Watercolor Wednesday Week 6

These two are the same painting under different light.

It's interesting to see the difference the lighting makes.

I used spray webbing 

Salt

A pocket knife to scrape out whites

india ink

View my other work HERE.

A Book by Lilly

Pretty self explanatory.   We were at my Grandparents this weekend and Lilly asked for some paper and this is what she came up with.  My Grandma was a little appalled that Lilly would want to make something like this. Ha ha!  

"Why in the world would you want to make a book about that?"

Because she's awesome!

The Ned Zone

Lilly's school has a NED assembly every year.  It's about never giving up and being positive and all that jazz and they do this assembly in conjunction with yo-yo's and they have people doing all kinds of yo-yo tricks and stuff and then they sell them (the yo-yo's not the kids) for about a week after the assembly.  Every year Lilly has wanted a yo-yo.  I've never got her one because I don't think 5 and 6 year olds and $10 yo-yo's go very well together.  Last year I got her a yo-yo ball from Target after the assembly but this year, she talked about nothing else but a red, boomerang yo-yo for a full week and she told me that they have this "Ned Zone"  at recess where all the kids with yo yo's can go to practice their tricks.... and by tricks I mean kids throwing yo yo's and getting them all tangled up together and spending most of their time rewinding them.
But we bought her the yo-yo and she took it school with her the next day.
It just happened to be "Cool Mom's and Cookies" day so I went at lunch to read with her and had to go out to look for her on playground.  Max found her and kept pointing to her, and lo and behold she was in
the  "Ned Zone."  She was pretty much the best one out there.  At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I'm still kicking myself for not having my phone so I could get a picture of this.
So cute!  Seriously so cute!
I wish kids could stay as awesome as they are in Elementary School, ALWAYS!
Kids are awesome!

"Forward Pass" (even though it looks like it's going backwards in this picture)

Headphone shirt

Made this shirt for Lilly from an X large shirt I found at a thrift store over a year ago.

Made a stencil out of freezer paper.

The skull headphones were all Lilly's idea.

Phases

I seem to go in phases here on the blog, and in life.  I'm going through a busier than crap phase right now and part of it is due to the fact that my husband is busier than crap at work, so more things fall on me to take care of.  He does his best to be home and help out, but not having him home during the day and  at night too, starts taking it's toll on me.  It used to be when he was gone at nights I'd paint, or blog or sew, but lately, I just want to sit around and do nothing.  Being Primary President has something to do with it too I think.
How do people fit everything into one day?  And still get dressed and put on makeup and make cute and healthy food for their children, that the kids seem to love.  If I made hummus, seaweed salad, onion slices, cous cous, or sweet potato star wedges, my kids would not eat it, no matter how cute it was put together.  I assume that they can't do everything every day either.  Our toys are not meticulously organized every night before we go to bed.   And so what if Lilly has gone to school without her hair done before, or Max is sometimes in his pajamas still at lunch time. Or yesterday's dishes might still be sitting in the sink.  I can't do everything everyday.  I just can't.  It is impossible for me to fill the role of mom and dad by myself everyday.  The kids get fed and loved, the bills get paid, and one of these days this phase will pass and I'll get back into the swing of things.  It will be summer and there will be one less place we have to go everyday.  School.
I do however love and listen to my children.  I make time for them.  I play angry birds, operation, go fish, memory, or busytown's I spy game with Max over and over.  I make sure they are read to. Every night. If nothing else, even if I failed at everything else that day I can say that I was the best Mom I could be.
Not that I drop everything and run every time they want something, I don't...but I do the best I can and try and make them a priority over the "small stuff " that doesn't really matter in the end anyways.  (Like those dishes in the sink, or the pajamas still on at noon....or later :)

This is why I am Home

This is how a conversation went with the Max this morning and a good reminder on how I can turn an ordinary conversation into a time to teach and reminds me once again of all the reasons I am home with my kids.
I realize everyones circumstances are different and I am not judging anyone who works.

Max: I think when I am 9 I will be able to reach the Fruit Roll Ups all by myself.
Me:  I'll bet you will be as tall as me when you are 9.
Max: You're 9!!!?
Me: No, I am 32
Max: That's old?
Me: A little bit old.
Max:  You will die someday?
Me:  Yes, we all will.  And then I'll go back and live in heaven
Max:  And then you'll come down to earth and be baby?
Me:  No, I already did that.  We lived in heaven before we came to Earth and then after we die, we get to go back to heaven and see our our Heavenly Father and Jesus and all our friends and family.

Max started laughing a relief laugh and said:  I love that!!!
me:  So do I!

Watercolor Wednesday week 5

These were both done by first spraying the paper with a bottle of water and then throwing paint onto the paper and then spraying more water and tilting the board around to flow the paint where I wanted it.  I waited for that to dry and then painted over it.
I also made stamps out of scraps of mat board and scraped grass blades into them with an x-acto knife.  I used the stamp to create the grass in both pictures.
In the second one I masked out the road and splattered masking fluid in the foreground to create the white flowers.
View my other paintings HERE.