Skies of Blue

My family is not very bold when it comes to choosing pain colors. All of the bedrooms in the house have white walls, but some have different colored ceilings to try to make up for it. David's was blue. I don't remember how it came up, but Dad and David thought there should be clouds, and since I am the artist, the whole thing kind of fell into my lap. So here it is.

 My ever-so-helpful siblings were eager to help... and had fits when I tried to direct them elsewhere. (Melissa, in particular). So, I did my best to give them a tutorial of cloud formation, crossed my fingers, and let them loose. ( I them spent a lot of time 'fixing' it, but it made them feel better, so there you go.)

 Dad wanted to have clouds around the light fixture to make the light reflect better, or something. When we started, everyone was making tiny clouds and trying to form shapes. Then we looked at the big picture, and had to change it, connecting clouds in close proximity, and fluffing up smaller clouds. Then we had to make all of the clouds 'more substantial' by adding white to all of the centers.

I wasn't really a fan of the whole idea, but that was what David wanted, so I did it. All in all... it doesn't look so bad.

Maybe it shouldn't count... but THIS is my "Work of the Week."

Secrets of the House

A long, long time ago, our house was built, and lived in. In may of 1991... we moved in and have lived here ever since. But every house had its secrets. (insert horror music here...)

And here, I set the scene.
My parents bedroom has had carpet over the hard-wood floor that we knew was there. The carpet has been there since before my parents moved in, so although we knew that we had hardwood floor underneath, we had never seen it.... until now.

The re-decorating of my parents bedroom unveiled the true floor for the first time. It was "real" hardwood flooring, covered with the carpet foam, glue lines, and tacks... and a gouge in the middle of the floor.
I didn't think much of the gouge in the floor... until dad found this.

What is this? This is a bullet. The crumpled silver thing is the lead of the bullet, and the 'copper x' is the bullet casing. 

Here they fit together. Dum-dum-duuuum.

The gouge in the floor, with the bullet inside.

The detail.

 The rest of the room.

So. I find this rather exciting (it also sound vaguely like a movie plot). There is no blood anywhere, so no one died. But I still think it is fascinating. It was probably just some kid (probably a teenager) playing with the gun (which is scary as it is), and the gun 'discharged.'The carpet was obviously placed there to cover up the hole. The story may not be all that exciting, but to add to the mood, I will include lyrics form one of my favorite musicals.

 The secrets of the house
Are just beyond these walls
They hide in long-forgotten shadows
Fragments of memories awakened and stirred
By a call my heart has heard...(or by the removal of carpet...)           :)

Imitation Stained-Glass Window

I have had this idea for awhile, so I did it. I think I'll try it again later. It could be pretty cool.

This is the cover of my journal. I think it is pretty.

This is my watercolor (again). It is not as cool. It was done with Sharpie and watercolor paint. I had no idea what I wanted to paint before I put the marker on the paper and hoped it worked.

The Formal 2012

What a busy day. But a wonderful one, to be sure. It began with a swim meet that ran two hours late. TWO HOURS. And that was before it even started. So, I scratched my last event. This is funny, because it is the same event (100 butterfly) that I kept missing last year, for one reason or another. So, I swam in a relay and the 200 IM, made regional time in it, and left. That's how the cool kids do it. ;)

Phase one. Ari looks... excited. ;)

My "Lea Bun."

"What are you doing?"
"Just trust me..."

Team work. She did hair, I did nails.

The piece of hair that would later become a braid, but was currently in the way...

Apparently, I go into a coma when doing make-up.

The almost final product. As you can see... I am not yet in my dress.

Corsage

Good-bye! Ready for the dance.

In this blog you have seen "The process." If you want to see "The Product," you will have to look at my Facebook album, The Formal 2012

Four Shoes for the Formal

I was really lucky finding my dress for the Formal, but even in that I had a lot to choose from. So, when I was looking--in all the Thrift Story, of course-- I found the perfect shoes!... and lots of them. Each of these shoes are the perfect shoes... for many different reasons.  Keep in mind throughout this blog, that the shoes came from three different stores, and in every store I brought my dress to compare the different shoes to. And it was a very windy day. 

When we returned from the thrift store, David asked if I had bought any tennis shoes. I said, "Sort of." 

These are perfect because they are 'Orange High-heel Hybrids.'

Mwahaha.

But... as fantastic as these shoes are... I don't think that they will go very well with my dress....

These are rather nice, simple black shoes with a small heel. Very useful. But not the best for the Formal.

These are actually the first pair of shoes I found. When we went to the one store, the lady at the desk remembered  us. Apparently, I am a memorable "Thrift Store" shopper. I do have a lot of fun with all of the crazy things one can find.

I really liked the side design. Oh. And they were only $5. Did I mention that? :D

As you can see, these shoes go perfectly with my dress.... but that isn't the dress I was planning to wear! It was, however, a reasonable alternative if I didn't find anything else... 

The first store we went to was where we got the burgundy ones (which I then wore to a wedding, so it justified the purchase.) The second store is well known ( to us anyway) for its great shoe shoe selection, if more pricey than other second-hand stores. We got the Orange ones and the Black ones here. The only reason that we went to the third one at all, is because it was just two stores down... and we figured, "what the heck." We walked in and gave the "now familiar" speech, "I am not trying to steal this dress, I am looking for shoes, and want to make sure they match." The lady at the counter said, "Oh, I'd know that you weren't stealing it... I would have known if we had had a dress like that."

These are the perfect shoes, found in the most unlikely of places... as the best of things sometimes are.

This was, by far, the smallest of all the stores we went to, but I walked straight back to the shoe section, and saw these. picked one up, and tried it on. Perfect color, perfect fit, not too high, but still pretty high. They felt stable enough to trust myself to dance in. And that was it. All that prelude, and I find the perfect  shoes in 3 minutes.

And of course... it is a perfect match.

Of course, we didn't leave right away. The cute ladies who ran the store were so excited for me, and kept trying to show each other how perfect a match it was. They were pleasantly surprised, and wanted to know what I needed a dress for, since Prom is still awhile away. This led into a discussion about the Formal, Prom, and a bunch of other things, knowing how my mother loves to discuss things. One of the funniest things the lady said was, " Every girl deserves to get asked to their Senior Prom. I told my son that he could either ask someone... Or go with me."
*I'll have to remember that for later in life... :D

The Bouquet!

Last Saturday (not yesterday, but the one before that,) was the wedding of a family friend. It was tons of fun, and had several dozen "Kodak Moments." However... for the first time in recorded history... there wasn't a single camera between all of the members of the Een Family in attendance ( which was everyone, except Aria). There were some disposable cameras, and we had fun with those, but we can't keep any of the pictures! (We might have to steal some of the prints, when they are made.)


Anyway. Melissa and the ring bearer had quite an infatuation with each other. It was possible the cutest thing of the entire wedding, and the most photographed as they danced together for every song. The Bride tossed the bouquet and Melissa caught it. The kid ran up as soon as he found out, and gave Melissa a big hug. He was SO excited. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

The flowers have been sitting in the center of our dining room table ever since, looking good so far but... flowers don't last forever. I usually paint from pictures, but, per Ari's suggestion, I branched out.

We Created a Paint Gang.

As part of the final steps in a very long project called "The upstairs addition," We had to paint. A lot. It is not always the most exciting thing, but with just a few bandannas, the proper attitude, and Jim Dale reading Harry Potter... it can be fun.

This was presidents day weekend, and we were planning on going to Utah to spend time with long-lost cousins. There was a guy that was supposed to come in and paint it all while we were gone. Ya. That didn't work out. So, in a fit of empowerment, we did it ourselves. It took almost the whole 'long' weekend, too. We worked through about three books, including Harry Potter 7. From the tallest of the tall (Dad), to the smallest of the small (Melissa... or maybe Ari, who joined us later...). None were excluded from the work. Primer, paint, and second coat. 

One Bandanna simply isn't enough for all of the hair that piles itself on my head!

I don't know why, but I like this picture.

We experiment with the mirrors and our new hair-dos. Notice...you NEVER see the camera! 

There's a new gang in town. Word.

She doesn't have as much hair as I do. ;)

Melissa walks in. "What's going on?" well... that's a good question. I'm fixing my 'hair.'

We like our bandannas.

Funny mirror, funny me.

My body has been skewed! 

Eliza was taking a picture. PHOTO-BOMB!

We can do it! With the help of a few "big guns"... 

Eliza plays games with herself.

This was a few days later. Mom and Dad left for a temple recommend interview and said, as a mere side thought,"Oh, would you paint the hallway?" We were not happy. This time it was just Eliza and I. But we took one for the team and did it. We think we are pretty cool.

In fact, Eliza and I didn't have school today because of the proficiency. (It's cool to be proficient.) SO what did we do in our spare time? Do a second coat on the hallway. It is now our hallway. ( No pictures of today though...)
P.S the Paint Gang is FAR from exclusive. We will put you to work if you let us!!!

Water-Color-Wanna-Be

This is a lazy week. I have had the absolute minimum of brain function this week. So... when my Sunday School teacher had a lesson and gave us a coloring project to finish it with... I decided to count it. Sister Drabant said that she would frame it as the first artwork in our "future homes."
It was made with Watercolor pencils. They are super fun. It's like coloring... with water. ;)