Playing

Today was the first day back to school for my son who had been on house arrest for whooping cough. That meant that today was mine... ALL MINE!

I don't know what it is about having the kids around, but I swear to you that my ability to concentrate goes to zero, and I just wander around randomly picking things up, moving laundry, and feeding people. I'm supposed to be playing in my studio, and instead I've suddenly gone 200% into Mom-Mode.

It happens.

I did manage to tackle a large portion of our holiday baking, however!

These are my peanut butter Reese's cup cookies.

These are sour cream sugar cookies on the back left, chocolate chip on the left, and double chocolate chunk on the right. There were plain peanut butter cookies off to the side too, but they didn't fit in the picture. Bagging up the goodies for neighbors, teachers, and friends is next!

Later that night after dinner, we somehow ended up with the box of extra plastic ornaments and it turned into an impromptu game of ornament floor hockey (with lots of added giggles):

Not all of the ornaments survived.

So, while I didn't accomplish anything artistic, I did have some good family time!

However, I have been looking forward to today since last week. Normalcy. Children in school, house to myself, studio here I come!

Unfortunately, I think I was so stuck in Mom-Mode that I had to wander aimlessly about the house for a few hours this morning before I could pull it together. At least, that's what I'm using as my excuse. I did a lot of "Now WHY on this green and blue earth would they think it's OK to put their socks there? I mean, who in their right mind would think to themselves that they should put their socks there?!!?! That better not be mustard on the ceiling. Actually, maybe I should be hoping that's mustard on the ceiling. How did they even... you know what? I don't what to know. Nope... Ignorance is bliss. Yup! Ummhmm.   ...it sure looks like mustard..."

Eventually, I got to my studio and got this small piece of an elf taking a nice hot bath finished:

"Little Dip", exclusively in my Etsy store.

I also had my order show up with some new watercolors and blocks. I thought I had ordered a 5x7 block, but apparently not. I have a 4x6 and a 9x12 now. Odd, but I'll roll with it and see what happens! I also ordered some ACEOs to try out. With that in mind, ACEO folks? Explain these to me? They just look like small cuts of matting board? Is there really anything all that special about them? Why did you start using them? What has your experience been? I admit, I'm a bit confused about the whole phenomenon of ACEOs, but I'm willing to play it out and give them a shot.

I'm really enjoying my watercolors right now, and I'm going to do another small snow queen, and a Santa. I still have the spider in mind, but I think I'm going to try that one out on my new 4x6 block. I'm realizing that a lot of my sketching skills have gotten a bit rusty because I'm used to loosely working out my composition in pencil and then refining it with paint. Watercolor doesn't allow for that kind of refinement, so I need to banish the rust from my pencil!

In particular, I want to fix my feminine faces. I know they can be so much better (and were, back when I only worked in pencil.) However, I'm also realizing that as I had noticed with the paint, I am having some days that my hands simply won't work as well for that fine detail. I know I have carpel tunnel syndrome in both wrists (diagnosed over 12 years ago), but I'm starting to wonder if I don't have some arthritis setting into my knuckles as well. I'm only 37, but my body is telling me that everything simply doesn't run as smooth as it once did. Working on my sketching skills again, maybe I won't be able to reverse what I apparently was compensating for in the paint with, but perhaps I can learn a new way to produce the results I am after!