When The Cat's Away

I'll start this post with something I think most of you know. Brandon is currently working on his MBA. He is almost halfway done with the two year program and I am so proud of him. I cannot imagine going back to school after adjusting to life in a "grown up" job, and I am so glad that he is making the sacrifice for our family.

During our visit the other night with our out of town friends, one of the girls asked me how it was with Brandon being in class two nights a week. Her husband is going back to school and wondered about the transition. I have to say, my experience may be totally different than someone else but here is my opinion. I LOVE IT! That is not to say that I hate being at home with my husband every night , but I have always been one to enjoy me time. {I will note here that I was initially worried about what I would do with myself} We still try to eat dinner together and hang out before he heads to class at 7:30 so I don't have complete withdraws. {HA HA} However, I have really come to enjoy that time from about 7-10 to spend {for lack of better wording} getting to know myself. I could probably write a big long novel of a post of how marriage has changed me and taught me things about myself I never knew. {but I'll spare you} I'll just leave it at I have a great husband who graciously humors my whims and ideas and I am very thankful for that.

Ok moving on...I got totally off track with that one. Last night was a class night so I knew I was going to have some time to sit down to work on something fun...I didn't think that my eyes could take ripping out tiny stitches again so I decided to try to finish up a painting or two. I started piddling around with paint after I experienced Sips n' Strokes {if you haven't been GO} and had the best time. I was then further inspired by the fun decorative stuff that came in to the parent teacher store that Brandon's uncle owns. {I worked there last summer when they were getting up and running}


This was my first attempt. It was my interpretation of a zebra that showed up on some trim, along with some other animals, that I loved. I showed it to someone and they called it a cow so I am not sure how great an interpretation it was...but it did give me some inspiration for a new piece that I started last night.

Recently, I have been drawn to the scrapbook paper at the local Hobby Lobby. I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I bought it anyway. {wonderful husband, remember} I also recently purchased some different mediums to work with and wanted to try them out. I felt like my stuff was kind of looking flat and one dimensional. {see above} So I thought I would try out something totally different.

{This was how it started}

After I slopped on my background, I added a vase and realized flowers weren't my strong suit, but I remembered I had some scrapbook paper that might work.



I cut the flowers out and stuck those on to see what I thought and then went to bed that night. I let it sit there for about a week trying to decide where to go from there and then picked it back up last night to try to finish it. I tried painting on some stems but it looked funny so I decided to cut out more flowers and then bunch them together so that you wouldn't see stems. It still looked unfinished after that so I thought I would try out a varnish type medium mixed with black to give it a little depth and so the white in the flowers wouldn't be so bright. Sorry there are no in between pics but here is what I ended up with.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. I have no idea what I am going to do with it but at least I finished it finally. So that was how I spent my me time last night. I also started the other one I mentioned above but didn't finish it. So when I get a few minutes again I'll try to finish that one up so I can show you that one too.