About Artisans, Antiques, Gifts, Collectables, and Refinished Furniture, Texas Style

Mertie's Button icon on the local
business directory of Coskrey Biz

 Visit my new blog Talking about This and That, the official blog of the resale/thrift shop Mertie's This and That in Brazoria, TX.

Well, it isn't really my blog, but I am managing it and writing it.

Donn's alternate Button icon
based on his street sign

One of my posts focused on renovating furniture. In this post, I report on my chat with a local artisan who refinishes furniture with a Texan style. In fact, he calls his shop Texas Attitude. Donn Correll turns junk finds into beautiful items. He not only refinishes furniture, he also crafts parts to replace damaged sections and to create that Texan look.

 If you want  to contact Donn about his furniture hobby, visit my website and send me an email.

This dresser with shelf is an example of Donn's work. How he altered the original is part of the blog post.

I hope you enjoy the articles. They reflect a new business that my husband and I have started to supplement our retirement funds. You can read more about this in Valerie's Memos, which will serve as a newsletter for our new company Coskrey Biz, at least for now.  There could be more articles to Valerie's Memos separate from a newsletter function, but as a newsletter, it works.

I used another blog as a newsletter once. To keep articles separate, I posted a newsletter listing in a Page. Took some extra work, but I wanted to know if a blog subscription list was more effective than a mailing list. Probably not, but until the mailing grows, it will suffice.

Bye for now.  ~Valerie

Book Review: Haze by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

Haze by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

A Book Review by Valerie Cosrkey

A book suitable for a YA audience in content--easy-going, but interspersed with lively action; implicitly deeply philosophical; no obscenities, overt sex, or pathological-character action; and mild violence--Haze gently leads the reader to question the authority of a successful government's control over the lives of its citizens. It posits a near-Utopian society as the enemy of such a government. The main character is an enforcement agent with the rank of major who finds himself assigned to infiltrate and spy on the enemy culture.

The book reveals Agent Major Roget's character in a series of flashbacks to other missions he had accomplished on the home world of Earth. That is the bare bones of the story outline, but within this skeleton is fine storytelling that begins almost too gently to persuade one to finish the book until you realize that you really care about Roget and wonder what all the flashbacks are trying to tell you.

By the end of the book, and with no pedantic passages, you have had an education in democracy, political and governmental institutions, freedom vs. governance, and philosophy. However, the book is filled with wonderful 1-2 sentences of quotable remarks on these subjects, especially appreciated from a Humanist worldview. A discussion of this book in high school and college classes of history, government, and science would be enriching. There is much in the writing style, plot structure, themes and symbolism to make this book usefully instructive in a literature class. Yet the story itself is less than 200 pages long--just right for a mature YA audience. Like  Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, this book is easily read but deceptively deep.

A short quotation from the beginning of pages of the book expresses a secondary theme of the book. In the first chapter Kuang says, Full freedom is another word for chaos and mob rule.

(©2009; A Tor Book, Tom Doherty Associates, LLC; New York, N.Y.; p. 18.) 

Throughout the book, there is a tension between freedom and government, with examples of different levels of freedom and different governments maintaining control. This tension is a strong theme, probably the primary theme.

Coding in the new HTML5 and CSS3

I just posted another article in my Wyzant.com blog; read it now. I listed a set of very helpful sites that will get you started using the new HTML5.

Since most browsers and many app engines and other media already are using HTML5, it will soon take over as the preferred basic website development code. It does not look hard to learn if you are already coding in XHTML. There are some new tags, which greatly expand the usability of the code. Since the new ddt is backwards compatible, you can take your time learning the new ways by coding some sections of your pages in HTML5 and some in XHTML. And it is an XML code with all that usefulness. Use it with CSS3.
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Valerie's WyzAnt Tutoring Blog -- 8/1/11

Valerie's WyzAnt Tutoring Blog

I just wrote about tricks for teaching Pre-K and Kindergarten children to count and Kindergarten and first graders to begin to use simple fractions.

Yep, I am tutoring a bit now.
 

Magnetic Putty and Slime: A K-12 Classroom Idea

What if you could control the flow of slime across a table? What if your Silly Putty could curve toward, then stick to the side of the refrigerator?

I just read about magnetic putty on Instructables, an online network for tinkerers and inventors. Looks like tons of fun. I thought that teachers might want to make some for demos and class activities. Also, the comments at Instructables offer many ideas for potential science fair projects. The link is: http://www.instructables.com/id/magnetic-silly-putty/?skipPro=true&sourcea=comment&newComment=true#replyCN7GBA4GOOP5C7K

Check with a high school chemistry teacher for some safety suggestions, but if the kids do not ingest the putty, wear goggles and masks (bandannas or scarves are fine) so they do not get iron dust in their eyes or breath it in, and you get the coarser powder, it should be plenty safe for elementary and junior high kids. (Read this essay of mine--I taught HS chemistry for years--about Elementary School Science Safety; follow the links to other essays on safety.)
The fractal flame is "White Veil" ©Valerie Coskrey, 2009, all rights reserved.

The need for the safety precautions are especially important if students mix their own. Warning, fine iron dust is flammable and a spark can set it afire. If you buy the iron (II) oxide from a chemical supply company, the finely ground powder must be kept away from an open flame and any sparks. Keep it out of drafts as it blows into the air easily.

In fact, this iron powder is one of the chemicals that teachers blow into candles to make the flame get larger and brighter and sparkly.

I would love it if you, Teachers, had your students suggest experiments with this silicone putty + ferric oxide. Tell me about it in a comment--or have them do so. If you do try it with slime, I would like to know about that, too. I would really like to have a list of science fair ideas in a set of comments.

You can get the needed chemicals from Amazon.com.
Don't forget your safety supplies!