Pots with style

Here is a project that you can do with your children that involves breaking plates, cups ,statues and anything that has a pottery quality to it. Break your pottery with gloves and a hammer. You must wear safety goggles. Hold the item in you hand over a box that will collect the pieces; tap the item with a small hammer and it should break in your hands without much effort. Take the larger pieces and do the same process until you have the size of mosaic that you are looking for. Use a gloved hand to dig through the broken pottery when the kids are starting to layout their design. Get some trays from the local meat department they work the best to use a mosaic holder. I usually have all of the breaking done before I get to school, but the kids will be involved in every phase except the mixing of the grout and the cleaning of the final product.

Divide the pot into as many areas as you have children. I place the pot upside down to start with, you can draw with a regular pencil. You can lay it out in a grid and you won't see that you did when you are done. You will need to get a tile adhesive I used Omni Grip. It is premixed and come in a re-seal able tub. Wet the pot with either a sponge or a spray bottle. It is imperative that you keep the pot damp because the terracotta pot is extremely dry and will wick the moisture of the adhesive before it adheres.

Keep a pinkie finger width between each of the pieces, so you have room for the grout. You will need to review the pot after the kids are finised to see if you need to add some small pieces to finish it out. Keep a finger width away from the top and the bottom of the pot so the grout can go all the way around those pieces. You will need to flip the pot to make sure this happened.

Let this dry over night. I keep a bucket of water for the kids to wash their hands off before they head to the bathroom sink. They should have all of the adhesive chunks off their hands before they go to the sink. The adhesive will settle to the bottom of the bucket and you will be able to scoop it our and throw it away. Unless your sink has a plaster trap this is the way you want to handle the clean up of the adhesive and the grout or your janitor will be really angry at you when he has to hire a plumber to undo what you did!

You can buy just about any color of grout you want. I used a color called fawn. You will have to mix this your self. Mix about 6/2 grout to water, and see if that is the consistency of a thick cake batter. You will want to wear a mask and don't do it around the kids. Once the particles are wet it won't be a danger to your lungs because of the silica.

Have the kids use their hands, I let about three work on it at a time. Go slow or you will cut yourself.

They will need to work it between the pieces. Again, spray the pot with water to help it not wick out the water in the grout.

You will need to cover the whole pot to make sure the mosaics are sealed.

Once you do that you will take sponges and look for buried treasures! You will need to be flipping the pot over to make sure everything is covered and smooth. Once you have exposed the mosaics and you like the way it looks, let it dry for 24 hours. Then clean with a tile cleaner and grout sealer, it is an all-in-one product. I use TileLab OneStep, Cleaner & Resealer. It is amazing how they will come to life!

I Am Ready for My Close-Up!

I was so alert, Mommy and Gran decided to take pictures of Da Cuteness, (that would be me!)

Look everybody, I am getting so strong!

Should I be a golfer or Fred Astaire?

Hi Mommy,....... catch me I think I am tipping!

This is the original hand shot

I was smiling as I was going down!

Gran likes contrast, so here is my artful hand pose.

Being a model is hard work, I feel a nap coming on!

How do the these top models do this??!! I'm pooped!

Henry Meets his Uncle and Aunties

My Family came to visit me this weekend. I had never met my Aunties and Uncle before this weekend. But I had to say Hi to Grandpa!

Auntie Faith & Me

Auntie Tessa & Me

Levi &Me

All About Henry!

Who needs words when you have such a precious angel! Not even 24 hours old!

Da boy done growed up! Senior Pix!!

We had Levi take Senior Pix in St. Cloud for his indoor session, but I knew we were coming West to God's Country and I would be able to shoot in God's Country, the Paha Sapa ..... The Black Hills.

But we got a bonus! Art Alley in Rapid City! I never knew there were so many talented people with spray cans! Enjoy!

Floating the Sauk

I am so late on so many things that are happening in our lives, but at least this was only two weeks ago!!

It was May 31, Austin and Sara's 1st Anniversary and a beautiful day and we and the Donlins were invited to Jeff and Deanna Hennen for an afternoon of canoing the Sauk River as well as a barbecue to top the day off.

It was a perfect day for being on the water! Not too hot not too cold! We were able to put in right at Jeff and Deanna's property and went down river about 8 miles (by car) to a landing called Eagle Park. If you have followed this blog you would have remembered that I was taking pictures of the eagles a couple of entries ago. We had parked our trucks down there so we didn't have to paddle up stream to get home.

We brought Wasabi almonds and cold beer to enjoy on our way down the river. You can float the river all the way to the Mississippi but the dam would get a little dicey!

On our way we saw King Fishers, Orioles, a ton of turtles and God blessed me with some ponies coming down to drink at the river. I do miss the ponies!

Special Delivery

A card came in the mail for me a few days before Mother's Day; as usual I hold all cards until the day of the event. If you don't wait you won't have anything on that special day. This is especially true for Birthday Cards. The rest of my family members rip them open the moment they are sagged from the mailbox!

A few days later, the Friday night before Mother's Day I get a phone call from Austin asking if I have received their Mother's Day card and had I opened it. I informed him that I never open cards until the day of the event; after several pleas he said that I should open it because there was something really funny in there. FINE! Unwillingly I opened the card. I pealed back the flap to reveal the first word of the card and started to scream with excitement! Tessa was there in the room and she came running over and started screaming too!

Sara was on the call by now and I asked Austin if it was really true, and told them how wonderful it was to have a grandbaby coming!

Yes, we are going to be grandparents!! They are a little behind on the grandchild order that I put in on their wedding night, but better late than Never!!

They are due in December around Christmas time! Which will be the best Christmas present ever!