Photomosaics

Photo mosaics - A large-scale detailed picture made up of many photographs.

Linda tells me she has a puzzle that her friend doesn't want. Doesn't want to fix it. Doesn't want it back. Doesn't even want to see it again. Linda can keep it.

She brings it over and I fell in love with it.

I have fixed a LOT of puzzles and this is by far the best one I have ever fixed.

It took me 3 weeks of daily sitting and staring at it to get it done and I can't wait to fix it again. Or if somebody wanted to get me a different one for say, birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas, Valentine's Day or even just because it's Saturday I wouldn't give it back.

There were numerous times that I sat there for 15/20 minutes and not put a single piece in, but I never gave up and sat there till at least one piece fit.
Just black and White and a few pieces of gray.

 This close up show each piece had only one direction to fit in, so I spent the better part of an afternoon turning each piece facing the correct direction and sorting by color. I found 4 pieces  that were hard to tell which way they went in.

It sat on my jigsaw table long after it was finished so I could look at it. Sadly I took it part this morning to give back to Linda so she can work on it.

I separated the eyes and the mouth in a separate bag for Linda to get started. She can throw them all together or fix them first, I just know that if she sticks with it, she is going to love it, just like I did.

Making Room

Now that the house is finished it's time for the Florys to get busy on the yard.
I enjoy yard work and volunteered, Mike too of course, to remove the evergreen trees to make more room for the boys to play.

Roger has always been a "Helper", but Luke surprised us both by working and hauling branches. They cleared a opening for Papa to get out the chain saw and "Take it down".
This was the first time for the boys to witness a chain saw in action. There were a few squeals.

 Then the hard part - The stumps. Mike broke 2 shovels digging around the stumps to expose the roots, granted they were both pretty old shovels.

 Bryan taking a few swings at the root. They were not coming out easy. My guess he was a little sore the next day.

Every year for Mary's birthday the boys and I plant her a garden. We planted a cherry tomato plant (my thinking was, more tomatoes for the boys to pick), a green pepper plant, and because Luke had a allergic reaction from eating lots of strawberries last eating, a cantaloupe plant.

The boys both LOVE strawberries so we planted them again too. Luke is in charge of the cantaloupe plant and Roger is assigned to the strawberries.
Last year the squirrels and rabbits sampled the strawberries before the boys had a chance to pick them. So I brought in some chicken wire and Bryan made a cage. Boom - strawberries are saved.

 The boys were very excited about the cage and both got to water through the top.

 

 They may have to rethink about filing the holes in. What boy doesn't like to dig in dirt?

 Owen came out after his nap and sat in his seat for about 3 minutes. He want to be part of all the action.

 After showers the boys made us dinner.
Luke had the Papa pizza - cheese and meat. Roger made Meemaws. Everything on it!
"No Roger, I don't need bananas on mine, Thanks anyway though."

 Easiest way to get it all on Dump It and spread.

 Notice in all the pictures Luke is sampling the cheese? That boy loves himself some cheese. And then have pizza sauce mixed in too. Who can blame him?

 And pepperoni! Take a bite put it on the pizza. A grandson special!
Best pepperoni pizza ever.

 And where was Mike?
Of course, "Papa Down" is on the floor playing with Owen.

Under the Dome

Dup and Sharen decided to take in a White Sox game up at Miller park in Milwaukee and invited us along. The White Sox don't play up there very often. Mike has been up there, but we 3 have not, so we decided to take a road trip.

Dup searched for tickets on StubHub (he waited and waited till actually just hours before game time) and snagged some prime seats in the first level right by home plate.
We left the house in the pouring rain, but there is no rain outs at Miller park - they have a roof. The weather didn't need the roof closed, it was pretty nice up there at the start of the game, but we were glad it was when we exited and saw that it was 54 degrees and windy.

It was Sharen and Dup's first game under a dome. Mike and I saw the Sox play up in MN at the old metro dome. Saw them in Toronto too but the roof was open then.
It took us less than 2 hours to get from Shady to the parking lot. It can take us that long to get to the Cell.
Sox fan everywhere tail gating. Check out this set up. I told them they needed a Bulls flag and then it would be perfect.
We had something to eat and a few beers before heading in. Beers inside are $8.00 and pop was $4.95. OUCH! That's a lot of money for anybody, not just us retired people.

 We took a stroll around the park. the concourse was huge - reminded me of Nationals park. Lots of room and fun stuff to do. Like sit in a Mitt.

We couldn't bring home a winner, but we got to see an exciting game with lots of action.
You can't beat fun at the old ball park.

The "Grand" Daughter is 10

You turn your back and shit like this happens. She's 10 really?
Kaylyn  has always danced to her own tune, made up of songs in her own head. She makes up her own rules for her own use. I am not sure if it's because she has 2 older brothers who keep putting her in her place or what. That's simply Kaylyn.

She turns 10 tomorrow, so she is celebrating her "Golden" birthday.

For her party she asked us all to wear green. Simply explained by "That's my birthstone!" So wear green we all did.
She called me a couple of weeks ago and asked me to make her Cake.
 I had already planned on making her cake and bought a special cake mix just after Christmas.
See this little girl loves everything zebra print. I thought it was one of her many phases, but this zebra print is still solid, so I picked this up.

I didn't read the box and  assumed that with this box I could make a 3 layer cake. It is on the cover! Nope! It made 1 (yes that's right I said 1) 9 inch layer. Not what was I going to do.
I squeezed it into 2, 8 inch pans. Needless to say  the cake was small. I got a white cake mix for 2 more layers.
The cake was so simple to make and surprise it did turn out just like the picture.
My next brilliant idea came when I decided to make fondant and put stripes on the outside of the cake to look like a zebra,
I have never made fondant and not sure if I ever will try it again. I ended up at Hobby Lobby where they have black fondant (and green t-shirts - so I bought 2. Mike and I wore matching t-shirts)

End result!
Notice all the sticks. Guess what? Fondant is heavy and putting it on cake made it start to split. So a few stick and popped into the freezer and all is well.

 A view from the center.

Her grandma Barb bought her all things girly and green. Me I found 3 outfits all zebra print. Her Mother told me she needed clothes.

She is loving, frustrating, exuberate, and exhausting. Ask her if everything is OK, and for now the answer is, 'I'm ok, just going through puberty!" Oh, Kaylyn - So very true.

 Couldn't find my camera. I must have set it down outside somewhere. OR maybe my sneaky grandson, Logan borrowed it for some upside down selfies.