The area around our coops has always been a muddy mess. Way down on our list of to-do’s was to fix it. Then, within an hour or so, it moved to the top of that list.

We had cement poured for our back yard patio and there ended up being quite a bit leftover. We weren’t prepared for another section of cement being poured, but it was going to get poured somewhere. So, Farmer John threw together a quickie form of mix/match wood pieces in front of our Chicken Hut turned goat home and a cement pad was poured.

PATIO SECTION 1

The beginning of this project was a last minute cement pad. We had the cement dyed brown for our patio, which is why this pad is brown.

I was thrilled! During the rainy months the entire area is a mud pit. In the cold weather, ice sits on top of the mud. I slip every time. I haven’t fallen yet, but I kept waiting for it to happen.

PATIO SECTION 2

The second section I worked on was to the right of the newly poured cement pad. This area is in front of another chicken hut.

It was a bit tricky making sure there weren’t tripping hazards. This chicken hut sits lower than the other one. Any cement pieces obviously had to be lower than the door. So this section has a bit of a slope on one side.

It is a mosaic of pieces. Somebody nearby had cut up an old cement pad of their own and were getting rid of the chunks. We grabbed the ones we could. They are thick and crazy heavy. I loved them, though, once I got them installed. They are really sturdy.

I had a few leftover pieces from when I completed our cement path, so I added those here.

The final pieces were bricks we had laying around.

I didn’t get too perfect with installation. Since the pieces varied in thickness, the most difficult part was getting the pieces to be level on top. Once all the pieces were layed, I filled in the gaps with play sand.

PATIO SECTION 3

This section in front of our chicken tractors took the longest to install. I dug out the grassy bits and poured sand over the entire area.

I used a variety of new bricks, old bricks and hand poured cement stones.

Once I got all the pieces organized and layed in place, I filled in the gaps with sand. These bricks and stones aren’t quite as sturdy as I would like, but it’s not a heavily traveled area so it should be fine.

Wouldn’t ya know, just a week after I had it complete a damn mole came through and pushed up a number of the bricks. Blah.

AND, DONE!

Once I had all the sections complete we had a load of gravel delivered and made the entire area level-ish.

It’s a wonky patio and perfectly us. Ok, let’s be honest, it’s perfectly me. Farmer John just puts up with my wonkiness.

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Years ago, when I made my first hypertufa & cement projects, I built a bench. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a bench. I’ve always thought it was boring, but didn’t know how to fix it.

At some point I decided to try mosaic. I had never mosaiced anything & this bench was a good place to learn. It’s not as if I could really make the bench look worse than it already did, so I gave mosaic a try.

BENCH BEGINNING

WORK IN PROGRESS

I came up with a design for the mosaic & ordered tiles from Mosaic Art Supply.

Next, I drew the design on the cement using pencil & layed out the basic areas of each color.

Section by section, I applied mortar and placed the tiles. This was my first ever mosaic. So, I’m not sure I mortared the tiles in the best order. But, it seemed to work.

COMPLETED MOSAIC BENCH SEAT

Here is the finished bench seat complete with grout. I feel like I need to clean up around the edges a bit, but overall I’m happy with the way it turned out.

I can now say I have created a mosaic. And, I have leftover tiles, so I will get to mosaic again. Oh, the possibilities.

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Throughout this school year we’ve been celebrating Mexican holidays & doing crafts to go along with them. Recently we celebrated Cinco de Mayo.

I was really hoping we’d be able to finish off our year with a trip to Mexico. I’d love to see Chichen Itza & other Mayan ruins. But, that didn’t happen. Bummer.

But, we did create some fun crafts.

Double Headed Serpent Mosaic

Years ago we went on a cruise through the Mexican Riviera. On the ship was a version of the Double Headed Serpent. So when I saw the mosaic craft at That Artist Woman, I knew it was one we were going to do.

I cut the serpent shapes out of stiff cardboard.

The kids used tempera paint on the entire serpent. This doubled as “grout” on their mosaic.

I must admit the other thing that drew me to this craft was that it required egg shells. I’m always on the lookout for ways to use eggs. I had recently colored eggs to place in the background of a few photos of our new chicks. This was a perfect way to use up those shells.

The kids used watered down clear Elmer’s glue to adhere the colored egg shells.

Farm Girl & Farm Kid1 chose to use buttons as their eyes. Farm Kid2 cut out circles from index paper.

The mouth & teeth were cut from white index paper.

Mosaic Masterpieces

Other Crafts Inspired by Mexico:

Papel Picaco

I checked out a book from the library to look at for our papel picado craft.

We used tissue paper and scissors to create designs from the book.

We strung them all together on string & hung them in our house.

Sombrero

I saw a photo on Flickr and loved the craft. So, we put together our own version.

I created a hat template out of index paper. Then, the kids traced the template onto old file folders & cut them out.

I got out a pile of crafting goodies for the kids to use as they wanted. Farm Kid1 decided to use the shavings of a colored pencil for decoration, which I thought was an original idea.

Then they cut out an oval & drew on a nose & mouth. I love that the eyes are covered.

Fun Crafts = Fun Times

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