I thought she was done…

But I guess I should have known that with Mom you never can tell. So when she started bringing home all these little blue tiles I had a feeling something was up. The blue made me think of the sea animals mosaic in the bathtub. If you read “See? Animals!”  awhile back, you know I had previously reported that the sea animals were all done. But I guess I was mistaken.First off, she decided it would be cute to have tiles on these little corners of the tub. Okay, I thought, I can live with that.

Then she decided to mosaic the soap dish. I get it, that’s pretty whimsical.

But what was up with all these squares?Uh-oh, this is getting serious. Does she have any idea how long this is going to take??The squares actually looked pretty easy, so I figured I should do my best to help out.As you know, I like to be actively involved in all of Mom’s projects, even though she doesn’t always fully appreciate my efforts!

When she got to this square, she realized she had nearly run out of white, so this section looked a little darker that the others. It wasn’t so noticeable after she got it grouted. This didn’t really bother her, since she said the ocean isn’t all the same color anyway.

Gradually the squares reached the bottom. It was around this time that Mom started saying that she didn’t think she could handle a whole shower wall of tiny squares. Not whimsical enough, I guess.

 So then she started making all these strips!She started putting strips around the edge of everything.

Here are a couple of close ups of the window frame.She had an extra square so she put it under the soap dish where there had been a piece of damaged tile. It was going to take her awhile to figure out what to do with the rest of this wall, so she turned her attention toward the other end of the tub.You may remember that at the opposite end of the tub, it was supposed to be waves. So there had to be a sky and a sun, right? The good news is that Mom did eventually figure out how remove that 1970s-looking green gem flower. She had put it up with mortar as an experiment when she first started this project, and she will tell you that she really didn’t know what she was doing. (See “Because I Can” if you missed that one.)
This is the sun in its beginning stages.

At first Mom thought it would look cool with diagonal tiles for the sun’s rays, but she quickly scrapped that idea in favor of non-diagonal.

Finally the sun was finished and ready to put up.

In the photo on the left you can see how the Mom had put some Thinset mortar over a spot where the window frame had been damaged. She thinks it was from when the double-pane windows were installed quite a few years ago, well before my time. But not to worry, the spot is now covered by a mosaic strip!

Then of course there was the sky to think about.Finally the sky was almost finished!That pink tile at the top center had to be replaced when the new shower head was installed, so Mom isn’t sure if she should mosaic over it in case it ever has to be taken off again. Then it was time to think about the center wall again. Mom said there was no way she was going to make a lot of small sea animals like the ones she did before.

So we’re going with large sea animals!Still, there needed to be something in between them, and Mom didn’t want more tiny square tiles. So the only other choice would be…

Seaweed!So there you have it! You are officially caught up with the sea animals progress. It still needs to be grouted, and of course we need a few more large sea animals. And more seaweed. But we think it’s looking pretty good so far!I don’t mind telling you that all this sea animal stuff can make a person pretty sleepy. Panda and I can only take so much before we need a nap!