Lego Bouquet Vase

August 2, 2022

I finished the vase in the spring but didn’t get around to taking pictures of it until now.  The gaps and curves on the vase give the vase its interesting shape.  I kept the vase white with accents of gold.

January 20, 2022

More work on the vase.  I tried aligning the sides with the corners but I’m not sure I like it that way.  It looks too squarish.  The staggered look on the curve yesterday gives it a more interesting look.  To make the outer curve look more proportioned, I might need to bring in the neck to make the cylinder more narrow.  Also, I think I need to order more parts.  I don’t have enough white macaroni, panels, plates, brackets and corner pieces.

I just ran out of curved panels, macaroni pieces and various white pieces… I subbed in some grey and blue, but I might try to switch them all to white or leave a line of colour.  Slightly less than half the vase, but it’s starting to shape up nicely.  The build is a bit fragile but I’ll reinforce it once I finish the basic structure.

January 19, 2022

I got some parts from Bricklink and started playing around with them.  Here’s the start of my next vase.  The corners don’t quite meet up with the edge panels when I connect the curve pieces on top.  I might try to make some variations to the shape.  I’m still deciding if I want to try to get it to align or leave it as is.  I ordered some other pieces from Lego’s Bricks and Pieces but I don’t expect to get them for awhile.

Lego Cylinder Vase

I got the Lego Bouquet for our 20th anniversary.  But didn’t want to put it into a regular vase.  While looking around our room, I noticed our Ship in a Bottle set looked like a good starting point for making a vase for the flowers.

I didn’t want to take apart the set, so I went off to Bricklink and ordered the pieces I needed.  With some trial and error, I tried a couple different heights for the vase but found it worked best extending the bottle by an extra layer of transparent cylinder quarter 4x4x6 pieces and transparent panel pieces to fill the sides in.  I thought adding metallic silver tile pieces helped to give it a simple but elegant finish.  I filled in the water with about 1000 transparent light blue round plates.

For Christmas I got the Roses and Tulips.  I hope to add some sunflowers in once the set is available in Canada.

My husband is encouraging me to make some different Lego vases for my Lego flowers.  I’m doing some research and will try to create another vase as my next project.  Edit: Here’s a set of my transparent vases on Lego Ideas.

 

I got a few requests for the part list for my vase.  This is my first time generating a parts list from Rebrickable.  Hopefully I did this correctly.  Number of unique parts: 8, Total number of bricks: 269

Rebrickable Parts List

Cylinder Vase Bricklink xml can be copy and pasted into the Bricklink Upload page:

<INVENTORY><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>3069b</ITEMID><COLOR>67</COLOR><MINQTY>8</MINQTY></ITEM><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>27507</ITEMID><COLOR>67</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY></ITEM><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>3005</ITEMID><COLOR>12</COLOR><MINQTY>18</MINQTY></ITEM><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>4070</ITEMID><COLOR>12</COLOR><MINQTY>48</MINQTY></ITEM><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>60581</ITEMID><COLOR>12</COLOR><MINQTY>26</MINQTY></ITEM><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>30562</ITEMID><COLOR>12</COLOR><MINQTY>12</MINQTY></ITEM><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>3024</ITEMID><COLOR>12</COLOR><MINQTY>52</MINQTY></ITEM><ITEM><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><ITEMID>3023</ITEMID><COLOR>12</COLOR><MINQTY>101</MINQTY></ITEM></INVENTORY>

Lego Pencils

We built some Lego pencils with pieces from our 1x1 bin (and some random technic parts).

Lego Elephants

Wow!  I didn't realize that it's been almost a year since I last built something for fun.  Since the boy is sick at home.  It was a Lego day.  I decided to make an elephant and ended up making 2.

The distinctive feature in elephant 1 is it's realistic trunk.  The arm pieces used in the trunk allow it to swivel up and down nicely.   I couldn't find all the parts I wanted so I had to substitute some pieces in.  Note: the asymmetrical tusks, leg colours and shapes.  I wanted to build it one piece taller, but couldn't find enough grey cylindrical pieces - though I'm sure we have some somewhere...  It's a bit difficult to find pieces since most of them are now dumped into an Ikea bench.

For the second elephant, I started off with a piece I wanted to use for legs.  I inverted that part, then built up from there.  Because the piece is inverted, the studs are on the bottom of the legs.  I improvised attaching pieces on top to connect the legs with the body and head.

Here's a link to my Lego moc page: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/419398

Lego panda

I rummaged through my son's room to gather some black and white pieces.  Here's my first attempt at creating a Lego panda.  I don't really have much time to build (uninterrupted) as I'd like but hopefully I'll find some time to make revisions or build different versions later.

Here's a link to my Lego moc page: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/398362

Duplo Activities

Been busy with my new baby and preschooler.  We saw the duplo inspiration videos earlier this week.  Isaac loves the Ramps and Crashes, Biggest Bridge and the Marble Run video.  After that, Isaac wanted to make his own ramp.

It gave me some ideas and spurred me to do some building.

For a quick fun activity with kids - we made duplo bowling pins and a little lane for it.  I might want to try creating a lane with gutters next time.

This morning, I decided to build my version of a spiral train track.  It's 3 levels high and used 3 bridge halves to ramp up to the top of the spiral.

Unimog Lego Shopping

Weather in Richmond this morning: sunny.  As we drive towards Vancouver, large gray clouds loom overhead.  As we approach our destination (Toys R Us), hail plunks down on our car.  I watch as the little ice balls bounce off the car windshield.

We picked up another lego Technic because M really wants it and is afraid it'll be gone by the time TRU offers a sale on Technics.  :p  There has been lots of spending on lego lately... but sadly not by me.  I'm still waiting for October before picking up the Town Hall for my Christmas present.

Isaac's still trying to make rockets but also makes submarines now.  He also likes jets, planes, quad bikes, etc.  When M showed Isaac the lego technic box at the store, Isaac said "whoa".  I think it'll take M a while to build it over the weekend.

Yesterday M was building a model of the X-wing spaceship, Isaac got tired of waiting for daddy to finish it, so he decided to build his own X-wing (with one of our bins of spare regular lego pieces).  I've been looking for more lego from Value Village, but sadly there hasn't been much lately.  Maybe I just haven't been going in the mornings when they open - but our current schedule constraints with morning classes makes it difficult.  I did happen to see something with a few pieces of lego, but it was mixed with a lot of Tyco and Mega Bloks (which are brands I don't want) - so I didn't buy it.  I'm waiting for the garage sales and big kid swap meets to pick up some more random lego pieces.

Missing Lego Pieces

Off topic again, but I just want to vent.  I opened up my Lego Fire Brigade 10197 set this evening and right  off the bat, I noticed missing pieces.  Thinking it might've been just a couple, I substituted in a couple of my pieces and tried to continue on... but got stuck again shortly afterwards.

It looks like my set is missing an entire bag of pieces.  My set is from batch 39R1.  I will be calling customer service tomorrow to see if they can send me the missing bag!  I looked online to find that lots of other people have the same problem with this batch.

Update: I called up customer service this morning and they're sending me the missing bag.  Hope it arrives in the mail soon.  The woman I spoke with was really pleasant and helped to resolve the problem quickly.

Update2 (Dec 9, 2011): The missing lego pieces finally arrive in the mail today!  Hooray!!!  I'm going to take a nap then start putting together the Fire Brigade tonight.

Lego Modular Sets

Ah!!  I'm so excited.  After staring at the pictures of the Pet Shop (10218), Grand Emporium (10211) and Fire Brigade (10197) on the Lego web site for awhile (well, since the Pet shop was released and I found out about the modular sets)... DH just bought me all three sets!

I can't wait for them to arrive.  I don't know which I want to build first.  When Daddy said he was buying me Lego, Isaac said he wanted Lego too.  I think I will let him play with the finished sets.  Of the three, he'll probably enjoy the Fire Brigade most.

I guess I should give an update about the boy too.  He is currently sick.  He has a runny nose and a cough with phlegm.  He's been sick since Saturday evening.  We ended up skipping out on the Wall-E screening at the planetarium on Sunday.  He also missed his cooking class and Twos Time this week.  We did end up going trick-or-treating at the mall.  I figured it would be ok since we were just staying indoors.

This morning Isaac and I woke up later than usual (8am instead of 6:30-7am).  We stayed home all day.  We spent the morning watching Cars and playing with Lego Duplo and K'nex.  After lunch, we tidied up all the toys and moved some stuff around to make space for the Christmas tree.  I put the tree up in the afternoon.   We spent the rest of the afternoon making "presents" to put under the tree.  I made 4 Lego boxes with lego ribbons.  Isaac made 2 Duplo "presents" that look like rockets.  One is for Mommy and one is for Daddy.  He skipped his nap today and started falling asleep on the carpet at around 5:30pm while playing with his Duplo trains and track.  I kept him up because it really was too late for a nap and he either would've missed dinner or wouldn't sleep until late.  We ended up putting him to bed at around 6:45pm with mommy milk and a story.  He was out as soon as we turned off the lights.  His nose is raw from me trying to remove/clear his mucus.  Poor boy.  I hope he'll sleep well tonight and feels better soon.  I really want him to be able to go to school tomorrow.

Update: Isaac is staying home today.  Mucous is still yellow.   Playgroup tomorrow, I'll have to see how he's doing tomorrow morning before we decide if he gets to go.  Swimming lessons start Saturday... and that's also up in the air.  Sunday we're meeting up with a friend from our birth group.

1 Day

Last day before Daddy comes back home.

This morning we met up with our playgroup friends at a playground.  It was too cold to play in the water.  Highlight: chasing seagulls off a soccer field.  There was one seagull who just kept moving to a different part of the field, so Isaac and J would keep running after it.  When the seagull finally decided it had enough and flew away, the boys went to explore the gates on the far end of the field, so Auntie E. and I went after them.

I took Isaac to McDonalds for lunch.  He almost fell asleep on the way there.  His eyes were closing as I parked the car.  When I asked if he wanted to eat at the restaurant or go home, he mumbled "restaurant" so I took him out of the car.  Isaac had a Chicken McNugget happy meal and I had my usual (and I ate his fries).

We ate, went home, I put Isaac into his stroller and went to Value Village.  He was still awake when I was browsing the book section, but quickly fell asleep soon after.  I found a bin full of regular sized Lego for $8.  It was really nice that there were no dead bugs and NO Megablox in the bin, though there were some broken pieces I had to toss away.  I'm a bit leery about buying some bins after one experience of finding a bunch of dead bugs at the bottom of a Lego bin once.  The lego filled the entire bathroom sink.

When I combined this set with our current bin of basic regular Lego blocks, I was able to build 7 mini Piston Cups for Isaac.  He lined them up together like a choo-choo train.

For dinner, I made noodles with chicken broth, carrots, celery, tofu, and chicken balls.  He watched a couple episodes of "I spy", then a couple "Word World" episodes while I fed him dinner.  I started his bedtime routine at around 7pm and put him to bed at a bit after 8pm.  Since I didn't have a nap today, I was pretty tired and fell asleep at Isaac's bedtime.  Unfortunately, I missed a phone call from someone at the choir I'm planning to audition for.  I will have to try to get in touch with her next week.

I'm just uploading some photos from the camera to iPhoto.  I'll have to play around with iPhoto to get more comfortable using it.  We have used Picasa, but I have had problems with some file corruption due to the large size of our albums and the sheer number of photos we've taken of the boy.

Daddy's home.

Need More Trofast Shelves For Lego

My Duplo Knights Castle (Lego #4777) arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon.  I've already built two castles, but they haven't been able to survive Isaac's onslaught.  I have NOWHERE to store my new pieces.

For the last couple of months, I haven't been able to fit all our duplo into our existing bins... so I've built houses and other structures and left it out (and the boy destroys them when he's in a tired, destructive mood).  I think I need to visit Ikea again to pick up another shelf and some more bins.  Maybe I should take Isaac there sometime this week.

We ended up getting a taller Trofast shelf/frame to store our toys.  Unfortunately, it's not very stable and looks like it can tip easily.  They've included screws to bolt the frame to the wall but it's not really an option for us.


Update:
We use the medium and large sized bins for our duplo and the small and medium bins for regular lego.  I got a shelf that holds 6 small bins together.  I sort the lego by colour, so I'm finding that 6 bins just isn't enough since there are more than 6 different colours!  Some of the colours currently have to share a bin together.

After a few recent swap meets and value village lego purchases, some of the little bins are filled to the brim.  I might have to move some of the lego to the medium sized bins.

Lego Shopping Addiction

Move over ebay... I just discovered bricklink and it's easy to search for random lego pieces.  I have to stop looking on that site or I'll end up buying a lot more stuff.  I've never had any problems with ordering things off ebay, so we'll see how it goes with bricklink sellers.

What I like about bricklink: huge selection of lego, no bidding wars
What I dislike about bricklink: it's hard to determine the shipping costs, and there's a lot of just waiting around. When you submit an order (you have committed to buying it without fully knowing the exact shipping and handling costs), then you wait for the seller to come back to you with the total, they wait for you to pay, you wait for them to check that you've paid, you wait for them to send you the items, and you wait for the items to be shipped.  Granted that you can't control the wait times for the actual shipping... I still find it frustratingly slow compared to shopping on ebay.

I wonder if I should set up a store on bricklink or ebay to sell off some excess lego duplo inventory I've accumulated?  Any how, it's something I can probably do relatively easily.  The barrier to entry is low (hence lots of competition and you're limited by what you have available to sell and the price you want to sell at).  I have some ideas of how to create interesting lots but it's doubtful I'd be able to make any significant money from it.  Since there is a lower supply of duplo on ebay, I suspect that I would be able to make more per transaction by listing on ebay.  I would have to look into the fees involved in setting up a sellers account on paypal and also one of the systems to see if it's even worth my while or not.  I would also have to look into possible tax implications - and consult with my accountant [AKA... my dad].  It could be a fun hobby.

Duplo Lego Castle

We picked up a lego duplo castle set from a craigslist listing today.  I was a bit unsure about paying $30 for 90+ pieces of castle pieces and the picture posted was small and didn't clearly show what pieces were included. After putting the boy to bed, I washed the lego pieces and searched online for duplo castle building instructions.

It turns out that we now have two duplo castle sets: 4776 Dragon Tower and 4779 Defense Tower.  Structurally, the Dragon Tower is complete.  We are only missing one crest (lion), two poles and two flags (one of each: lion flag and a dragon flag) from the Defense Tower.  The sets did not come with any figures or accessories, but we have duplo figures we can substitute in (and of course our dragons).

On a side note, I am excited that Lego will be opening a store in the Toronto area.  I'm looking forward to visiting the store the next time we're in town.


We ended up ordering the Duplo Knight's Castle from BrickLink.  I also picked up some extra pieces from a listing off kijiji.  Now we have enough pieces to build a decent fortress.

Building instructions for the Duplo castle sets are available on Peeron:
Dragon Tower #4776-1
Knight's Castle #4777-1
Defense Tower #4779-1