Work is a dirty word!

Gah, my DH is trying to kill me. We have had most of the winter off, waiting on a couple of big jobs to kick off. During that time, I was pretty sick for about 6 weeks. All of this means that whatever muscles I had left were all sad and flabby. Actually, they were pretty happy. They got to sit around and party, instead of working. Now we are actually starting back to work, and those same happy, flabby muscles are groaning and complaining. They are NOT happy campers. They pay me back by ignoring the ibuprophen I throw at them, and nagging me while I sleep.

We did a small patio and sidewalk this week. They are double stamped with two different patterns. The first is a base pattern that covers everything, and looks like like a slate texture. The second is a mixture of leaves from a tropical forest. I created this stamp several years ago from leaves that I stole out of my mother's greenhouse. It has bamboo and several other interesting leaves. Our OK City contractor used it in the zoo there, in their restaurant. It won an award! It looks very cool when you go back and stain some of the leaves, but it is very labor intensive.

Thanks to some idiotic politicians hoping to further their worthless careers, we are short handed. Besides my DH and me, we have one guy on the crew. This means that there is virtually no StampMonkey Nap Time. I have to actually help! Akkk. I cannot begin to tell you how much this distresses me. Yesterday, I had to shovel concrete! No, I really did! Do you know how heavy concrete is? I do...intimately. It's a travesty I tell ya! It's very difficult to be a Fairy Princess when you are shoveling concrete. I think I actually got sweaty! Oh the HORROR! I survived, just barely. I still feel like someone beat the crap out of me, picked me up, and beat me again. I am getting too old for this stuff!

After a few days, we will go back and tint individual leaves by hand. There is about 400 square feet of this stuff, so it will take a few hours to make it look good. Crawling around concrete on your hands and knees for hours, is not conducive to happiness. It only leads to lower back pain, and thighs that scream for mercy. I swear, I would rather do an hour and a half riding lesson without stirrups, including jumping than crawl around a concrete slab on my knees. Mercy, I beg you!

I will take pictures of the patio when it's done, so you can see the finished product. We are going to make a new stamp that has native leaves on it. I find it hilarious that years ago, people would break out in pimples if there was an accidental leaf print, or an animal walked across their concrete before it was hard. Now, people will pay a premium to have leaves and animal tracks on their patio. Aren't people a riot?