Good Days Are Worth Remembering {Wednesday was a GREAT DAY}

Wednesday was a good day.  Here's what I wrote about it on Wednesday.

We went up Thursday to take a look.  Here is our lovely downstairs.

It's been a good day. On Tuesday we had a staging company stage our house that is for sale and it looks awesome! The stager sent me a photo stream of pictures from the work she did at our home. I was just blown away. I have never seen our house look so great.  It makes me want to live there again. Today those pictures will make it to the website where our house is advertised on line! I am really hoping that it drives new people to come up and take a look. Our realtor has also committed to holding an open house where it will be advertised in advance.

But there's another reason why today is so good. This morning I received an email stating that I was accepted to hang a show of my photography at a local public gallery. I submitted a proposal in early August.  It went before a committee and they chose me. That feels like a step in a very good direction.

Wait, there is more. It was a lovely day in Colorado where the temperature only hit the low 80's and with a bit of wind.  In the shade with a cool breeze it feels mid 70's.  A great day to picnic.  So, we got sandwiches from a local deli and decided to tail gate in the parking lot of the school with my mother who was visiting and my husband who met us there with his big truck and a cushy camping insert in the covered flatbed.  Don't worry, we had another reason to be there.  We also attended an open house.  Si will be going to a Montessori pre-school this fall. Today we met all three of his teachers.  That's right.  Three teachers in one classroom. . . and they were lovely. To top it off, we also visited a splash park afterward where the boys got to play around in fountains of water. They fell asleep on the way home- Heaven.

I just can't remember having so many positive memorable things happening all in one day. What a blessing.  It was great!

Illustrated

Silas is helping ... or at least he is keeping me company.  

The entire time we were painting he was making a story about monsters and fires and monster  footprints.  There were explosions and battles.  In the end the good guys won.  I have to say his painting turned out lovely.

3 Year Old boy+ Love of cars+ Halloween= Paper Mache Racecar Helmet!

Silas had his first brush with Paper Mache.  I don't think he knows what is really going on here.  He believes there will be a race car helmet in the end... I'm not sure he understands how a balloon some water, flour and some old newspapers are going to make that happen.  Magic beans?  Lucky for him, No.

Paper Mache is pretty easy.  I really have no recipe.  Just an idea will get you started as long as you have a base like a balloon from which you can let your idea come to life.

Silas let me measure his head, I blew up the balloon to a size a couple inches bigger in circumference and we went to work.  Well... I am going to work.  My big boy is not a fan of sticky hands so he opted to help brush my work with the flour water slop using a basting brush. :-)

Paper Mache "glue"
Mix up to form a very watery paste.
1 or 2 cups warm water
1 Heaping Tablespoon of flour

The flour is the glue and you don't want your newspaper to be white and sloppy so more water and less flour will do you just fine.

I used a plastic box for the glue as you can see from the photo.  We used a bowl to hold the balloon steady as we placed the paper mache on it.  It also helps with drying (hint: turn the balloon over from time to time as it dries). As we ripped the paper we put it into the slop one piece at a time and wiped off excess with one swoop on the edge of the box so it would not be too watery.  From there you just place it on the balloon and smooth and repeat.  Overlap the pieces in a random matter.  Make one layer of newspaper let it dry and do another let it dry and so on...  It will probably take a day for the first layer to dry and less time after that.  Paper mache is a slow process though so get started far in advance for a good project. :-)

We'll check in again in a few days to see how far we've come.