"Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old ...
... but also a girl."
So this year, I tried to do some homemade gifts under the (apparently mistaken) assumption that overall it'd cost me less. Still the gifts went over well. Everyone who got a recipe book immediately flipped through it and marked recipes to try.
I must say, that it's cool to have in-laws who are geeks. Helen (future mother-in-law) said that she was probably one of the few 62 year old grandmas who would actually know what a Stargate was.
I'm rather proud of the mirror and of the picture-- the flash's reflection gave it a rather cool gate-opening/kawoosh sort of effect. In reality, the mirror is unfrosted in the center, so it's usable as an actual mirror.
Glass etching was something I learned to do in high school, and I still indulge on occasion. Etching a mirror is significantly more work than doing plain glass, but it's still fun. I'm not artistic enough to draw my own patterns, but I can trace things and I've got a reasonably good eye for simplifying complex things like a Stargate into a pattern that works with the two-tones one has when etching. Helen is a very creative and craft-oriented person, so it was nice to make something for her, since she'd appreciate the effort.
So this year, I tried to do some homemade gifts under the (apparently mistaken) assumption that overall it'd cost me less. Still the gifts went over well. Everyone who got a recipe book immediately flipped through it and marked recipes to try.
I must say, that it's cool to have in-laws who are geeks. Helen (future mother-in-law) said that she was probably one of the few 62 year old grandmas who would actually know what a Stargate was.
I'm rather proud of the mirror and of the picture-- the flash's reflection gave it a rather cool gate-opening/kawoosh sort of effect. In reality, the mirror is unfrosted in the center, so it's usable as an actual mirror.
Glass etching was something I learned to do in high school, and I still indulge on occasion. Etching a mirror is significantly more work than doing plain glass, but it's still fun. I'm not artistic enough to draw my own patterns, but I can trace things and I've got a reasonably good eye for simplifying complex things like a Stargate into a pattern that works with the two-tones one has when etching. Helen is a very creative and craft-oriented person, so it was nice to make something for her, since she'd appreciate the effort.