"Lord, Help the mister, who comes between me and my SISTER. And Lord help the SISTER, who comes between me and my man!" ...just kidding. Elaine got Allan to play dress up with her this last weekend. (the song was a white christmas quote for you youngin's who don't know what I was talking about). 

my statues (and the dolphin statue made my Kevin) were the center of the exposition 

my stuff at design expo 

Oh, the Joys of parenting.

ARG!!! This morning the kids were up early, so I changed diapers and refilled milk bottles a good number of times, but I kept returning to bed after each motherly task. Then late morning Jim got up, so I took it as an opportunity to sleep in. At some point Allan pulled off his diaper and walked around with DIARREA in their bedroom. Since then, the nursery is on quarenteen (spelling??) . The added grossness of the sanitation process is due to my lovely son emptying their dresser onto the floor onto the diarrea. I have to launder ALL OF THEIR FOLDED CLOTHES. I called my mom for tips on how to take care of the mess. So, for now the kids are stuck in the living room while I clean their room.
**Mental note: we NEED a wooden dresser for the kids, so I can screw in some babyproof latches. These rubbermaid-style dressers aint doing the job. **
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I'm also weeding out their toys. They have entirely too many stuffed animals. They don't play with most of them. I'll keep the sentimental ones from when they were infants and the ones that they enjoy still. I think part of the trouble with the amount of toys they possess is that we are holding on to the toys Elaine has outgrown, like her glow worm, just in case Allan will want them as he grows up. Some toys will go to Goodwill, and some toys will be cleaned and returned to Pamela.
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Jimmy said this is funny, so I thought I'd pass along the humor:
Let me set the scene for you. I don't wear makeup to my geology class. I wear my hair up in a bandana and most of the semester (during Scapino) I went to this class in my painting clothes. I sit with 4 girls and one guy. I've chit chatted with the guy (I don't remember his name), throughout the semester. He works at a church and his sister is a stage manager for a theatre, so we had some common interests. Anywho...
Yesterday he and I were in class chatting before lecture began. It went something like this.
Me: you look tired.
Him: I get up at 5am. It takes it's toll.
Me: do you work in the morning?
Him: No, I get up that early to torture myself ;-)
Me: how early do you get to bed?
Him: about midnight and I get about 5 hours of sleep. Like I said, torture.
Me: I get to bed around 1 or 2 and I wake up anywhere between 7 and 10am.
Him: you're as bad as me, then. :-) Do you work in the morning?
Me: The kids are photo-sensitive, so they get up whenever the sun comes up. Daylight savings really...
Him: (very fast) KIDS! You have a kid??!! No, you watch kids for someone? Or you have kids? You're old enough to have a kid? No! You watch kids for someone?
Me: *hold up my wedding ring*
Him: Wow! You have a kid. I didn't think you were old enough.
Me: My daughter is 3 and a half. (He looks shocked). I'm 23. How old are you?
Him: older than most. (he holds up fingers "3" and "0")
Me: 30, I thought you were about my husband's age.
Him: Yeah, you're married.... I gotta change my game. :-)

LOL LOL LOL LOL -Apparently he had been hitting on me and I never noticed. Jimmy thought this was all hillarious. He keeps laughing about it.

1:20am um...Wednesday morning. Design Expo set up is at Noon, so I tried to get this drawing done tonight. I need to return to tweeking the face, but I got the body drawn in tonight. yay. I'll have time to finish this before the Expo. Mental note: also print name tag for the Scapino Statues and print carving photos. 

*C*H*E*E*S*E* 

Allan was throwing a fit...but Elaine noticed the camera 

elaine 

Done with my mental trip to Tuscany...for a while at least. I'm doing a 3rd mural for the same people in about a month. 

ALL DONE 

Detail of second Mural 

Second Mural. It took 4 hours to create from start to finish. 

Completed: The right side of the Tuscany Mural. Tim picked out a stone border for the edge. It turned out kinda cool. The clients were pleased. 

Complete: Left side of the Tuscany Mural. Tim wanted me to add detail to the tower, so I did that and I added a lot more trees and the balcony railing. I like the poppies climbing over the balcony thingy.  

Design Expo coming up

The theatre's design exposition begins on Wednesday and I don't have a ton to put in it this semester. i still haven't bitten the bullet to buy a large portfolio...so I don't have a clean way to display all my sketches. I am just gonna park my large statues in a corner with my name on them and maybe print out some photos of their creation. Also I am displaying the charcoal drawing of Elaine from last year, with the addition of a (in-progress) new drawing of Allan. I hope to print out some photos of my Tuscany mural too. So, it's only like 3 sets of things going in the expo, but it'll show diverse skills.

Tomorrow I finish the large Tuscany mural and make a second mural for the same family. I told Randal that I would miss class in the afternoon and he said it was fine. Oh, that reminds me. It was announced today the theatre design assignments for the next two semesters. Some are still TBA, but for now they have a lot already figured out. I'm gonna be the Scenic Artist for "three penny opera" in the Spring. Randal is the set designer, so I'll get to work with him again. I don't have any assignments for the fal as of yetl. Maybe time to focus on the mural work or my spanish class? We'll see how it works out.

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