I live by the motto, “if you can’t buy what you want, make it.” And this motto came to life recently in the form of a floral mosaic dining table for my back deck.
Our deck table had been showing its age already when the wind caught the umbrella and cracked it. I wanted to replace it with a mosaic table because I’d been enjoying that art form recently. But I couldn’t get one the size I wanted so I got creative.
I spent a few weeks looking for tile and figuring out a very loose design concept. I started by picking a limited set of tile shapes and a color palette.
Once the tiles arrived I had a piece of particle board cut to size for the base and I experimented with different motifs until I settled on a selection of floral shapes that gave me plenty of variety to fill space without locking me into one repeating pattern.
And then I was off! I basically doodled my way around the table, attaching tiles with Weld Bond (I went through 4 full bottles!) and rocking out to the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack.
Once the florals were done it was time for the background…
Over 3,800 1cm glass tiles make up the not-design part of the design. It went pretty quickly though because I just had to fill the space, leaving room for grout.
Once I had the tile done, my husband assisted with disassembly and reassembly. We used the legs off the original table for this one (waste not).
One huge bucket of black grout later…
She is finished.
I enjoyed making it and just looking at it makes me so happy - I can’t wait for all the dinners we’ll have around this table 🌼❤️
rewatched the entire PoTC trilogy on an international flight and I can't believe I forgot how funny it is.
Barbossa is the most exasperated character in any scene he's in, unless he's winning. then he's the smuggest son of a bitch on screen (he literally returns from the dead smugly eating an apple). but majority of the time, he's 'why am I the only adult here'. man rolls his eyes so much I half-expected him to turn straight to the camera.
when Will asks Elizabeth to marry him while they are fighting Davy Jones' crew, stuck in a maelstrom, and trapped in the final battle, the first word out of her mouth is "Barbossa!". she then continues by asking Barbossa to marry them, but for a split second Will's face goes like 'Barbossa? Barbossa?? I didn't even know he was on the map of this convoluted love quadrangle!'
when they're in Singapore and Sao Feng threatens the spy he found and Will, Elizabeth, and Barbossa all look at each other to confirm that none of them have snuck in a spy they forgot to tell the others about, before shrugging and telling Sao Feng to go ahead and kill him.
Barbossa's eyes just getting wide and wider the more weapons Elizabeth pulls out of her clothes. c'mon man, let a woman have her toys!
rewatching really gives you the full picture of how many people are scheming at any given time and how each person's schemes intersect with the others, even if they're nominally on the same side. everyone also gets So Upset when their scheme is foiled, accidentally or intentionally, by someone else's scheme, as though they themselves aren't scheming at that very moment.
Barbossa's iron balls. I'm sorry, this is the funniest dick joke in the trilogy that defines how many dick jokes Disney can stick in a movie before it stops being PG-13. Jack's reaction really says it all.
rereading this list I see it's quite heavily tilted in favor of Barbossa which I now realize is because I empathize with Barbossa way more than I did as a kid. I too am frustrated to be surrounded by idiots while I'm the only adult around. man just wants to eat his apple in peace goddammit. so he did a little mutiny and maybe some more murder and mayhem and also maybe unleashed a pagan god upon the world. the guy really likes his apples, is that a crime?!?
my that one friend that's too woke opinion is that in a similar vein to how you almost never see fat people or women without makeup on tv you never really see anyone experiencing incontinence issues unless it's a humiliating comedic moment at their expense and that's kind of scary
like sorry to be the bearer of bad news but people piss themselves. when they're afraid. when they've experienced mental and/or physical trauma and their body needs a way to express that stress. when they've been sexually assaulted. when they get older and their muscles start to wear out from a lifetime of service. a not insignificant majority of people Will experience incontinence in their lifetimes and while there are steps you can take to manage it for your own comfort and others', there's simply no moral dimension to it whatsoever. & like i'm not saying every show and movie needs checkhov's bed wetting scene but we have seriously got to get more okay with acknowledging that somehow.
Hello ATLA fans! With the recent changes to Fandom Metatags, a new change is coming to the way the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise fandom on AO3 is structured! Don’t worry, the existing fandom tags will remain as they are - this change will not impact your ability to search for works in specific fandoms (i.e. Legend of Korra, The Chronicles of the Avatar novels, etc.).
What is changing is that we are creating a new metatag for the fandom!
What is a metatag, you ask? Great question - think of metatags (and subtags) like file folders on your computer or in your Google Drive. In this analogy, the metatag is the top-level folder and the subtags are sub-folders that live inside that top-level folder.
New ATLA metatag: Avatar: The Last Airbender & Related Fandoms
All current and future ATLA-related fandoms will be sub-fandoms ("subtags") of the new Avatar: The Last Airbender & Related Fandoms fandom metatag. Currently, this includes:
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005)
Avatar: Legend of Korra
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Chronicles of the Avatar Novels - Various
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live Action TV 2024)
Avatar Legends (Roleplaying Game)
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Video Games 2006 2007)
Avatar: Realms Collide (Video Game)
There is no 2010 movie in Ba Sing Se The Last Airbender (2010)
As new ATLA franchise canon is released, those will be added as subfandoms as well. For more information on the hows and whys, keep reading below the cut!
Why are we making this change?
In short, to make it easier to filter and search for what you’re looking for!
Franchise-wide searching: Don’t care which part of canon is included in your search? No problem! Filter/search using the new metatag (Avatar: The Last Airbender & Related Fandoms) and all the fandoms listed above will be included in the results.
Specific sub-fandom searching: Only interested in works tagged as Legend of Korra or one of the other sub-fandoms? We’ve got you covered, too! Simply filter/search using the subfandom, and you’ll only see results that have the sub-fandom tagged. And if you want to exclude works where some or all of the other sub-fandoms are tagged, you can still do that as well! Just add those fandoms under the exclude filter.
Crossovers: Don’t like crossovers with external fandoms? Or maybe you LOVE crossovers? Either way, this change is good news for you! By organizing all the ATLA subfandoms under the overarching metatag, works that are tagged with multiple ATLA fandoms will no longer be treated as a crossover work by the filtering/search system! This means that:
When you exclude crossovers from your search, works tagged with multiple ATLA-related fandoms will now show up in the results (since the system no longer considers them to be crossovers since they are now all part of the same fandom tree).
When you include crossovers in your search, works tagged with ATLA fandoms and non-ATLA fandoms will still appear as usual.
Other ATLA Wrangling Tips
Beware the blue people Avatar! While you’re always welcome to tag your works however you like, we recommend selecting your preferred ATLA fandom directly from the dropdown or using phrasing specific to ATLA. If you tag your work’s fandom just using the word "Avatar" or something similar, you run the risk of your work being listed under the James Cameron Avatar franchise instead of ATLA. Tags are wrangled based on what they've most been used for, and many "Avatar" tags have already been made synonyms of James Cameron Avatar fandom tags.
Speaking of the dropdown - mind the dropdown! Because AO3’s dropdown prioritizes results that list a word multiple times, the first result may not always be the result you’re looking for. For example, the fandom for the ATLA novels is Avatar: The Last Airbender: Chronicles of the Avatar Novels - Various, which includes the word "Avatar" twice. We recommend double-checking what tag you select from the dropdown to make sure it's the fandom tag you intended!
Happy tagging! If you have questions or need help, please contact Support, who will be happy to offer any necessary guidance.
(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)
If you have a senior to check on ask them to "borrow" something small so they think they're helping you.
My mom (72) recently downsized and moved close enough to me that checking on her in person regularly is not really out of my way, but when I was obvious about it she wouldn’t let me “stop-by” because she was, “fine”.
Well, one day I actually needed some aluminum foil so I called and asked if I could borrow enough to cover a baking tin because I didn’t want to run to the store. She said sure, but when I got to her house she needed furniture moved, a wasp nest removed, and her coffee pot fixed. After I got the foil I mentioned each thing cautiously and she let me take care of them for her. So next weekend I’ll need a cup of rice and check on her again.
Even better, here’s an array of more reciprocal options for building relationship & supporting seniors’ dignity and independence:
- ask for something they can actually help you with. Elders have skills. Mending? Advice about knitting, gardening, home repair, nevermind professional training?
-ask about their experiences. “I was reading about xyz event the other day & I would love to know what that time was like for you. Can we chat about it over tea?” Goes double for family history for relatives.
-“Someone gave me this [or, I ended up with extra] & I don’t need/want it, but I bet you have a use for it. Can I bring it over? I would hate for it to go to waste.”
-work side-by-side. They get your physical help, you get their experience & expertise. “Could I come over & have you show me how you [used to] prune your gorgeous roses? I’m trying to get better with mine.”
I love the concept of sutures. Like there was a time in history where someone looked at a wound that could not close on its own, that nature itself had deemed to be lethal, and just went "well how about I just sew it close fuck you."
If nature didn't want us flipping it off, it shouldn't have given us fingers.
