Are you artistic?
As an adult when people ask me that I always answer with an emphatic "Not at all!"
Which is ironic really, because until I was about 11 or 12 years old, I was artistic. I was happy to spend literally hours drawing, colouring or painting. My parents were convinced that I was going to be an architect or interior designer.
But by the time I started highschool, that all changed. I don't really know why. But everything became about academics. Drawing, painting and colouring was replaced with reading and writing.
In fact, the only visual arts course I took was photography and I only took it because I had to in order to get my diploma.
Nevertheless, I have retained my interest in architecture and interior design...I could watch HGTV for hours!
So perhaps because of this, something's been bugging me for a long time now.
When we moved into our house a month before Big A was born, we painted the entire house. I purposely left the two smaller bedrooms plain white. We didn't know the gender of Big A during the pregnancy, and I was reluctant to commit to some colour scheme or decor knowing that those two bedrooms would one day be inhabited by two children with their own taste.
When Big A moved out of the nursery to the bigger of the two second bedrooms, I still didn't want to commit or to invest a lot of money in art or decor so I settled on wall stickers. But I was never happy with how they looked (mostly because I did a crappy job of arranging them on her walls).
For several years now I have been contemplating what to do. We don't have money for REAL art and I can't do anything myself...can I? Eventually I started to think about trying to do some art projects myself. After all, I spent more than the first decade of my life engrossed in arts and crafts. These are kids rooms, after all, they call for simple things: lots of pink, Dora, Elmo, flowers, butterflies and sparkles...lots of sparkles!
So when we moved Little A out of the crib and into a bed a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to take a crack at this.
Could I pull off making anything decent enough to hang on the girls' walls?
This last one is just a shot of Little A's new bed. Cute huh?
Okay, this stuff is not going to end up in a museum some day, I doubt it will even follow them to their university dorms. But all the supplies cost about $125, the girls are absolutely thrilled AND I have rediscovered a love for art!
Now that the pieces are all complete, I am going into withdrawal. When I paint or draw, time flies by. I feel neither hungry nor thirsty nor tired nor stressed. I become completely engrossed in the work. I am completely IN LOVE.
Unfortunately, we lack much extra wall space for me to keep decorating our house. So you know what that means my precious loved ones? All birthday presents from now on are going to be handcrafted works of art. Hee hee!
As an adult when people ask me that I always answer with an emphatic "Not at all!"
Which is ironic really, because until I was about 11 or 12 years old, I was artistic. I was happy to spend literally hours drawing, colouring or painting. My parents were convinced that I was going to be an architect or interior designer.
But by the time I started highschool, that all changed. I don't really know why. But everything became about academics. Drawing, painting and colouring was replaced with reading and writing.
In fact, the only visual arts course I took was photography and I only took it because I had to in order to get my diploma.
Nevertheless, I have retained my interest in architecture and interior design...I could watch HGTV for hours!
So perhaps because of this, something's been bugging me for a long time now.
When we moved into our house a month before Big A was born, we painted the entire house. I purposely left the two smaller bedrooms plain white. We didn't know the gender of Big A during the pregnancy, and I was reluctant to commit to some colour scheme or decor knowing that those two bedrooms would one day be inhabited by two children with their own taste.
When Big A moved out of the nursery to the bigger of the two second bedrooms, I still didn't want to commit or to invest a lot of money in art or decor so I settled on wall stickers. But I was never happy with how they looked (mostly because I did a crappy job of arranging them on her walls).
For several years now I have been contemplating what to do. We don't have money for REAL art and I can't do anything myself...can I? Eventually I started to think about trying to do some art projects myself. After all, I spent more than the first decade of my life engrossed in arts and crafts. These are kids rooms, after all, they call for simple things: lots of pink, Dora, Elmo, flowers, butterflies and sparkles...lots of sparkles!
So when we moved Little A out of the crib and into a bed a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to take a crack at this.
Could I pull off making anything decent enough to hang on the girls' walls?
This last one is just a shot of Little A's new bed. Cute huh?
Now that the pieces are all complete, I am going into withdrawal. When I paint or draw, time flies by. I feel neither hungry nor thirsty nor tired nor stressed. I become completely engrossed in the work. I am completely IN LOVE.
Unfortunately, we lack much extra wall space for me to keep decorating our house. So you know what that means my precious loved ones? All birthday presents from now on are going to be handcrafted works of art. Hee hee!
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