I painted this week

Two weeks ago, I would not have been able to do it. Paint. At the community theater.

Moving ladders, up and down ladders, standing on ladders, painting over my head.

This week, I made it just fine. (Middle went with me. Both times.)

On Tuesday, I walked the dogs early, painted (2 hours) in the late morning***, ran a couple errands, and then sat outside with the dog’s for about an hour.  Then, I worked on copying photos over to Shutterfly. (I am up to 2012.) I did not let myself take a nap.

On Wednesday the dogs went to the beauty parlor, so I had the day off.

We painted (4 hours) in the afternoon. Then ran errands. I did not let myself take a nap (again). And it was easier than it had been on Tuesday (to stay awake and then go to bed st a normal time).

I purposely did not do any arm weights all week. Painting, particularly over your head, for hours at a time, is  tough.

Sunday and Monday, I tried not to take a nap. I might have dozed a little in the evenings.

So noticeably better this week.

And this was the first week of weaning off my last steroid inhaler. One puff twice a day. Two weeks at that level and then I try to stop.

To recap - major asthma trouble most of July. Major steroids. It took me all of August and will take nearly half of September to wean myself off oral, nebulizer, and two inhalers. Goodness.

***I figured out that if I walk the dogs early, we can paint for two hours (morning volunteer shift is 10am-12pm) and then let the dogs out when we get home. I am not sure why that did not occur to me.  So I can go paint a couple times a week. Two hours of painting is more pleasant than four also.

The kids needed something to set things on in the living room, that was sturdy and carefree

For $10, I was able to buy an unfinished top from the lumber yard. Round and nicely sanded. And it was pine. So I was not going to be worried about it, at all. I was okay with it being painted.

It took middle about five coats to cover the (originally) red legs. The yellow is nearly the color of the walls.

This was a $10 redo, just the price of the top. We had the paint. We had brushes and sandpaper. Youngest was able to reuse all the bolts and screws to trade out the tops.

Stool with the original top, so you can see the size difference.

This was a big chunk of Tuesday

Graduation gifts for youngest's circle of friends. Some of these are best friends, some are regular friends, some are friends who have lockers in the same area and would be hurt if everyone else got one and they did not.

We did the base coats all the way back here.

Emergency call to my husband to pick up the R on his way home. We forgot one person. And this ended up being proactive, because I had him get another M, for a girl graduating next year, while he was there.

This (below) is how we made the dots. And we had to practice, a lot, on construction paper, to understand the right amount of paint and how to apply it.

ALWAYS have a coupon (40% Hobby Lobby is often the easiest, 50% Joanns is also readily available) when buying things from any of the craft or fabric stores. Walmart might appear to have lower prices, but the coupon gets prices even lower at the other stores.

Graduation letter gifts

We don't often have youngest project pictures. She does like to paint. This was a lot of painting. Two solid coats on each and then I think touch ups. We use the excess plastic from when we have things laminated as drop cloth, letters do not stick to it, works really well. I had to take this picture from part way up the stairs to get it all in the frame. That is a folding table at the end of our long kitchen table. High School graduation gifts for friends. We bought the letters a couple years ago at Hobby Lobby. We bought on sale at 50% off, so $2 each. We had to buy three colors of paint, we had the rest. So really economical gifts. Letters come painted white (which we use as a base coat). They have holes for hanging on the back, super important to check, I have seen letters other places with no hangers. She asked each girl for favorite colors. We are not sure of next step. It will either be white polka dots with Martha Stewart pouncers or spray paint through lace. We have to experiment.

Only three graduation gift mehndi letters this year

I painted two layers of the base coat so they were ready for middle to dry brush and then mehndi. 

The upside down paint bottles show the dry brush accent color (middle paints the background as the lightest color and then dry brushes a darker color). The pointed bottle tips show the mehndi colors.

Mehndi pictures

Painted letters and a bonus collage

Middle (who is in college and turning 20 shortly) is VERY good at sending pictures to me, without my even asking, as she works on projects throughout the year.




This is how it started -

To be honest, she sent me a picture at this point, asking for ideas. This happened to be for a guy, so she was asking for masculine ideas. I looked back through my archives, using my labels (below this post), and responded stripes always are a good idea for guys.





This is how it finished -

Middle was in a secret santa exchange (RA's in her dorm). The rule was that it could not cost any $, had to be made with free/on hand things.

The letters middle normally paints are wood. This one was cut from a piece of cardboard -

This is what middle's secret santa gave her -

These are other letters middle made for another xmas exchange -

This set is for a family -

Mehndi Pictures