Craft Show Mosiacs

I must have been insane agreeing to a quick trip to Austin to take my 15 year old to the world release party of Percy Jackson and the Olympians just days before my craft show. Insane, or the world's best mom--take your pick. But in order to make this trip I had to get enough glass cut so that I could work on mosaics while my two daughters were spending the day together. I really didn't think it would be as difficult as it was. When will I learn--when on a tight deadline anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And so it did. I had planned to have everything cut and packed up early enough to watch some TV and get to bed at a decent time. Instead I crawled into bed at 2 am. You heard right, 2 am--and I needed to leave for Austin around 6 am so that we would arrive in time to switch places with my college senior in the line to buy the book and get her numbered tickets for the book signing. Book People opens at 9 am. My daughter had a class she couldn't miss at 9:30. So she either needed to be the first person in line to buy books, or we needed to take her place in line so she could leave for class. And I stayed up until 2 am!

May 5, 2009

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

The morning got off to a shaky start. I was a little slow to get moving (shocking I know), and we got on the road about 15 minutes late. Then we went to Sonic for some hefty doses of caffeine for the road. This ended up taking longer than expected because our car hop didn't put one of the lids on tight. When she handed me the cup, it when it spilled all over me. She then ran to get napkins for me as I sat there questioning why I was out of bed. Luckily I only got wet enough to be annoyed and not enough to make me miserable the whole way to Austin. At that point you would think it would be smooth sailing on our drive, but this is me we are talking about. We ended up having to stop several times to tighten lug nuts on my van. I have one tire that needs several adjustments to the lug nuts after the tires have been rotated, and I of course rotated them the day before. Needless to say all of this added up to us being well behind schedule--with no chance of making it to Book People before 9 am. Luckily, my daughter ended up being the first person in line, so she was able to buy the books, get her tickets for the book signing and still have time to let us into her apartment before she had to leave for class.

But we had finally made it, so I wasn't complaining. I set myself up in her living room and started gluing glass. I was hungry and tired, but worked pretty steadily. I did try to take a nap at one point, but my body betrayed me with a 15 min power nap and wouldn't give me anymore. But the day was productive. I got several pieces glued, and they even had time to dry before we left. My girls got to spend time together that day, and thoroughly enjoyed the book party. Plus we finished our trip off with a Cinco de Mayo party at Chuy's Mexican Restaurant, and I managed to drive all the way back home with only a 30 minute stop for a nap in the parking lot at Bucky's in Giddings. I was beat when we got home, but it was a great day.

So here are some of the items I made in Austin. I took these pictures the next day, and my brain was obviously still tired because I didn't manage to get pictures of everything I had made. But here is what they looked like before the grout:

Of course gluing is just the first step in the process. Grouting was still left--and the grouting is the hardest part. I dread grouting. In fact, I think I can honestly say I hate grouting. Grouting is the reason I may never do another mosaic kitchen item again. But that's material for an entirely different blog. I was so tired on Wednesday, that I was functionally craft disabled. So even though I managed to accomplish quite a bit while we were in Austin, I still ended up losing a day of prep for my show. Once again--insane or the world's best mom, you be the judge. So on Thursday, I was up to my elbows in grout, moaning and groaning and swearing I was going to toss it all and simply go out to lunch on Friday instead. But I kept my inner complainer in check, and finished my projects. The grout sealer was put on way too soon, but the items were done. And they looked good. Here are my finished kitchen items ready to be sold:

I was proud of my work, but it really felt like there should be more. But this was it. It was done, and after tomorrow this craft show would be history. The question is would I actually be brave enough to sit down at my table and try to sell this stuff, or would I give in to the urge to run the other direction?