Thursday Lucy-isms

She holds up a blueberry to my face and says "Mommy, what is this blueberry?"

"Um, a blueberry?"

"Yup!  You got it right!  Good job mommy!"

Stone painting

When I signed up for the challenged hosted by One Artsy Mama, I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into.  Yea I knew the ideas behind it, I got the concept, but I wasn't expecting the excitement, anxiety and nervousness I felt.  I spent so much time freaking out about what to do, I didn't want my project to be good, I wanted it to be the best.  

Crafting is difficult in that aspect because what one person finds amazing, someone else can find it to be a complete pile of crap.  

When I picked painting on a piece of stone as my project, know that it was not my first choice.  My first choice was something completely different, but Matt was out of town and I simply could not get it done with the kids all up in my business.  I also painted about 8 different things before I ended up with this.  

I am happy this is what I went with though, I think it suits me.  

So how did I do it?  Well I'll show you.

First, I went into my front yard and grabbed this stone.  And then I washed it.  I felt kinda silly washing a rock, but whatever.  

Then I painted some water on it so the paint would go on smoother. 

I didn't get pictures of the different layers because, well, I got into my painting and completely forgot. But I first did the clouds, where I mixed black, white and a turquoise blue together.  I painted in circular swirls.  

Then I took a stiffer brush and did the rain.  I dipped my brush is the turquoise blue and grey (that I had mixed) and the white.  I didn't mix them together, I just dipped.  I wanted to get the individual colors to drag down.  

When I finished with the rain, I used one of those metal spatula looking things and kind of scratched down so that it would remove bits of the paint.  I don't know how to really explain this process so I apologize if it sounds confusing.

I took a bigger brush and did quick up and down motions for the grass.  And after I did the grass, I did another layer of clouds so it would be over the rain.  I tried to highlight the clouds with white.  (Sorry for the poor lighting in some of these pictures, it was actually raining while I was painting this so I didn't get a lot of light on my desk.  Plus my desk is grey, WORST BACKGROUND COLOR EVER.  This was also before my photography class so I didn't know what I was doing.  Not that I know what I am doing now either)

When it was all dried, I printed off the saying I wanted and cut it out and placed it on my stone where I wanted it to be.

I used carbon paper to transfer my saying to the stone.  And I used washi tape to hold it down, because honestly, what can't you use washi tape for??

And then I tried to paint the words.  This didn't work out for two reasons.  One, the carbon tracing wasn't pronounced enough for me to paint it well.  Second, I suck at painting words.  So I just used a sharpie.

And there you have it.  My final project.

I am pretty happy with how it came out all in all.  I think it fits our Seattle life very well.

What do you think?  And did you get it right?  Was this the project you thought I did?  All the crafts submitted were great and I am excited to move on to the next round!

What was your favorite?  I think my favorite was the Subway Art that said "Color Outside the Lines" followed closely by the Wet Silhouette Canvas.

This post linked up with:

Crafting challenge with So You Think You're Crafty

I am auditioning in a crafting challenge and I am hoping to get into the top 10!!!  I need your help!

Please head over to So You Think You're Crafty and vote for your FAVORITE craft.  I can't tell you which is mine, I can only hope that your favorite is what I did!

Voting closes tomorrow morning so hurry and get your votes in!

Thank you to all who have voted, will vote or are voting now!

Voting time!!!

Hey everyone, I am participating in a crafting challenge over at One Artsy Mama.  I am one of 20 contestants trying to win and I am hoping that you can help me out!  The projects are anonymous so I can't tell you which one is mine, I can only hope that you know my "style" well enough to vote for me!!!

You can vote for up to 5 projects, so you get 5 chances to get it right ;)

Voting closes at noon on May 21st (tomorrow) so please hurry and get your votes in.  Remember to use the vote button ABOVE the thumbnails.

Happy voting!

This week's menu

Matt was out of town this past week, again, and again, we were bored.  We had a couple of play dates, but I canceled them because I wanted a quieter week at home.  I cleaned, we ate out, and we had a nice week.  My neighbor brought over some food for me and another one of my friends invited us over for dinner.  It was nice.

I've been accepted to two different crafting challenges!  I am very excited about this!  Well, one I am just auditioning for, voting will be up this week.  Of course, it's all anonymous so I can't tell you which project is mine, I can only ask that you vote for the project you feel is the best, and hopefully, it's mine!

Lucy is going to be moving up in belts in karate soon.  I can't wait to post pictures of it when she is done.

Dexter, the wonder boy that refused to talk, said car, no, go, diaper, turtle and mama (appropriately) this WEEK.  Yes, all of that in just one week!  I said when he was scooting that he would be a happier baby when he could crawl.  When he started crawling, I said he would be happier when he could walk, and now today, I say I cannot wait until he starts really talking because I think he will be much happier since he is constantly frustrated all the time.  I really think he's a boy genius that is trying so hard to tell me how smart and intelligent that he is, but he just can't get his tongue to work right.

Also, I ran an 8k today, a race called "Beat the Bridge."  It was for childhood diabetes.  You had twenty minutes from the last person crossed the start line to make it to the bridge before they lifted it.  Well, they lifted the bridge early and I missed it.  By mear seconds.  Seconds.

That bridge can suck it.

This week's menu is going to pretty simple.  I want to get back into some fancier cooking, but well, the weather has just been too nice to spend it locked up in the kitchen.  It's going to be rainy this week, but we are still going to do fire up the grill anyway.

Monday
B-Starbucks, I have an early morning appointment at the Apple store to get my phone fixed and my laptop looked at.
L-chicken and green beans
D-chicken gyros

Tuesday
B-eggs and pancakes
L-sandwiches
D-grilled chicken and asparagus with a side of watermelon

Wednesday
B-cinnamon rolls
L-sandwiches
D-Salad with grilled chicken

Thursday
B-cereal
L-sandwiches
D-grilled chicken with friend onions and potatoes

Friday
B-eggas and pancakes
L-sandwiches
D-grilled pizza

Saturday
B-bacon, eggs and pancakes
L-sandwiches
D-we are having a potluck at a friends house if we aren't babysitting

Sunday
B-german pancakes
L-sandwiches
D-BBQ ribs with baked beans and corn on the cob

Breastfeeding in Public: Tips you need to hide your nips; A guest post

Finishing up my contributions to Intoxicated on Life's series on breastfeeding, I give you my latest post

"Tips you need to hide your nips"

There is a small cameo from my childhood best friend Alberta.

Here is a short excerpt:

I remember I gave my husband a terrified look and said “I think she’s hungry.”

He looked back at me perplexed and said, “Then feed her.”

“Well I can’t here, we need to go to the car,” I said.

“But our cart is full, just feed her here.”

“I can’t. We need to go to the car.” And annoyed, he followed me out to the car. Once there, I asked him to move the car to the furthest spot in the parking lot that faced away from everyone. I then pulled out my cover, used about 4 receiving blankets to cover the windows, and I set her up to nurse. To this day, my husband still teases me about how I pretty much put up one way glass around our car terrified that someone just might think I was nursing my baby.

It’s true.  I was terrified.

I hope you all take a moment and check it out.  I know that I enjoyed writing it, so I hope you all enjoy reading it!

Back to regularly scheduled postings on Sunday.  

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Thursday Lucy-isms

Me: what are you hungry for for lunch?
Lucy: I want tacos
Me: eh I don't want tacos, what else do you want?
Lucy: well I can't find my crayons
Me: that doesn't tell me what you want for lunch
Lucy: well how about something juicy but not juice. And something yummy
Me: so like what?
Lucy: well I'm not hungry. I'm really not hungry.