After working diligently on finishing up the deck railings (they are completely installed now, but there's still some work to do on the deck boards and the facade of those), we decided to take a day for art! It's funny how before this shutdown of everything, art was my everything. If I couldn't work on something at least for a few moments each day, I'd get cranky. And then when I had my shoulder surgery and all I could do for weeks was read or watch t.v., I was going through withdrawals! But now? I am sated in my life. I flow more. I guess it took a lot of holding back, damming up the Pisces, to finally get me to see what I needed to see.
This bench that we've been working on, well, I thought it had been about a three year project, but after looking through pictures yesterday to find a good one to enter my cat into a cat calendar contest (don't judge me!), I see that this bench as actually been a project five years in the making! While that surprises me, it doesn't really. It's the status quo around here.
We used leftover wood from other house projects to build it. I don't know if hubby came up with the decision on his own, or saw something for inspiration.
This is how it will be intended to be used! BTW, I no longer have those plants, I killed them. I am SO bad with keeping plants alive! I got the outer two for free and they ended up having/getting a horrible case of aphids. Even neem oil couldn't save them. But you get the point. Each end pot is in a hole that was cut out for it (hope I still have those pots, or something else that will fit in there!). I actually used it in this stage of completion for awhile, but it wasn't finished yet! We also ended up torching the wood and then sealing it with a sealer several times (I'll do that each year when it goes outside, as well because FIVE years to finish this? I want it to last a long time).
Then came the artsy fartsy part. Hubby went through a phase of wanting to try stained glass, and per my usual stance on things, I would not let him discard any of the scrap pieces. He argued with me on that. I won. And it's a damn good thing! Now, let me just say that I thought the idea of doing a "mosaic" type project was going to be fun...and maybe it started off as that...but quickly turned into a draining jigsaw puzzle rabbit hole. This is when I finally called it done with the glass pieces and we were getting ready to grout it. You can also just see the torched wood too.
Hubby insisted on being the one to grout it. I mean, I don't know if it was because I had put so much effort into the colorful part of it that he wanted to give me a break or what. But he made the comment as he was smearing the grout on that he was going to make this into a masterpiece. Um, s'cuse me? Someone needs to stop drinking because now they're saying stupid stuff. Well, more than he usually says stupid stuff.
He was upset that he accidentally bought the stuff he had to mix..I guess he likes using the pre-mixed stuff? I have never used grout before, so I don't have an opinion. He also stated that he had JUST enough of the grout to cover! Phew! Five years and that close? It would have really been a bummer to run out, especially since a trip to the store is nearly an hour round trip!
Then he complained about one particular kind of glass that I used and how hard it was to clean the grout off. That glass is super special to me because I found it in the basement of an old tech school building, in an old musty dresser drawer. I also used said glass to make leaves for my Moontree sculpture! I'm pretty sure that glass is vintage since the school hadn't been used in a long time, but it's hard to say. One side of it was smooth and the other side wavy and bumpy. Hence hubby's difficulties in getting the grout completely wiped off!
But he persevered and he wiped and he wiped and he wiped......
And then it was done!
And now I have no plants to put in it...so trip to the garden center this week and then I'll post a picture of it completely set up in all its finery! I actually had another mosiac project in mind....and that one is circular...I might need to take a break for awhile before starting it!
UPDATE: and here it is with some flowers! I chose petunias so I could take a flower in occasionally to my kitty and she could enjoy them and be safe.
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