Saturday

I spent yesterday outside weeding. Even though it is a week until my next show, I guess I needed a break from doing mosaic.

I am still trying to come up with the background for this leaf plate. The one pictured is of tumbled stained glass. I am not so sure this is the right background. So it just sits there waiting for me.

The other image is of a small vase or perhaps a business card holder. Ready to grout!

A dark and rainy Wednesday

I woke up to rain this morning. Such a nice sound to wake up to.

I only mosaiced for an hour yesterday. This is what I was able to accomplish. (Some was actually from the day before, such as I laid out the large leaf on the plate and I had completed the three tea lights.)

A beautiful perfect Tuesday, in July, Northern Minnesota!

It is only supposed to be 75 degrees today and sunny - making this an absolutely perfect day.

I was able to begin to mosaic yesterday. However, I forgot to take the photos. I really need to get back into the habit of just snapping the photos.

This is what I did on Saturday. My progess is so slow. I am not sure how I can speed it up as I pick up each piece of glass, hold it up to the light, then I decide whether to use it or not. My guess is that if I purchased the glass in whole sheets, rather than from the scrap bin, and I knew what each piece would look like I could skip this step. It does give me so much pleasure to study the glass and I sometimes "oh and ah!" over the beauty of the glass as the light comes through it.

valnorthwoods blog: A beautiful, almost crisp, Saturday morning with delicious cool winds. YUM!

valnorthwoods blog: A beautiful, almost crisp, Saturday morning with delicious cool winds. YUM!

A beautiful, almost crisp, Saturday morning with delicious cool winds. YUM!

Today is such a delicious day! The winds are so cool - this feels wonderful after the sweltering humid week we have just had.

Last night when I came home from an outdoor concert in the Park (which was quite wonderful Blue Grass, a band from Duluth called the Fish Heads - very fun), I saw a SKUNK eating the cat food left out for Moses, our wild, outdoor cat. I told this black and white thief that it had to go away and in response, this SKUNK CRAWLED UNDER OUR GAS GRILL! What to do?? At any rate, in a few minutes that it took me to explain to Heather about this furry thief, it had gone away. THANK GOODNESS.

This is what I was working on yesterday. You can see that these two, the mirror and matching shelf, are quite cohesive.

I've just gotten done with a wonderful walk with my sweet little dog, Gracie.

Today the bugs, (those horrible deer flies and mosquitos!!!) were manageble. So Gracie and I went on a two mile walk. We saw our neighbor Mitch on his motor scooter, on his way to work. No deer today, though usually we see 5 or 6.

And my big exciting news is the lupines are growing in our lilac's "lane". I had picked stalks of the lupines late last summer as they were making seeds and placed them randomly in Loretta's Lilac Lane. (Loretta was a wonderful, kind spirited woman who battled cancer 7 times before she died a bit over a year ago. I like to think that she looks down from time to time to see how her lilacs are doing.) Now these have sprouted - perhaps next year we will have flowers.

This is my progress on the 16 inch wide mirror frame. (You can see in the photos that the background of this frame is a dark forest green.) I quite like this even though it was not a "stretch" for me to make it. There is a matching shelf to go with this that I will start later today. The hearts I have attached are from a fellow Etsy seller, firedandfused. I really like her "stuff" and use these fun pieces alot in my mosaic work.

And this is the mosaic vase with leaves. I need to reshoot the photos as the angle is all wrong. Makes it look as though this vase is short when it is over 9 inches tall.

Another Muggy Day in July!

I have had multiple errands to run after work each afternoon this week and with my car's air conditioning on the blink, (probably permanently as it costs so much to fix this!), I come home too tired to even mosiac for a half an hour. Oh well. At least this heat is supposed to lift tomorrow.

Here is the portable altar with the back and sides grouted. (Remember how I started this MONTHS ago?) I thought grouting around Mary and the candle holders would be pretty tough so I grouted just the "walls" of this.

Further progress on the mirror as well. Not much so far this week.

Keep as cool as you can!

A Very Foggy and Muggy Sunday.

This morning I tried to take my dog Gracie out for a walk but the deer flies chased us back inside. Ugh! Flies! Neither Gracie or I am pleased.

This is what I am currently working on: I have prepped three plates that I had gotten at a garage sale with Weldbond - this was sort of tricky as these aluminum plates were so slick the glue began to pool up, I completed the Spring side of my 4 seasons vase and I began to cover a Mirror, again, purchased at a garage sale.

Friday and the weather is dark and gloomy. Not beautiful and sunny like last Friday.

I feel sometimes like my mood is so directly effected by what is going on outside, weatherwises. However, on a different subject, this is what I have done this week. I finished attaching the glass leaves to the outside of my vase, filled in the background with tiny pieces of glass, and started a 4 seasons vase as well as two tea lights. I am now trying to get ready for a show in Two Harbors, Under the Spreading Walnut Tree, in early August.

Wednesday and I was able to complete attaching the glass leaves to my Vase.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take the photos of this Vase, completed, so these photos are from Monday. I wanted this vase to look like when I peer into the "woods" and the leaves are so thick that I cannot see beyond them. I am not sure that you can really get this effect looking at these photos, but I will try to remember to take some more today. The effect is wonderful, I think - very lush and full, jungle like.

It is Tuesday and we are back from our wonderful working vacation to Grand Marais, MN!

I had such a wonderful time in Grand Marais! It is even, just a little, difficult to think of going back to my wonderful job today, but it is just a little difficult.

I came back from Grand Marais with only 15 mosiac pieces out of how many? I am not sure until I check my photos. I sold all of my square tea light holders. Absolutely every one! These small and rather time consuming pieces are really my "bread and butter'' of my mosaic work. I have gone through periods where I hated working on these and times when I have loved working on them. Right now I really enjoy the chance to put another piece of an ongoing "picture" on each of the 4 tiny sides.

Even the wonderful wooden bowl, formerly a drum, sold! On Saturday it POURED. I was so glad that this bowl had been treated with a water resistent seal. I kept pouring out water from this bowl! An extremely nice couple bought this bowl to place on a console table beneath another mosaic purchase from a Grand Marais gallery. While I was wrapping this bowl up, I noticed a small piece of tile sitting in front of me! The bottom of this bowl had been sitting in water for HOURS. Ofcourse both the Weldbond and the grout were not fully cured yet and two tiny pieces of tile had loosened. This extremely understanding couple was willing to continue shopping while I repaired this with Weldbond and grout.

It's a wonderful Sunny Friday!

I have SO MUCH to do before we leave for Grand Marais in a few short hours. I just wanted to post the last two grouted items for this show. Wish me luck! One is the wooden bowl that used to be a drum and the other is a vase/candle holder with a heart design. Got to go! I have too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it in!

Wednesday and I am frantically trying to complete my last few pieces for Grand Marais this weekend.

While I am so disgusted and depressed about the Minnesota state shut down (but was the funding for the legistlators "shut down"? No, of course not - they still get paid!!!), I am continuing to complete my last few pieces for the show in Grand Marais this coming weekend. Thanks, Heather for pushing me to finish these last two pieces.

After coming home from work (I LOVE saying this!) I continued to attach the pieces to the wooden bowl as well as to a wonderful vase covered with glass leaves. You can see how lovely this vase will be when it is done from these two photos. The bowl is done except to grout, which I may do tomorrow evening. I hope!

Happy Fourth of July!

Here is what I have recently, just yesterday, completed.

I have attached the glass to a glass form for the rectangular shaped vases and the two tea light forms as well as to a taller vase.

You can see that I grouted one vase and two tea lights. THere they are all polished up and ready to be sold at Grand Marais next weekend!

I have so neglected my wonderful blog!

Now that I have a job I have neglected my blog. SO so sorry! I will get a routine soon.