Posts

  • GiftWrapt: Wish Lists Made Easy

    GiftWrapt is an open-source wish list app designed for families, ensuring privacy and easy collaboration without spoiling surprises. It is customizable, self-hostable, and encourages user control over data.

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  • Rules Keep the Promise

    HoffStuff 2.0 emphasizes establishing clear rules before coding, creating a product canon to maintain business logic, and using AI to identify inconsistencies, ensuring consistency and structural integrity across multiple projects.

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  • The Breaking Point

    The Breaking Point

    Reflecting on the breaking point and subsequent decision to start working on v2 of HoffStuff.

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  • Family is the best customer

    I created “HoffStuff,” a wish list app for family use after frustration with existing options. Initially built for personal needs, the app evolved based on feedback and peculiar family behavior. Features like an Amazon importer and Apple Notes parser emerged, ultimately enhancing engagement and usability for family members over time.

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  • Recreating the Hotel TV Experience

    I spent three weeks building a custom TV channel system for vacation rentals. The idea was simple: instead of guests flipping through cable garbage or staring at a default Fire Stick home screen full of ads, they’d turn on the TV and see something actually useful. A welcome message with their name, the Wi-Fi password,…

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  • Trail Crew

    Trail Crew

    Here are a few highlights from our recent trail crew projects.

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  • Weathering Japan

    Weathering Japan

    A collection of photographs captured during my recent trip to Japan, showcasing the beauty of naturally weathered elements

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  • Cherry Sugar Cookies

    Cherry Sugar Cookies

    These cookies are amazing and always a big hit. For years I thought I had the wrong recipe until I was complaining about it one day. That is when my sister-in-law informed me that she had the same issue and it was because my mom forgot* to tell us that it needs the dash of…

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  • Digitization and Coloring Pages

    Vectorizing artwork is one of those guilty-pleasure hobbies of mine. Below are some behind the scenes examples of when I decided to digitize artwork for one of my buddy’s podcasts, Dinner with the Heelers. Once I was done, I took the vector versions and made some additional assets for things like coloring book pages.

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  • PCT Selfie Video Plugins

    PCT Selfie Video Plugins

    TLDR Madison wanted to make a video of PCT selfies with the date and location on them. I couldn’t find an app to do what we wanted, so I dove into custom scripting for Adobe After Effects and created a plugin to make it super easy. Here’s a link to the GitHub Repo… How it…

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  • TIE Bomber

    TIE Bomber

    1:48 scale 3D-printed resin TIE Bomber We all know that I love Star Wars but did you know that the TIE Bomber is my favorite ship? I’m a huge fan of bomber starfighters and I’ve always been a little bummed that the TIE Bomber never seems to get any love from merch companies. Specifically, I’ve…

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  • Felt Christmas Ornaments

    This project was one that was dreamed up and requested by my mom while she was visiting our house. I was apprehensive at how it would turn out in the beginning. Luckily, she had a vision and I think they turned out spectacularly. Basically, this project is all about making laser-cut felt Christmas ornaments. I’d…

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  • Past Scale Models

    Past Scale Models

    This post is currently in progress. I’ll be adding a lot more detail to it as time permits but wanted to share some of my work sooner rather than later This post is dedicated to some of the models I’ve completed in the past. Instead of giving them their own respective posts, I thought it…

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  • English Toffee

    English Toffee

    This recipe is a staple in our holiday treat packages. It’s my personal favorite and I’m sure it is others as well. Difficulty: Easy Notes: Butter should be room temperature Calibrate your thermometer ahead of time Always use quality ingredients. Using quality salted butter will make or break this recipe. Also, be sure that you…

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  • Peanut Brittle

    Peanut Brittle

    Difficulty: Medium Notes: Don’t scrape the edges of the pan. This can cause the sugar to crystalize. Use a heavy pot and a single thermometer. Stirring in the nuts is rough work. Do not leave out overnight. It can cause it to stick to the marble. You can use your spatula to help spread the…

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  • Peanut Butter Fudge

    Peanut Butter Fudge

    I refuse to be one of those people that need to write a novel on a recipe page so here it is. This recipe is dead-simple and produces an amazing fudge that will blow people’s minds. Difficulty: Easy Notes: Butter should be room temperature Calibrate your thermometer ahead of time Tools: Nonstick Foil Glass 8×8…

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  • Lake Tahoe Puzzle

    Lake Tahoe Puzzle

    A while back, I got the wild idea to see if I could use the Glowforge to make a custom puzzle. From there it spun into a multi-layered beast that represented the depth of Lake Tahoe. The one thing I knew from the beginning was that the hardest part was going to be designing the…

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  • Tank Trooper – Helmet Build

    Let me start off by saying that I’ve never built anything like this before. I’ve made detailed Halloween costumes before but nothing with cast resin and armor pieces. I’ve also never worked on something that requires screen-detail accuracy for it to be considered “correct” or “complete”. All in all, this is going to be an…

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  • First Order Stormtrooper Armor Delivered!

    After 6 years of waiting, my First Order armor has finally been delivered. Originally ordering through Anovos, I received the bulk of my order from the freshly launched Denuo Novo rebrand.

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  • Tank Trooper

    Tank Trooper

    Overview I’ve always been a huge fan of the tank trooper. Eventually, I purchased one of the tank commander Hot Toys and, a few weeks later, I received a package in the mail from Imperial Surplus containing helment pieces. Since then, I’ve become enthralled in the process of building my own set of Tank Trooper…

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