Springtime in Paris: a Garden Table Mosaic

I have wanted to go to Paris, I think as soon as I knew about it. but my love of this romantic city has grown to almost an obsession. I have a little of Paris everywhere around my house, even on my phone case. I took French in high school, and even though the words haven't remained as well as I had hoped, the admiration for what seems a magical place has stuck with me. 

When Martin and I got married, we always said we would go to Paris for our tenth Anniversary. Well, guess what is right around the corner? We will celebrate ten years in June! However, going to Paris was pretty unlikely/ We were unable to put away money like we had hoped, and the trip seemed unpractical and impossible... until...

My mom sent me a link to a contest to win a trip to Paris!

Now, I'm not saying we won or anything, I'm just really really really hoping we will. 

The contest is through Michael's. To enter you must create a piece of art, any kind you want, with the theme "Springtime in Paris." You take a picture or video and send it in. It is judged on theme (40%) Originality (30%) Execution on skill (20%) and Inspired (10%).

The following are pictures of me creating my piece. I decided to make a mosaic garden table using ceramic plates, and tiles to make a spring like scene in front of the "Eiffel Tower."

First, I painted my table surface a lovely aqua. Then I used tile nippers to cut the shapes for the Eiffel Tower, and layed them out in the shape I liked.

Lots, of cutting and sorting colors went into this project. These blue pieces are for the sky.

I found these plates at the thrift store (on half off everything day)- awesome!

You can sort of see my set up all over the table, plastic bins for sorting colors, newspaper to protect the table a bit, and yes, I even wore safety goggles!

I layed everything out before gluing it down to the table with a tile glue similar to caulk.

Once I added the yellow flowers, I really felt it was brightening up!

Next I began working on the sky. This was time consuming to fit the pieces just where they should go.

I added green at the bottom to make it look like a nice springtime hill! This is what it looked like with everything glued down... but it's not done yet!

Now for the messy... grouting!

I took my time getting the grout into every little crack.

The next step was using a damp sponge to remove excess grout.

This is what it looked like after I removed the extra grout, but before I scrubbed it clean. The grout leaves a gritty film that you can see over the tiles. To get it clean, you take a stiff plastic bristled brush and scrub, followed by a cheesecloth or soft wash cloth to shine.

Here it is all spic and span on my front porch!

Doesn't it look so happy there?

Some close ups of the detail. I love the "flowers" that I made out of the flower patterned china!

The tile that I used to make the Eiffel Towers was really beautiful. I almost felt bad breaking it up. If you look closely you can see some of the design on the pieces.

Even if we don't win a trip to Paris, I have this lovely little table to remind me of many things. I love mosaics because they create such a parallel to life, here we are broken or misshapen, and it takes a creator to really make us into something beautiful and put us exactly where we need to be. We can't see the big picture most of the time. We might not even know that we are a flower, because we can't stop thinking that we are just a broken plate!

Win or lose, it was a wonderfully challenging project that I will cherish forever.

Thanks, mom for thinking I could do it!

Sometimes You Just Gotta Break Out In Song And Dance

When you're a busy mom, it's easy to forget some of your "loves," of just miss them because you don't have the time for them anymore. This morning I woke up and just felt like singing. I sang in the shower... I turned on what Elijah and I call "our song," (Which is "I gotta feelin' by the Black Eyed Peas). We sang and danced in the living room while daddy was making breakfast and Owen was building with Elijah's Lego's. I sang lots of extra songs at nap time for Owen until he was completely out of it, and then I held him a little longer feeling that him growing so fast was just impossible. For a moment he felt little again, not three. He felt like my baby.


After that, Elijah and I turned on some more favorites and sang and danced some more. Oh how I have missed it! I used to sing a lot more. I guess it's different when you don't have any formal kind of singing... meaning being part of a choir or group. I miss that, the joy of learning a new song and harmonizing. Ahhh... those days were fun. Now our singing is a little different. We sing in the car a lot, and daddy likes to sing too! That's kind of how we met, but that's a different story.


I miss other things too, like being able to get "messy creative." I can't leave my projects out like I used to. I used to paint and experiment with artsy things. Putting everything back where it goes takes away part of the fun of being free and creative. I've dreamt about a white room just for making creative messes. Wouldn't that be great? You could paint the walls and ceilings and have a continuous mural... I would love that. Maybe someday when the kids are older and we have a house with an extra room or shed... that could happen. They have no way of escaping crafts, even if they are boys. I will always want to do projects and make things of stuff we were going to throw out, etc.

Yesterday Elijah and I made puppets out of macaroni boxes covered with felt and other craft supplies. They turned out really cute and he even put on a puppet show...so sweet!


I guess my "loves" will never leave me and I will come back to them in different ways. Sometimes I miss my old self who had time to sing and dedicate time to hobbies, but she will return... soon I hope.