Procrastination (part 2): Persevere and Prevail

December 19th, 2012: A lesson in Perseverance   

     A couple of weeks ago I told you I was not going to give up. That failure was NOT an option when it came to creating a painting for my in-laws. This week I came to the realization that Christmas is less then a week away and the "big one" was still sitting in my bedroom untouched. I have had zero motivation to paint these past few weeks but I NEEDED to get off my lazy butt and get it done because if I didn't start this week it wasn't going to get done at all (I'm already nervous it wont dry in time for our gift exchange). So reluctantly I pulled out my oils, sketched on canvas and reference material, turned on the holiday music (hoping it would put me in a merrier mood), and got to work.

1) Painting is substantially more difficult when one has to stop every few minuets to keep tabs on a very mobile baby. Lil E decided yesterday that he was going to be a handful and get into EVERYTHING. So the first half of the work, which was the most difficult part, took almost twice as long to complete.

2) Painting is substantially more difficult when there is a lack of motivation to do any sort of art project.

3) Painting is substantially more difficult where there is a Law & Order: SVU marathon on T.V.

 After 3 hours this is what I had accomplished:

If I never paint another rock in my life it'll be too soon

 

At this point Lil E went down for a nap and I got significantly more accomplished. After a few more hours I breathed a sigh of relief. I could officially say I was DONE.

I stood back and took a nice long look and decided it wasn't full of crap. Like, not at all. I was actually PROUD of what I had just accomplished. My hope is that Fiancé's parents like it and will be equally as proud to hang it on their wall.

 

The Finished Product- Chimney Rock, Priest Lake, ID:

 

The color is just a touch off because of the poor lighting in the house and the stupidness of my camera flash

 

Now everyone cross your fingers it dries in time for me to frame it for Christmas!!

 





Procrastination and failure

Monday, December 3rd: A Lesson In Failure

I am a procrastinator. I have gotten every other art project done for Christmas gifts except one. The one I've been dreading. Logic would suggest to do the "big one" first and get it out of the way. Logic and I have been battling for the past 3 months. So instead of sitting down with my oils and brushes to do the "big one,"  I did all the fun, little holiday projects instead. Before I get too far ahead of myself, Let me start from the beginning...

Last year my soon-to-be mother-in-law commissioned me to do a painting for her. It is to be a painting of  Chimney Rock large enough to fit over the fireplace at the family cabin. I reluctantly said yes and have been putting it off for over a year now. I have 2 main issues with this piece of artwork. 1) it is large. I have never painted anything bigger then 11x14 so to look at a canvas that is 16x20 or large is daunting. That is a lot of white space to cover up.
2) Painting mountains is not a difficult task compared to other types of landscapes...painting Chimney Rock however is a challenge. I don't normally like to paint from photographs because I feel artistically restricted and obligated to make my painting look exactly like the picture. It NEVER turns out looking like the picture...ever. However, to make the Chimney Rock Painting look like Chimney Rock I have to paint Chimney Rock. I know that didn't make a whole lot of sense. In other words I need to paint from a photograph with as much accuracy as possible so I don't make Chimney Rock look like just another mountain. Its the focal point of the entire piece so I better get it right. That's a lot of pressure...pressure I've put on myself, but still. I have a fear of disappointing my "clients."

A month or so ago, after a 2 small scale and failed trial runs I sat down to take on this terrifying task with my over sized canvas, oils, and brushes and began to paint. I finished "a" painting but it wasn't "the" painting. I stood back and looked at my masterpiece and realized it sucked. Not just a little but a whole lot of suckage. Suckity, suck, suck, sucked. I scrapped it and vowed to start over. I decided the photograph I was using that I took this past summer was one of the main problems. It was a photo of Chimney Rock and the Selkirk Mountains from across the lake. The Rock was set in the background of Priest Lake and the mountains and forested hills that surrounded it sort of took away from the focal point. After scouring the Internet, family pictures, and personal pictures of that damn Rock, I pieced them together and sketched it out onto a fresh canvas. Where it has sat...for a month.

 

 Trial on canvas paper attempt #1. Apparently I forgot how to paint mountains.



 

Trail on canvas paper #2. Not AS bad but still full of suck.









Okay. Here it is. The reason I am starting over from scratch. 16x20. It. Is. Crap.

 

The new "big one" will be a totally different angle. It is a look from atop the ridge to the side of Chimney Rock as opposed to the view from across the lake.

I have failed at this 3 times now. If the 3rd time is a charm, what is the 4th time?

I refuse to give up

Wish me luck....I'm gunna need it.

 

Pinterest Inspired Ornament Wreath

I found these really cool looking Ornament wreaths on pinterest and decided to give it a try. I grabbed an old wire hanger out of my closet and shaped it into a circle (well mostly into a circle). I have some old ornaments that were too banged up and scuffed to go on the tree this year so they have been saved from the trash to be re-purposed into this little craft. I added a little bit of beaded snowflake garland to jazz it up but you don't need it. I think if I ever do this again I might add some ribbon (I'm out at the moment and didn't want to make a trip to the store).  I then busted out my handy-dandy trusty glue gun and went to work. It only took about 45 min total (including glue gun warm-up) to finish the wreath. Everyone should add this project to their list of stupidly easy craft projects. I'd say this is easy enough for a child to do but the hot glue gun would be a concern with young kids. Maybe a carefully supervised kids craft where the adult glues and the child arranges the ornaments. I'm sure you can use super glue or E600 for this project but it would take significantly longer due to the drying times of each piece.

Anyways...Here it is:




TA-DA!

The Randomess that is my Monday

Odd things have been happening all morning. Maybe its the lunar cycle, maybe it strange weather patterns caused by hurricane Sandy on the east coast, maybe its my imagination...I don't know but this morning was too weird not to write about.

1. My son decided to NOT take a morning nap and instead chose to roll around on my bed yelling, hollering, and chattering away to anyone/thing that would listen. Including, but not limited to: me, the T.V, the remote control, the dog, the pillow, the light fixture, and his pacifier. Now this doesn't sound too unusual being that Lil' E is 8 months old now but it is for him. He's normally a pretty quiet baby...except when he's hungry...or needs a diaper changed...or sleepy. Point is that he cries when he wants something and has, up until today (and some last night) not had any interest in the baby talk and jibber jabber. At lunch today he was talking away to the lady behind the counter. I don't know what he was saying but it seemed pretty important because he had a look of all seriousness on his little face.

2. The Asian people at our local Samurai Sam's are happy, friendly, loud, and weird. One look at Lil' E and most older people try to touch him and talk to him. Some have even asked to hold him. I don't know what happens when people age that makes them oogle over a strangers baby (or touch a pregnant woman's belly). Lil' E hasn't learned the term "stranger danger" yet so naturally today he was trying to touch the lady and man behind the counter and coo'd at them. The man informed me that Lil' E looks just like me and that it was good luck for the son to look like the mother. My best guess is its good luck because if the baby loks like mom and doesn't look like the father, paternity wont be disputed. Then there came the exchange with the lady as she brought me my delicious plate of Yaki Soba Noodles.
Lady (HEAVY Asian accent): ooohhhh he sit so good! How old?
Me: he's 8 months
Lady: Ohhhh he little like Asian baby!
Me: yes he's small for his age
Lady: Little is good, you no worry
Me: OK....
Then she walked away. As we were leaving she yells to us from behind the counter across the restaurant (mind you we are NOT the only ones in the dining area).
Lady: 'member I said small is good! Strong brain better then strong arm!
Me: uhhh...thanks?

Really...how do you respond to that?

3. Adventures at craft warehouse. I think I've said this before but I LOVE craft warehouse. It's my happy place. Long story short, Grandma gave me some ceramic tile and I made some coasters out of them so I needed waterproofing sealant and cork or foam or felt dots for the bottom. Craft warehouse doesn't have these (GASP!). I ended up just buying a sheet of foam paper and I'll cut circles out myself. Problem solved. As I'm wondering the aisles searching high and low for said dots a little old lady (70's or 80's) stops me to play with Lil' E (here we go again!). Lil' E being the chatterbox he is today with no stranger danger fears just starts blabbering away at her and trying to grab her necklace (yes she was that close to my child!). I can't just tell this lady to GTF away from my baby without causing a commotion (and yelling at old people is rude) so I just patiently wait and watch for an opening to run away. Then she says to him "oh just look at you! aren't you an adorable little thing. yes you are! You must look just like your daddy!"
Gee, thanks lady! Because he's adorable he must take after his dad...not me. Slap. In. The. Face. She must have smelled me starting to go into defense mode because she high tailed it out of there.

4. Our neighbor across the street is raking her leaves in 30mph wind. Counterproductive.

5. My garage door wont open from the outside. I had to park, go inside, and push the button from the inside of the garage for it to open. Stupid P.O.S!

6. Lil' E is SUPPOSED to be napping right now. But no. He's yelling...at his bear. It's not the bears fault he's stuck in the cage, cut the stuffed animal some slack!

So that was my morning. Yeah...gotta be the tides or the positioning of the stars or something.

Pinterest Inspired Scarf

Hi all!
Here is a 30 min pinterest inspired project for you. It is super easy and I'm sure when Miss Priss sees my finished product she's going to want to make one also. If a 9 year old can do it, so can you!

Supplies:
Yarn.
Scissors
3 or 4 dining room chairs (depending on how long you want your scarf).
Seriously....thats it.

I didn't take any pictures of the set-up or the process so you'll have to bare with me here while I try to explain this.
I placed 3 chairs side by side. I wrapped the yarn once around the backs of the chairs and tied the ends together. I then continued to wrap the yarn 9 more times. That makes a total of 10 times around the chairs. I tied off the end and slid the loops off the chair backs.
I did this 2 more times creating 3 loops of yarn total.
I then put Lil E in his Bumbo and put the ends of the loops under him to hold them steady (this step is optional).
I braided the 3 bundles of yarn together.
Tied the ends together tightly.
DONE.

Yeah thats it.
heres the finished product:



I look so serious! haha

Fall Crafting

Hello Folks!
Long time I know. I've been busy with life and stuff...sue me.
Anyways, this week I decided to decorate my front porch. All my flowers died due to the weather and mostly becuase I didn't water them enough...or really at all. Plants and flowers come to my house to die, green thumb I do not have.
So looking out onto my front porch I find dead plants and dirt in pots and needless to say its not an attractive sight. So its time to spruce it up!
Have I mentioned I love Pinterest? Well I do, it's a wonderful invention for bored stay at home mommies.

Front Door:



Moss and foam pumpkins.
So Cute!

Other Wreaths I made:

Pumpkins:
I decided I didn"t like the chrome look of these so I spray painted it black and added some glitter. Miss Priss says it looks like dragon scales.





Decoupaged with Cloth I had
Laying around the house

For the rest of the porch I bought some foam pumpkins, gourds, and leaves from the dollar store

Found at the Dollar store
How cute are these srsly!?

Adventures in bread making

As we speak dinner is in the Crock-pot and It smells divine. A spicy roast Fiance loves. Round roast rubbed with dry italian dressing mix with a whole jar of pepperchini's and their juices, slow cooked until it falls apart. Place it on a roll or hoagie bun and dip it in the juice its made for an unbelievable "french dip."
Wait...
Where are the hoagie buns!? Oh no I forgot to buy some during the monthly shopping trip. Crap! Now what do i do?

The easy solution would be to go to the store and buy some but when do I ever do things the easy way? I'll make some...yes, that sounds like a fabulous idea! Only theres one little catch:

I've never made homemade bread before.

Ok I lied, I made banana bread once but that doesn't count. Making bread is intimidating, scary, and time consuming. I'd have to use Yeast. Yeast is the scary part. What if it doesn't activate? What if I kill it? What if my bread doesn't rise? What if the yeast explodes!?

Does yeast explode? I don't know but it was in the realm of possibility this morning when I went to the grocery store.

Upon arriving in the baking aisle and looking at the top self I see: Dry active yeast, instant yeast, rapid-rise yeast, quick-rise instant dry yeast, yeast in jars, yeast in tiny packages...

Initial response?
GAHHH!! RUN AWAY!!

Thank goodness I didn't do that. I think I would've received some pretty odd stares from Lil E and Miss Priss and the rest of the store would've wondered what drugs I was on.
After calmly consulting the recipe I bought Dry active yeast in the little packages (less commitment that way) and quick-rise instant dry yeast (just in case). I could've at this point gone to the bakery and bought some rolls or buns or french bread as back-up in case this little adventure into baking failed but I did not. I live on the wild side like that. I have no back-up plan so this HAS TO WORK.

I followed the directions, set it out to rise, and crossed my fingers I didn't mess up the yeast part because everything else was stupidly easy up to that point. After an hour (and to my complete astonishment) it had doubled in size. I seriously wanted to jump up and down yelling "I did it, I did it!" WOO!
Now to form loaves or buns or rolls or whatever and...
Let it rise for another 40 min.
What!? You've got to be kidding me. This is more stress then this mamma can take. Ok, I can so totally do this. Cross fingers, pray to the kitchen gods (s), and wait...

While we wait why don't I show you a little project I did 2 weeks ago

That, my friends is a can of formula. Ok, it WAS a can of formula. I have a ton of these things floating around due to Lil E's growing appetite so I decided to recycle one of them into a coffee holder. I pulled out some craft paper and my handy-dandy Modge Podge and voila! Instant makeover. Do you have these tubs lying around too? What did you do with yours? I need some crafty ideas to transform these into something spectacular.
....
ok time to check on the bread.
O.M.G It's like magic. My mini loaves of bread have once again doubled in size (mainly width). Baking bread is kinda cool. Chemistry can be fun! Now time to bake these suckers and hope they don't turn out dense or hard as a rock or doughy in the center. Or God forbid after all this work (when I say work, I mean sitting around drinking coffee and blogging) I burn them!
Praying to the kitchen gods again.

25 minuets later we have SUCCESS! I have officially made bread. Ok, well, technically I made Sandwich rolls but whatever. They aren't perfect but I'd say today was a successful day.

Drowning in Cherries

My mother has a giant cherry tree in her back yard and this year (as with most years) they have more cherries then they know what to do with. I took some off their hands thinking I'd make a pie or 2. I received 2 grocery bags full.

That's a crap ton of cherries if you didn't know.

Thought to myself what can I do to save these delicious red jewels because they weren't going to last long enough for our house to devour them. I came up with raisins.
Ok well not raisins but dried cherries.

I don't own a dehydrating machine so I thought I'd do it the old fashioned way and dry them in the oven (opposed to the old old fashioned way of drying them in the sun).
After 7 hours they were finally ready.

and they taste AH-mazing!

So I did the smart thing and borrowed my mother's food dehydrator (which I believe is older then I am BTW) and made a large batch.

clean and cut cherries

170 is the lowest my oven goes.

This is a sexy retro beast!

7 hours later we have yummy cherry raisins

And with my newly made dried cherries I made homemade granola. I substituted the British Golden Syrup with plain maple syrup and added the dried cherries. They taste super yummy.

The Culinary Master (ok not so much)

This week I've been thinking a lot about food and how to make EASY meals for my family on a budget. I scoured the Internet (and the oh-so-handy Epicurious app for my Kindle) and came across a real gem. Fiance is known for loving (seriously LOVING) hot wings but they are very messy to make and eat and the battering and frying of chicken parts isn't all that healthy. What I stumbled across was Buffalo Chicken meatballs. PERFECT for a packed work lunch, appetizer, or quick snack. Cook these puppies up and refrigerate (or freeze) until ready to eat then just pop them in the microwave. They smell pretty dang delicious but I'm not a fan of hot sauce. Fiance and Miss Priss give them an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up.



My next cooking experiment is dinner this week. I'm making Pork Carnitas. I got an extra large pork shoulder for this recipe so I can freeze the leftovers (assuming Fiance and Miss Priss don't go all out and devour the whole thing) to use as the stuffing for enchiladas later in the month. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone is a super time saver and I'm all about making things easier in the long run.

Moss Terrarium for $0

When baby sleeps, mama plays. I *should* be folding laundry and doing the dishes but housework is boring so I decided to make a little terrarium instead. A good friend of mine (Linky to her blog) bought Miss Priss a terrarium for Christmas this year and it seemed like a fun little project to undertake. I had left over potting soil in the garage from  planting our spring vegetable garden, there were a couple of jars sitting around collecting dust in my kitchen cabinet, I used rocks from our driveway, and the moss was growing under a shrub in the backyard. Oh and I have a ton of polymer clay to make little mushrooms to decorate with so this project literally cost me nothing...$0.

Mossy in my flower bed

So first things first: clean your jar(s). A little soap and water to knock all the dust off.
2. Go outside and put some rocks or gravel at the bottom of your jar. This will help with drainage and prevent mold from building up.
3. put some potting soil or dirt in your jar.
4. add moss and arrange so it looks pretty. At this point you can plant a tiny little shade plant in your terrarium if you want to. I just stuck with the moss.
5. put a little water in your jar and wait for it to soak in. You want your rocks in the bottom to be wet.
6. Add the details. I made some mushrooms out of polymer clay. They were super simple to make. I put a pin in the bottom before I baked them so I'd have a little spike to poke my mushroom down into the moss.

*NOTE*

do not fill your jar too full with soil. I totally failed on my first one. I had no room to add "stuff" because I filled my little jar too full. My second attempt was with a mason jar so it was bigger and the project was more successful.

When I pulled up the moss I left some of the bark
attached. It give it more character

You can also do this project with fake moss and dirt. Here a couple of examples.

The lull between projects

I've finished some projects this past week but I'm not ready to publish them yet so I thought I'd share with you one of my passions
painting.
One of my fondest memories growing up was going to my grandmas house and watching her paint. She paints with oils, draws with pencil, charcoal and pastels, and she even used to own a ceramic shop. She is a true artist. I remember walking with my sisters and cousins to her ceramic shop and collecting the broken or discarded pieces of clay and using them as chalk on the sidewalk outside her store. My sisters and I used to paint a ceramic ornament to put our school picture in each year for the Christmas tree (one day I'm hoping to steal these little treasures from my mother for my own tree).

When I was about 10yrs old or so my grandmother decided to give my little sister, my cousin, and I a few painting lessons and I believe it was at this moment my view on art changed drastically. I developed a whole new respect for grandma because being an artist was hard...
like REALLY hard.
I learned all things worth doing are difficult and the pride in the outcome is worth all the frustration and struggle.

This is my first painting...ever (notice the sloppy 4th grader cursive handwriting). I remember Grandma holding my hand in hers and guiding my brush strokes until I got it just right. She taught me how to hold a paint brush correctly and her voice still echos in my brain to this day when I pick up a brush: "stop holding it like a pencil Missy."

This is the second painting I did. I was 11 or 12 yrs old at the time (notice I gave up on the cursive). There are far less "examples" and far more of my own brush strokes by now and in just a few lessons my ability to paint leaves improved drastically. My cherries however, look like apples. Perspective...something I still struggle with to this day.

By the time I was 14 or 15 I was on my own. Grandma gave me the basic skills to do the job and it was all on me to use my creativity and knowledge to create a masterpiece. I chose a purple rose. This is the painting I am the most proud of. This is the first piece of art I did 100% on my own. Grandma was always there to offer some guidance but all brush strokes belonged to me. I entered this into the fair and won first place. It was a very happy moment.

I did one more painting when I was a teenager and then packed up my brushes, paint, and creativity to focus on high school and choir and family and life.

After a long hiatus I started up again when I was 22yrs old. After completing my first painting in what seemed like an eternity I realized I forgot to apply 90% of what grandma taught me. 

It was a horrible piece of artwork

Back to square one.

After re-teaching myself much of what I was taught 10 years prior (and a few "I don't know what I'm doing" pleas to Grandma) I finally got it down.

Please excuse the poor photo quality on some of these (please note these are NOT in chronological order):

Sunset

Midnight at the park

Fjord



Study

My first painting using acrylics

Hibiscus

coffee beans.

Brooklyn Bridge experiment
using Gesso

Summer Stream

Morning Sky

I've learned that there is beauty in everything...its all around us. Its hard to see at times because our view is shaddowed, darkened, and narrowed by lifes unexpected trials and tribulations. By opening our eyes and finding the right collor pallet, the beauty around us shines through even the darkest of times.

I stopped painting again when I got pregnant with Lil E. Apparently inhaling Oil paints and paint thinner is bad for fetal development (pout). Now that Lil E is here I have a list of painting projects that will last me for years. I better get started before I forget how to paint again :)