If you don't already know, you might guess it: raising 8 children is hard. Compound things with special needs kids, adoptive issues and then summer sports and therapies and hospital visits...you are bound to go nutsy.
And I have.
And hey if you didn't know...I'm an extreme extrovert. Meaning, I get recharged by being with people. ENFJ. (Myers/Briggs) Hey, I'm in company with people like Mark Twain, Meg Ryan. Dr. Suess and Walt Disney. :) That gives you an idea of how I operate when I'm not overly stressed!
That being said, I want to run and HIDE FROM PEOPLE. It's so overwhelming to be needed so intensely ALL. THE. TIME.
Tears come easily. I doubt myself. I mess up and blow it all out of proportion. I wonder if God has left me. (I know deep down He has not, but His idea of ME doing THIS leaves me to think HE is out of His MIND.)
We recently had a bout with a stomach bug. It lasted for the longest ELEVEN days. Kids were up each and every night, screaming in pain from stomach cramps, I was cleaning up vomit on every surface imaginable and even got a bonus peed on by Gable who was diaperless. (Why again!?) Yeah.
Not fun.
I had two things help bring me back to "normal."
Yeah, whatever that is.
One: a fabulous night out with 14 other women where we all at sushi and laughed for 4 hours. I doubt they knew they were my therapy, and it really didn't matter.
My Bestie was taking the picture. It smacks that she's not in it!
Afterwards, I felt SOOOOO much more like me! Yay!
But oh how quickly the overwhelming feelings return. Mr. Amazing (aka my husband) took the kids to the zoo yesterday thereby giving me THE ENTIRE HOUSE so I could do some art.
Just before he left, he cut a board in two for me, then edged it with his router. (God bless the router.) He has clarified it to me: he used a Roman ogee. Ah, yah, okay. It looks awesome so whatever!
Then I glued tissue paper to give some texture. That's my friend, Mod Podge.
Then using my palette knife, I randomly placed a variety of colors. I had no idea what I was making at this point. That was the FUN PART!!
More color.
Then I had the idea to use a pattern over the entire background. Cue the large stencil.
Here's the results. I lifted the stencil up from the second panel and it was crooked! But that's what was so awesome about this: IT DIDN'T MATTER!
At this point, I decided I would do a pair of vases with flowers. I knew the colors I wanted to use and where I wanted to hang them. I cut out the general idea of a vases from old sheet music.
Then I used a fan brush and feathered in some brown paint over the music.
Then I cut random circle-ish shapes out of an old reader from the early 1900's. Also a few leaf shapes. I played with placement for a wee bit. At this point, an hour and a half had passed. I was speeding through with use of my handy-dandy hair dryer! ;)
Then, I decided to glue some tissue paper on top of the flowers. I had no idea if this was a winner idea or not...but there were no rules and that's part of what was so wonderful!
Then I started adding colors over the text circles. I had some stamps out and decided to add "REJOICE" to the corner of each. It's subtle, but there. You can't see it too well here.
I experimented with using the knife to add color...
And I realized it was quicker, messier and way more fun to just use my fingers! :) And I just love a good swirl of color!
Then I layered some color on the leaves. I stenciled a bit on the vases too.
Composition needed work so a few more flowers went in...
I changed that bizarre flower. So cool to be able to paint over stuff and just have fun without worry of "ruining" anything! I cut out some more leaves.
Getting close to done! Added some depth to the flowers...and more leaves.
Final thing I did was to add some bling to the flower centers!
A peek at the dimension they have:
I then painted the sides white, sealed it and Mr. Amazing helped me hang them. They are that pop of color we need!
And now...I am restored to my former, sane self. For now.
So, other crazy busy moms...what do YOU do to restore sanity?
