Okay, the project is done, and the gift has been given so I can finally post it.
First and foremost, MASSIVE THANKS TO KEVY. I roped him into one bizarro project and he delivered an absolutely perfect result. As he said when he gave me the finished pieces, "There isn't a 90 degree angle left on these!" and he was exactly right.
Some quick back story, we may be Disneyland addicts now, but CP and I began our love affair (with each other and) with theme parks at Magic Mountain. The 2nd time I met here she
suckered me into convinced me to buy a season pass, and we spent any free time we had there over the next few years.
One result of our seeming residency at Magic Mountain was befriending a lead a the souvenir photo booth near the front gate. To this day I'm not sure if she just really liked our group of nutballs dressed in clashing plaid, or hated her employer. But whatever the reason, we got constant supplies of those souvenir keychain photo viewer things. They are, in my mind, synonymous with our early relationship. They look like this (spoilered for size):
Not long before I started this thread, I was lying in bed, failing to fall asleep, running through the kind of mental tangents one runs through when that happens. Into my mind sprang an idea for a birthday gift for CP. A scaled up hardwood replica of one of these viewers fashioned to be a photo frame.
I do not understand my brain.
But the idea was there, fully formed, and I HAD to do it. So I did. And I finished it today. It's a little early for her birthday, but I couldn't wait to give it to her.
So here it is.
And, the bonus feature - it's a back-lit photo frame.
The photo in there is a blown up scan of the photo from either the first or second one of the two of us we got (we couldn't quite remember which was which, they happened a week apart and were from our first and 2nd date respectively).
I was giddy througout this project, and it elicited a spontaneous dance of joy when I pulled the masking tape off after doing the white detail painting. That was the moment I knew that I had pulled it off. It was a fun project to do, I was thrilled to be doing it for CP, and had continual excuses to spend time visiting some of the happiest memories of my life.
Hedons replenished.