Pebble Mosaics

You HAVE to watch this video, ha ha haaaaaaa. DS showed it to me....



And it's sequel is equally humorous!

I finally got to knit this week. And crochet. I had a tough choice Friday night: go to a GF's jewelry party or go to knit night. I got a late start, but went to knitting. The fact I hadn't gotten any knit time in all week was really bugging me. So now, I'm nearly finished with my second sock! I made another couple of squares on my s'prise project, and generally hung out with other knitters. I always enjoy that.

Yesterday, whoa, did I do a doozy on my muscles. My back was very sore by bedtime, and I was afraid it would be worse today, but it's not as bad as yesterday. So far.

What I did to hurt my back was finish picking up the shingles and the big sheet of plastic from our re-roofing project 3 weeks ago, I hauled some bags of rocks and a big bucket of cement patch up from the basement to work on my pebble mosaic project I've had planned for 3-5 years. I had seen photos of lovely handmade river-rock mosaics, and I've always been fascinated by embedding objects into cement. Then, while in PA school, I saw this book reviewed somewhere and special ordered it from Borders:
Some photos from the book:

Amazing stuff.

When W*lm*rt had a clearance sale a couple of years ago on decorative polished stones, I bought about $12 worth of 4 different colors of stones. And got a lot!! Stored them in my basement...

We have a crappy old cement birdbath that previous homeowners left here. My DH painted it our standard 'mediterranean blue' 2 years ago; this color is what we painted our front door (everything that doesn't move in the garden will eventually be painted that as well!) The plan for the birdbath, which is cracked and does not hold water, is for me to spread a lining of cement over the entire bowl of it, and press in the stones for a mosaic look. I started this yesterday:
Having never done this before, I don't have the knack of smoothing cement out, and the bucket of pre-mixed patch I bought was somewhat dry already & a crumbly texture, so I think I started off on the wrong foot.
I couldn't get that stuff to smooth out to save my life. Grrr, and then, by the time I started arranging my stones, it was already partially dry. Double grrrr. I ended up just arranging them knowing that I'm going to have to go back, remove a section at a time, and put on that stuff really thick and re-position everything. I want this to work!And, it rained last night--see how it holds water NOW?!

Anyway, while I was digging around in the basement for my mosaic materials (including this stepping stone kit from QVC four years ago)

I found my box of crochet and craft books! YAY. So, instead of waiting for DH to help me, I lifted the big heavy box up the stairs and put it in the back room so I can have fun digging through it and seeing anew what I have--it's like going shopping in my basement! This book is copyrighted 1946. Look at some of the cute things:
Love the elephant rug.




Heh. I am a bibliophile and just cuz our house doesn't have enough room for my books, doesn't mean I get rid of them, oh no. Not my craft books. Not my cookbooks. Not my gardening books. Not my...well, you get the picture :D

Needless to say, my back was strained from all that heavy lifting. Rocks and books. Two of my favs!! Sigh. Hopefully today I can be equally active w/o further injury, I want it to heal. I have to be pulling some weeds today, and applying weed-n-feed to the grass, planting my seeds, and walking my pooch. I hope I don't strain it again. (But I'm not feeling too well, so probably won't do much of the above list....)

Okay. I fell off the yarn diet. I had promised not to buy more yarn until after our Maui trip. I stopped in to Hobby Lobby yesterday while running errands over that way, and came out with $30 of yarn. But it was Sugar 'n Cream....my downfall :) I found a great 3-pack of large skeins in colors that my local stores don't carry in the small balls; and some small balls that were half-price. Score! I'm feeling good AND bad about the purchase. But not too bad, heh.

I saw someone on Ravelry was making the Larger Than Life crochet bag out of sugar n cream solids, and it was sooooooo pretty, I think I may make mine in that. What a great idea!!!

Look at this beautiful bedspread someone made on rav,
the pattern is found here for free. I love Ravelry. Sigh.
Oh! Look at the beautiful peacock filet doily--I must make this. I love peacocks, after all the older I get, the more I start dressing like one, heh!

Okay. I just saw that someone made a Koolhaas from Malabrigo. I bet that would make a really great Xmas present for some guys in my life....hmmm. I must hunt down Malabrigo (I just touched that stuff for the first time 2 weeks ago, and it's at the top of my list to buy!!! So soft.)

Food update--I made the yummiest Indian food last night. I'm vegetarian, so anytime I can improve my meatless repertoire I get excited. The recipe is here: Vegetable Korma Curry, and it ROCKS!!! I am getting ready to nuke some leftovers for lunch....(I STARTED THIS POST 6 HOURS AGO, heh)See ya.