Mirror Tile Mosaic

Mirror Tile Mosaic is not only for flowerpots and small ‘futsy’ (my term for small cutsie stuff) things, but can be used on walls, furniture, and structures like posts, outside daybeds, and the facing of steps/stairs. Mirror Tile is easy to get, easy to use, and inexpensive. You can buy Mirror Tiles in any home improvement and hardware store, but I found that WALMART, consistently, has the lowest prize, about $9.98. -   The tiles can be used whole or, as in this case, cut into the desired size and shape with a glass cutter

 Above: this is a glass cutter (the other end of the cutter is a metal ball, designed to know against the glass AFTER cutting it, to make the break). These little tools are available at any hardware store like LOWE'S or HOME DEPOT

 Above: Omni Grip is the adhesive that I like to use. You could buy a cheaper MIRROR TILE MASTIC, but I also often work with tiles and heavier pieces, which are kept from sliding down by using the stronger OMNI GRIP.

Above: This is a puzzle, but you decide what shape and size the puzzle pieces are, and what the puzzle looks like ;)

 This is a Tupperware gadget I use to 'butter' the back of each tile piece. Doing it piece by piece, rather than spreading the adhesive onto a large area on the wall, art, or furniture, gives you better control and allows you to take breaks or resume project at a later time without risking the adhesive to dry before applying the tile. I also have used small paintsticks, old butter knifes, and old credit cards, they all work well for mosaic tiles.

 Since the adhesive tends to dry out when not in use for a few weeks, or months, I like to use a piece of plastic wrap, which I press directly onto the adhesive before I put the lid back on for storage, this keeps it from drying out.

 When starting my 'Puzzle,' I like to find pieces with finished edges and finished corners, it makes for a cleaner and more professional look in the end.

 If you like a 'wilder' look, you can also use a hammer and simply smash them. This gives you a lot of sharp-pointed triangular pieces. I recommend to do this in an old cardboard box to keep the pieces from flying everywhere.

 Sorting your tile/mirror pieces makes the process easier.

 Mirror tiles are sharper than ceramic tiles when broken or cut, so be careful that you do not slice your fingers, especially if you like to work without gloves. ALSO, no matter if you use a hammer, or glass cutter, there are a lot of tiny sharp splinter which could cause injuries, so clean up and using protective measures are very important. Shake out any towels, blankets, paper, etc. outside in an area where no one walks bare foot.
Enjoy being creative with your Mirror Tile Mosaic!

From BOLD & BEAUTYFUL to calm & serene

COLOR OVERLOAD

As I have proclaimed before, I love color, but after 10 years of bright orange, red, fushia, gold and sunflower yellow, I am ready for a change. I want to lighten, brighten, and De-clutter. I started by moving our HUGE couch into the family/kids/work-out-room and moved the futon from there to the living room. I must say, after only one evening of sitting on this thing, I am determined to find a more comfortable seating solution as soon as I can afford it. Until then, this will have to do. Here are some "Before" shots.

 This colorful large couch was in my living room, but it goes well with the existing color scheme of the "Play room!" 

 Here is the less than comfortable futon, now in my living room. As you can see, there is a lot of space left on both sides, which is the space the big colorful couch filled before.

 Here are my hanging oriental lanterns, which I still love, but will find other homes for them in my bed room and in my garden, possibly also in my bathrooms. This is a good idea not only because it is pretty, but it comes in handy when the electricity goes out, which happens from time to time here.

More on my living room make-over tomorrow, until then--choose JOY!

Gold Leaf Faux Finish Technique - Swagbucks TV

Gold Leaf Faux Finish Technique - Swagbucks TV

THE CHOICE

So, after creating the blog title and hitting the 'create' button, I noticed that my German background led me to misspell "Rent," since I really meant to write "RANT."  And like so many people would, I too, ranted about it for a bit, but than it came to me: "This is exactly my point, it is a choice." I smiled and chose joy! Another funny foe-pah in my "Tire Garden" story was the fact that I made a 'Sweat Potato' out of the Sweet Potato! When my 19-Year-old daughter Alina pointed this out to me, I broke out laughing. You have to be able to chuckle at yourself and stop taking yourself too serious. Lighten up, you live longer and have more fun and less wrinkles. ;)

And so it begins...

http://www.facebook.com/people/Martina-Tkacz/1725834617

Hello Anyone and Everyone!
Allow me a short introduction. My name is Martina and I was born and raised in Berlin, Germany and I am the proud mother of 9 awesome children, the proud 'owner' of one husband, and grandmother of 2 rambunctious little boys. I am 48 years old and have often been 'accused' of being too blunt, hence I nicknamed myself "The Mean German." I am speaking what is in my heart and am pretty transparent. Raising 9 children on a shoe-string-budget, combined with the engrained philosophy of my German Grandmother to 'waste not, want not,' yet having expensive taste at the same time, I have learned to be very creative and inventive. I am passionate about color, gardening, and creating energizing, yet soothing and healing environments. I am very opinionated on certain subjects, but also like to explore new lines of thoughts and experiences. Since I am at home for the last 10 months, with more time than I had been used to in the past, as well as the fact that I often find myself 'teaching, motivating, and encouraging' an imaginary audience, I finally decided to make these 'talks' available to anyone who would like to benefit from them.  

This here is my amazing family, and as you can see, I truly do love color!

Since there is snow in most regions of the country, I thought I cheer you all up with some of last year's shots from my garden and a little advice on how to keep your dogs, (we own a sheltie,  named KILLER, by my son Rocky) from using your prized plants as a cooling resting place in the summer: Collect glass bottles and stick them upside down into the soil around the plants that you are trying to protect, it looks prettier than stakes and the animals will not bother your plants anymore. (Most people think of wine bottles, but Syrup bottles from Torani, or Vinegar bottles, etc., work just as well). You can also fill the bottles with water, sand, gravel, glass pebbles, and the like, BUT you have to watch out for freezing temperatures as this will lead to shattering of the bottles.

The story of the MONSTER TOAD:
This 'little' guy came into being because of my son Rocky, his faith in me, and a resin toad that had fallen in love with at SHOPKO, but didn't want to spend the $90,- !!! Little did I know then what I was in for when my dear son decisively declared "You can make one yourself mom, and you can make him much better and bigger than the one at the store. I help you." What he actually meant was: I help you pay for it. Well, we set out to get what I thought we needed. two straw bails, one roll of wire-mesh, and 12 bags of cement (at 80 pounds each). I started by putting down one whole bail of straw and surrounding it with the wire-mesh, shaping it into a toad-like body. Then I filled in the spaces with loose straw and proceeded to slab cement onto the top. That was an experience! The cement does not want to stay in place easily, I had to mix it to a real thick consistency in order to aid the process of keeping it from sliding down. That, however, made the concrete dry too fast and I had to work quickly. Easier said than done. Add to this the extreme weather changes here in Yakima, Washington--from warm and sunny, to freezing rain and stormy winds, only to change to blistering hot a day later. Because of all these unforeseen, and unplanned for, circumstances, the toad grew, and grew, and grew.... Another 36 bags of cement later, I was ready to put the eyes on the body. out of the leftover pieces of wire-mesh, I crudely shaped the eyes and attached them with wire ties to the body, than proceeded as I did with the body. Last, I made forms out of aluminum flashing for the feet and filled with cement. Then came the winter, and the next summer, I covered the beast with small tiles and glass pebbles. It took almost 2 years and came out MUCH bigger than I had originally intended, but it was a fun experience and has given me great, and fun memories with my son.

Moving the veggie garden!
I don't know if you are married to the same species that I am married to, but this hubby of mine will not believe my advice easily ;)  When we moved to West Valley and started our gardening life there, we had to truck dirt in, because the land we bought was mainly rock and weeds, but mainly rocks. So of course money was a huge consideration, but so was speed if we wanted to get produce that year from the garden, I always say to spend a little more time, effort, and money in the beginning (DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME), and less time and money later, but NOOOOO, I was "being unreasonable." Did any of you out there ever find yourself in a conversation like this with your loved one? Ha, ha, NEVER, right? :D  Well, after having his way, meaning throwing the nice freshly delivered dirt, wheel barrow by wheel barrow onto the weeds (without killing them first or some kind of weed block underneath) and battling the weeds growing in this garden for 8 long years, my dear man was finally ready to listen. So we moved the garden onto cardboard and weed-fabric (about a 100 feet away from its original spot), closer to the part of the property that gets a lot of water run-off from watering my flower beds, since we live on the side of a hill.
In order to save on watering and weeding while at the same time save money, I talked hubby into making a couple of trips to the local tire stores where we got everything for free we needed: Truck tires, car tires, and even a few Tractor tires. We filled the tires with soil, and filled the walkway with gravel. We had a fantastic yield of strawberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, sweet potatoes, beans, leaks, onions, herbs, and more. My husband spend more time in this veggie garden just for fun and much less time weeding and watering. He gratefully admitted, after grumbling throughout the whole process, that he had lost his joy of gardening and not only got it back, but has never before loved as much as he did now. WOW, now that is what I call success ;)