Extreme Makeover Maggie's Room Edition

138. Today I wish we would have heard, "GOOD MORNING MAGGIE'S FAMILY! WE ARE HERE TO MAKE OVER MAGGIE'S ROOM!"

My dear, sweet 11 year old has loved Hello Kitty and the color pink for many years. But lately she has wanted a change. The thought of painting over the sweet pink walls and her Hello Kitty Mural I painted for her when she was 6 years old, caused me to feel a bit sentimental.

And of course, we have to do away with all the Disney Princess accessories.

Disney Fairies would be the new theme...with the color purple, aqua, and light green. I love the colors and the thought of it...but I sure would have loved to have a crew helping me with painting and moving everything. So, off to Home Depot we went for paint and the job began.

I didn't want to spring for a new clock so we took the princess clock and pulled it apart, used the front cover of a coloring book, painted the frame purple and purchased number stickers for only $1.50.

Maggie wanted two walls light purple and two walls aqua. Then we cut stencils of the leaves, stars and ferns we saw in the pictures and came up with a random pattern. Emily helped me with the leaves.

It took us two days to paint and decorate. The clock turned out so cute.

Then I picked up a cute, small lamp shade at Target and added stick on sparkles to the bottom edge. If you notice, I painted the base of the lamp purple, which was a strawberry pink in the first picture with a Hello Kitty shade. Maggie loved the change.

The room is small, so it is hard to take a full picture but you can see our makeover from these few pics, and Maggie is loving it! And I need a vacation to rest!

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul,

and paints his own nature into his pictures."

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Homemade Paint

51.  Have you ever made sidewalk paint?  

We found a great recipe...easy as can be...for homemade paint.  

It is just equal measurements of corn starch and water.  Mix and

add food coloring.

So, we took a bowl and mixed ½ cup corn starch and ½ cup water.  Then we separated 

the mixture into small containers and added a drop or two of food coloring.

Maggie wanted red, yellow, blue, green and purple.

Then Maggie went outside and let her creativity flow.  She made a beautiful

butterfly steppingstone for me and a painted shell.

The best part...the clean up is easy!  Everything washes clean

with water.  It is very similar to chalk.  

And Maggie had so much fun!

"There is a garden in every childhood,

an enchanted place

where colors are brighter,

the air softer,

and the morning more fragrant than ever again."

~  E. Lawrence

Painting On A Canvas

31. So today I was playing at painting...acrylics on canvas, that is. I've had an enormous canvas that was just sitting in the garage...so I got the itch and an idea. I love painting fruit and really enjoy looking at the master painters work in museums. How they make everything look so real like a photograph. One of my favorite painters of still life is William Hughes from the 1800's. His paintings are absolute masterpieces! The painting of "Bird's Nest and Fruit" is one of the most awesome paintings.

Each of us begins each day with a blank canvas...waiting for some type of medium to be applied. How do you start out your day...cup of coffee, a jog around the neighborhood, a prayer, being jumped on by your kids or licked in the face by your dog, or do you have to make your bed perfectly before doing anything else...everyone has their own routine. Life hands us a variety of options and tools to work with. Some of us have more priviledges than others but at the base level...we are all the same. We start out with life, breath and our will.

How we will respond to our family, people we rub shoulders with on the street or job and everyone we call friend. Do we look for opportunities to encourage or is our focus directed mostly to ourselves?

Every circumstance we experience is an opportunity to add color and shape. What do people see in us when they are around us?

Allow beauty to be seen in you everyday...on your canvas of life.

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist,

and the less the artist does the better."

~André Gide