Painting Posies

About 20 years ago I attended a Homemaking Meeting where I chose a class on Toll Painting.  I knew nothing about it but I’ve always liked anything crafty.  I had a lot of fun with what I learned and after painting a garage sale chair I started painting my Mom’s furniture whenever I got the chance.  Luckily she ended up being happy about it.  Around this time I started taking cool things out of people’s trash piles on garbage night just so I could paint them.  (To Rick’s chagrin I still get things out of people’s trash once in a while or volunteer to take old wooden furniture.  Sometimes I make him help me retrieve things from the trash and I’ve got some of it in our tiny garage right now.  He hates this, well, to a degree).  Then I moved on to walls as well.  I love painting for fun.  Once I cleaned out someone’s basement for an old wooden table with a missing leaf as payment.  (Actually I did it for free but they ended up offering me whatever I wanted from the basement).   I’m not sure how professional my painting is or that I can officially call it toll painting so I just do it for fun and call it “Embellishing”.  But I haven’t found the time to do it in a loooooong time.  I got a little worried when my Mom told me this past week that her bathroom 500 miles away needed repainting (she’s got my signature dated to prove it) and she couldn’t let it get painted over until she knew I would be around soon to decorate it again.  That got me thinking; I had no idea if my brushes were still good or if my paint was dried up… or even if I could still paint!  I haven’t held a paintbrush for fun since 3 children ago, several rounds of treating the house for one variety of bug or another and spending years trying repeatedly to sell my house, half packing it and then unpacking it again before giving up and making do.  I’ve been exceptionally busy in life.  So yesterday afternoon I found myself with a lull and went in search of my brushes and the paint once again and a block of wood I had laying in my crafting area and came up with this:

Ironically I painted this piece of wood 6 years ago at an Enrichment Night and then they told us to write something on it.  “Something?”  I was confused.  “You know, write something clever”.  My mind was blank.  I brought home a green chunk of wood and tossed it on my shelf.  Then I was cleaning my room the other day, came across a magazine with an article I’d really liked and I flipped through it again and KNEW what “clever” saying needed to go on my piece of wood.  I knew that every single day I need to see this and read it; “Joyfully Living within Our Means”.  This is not an easy task to “live within your means” all the time.  It is challenging but it is a choice and I might as well be happy and find joy in living this way.  I’m trading something good for something better.  It is a lifestyle.  And when it’s tough I need to see this saying to remind myself of what I’m doing here.  I finally came up with my “something clever” and hope my children will remember seeing this after they grow up and leave home.  I am trying to teach them to live by this.  I’m trying to teach myself to live by this.

Here are some of the details of my “embellishments”; all freehand brush strokes.  I can still paint!  But it didn’t feel comfortable at first and it took me a lot longer than it used to.  I don’t know if my Mom wants me to do this kind of thing again or if she wants my “spongy” creations.  She has a little time to think about it though.

Kaitlyn came into the room to see what I was doing in the middle of my paint job.  She thought it was “so beautiful” and she wanted to paint too.  I guess she felt inspired.  She made a rainbow and some flowers and generally enjoyed herself for quite some time as she had her own painting experience at the opposite end of the table from me.  Maybe walls and furniture will become her canvases someday too.