If you know me well you know I'm something of an artist. I've always loved to draw and create, but I haven't done much drawing or painting since I graduated from college. Honestly, I've never been all about drawing and painting, or sculpture either. There have been times in my school career where the only art I would do was what I was assigned, and I'd sometimes struggle to complete that. Pretty immature of me to pick Art as my major.
(Doh!) It's always felt kind of wrong for me to say "I'm an artist." Silly, silly... but I wouldn't say I'm "crafty" either. That just makes me think of scrap-booking and painted wood decor knick-knacks with raffia and something hot glued.
I do love to create, but it doesn't matter to me if it's sewing, cooking, homemade cards, building something...I like to mix it up! But I do get a lot of satisfaction from making something I imagined into a reality. (My daughters are my best creation, but I can't take all the credit!) Since having kids I have made some things here and there, but honestly I spend most of my time attending to their needs and just keeping up with day to day responsibilities. Those wipe me out much of the time! I just can't stay up late like I used to anymore, and I face life so much better after a good night's sleep!
I've been looking forward for a long time to having our own place so I could have space to spread out and make stuff when I want to. Living with family I never felt right leaving a big project spread out in the main/shared part of the house, and there wasn't a lot of room in our packed little spaces to do a lot of things. Plus materials cost money which we've always tried to save...so projects were minimal. If I needed to spend a late night up sewing a costume in time for Halloween it was done sitting on the edge of our bed sewing machine propped on my lowered ironing board with Mike trying to sleep on the other side. What a patient guy! Not that he enjoyed it, but he put up with it :) This year's costumes I was able to sew out on the dining room table while Mike slumbered undisturbed in the other room - hopefully! So nice to have other rooms! I stayed up until about 4 am two nights in a row to get the costumes done in time for Lily to attend her new Dentist office's Halloween party that she was really set on going to. The house was such a disaster by the time I got them done I know it was driving both of us crazy, but Mike didn't complain once! And I didn't go all ballistic on the kids over stupid little stuff in my sleep deprived state...though it was close once! I was pretty proud of both of us over that.
Anyway, I finally put paintbrush to canvas this last month for the first time in like...(I'm thinking...) ...14 or so years!? Craziness. Mike is the painter, but I wanted some cheap art for my girl's bathroom to coordinate their cute whale shower curtain and the new towels I bought Lily & Sierra before it came in from online that totally didn't match it -- and I saw some blank canvases for cheap at Ross so I bought them and then I was committed. Bathroom art for kids is much less intimidating than a more fine art painting. I had a vision of what I wanted, got me some cheap acrylics and cheap brushes, got a little inspiration off the internet, planned out my 2 paintings in Photoshop and one night went to it. My first layer on both paintings looked ... really bad. I got a little discouraged, and the next night Mike took pity and agreed to take over one of my paintings for me. But I didn't want to totally release control of my vision... So then we were both up late listening to music and painting together for the first time since we were in art class together, and it was totally fun! Why have we not done this more? Oh, well, lots of reasons, but I'd definitely like to do it more now :) Well, Mike's turned out a little different than I had envisioned, but still super cute...though I think he would rather I not share his hand in it since it is totally not his style of art! Too late! I think the world will forgive him since it just shows what a devoted husband and dad he is. I was pretty happy with how mine turned out too! Much better than I anticipated after that first night! I'm glad I kept at it. Still need something else to fill the walls, but the paintings make it much cheerier in there for my girls who are sometimes afraid of going alone to the bathroom. The one room in my house with no windows had to be their bathroom! I so wish it had a skylight every time I walk by the door!
So the colors look better in person than in my photos, but what do you think?
Fun fact: I totally doubled the mermaid painting as a reminder for Mike as to which color towel belongs to which of our girls. --A big deal for Lily, and possible the main reason she even likes the painting...they never react how you'd expect them to... ;)
I'd like to do some more painting and projects soon, but right now I'm just hoping Mike and Sierra get over their current colds, and that I get over my most recent back strain! Hoping for a good night's sleep!
