ZzZzzzzz....

So. freaking. tired.

Yard sales are absolutely more fun when you're the buyer rather than the seller. Or maybe that's just my grumpy mama bear self talking because I'm running on two and a half hours of sleep and no naps. It was pretty fun haggling and watching my bag fill up with money, but the sheer amount of work is exhausting.

Oh well, it's over and done and we made a couple hundred, which was our goal. Yay for met goals.

Every time I look up, I have to grin. Lily had her first art class last Wednesday. Hanging slightly askew on the wall (because she had to tape it up herself), is her masterpiece.

Her first class was a Mixed Media self portrait. They had several different stations that the kids got to play in. I think my favorite was the scratch art. The kids crayoned a block of the poster and colored over it with black paint and then scratched it off after drying. (The black circles in Lily's picture.) They played with sand, glue, foils, fabrics, paints, and all sorts of fun things. I thought it was a great idea that the art teacher actually took a picture of the kids for their posters. 

It's funny how different Lily and I are about our art. I LOVE LOVE LOVE mixed media, but I still have to have a plan or at least a general outline. Lily just goes to town. It's wild and colorful and unique, just like her. Next class is the Jackson Pollock class I am so jealous about. I'm hoping they need mother helpers again so I can stay and play in the paint spatter. 

Well, my brain, body, and eyes are shutting down. I'm off to have some well deserved catatonia. I feel so bad for poor Husbandy Face. He had to head into work at 1pm and won't be home until after midnight and he got just as little sleep as I did. That man is a trooper. 

Nighty night night!

Meandering around my brain...

 

Here are some random things rambling about in my brain today:

1) I really, REALLY do NOT want to cut my dreadlocks in two months. I feel like I'm having to change a huge part of myself that I'm really proud of. Three years ago, I did something absolutely selfish for myself that I had wanted to do. I knew it was going to be something that would cause a stir with the people around me. I knew it was going to change the way people perceived me. I did it anyway. Putting dreadlocks in gave me a huge step in self confidence and learning to let go. Dreadlocks taught me patience. Some days I would look in the mirror and call myself crazy, but I stuck with them and now frankly, my hair is effing awesome. I don't care if you don't think so. Sure, it's just hair. On one hand, it'd be fun to do something different. I would LOVE to brush my own hair again. Dreadlocks and teaching in this area don't really mix. I don't want to jeopardize future job contacts because of hair. On the other hand, I will miss them like I would miss an arm.

2) My Sage baby is now five months. Five months! How did that happen? Her laugh is like music to my ears and she is already developing quite the personality. She loves music. It always calms her down, whether it's Phineas and Ferb or Flogging Mollys.

3) I can't wait to have a date with my husband tonight. Can't. Wait. We're going to a play, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Love it. I love that my punk rock listening, skateboarding, George Carlin quoting husband wants to see that play. He's turning down a night with the buddies at the trampoline fun house thingy. I heart my husband.

4) I signed Lily up for art lessons. She's going to make a Jackson Pollock style painting. I am jealous. 

5) I love that Lily told me it was a good thing she wasn't doing swimming lessons because that would be "one busy schedule, Mama." 

6) Confession: I sometimes tell Nic I am still nursing Sage so he will be the one to get out of bed and start the day. Then Sage and I snuggle up and go back to sleep for an hour. Hee.

7) I think we are reaching the point where we have to make a decision to buy a house or find a new house to rent. I want my own house so very bad. I want to paint the walls whatever color I like. I want to add flower beds and raised gardens and have a room in my house that is dedicated to all things crafty. The house we are living in is shrinking by the day and it's got so many issues that I would like to fix. We've been here for five years. It's home. I hate change. Gah. 

8) Our recently enacted "Fast Food Once a Week Only" rule is going better than I thought it would. We're actually sticking to it. That's huge. I am especially proud of my husband who is a junkie. Will power, you are my friend. Still, I miss cheeseburgers from Burger King.

9) I can't WAIT to see Brave. My super awesome cousin's name will be in the animation credits. I am so proud of the guy. If I could make everyone be as proud of him as I am, I would. It's always lovely to watch someone achieve something they spent their childhood talking about. It may not be a Star Wars movie, but hey, he's got time! *grin*

10) I can't do anything without taking pictures since I started this blog. I think my husband questions my sanity because more than once I have gotten a look while snapping a picture of some random thing like pieces of fabric or baking ingredients.

Now that you've had a peek inside my thought processes, have a fantastic day!

Cornstarch Paint and a surprise...

 I saw this on pinterest as soon as warm weather hit and have been wanting to try it out. Lily is a painter. When she grows up, she wants to be an artist. The hard part of getting this marked off my to-do list though, has been remembering cornstarch at the grocery store. I finally got it though, yay me!

You can find a million recipes for this, but my favorite was the one at Pink and Green Mama because it was pretty simple. Cornstarch, food dye, water. Go. Ha! I'd add a little cornstarch here, water there, and had way too much fun playing.

The darker colors were much more vibrant. They had quite a bit of food dye, at least 15 drops or so. I had a mini muffin tin, which was the perfect size for quite a bit of paint in more colors than a regular pan. Lily is all about the color selection. I did get asked why there was no yellow, brown, or black. How was she supposed to draw trees or the sun? *smirk*

Nic was setting up the pool in the backyard. This has been an epic battle that the pool is currently winning. Pool: 2. Humans: 0. Tomorrow we have to drain it and fill it for a third time. Our back yard is slowly forming into a mountain or something, because that pool leans like crazy when we fill it up no matter where we put it. Anyway, Lily decided that painting the table we have in the yard was better than the sidewalks out front. I thought it was fun and it washed off fine, so I gave the green light. I don't know what part she liked better, painting or playing with the hose under the guise of washing off her "canvas" so she could start over again. She painted for two hours.

Two warnings:

1) Wear clothes that can be stained. Lily has an eclectic mix of play clothes. She's very much a girly girl and has to wear sparkles and skirts even when painting her masterpieces. Fancy Nancy has nothing on my girl. She was devastated for about five minutes when she realized she had blue on her cupcake shirt. When I reminded her it was too small to wear to school anymore and it was play clothes, she then asked if she could paint the shirt. Haha.

2) It might not be the smartest idea to paint on glass with this stuff. We had the weirdest thing happen today and the the only thing we can think of as a cause is something to do with the cornstarch paint. We went outside to find our table like this:

The glass completely shattered. We could hear the glass crackling and breaking as we stood over it in disbelief and confusion. It was the strangest thing. I washed off most of the paint yesterday, but there was still some on there. The table had sat overnight completely fine, and then half way through the morning, boom. Nothing heavy enough around it that could have hit the glass to shatter it. No pre-existing cracks. Just millions of pieces. There could be other reasons, but where kids are the ones painting, I wouldn't want someone to get hurt. I can't wait to make this again for Lily to play with, but I'll stick with sidewalks from now on to be safe.

I'm bummed about the table. We just got it last summer. I only ate dinner on it one time this summer. Boo. Nic cheered me up by suggesting several different options of fixing it. His favorite is to turn it into a wood top and letting me paint a mural and sealing it. My husband has a secret crafty side.

 Anyone have any good ideas? It's a metal frame.

Moral of the story: sidewalks, people.

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