Christmas art project

I'm playing the piano for a moms' meeting on Friday night, and since I'm playing Christmas music, I had to get a nice picture in the front of my binder. I forgot to take pictures while I was doing it, so you're just going to have to look at the finished product all at once.

First I used a sponge brush to paint some water in a rectangular shape in the middle of the red. Then I took dark green acrylic paint and brushed it over the water. That made the green background that you see. Then I took the same sponge brush and added a little yellow. I brushed it on at the bottom and added a triangular outline so I'd have a nice Christmas tree shape. Then I kept filling in the tree, adding a little more yellow as I got close to the top. At least, I tried. I kind of ended up blending it all out. Then I took a weird brush that has splayed bristles that are really hard, dipped just the tip in red paint, and swirled the red all over the tree, lightly. This not only added the red swirls, but created the other swirly texture in the tree. Then I took a little bit of yellow and added it to some white to keep the white from being to harsh. After that, I let the whole thing dry, because the ornaments couldn't be blended with the rest of the tree. Once it was dry, I added circles of paint-red and yellow, but you can use whatever colors-use more paint than you might normally. You don't want the tree to show underneath. Then I let the ornaments mostly dry. After that, I took some of my yellow-white paint and added a little highlight to the ornaments. Then I outlined the star on top, because I have a hard time with stars, for some reason unbeknownst to me. Then I filled it in with a golden color (yellow with some red) and added a little smidgen of orange just to add some dimension. Then I took the same yellow-white and added a highlight to the star as well. Then I took a big brush and added a golden outline around the tree and smudged it till it looked like a golden glow. Then I took some black and outlined the whole thing. Don't forget to leave the star poking off the top! It adds dimension and just looks cool. And sign your name. Because your painting will be awesome and everyone will want to claim it as their own.

Family Life

Our house has been bustling lately. We've had a lot of stuff going on with the homeschool group and our co-op, so it was hard to find time to decorate for fall. But finally yesterday, I cleaned and swept the living room and decorated. Even though we don't have a lot of decorations (for fall at least; Christmas is another story entirely), when artfully arranged, those few have a better effect than a room that's dripping with leaves and pumpkins.

When I lit this candle (actually, Mom lit it because I'm scared of lighting matches), the whole room instantly smelled absolutely wonderful. We had it burning all day. I did all of my schoolwork in the living room yesterday!

This bookshelf is one of my favorite places to decorate! It's just a long, flat surface that just screams, "DECORATE ME!!!"

The day before yesterday, the girls decided to get crafty. So my little sister Audrey found us a project to do. You take those terracotta pots that make a terrible noise when they scrape on each other (I got chills down my back just thinking about it), paint the bottom part with chalkboard paint, then decorate the top rim. Then you can chalk all over the rest of the pot.

The pot without decoration

Me working painstakingly on my design

The finished product.
 Don't I look evil in that picture? We took literally more than eight of those shots until I got one that was "blog worthy."

Another thing that has been keeping me busy lately is Gracie, the cutest little Cocker Spaniel you ever saw. She greets me every morning by barrelling to wherever I am and jumping all over me. Having a dog has been fantastic, although some parts are definitely better than others. For example, feeling loved and needed when your dog is whining at you for a walk. Then you take her for a walk and she pulls your arm off and then leaves a pile for you to clean up. Not cool, Grace! Anyway, the good things about her far outweigh the bad. Usually.

I don't know what it is about Grace, but her eyes always turn out funny in pictures. They're either red or she looks like she's got these weird green holes in her head. I'm not sure why, and it's frustrating sometimes.

Anyways, that's what I've been up to lately. Besides PE, where we play volleyball for two more weeks, I think. This Thursday, we're playing co-ed volleyball, which should be interesting since the guys are so competitive. Fortunately, the girls have a month of practice already, so I would say that those guys are going down!