Never Again.....

Mortar Stinks. Mortar is high on the top of my list of things to never, ever touch again. My hands look like I have worked in the construction industry for the last 30 years, without gloves. I am not exaggerating. I can't even fold clothes because my skin gets caught on all the flipping shirts. Really irritating. Let me tell ya. I've gone so far as to use a special lotion for cracked, damaged skin. The main ingredient is urea. If you know what this ingredient really is, you will know how desperate I am to be able to touch a soft blanket again in my life.

I really didn't think putting rock around my fireplace would be this bad. What the heck was I thinking???? If you don't mix it to the exact consistency (not the way it says to mix it on the bag...how dumb...) then it won't stick. At all. Well, maybe it will stick for 10 seconds, and then the stone will fall off the wall. So, after about 2 hours of messing with this crap to get it the right consistency, it finally had a bit of "sticky-ness" to it. But it still took me over 9 hours, yes NINE, to get half way on my project. And after hour eight with no food or drink or a potty break, I was in tears. And I'm not done, because I still have to go all the way up to the ceiling with the stones. Who's grand idea was it to go all the way up to the ceiling with stone?? Either I suck it up and finish it, or I will just find a way to make tar paper and metal lath look like it's the new "in" thing to put around fireplaces. I'd be giving Design On A Dime a run for their money, let me tell ya. Do you think I can convince people that it's the new trend???? I didn't think so.....Oh well, I'm off to drink the rest of the wine in our new wine fridge. Oh, and if I don't blog for a couple of days, send someone out to find me. I'll probably be out back chucking the left over rocks off our deck.