Slow Tiles and Snow Tales....

Details and More .....

I was Home all last week on Vacation, Dear Readers, so I was able to (almost) ignore the weather and concentrate on some of my bigger more challenging projects! I say almost ignore the weather because it was impossible to ignore that it continued to snow and snow some more.... I was thankful that I did not need to go anywhere! We are not as buried in the stuff as they are in the Eastern part of the State.... but with several feet of snow piled everywhere... it is difficult to get around! So I stayed inside and tackled some of those big projects, and many small ones as well! It was Wonderful to just be able to dig in and jump from project to project! I have so much to show you, it is way too much for one post! The largest project was the tiles for the Conservatory floor.... I still needed to make more tiles, and paint them, and varnish them....

I needed to be more specific in the colors and patterns of the tiles than I was with the Castle Hall floor, because here I wanted to make an overall design that resembled a carpet. I repeated many of the patterns I had in the first carpet, but I also made a few new ones. And then I needed to make them into a design....

Here above you can see the basic design of the first "carpet" 

composed of all the left-over tiles from the Castle Hall floor.

And here is a view of the layout for the new "carpet".

I did end up swapping around a few of the new tiles with the old carpet.

I replaced a few of the central tiles to make the circular pattern complete.

And once I was happy with the pattern of the tiles, I needed to start gluing them in place!

To do this without losing track of the pattern, 

I lifted a section of three rows, in order, onto a piece of cardboard.

Then I glued them in place one row at a time.

After the first two rows were glued, I removed two more rows,

Being careful to keep them all in order.

This is a tedious and Slow process!

It took an entire day of gluing and shifting....

while the Snow piled up outside!

But eventually they were all glued in place

with space between for grout....

I let the glue dry completely overnight.

Then began the grouting the next day....

Of course, I was so busy adding the grout, 

I forgot to take any pictures until it was almost done...

Here you can see the grout only partly washed off the tiles.

As the grout dries you need to keep going back over them with a damp sponge.

You want to only leave the grout in the cracks, 

but if you rub too hard it removes too much of the grout.

Here the grout is all done and all dry.

But there is only one problem....

It looks too clean and new!!!

So I had to "dirty" the floor with several washes of 

watered down brown and black paint.

This also had to be left to dry in order to see if the color was dark enough.

And then I needed to decide whether or not to "seal" the floor with polyurethane.

I was afraid it would make it too shiny.... which it did!

But I figured I could always "scuff" it up again with an abrasive sponge.

Above you can see it before I did any scuffing.... it's a bit too glossy!

And while I was "muddying" the floor, 

I also dirtied up the base of the walls a bit too.

This is supposed to be an old and well used building!

This whole process used almost half my vacation time!

But I got it done!!!

And rather than leave you there, 

I will show a glimpse of a few of the other projects I worked on.

Beginning with the painting of the Willowcrest....

Yes, there will be more trees on the bedroom walls....

Eventually they will look more like Spring than Winter!

These wall murals need to be finished before the walls are glued in place!

I also added a light over the door on the front porch....

Which I realized I had to do before I closed off 

access to the upstairs Hallway....

because the wires needed to be run across the floor 

and down the kitchen wall, same as for the inside hall light.

And while I was tackling Big Old Unfinished Projects...

I decided to make the Ceiling of the Castle Great Hall a priority!

Yes, those Saints are patient....!

I have removed the ceiling and set it up on my "easel"

really just a chair with arms which can hold the heavy roof panel!

This is really difficult to photograph... 

it is a curved surface, so the light reflects off it 

no matter where you position the light.

I worked a lot on Saint Hedwig.... 

here is a "before" picture.....

And here is an "after" picture!

I don't know why I am so concerned with 

making these Saints so detailed....

It is nearly impossible to see them on the ceiling....

But I guess it is a case of "I will know it is there"

so I must make them as detailed as I can!

The Saints on this side of the ceiling are now pretty much done...

it is the other side where the Saints are still very incomplete!

 

Believe it or not, Dear Readers, These were Not 

the only projects I worked on this week!

I really astonished myself with how much got done!

But I think the rest is better left for another post....

but before I go, I just wanted to show you more of the Tiles....

And the Snow....

Because surely, one of the Great Pleasures of being Home all week

was being able to play in all that snow when the sun came out!

Piled high around the doors....

Burying everything  in white...

But perhaps we can just have a glimpse inside....

at the sun on those amazing tiles....

And somewhere in there the seeds are still sprouting...

And we are so busy admiring those tiles,

we have no time for re-potting the seedlings!

And just in case you need to see the real life snow....

My garden gate barely shows above the drifts!

So there you have it Dear Readers,

Slow Tiles and Snow Tales, or Snow Tiles and Slow Tales....

Details, details, details!

I have been busy on my Vacation!