the fruit of my lacerations

I'm typing this with wounded fingers. I have finished my mosaic table and, as with my one previous mosaic experience, my fingers aren't pretty. I thought things were going pretty well, I got through the glass-cutting with but a few tiny glass splinters in my fingertips. I had sort of forgotten that it is the grouting process that is murder on fingers. Ouch. Because I used glass, very pointy, sharp glass, instead of mosaic craft tiles, it is very hard to smooth the grout on, and to wipe the surface clean as it dries, without lacerating one's fingers. But anyway, it's done! Here are some more pictures:


I used scrapbook letters to spell out the words, and sealed them down with matte medium, and then mosaiced with clear glass where I wanted them to show. Ditto with the polka dots on the top. So it's a combo collage/mosaic. Now, I will let my fingers heal for a few days before I go back to fix the grout, which in my haste, I wiped away too much of.

I hope my fellow Americans out there had a lovely 4th of July. We did. We don't ever go out on the 4th, which other dog owners will understand: my poor old Shiloh probably drooled half her body weight with her freakish panicked panting last night. Dogs do not love fireworks, and as Jim said last night, the first thing they will do when they take over the world, is abolish holidays that involve explosions. We had some friends over for BBQ and build-your-own banana splits:

(That's Camille showing me how she can put her toe in her mouth. I think I can probably do it, too, but I won't try.) And there is Maggie and Chary with the banana split fixins, and Jim with his masterpiece, shortly before devouring it.

We also took my niece Izzy hiking to Punchbowl Falls in the Columbia Gorge on Sunday:

I LOVE it there. The perfect place on a hot day. The falls go through a small ravine that widens out to a bank of sun-warmed rocks, and then to another waterfall, and there are places to wade in the deliciously cool shade, and then just a few steps away you can stretch out like a lizard in the sun if you want. You can jump off cliffs if you're insane, or swim out to the falls, but it's icy, so wading usually cures my desire to swim. Izzy did go swimming in her clothes though.

And lastly, after writing my last post, I DID call Lori in Amsterdam and we had a lovely chat, and Jim and I are scheming to maybe visit Holland in the fall, and try to time it to my old babysitter/soccer coach's wedding in Genoa, Italy, and do both. Hm. Might just be a fantasy. But often, things that start as fantasies become reality. Fingers crossed!