you believe it? I could paint my car for $162!! ($80 US).

Removing a Van window.

Well, it's bragging time right now. But first...it's confession time. Last time I showed this on my blog, it looked great!... on my blog that is. Not so great in real life. But this time I think I've really improved! It's not perfect, but it still looks pretty good, considering the state of my van anyhow.
Now... time to bore you with the details.... This was the state of my van. It's due to get a Warrant of fitness soon, and rust was starting to come up around the two side windows and the back window. Now I had a fare idea that although I could just sand back what I could see, like last time, I had an idea that the rust went right under the rubber, which is why it came back again. Now Rob (my panel beater friend), showed me the start of how to get a window out of a car with 2 screw drivers. He's the expert, but Mr. Google told me that it couldn't be done without cracking the window. So it was with great trepidation that I attempted the screwdriver method of removing the window, expecting at any moment to have to call Smith and Smith for a new window.

Now here's the beginning shot of the moulding being levered out using a screw driver. (I can't believe this is working!! think I)

And not knowing what to expect, I taped the window to the van so it wouldn't fall and smash. As you can see here, I've levered the whole top half out, and it just kinda starts to pop out by itself.

And here is the window! All out with the black moulding still attached! I had no idea that it came off with the window itself.

And look... I was right.... the whole inside was covered in rust.

So I spent about 2 hours (yes, coz I didn't know what I was doing), scraping off the rust with a screwdriver, then sanding, then putting rust remover on it.... twice. And then filled the dents with some bog.

Then I masked up the inside and the outside with newspaper.

Then the undercoat!!

And finally the top coat. It actually looks that good in real life!

And finally I put the window back in, doing it the opposite way. Sit the bottom in, tape it to the van, then lever the moulding back inside with a screwdriver.

Now, I don't have any work on at the moment, and I'm totally keen to give re-painting the whole thing a go! But if I don't, I'm definitely doing the other 2 windows for my Warrant.

Please Note: I just showed my friend Teresa this blog post and she said that was the reason she sold her car was it was going to cost around $700 to get the panel beaters to do the same thing on her car... (Score!)... not so good is that they warned her that there is no guarantee that the window wouldn't smash. (She would have had to pay for a new one if it did, and apparently it happens quite often). So I guess i was really lucky then! Im still going to give the other 2 a go, but I'll definetly be keeping that in mind!