Hello Blog. It's been a while. I put aside my mosaics while remodeling and painting my home, vacationing on the beach with my dogs (and other family), and a number of other distractions. But I'm back in the studio now spending several hours a day nipping & cementing. Flashback to 2008- my first marble piece I became frustrated with- I have now begun anew -I've worked through several problems, and it truly has been a learning experience for me. My goal is to finish it in time to enter it into the Mosaic International Competition sponsored by SAMA - the deadline is in Sept. I have no illusions that I will actually be accepted (I probably have about the same odds as winning the lottery- BUT- you don't enter, you can't win). I find that just knowing it will be entered in a competition makes me do better work (sad isn't it, I have to trick myself!) And I just think the whole entering process adds a sense of taking it seriously -- I'm going to have it professionally photographed also. I hope to have it completed by the end of this week and may post photos then- I still have a couple of places that I may need to rip out and redo. Ripping out has been one of my learning experiences. At first ripping out parts of my mosaic was disheartening & I really resisted - but now I find it a bit freeing! When I do not correct a mistake I find myself fretting over it every time I look at the mosaic or a photo. Learning to redo areas was not an "ah-ha" moment- but a "duh!" moment.