Elaine's Creative Mind

examples:
She calls a peanut butter sandwich, "Peanut butter bread". And if we call it a sandwich she gets mad! She only wants us to describe it by the ingrediants. She does the same thing with "Spagetti and Red" and also with "Cheerios and Milk"... Lord help you if you offer her 'cereal'!!! "NO! I want Cheerios and Milk!"

She saw me painting something for the church and asked if I was "working". I said no, that I was just painting. She corrected me that she had to be quiet because I was working.... *blush* I guess she HAS heard me refer to painting as working, when I try to quiet her down. I told her that the activity is called Painting. About a minute later, after she watched me for that long, Elaine said, "Mommy go away white". Then she said, "Mommy no like white. Mommy make white paint." So she gets the idea (that I am covering a white canvas with paint) but instead of saying I am painting, she'll still just conside that I am getting rid of white.

I can ask her if it's night time and she's say no. But if she sees that it's dark out the window, she'll say that it's "good night"

Just silly Elaine moments:
Late the other night Jim, Elaine and I were in the driveway. She said "it's dark in here." Jim corrected that it was dark outside and my stubborn angel said, "NO, it's dark IN here." She was quiet as we got in the car and started down the road. Jim and I were talking and I realized she was trying to get my attention from the backseat. I turned and Elaine said, "Elaine help you see dark!!" and she clicked her heels together...making her Disney Princess shoes light up. Jim asked 'What?' and Elaine repeated that she'd help us see in the dark, clicking her heels again. Silly girl.

Elaine wanted to play with her watercolor set. So I set her up with her paints, some water and paper at her table. She kept repeating, "I make water". She was painting with green, so Jim and I both asked her if she wanted to paint her water with the Azule (blue) instead. She insisted that she has to make "Water green"... then I realized Elaine wasn't trying to paint a picture of water on the paper with the color green. She was trying to make the actual water in her paint brush cup green by cleaning her brush in the water after every other brush stroke. She really wanted to make "water green".

Murals Murals Everywhere

I wasn't the only Brank making murals today. Elaine drew large spirals around her room and some smaller scribbles. She also drew a purple line half way down the hall. I told Jim that she is just trying to copy her Momma.

See how large these are? (see Allan) I'm at least greatful that I wanted to give this room a fresh coat of paint this summer anyhow.  

Allan cuddling with Jimmy late tonight. He woke up mad, and Jim got baby Allan back to sleep, so I could veg out.  

Tuscany Mural -day one

How far I got today on the Tuscany Mural today for Tim. I worked from 9:45 am til 7:45pm, with a lunch break in there around noon. It still needs a cobblestone-looking border around the edge and some other detail work (see other pictures).
I'm going back to finish it a week from today. The same people, Tim & Dianne, for sure want me to paint a second mural on the wall their toilet faces. Needless to say, it will be a smaller mural, so I might try to do it on Tuesday when I finish up the big mural. The two murals will tie in together. Tim's house is very influenced by Italy. He likes a lot of my suggestions. I MIGHT get to do a third mural for them in the dining room. That one wouldn't take long...just a fake window. The pay is good and I enjoy the work.
Tim asked if he can give out my contact info to his friends, for more mural work. They all live in the new homes where everything is beige. With this in mind, Jim took me by Walmart late tonight and we got the paper to make myself some business cards. (Ya gotta spend money to make money). With summer beginning soon, this seems like great timing. Jim says that my income will help cover the new higher gas prices. He's being very supportive.
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Jim was asked to work double-shifts tomorrow and Thursday (lots of overtime $). It'd be a hassle to get me to and from class. So I'm gonna be home for the next two days. I'm gonna call friends and get them to take good notes from class. Finals are coming up.
While I'm home, I'm gonna finish up the newsletter for the church (due tomorrow), make my business cards and finish my drafting project for stage craft.

I worked my way down from the top, so I could catch and cover drips. This is about one hour into actual painting (not time spent projecting the image and tarping the tub). 

First time painting clouds. :) 

My new projector is definately a time saver. Yall can see how I projected up rough shapes to the wall. Projecting around a corner was a little tricky. 

I was uber tired, so this is where I stopped tonight around 7:45pm. It still gets some trees, a stone wall and some shrubs back in the distance. Also, both sides of the mural will get 3 ballisters worth of painted on balcony railing, coming off the side of each cabinet.  

(It still needs trees and shrubs along the hills in the distance, but not too much left to go on this section.)  

giddy from playing with his hair for WAY too long 

Micah with Dreads tonight 

Dready locks. They'll lock up in a couple weeks. But they are done with the beginning stage. 

MIcah ---before we spent the day putting dreadlocks in his hair... seriously 

Hardly anyone leaves comments on my blog anymore.
Should I keep writting, or is this just an excersize for myself?

we tried a stack of her dresses on Elaine to decide which one she would wear for Easter. This was a regect, because it's a little short on her. But she was so sweet and playful about trying on different outifts, that I got the camera out. 

Micah goofing off with Allan on Easter 

Here's how the paint-by-numbers project turned out. 

Completed "youth" statues from Scapino 

the finished couple statue, symbolizing Youth 

See how tall my guy was? how cool is that!? 

this is how the 'LAW' statue turned out. I realized I hadn't posted photos of the finished product. 

Easter, Tuscany, Spinal Tap and scrapbooking

This last friday Jeannie and I got together and prepared for the youth's Easter service. We transfered these paint-by-number guides up onto large canvases using my new projector. So on Easter when the youth were done painting on the two canvases, we stuck the canvases together... revealing an image of Christ. The teens gasped. It was cool. I like helping with the creative endevors for the youth group. (that reminds me, I need to start the next newsletter because it's already the 18th).
Randal has a church trip to go on, so my only class is cancelled tomorrow. I called up the people who want a mural of Tuscany. We are meeting tomorrow night (Jim's night off) so I can give them an estimate. We're also gonna look over my research and make sure we are all on the same page. I hope to get it designed ASAP and painted during finals week. (I only have finals on the first day of finals week, so I'm out of school for summer 4 days early).
Micah has been hanging with us a lot the last couple days. We just finished watching 'Spinal Tap'. I wasn't impressed. But it made me want to watch the episode of the simpsons where Spinal Tap gueststarred. I think one of the Spinal Tap guys, Harry Shearer, is a voice artist for the Simpsons. He looks familiar from 'Inside the Actor's Studio'.
I've been getting some good scrapbooking done. Yay. Jimmy got me a stapler, so I was able to staple ribbon to that layout I talked about before (the picture is like 6 posts ago). Jim and I made a deal like 8 months ago. The deal is that he'd pay for me to get photos developed as long as I scrapbooked all of them before asking for more photo developing. I'm down to one package of photos to go. The deal is kinda forcing me to scrapbook about my surgery, my Dad's visit around that time, the kids milestones that I missed.... overall, not fun. I don't like to focus on it too much, but I think it needs to be addressed in the family scrapbook. on the bright side: looking at older pics of me, from last June and July, makes me feels good about keeping my weight off that was lost in the hospital. I've maintained. People from church say I'm loosing weight, but the fancy scale Jimmy got me months back disagrees. Maybe the weight is partially muscle, after 'Scapino'? I dunno.

Easter

I'll blog all about it soon, but church was good.

Elaine and Jim today

Is she trying to copy my expression??? 

OUCH! She took it like a trooper and tried again with me holding onto her. The wind was crazy strong. I had to hold on tight. The flight didn't last long. And when Elaine was done she dropped the handles letting us know that she was done with the sport for now. 

no turn at the stunt kite for Allan 

This is Elaine about 5 seconds before the Stunt Kite flew her...6 feet across the feild onto her face!!! She wanted to try flying it, to be like her daddy. We REGRET not having the video camera running on this one. The kite snatched her right off her feet!! Well, maybe it'll be windy tomorrow *insert evil snicker*