Tag Archives: painting

We Date & Paint at Home: Our 2017 At-Home Date Night Challenge 

 

I have rarely made New Years resolutions. It’s just not my thing. This year though, I happened upon an idea or two I’d like to try.

The last Friday night of 2016, I found myself standing in Wal-Mart with my husband when the crafting bug struck me. I suggested (ok, begged/demanded) that he step out of his “always go by the plan” box and do some painting with me that night. We bought a couple of cheap canvases, paints, and brushes, and headed home. I was glad he didn’t ask if we had any at home. I didn’t want to ruin my chances by telling him I did have all the supplies….packed away in storage 😆🙈

It was the funnest date night we’ve had in a long time. (Nothing will ever top the Valentine’s Day date to Chuck E. Cheese though. Oh yes, we did, and it was awesome! I nearly peed on myself in the front seat of his truck from laughing so hard as we took selfies with bubba teeth.)


Anywho, I stink at painting. My husband is crazy talented at drawing, and apparently painting too. He hadn’t touched paints since high school, and yet, he could have outdone me blindfolded. We did have a great time, despite my lack of painting skills! Our painting supplies, a pot of coffee, and cookies from my mother-in-law, and good conversation made for a fun, cheap date night at home that didn’t involve watching tv or movies, which is usually our go to. My husband even told some friends and family it was a really good idea, and he’d enjoyed our at-home date night!


All of this got me thinking. Why not do a different date night craft or art activity once a month? Cheap, fun, lots of opportunity for conversation, and it won’t require a babysitter, which we don’t exactly have easy access to.

So that’s my goal – 1 at-home date night per month that involves some sort of art or craft and is inexpensive. I’ll try to stay at $20 or less.

Then, each month I’ll share our date night activity here!

PS-If you’d like to share your own at-home date night arts and crafts, be sure to post them and include #mommythezookeeper and #wedateandpaintathome in the comment! I’d love to see what ideas y’all come up with!

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Filed under Dating Your Spouse, marriage

Homeschool Art with Home Art Studio

With my oldest entering first grade, I have been looking for a good way to introduce art beyond cutting and pasting. A few weeks ago I was reading another blog that mentioned Home Art Studio, a DVD art curriculum for grades K-5. I started looking into it and was pleasantly surprised that the site even offers a free art lesson for each grade as a preview! I love when I can try things, especially curriculum, before I buy it.
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The first grade program focuses on visual art from around the world, and the preview lesson teaches about Aboriginal dot painting from Australia. I decided to do that with my boys this week to see if they would enjoy it. I love that this curriculum introduces them to art from another culture and gives some information about its history.

First we watched the short video. We actually watched the video twice because when we first watched it last week, we unexpectedly ran out of time and didn’t get to try the painting ourselves. They watched it a second time this week. Then they went to work on making their own paintings in the Aboriginal style.

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They definitely enjoyed this lesson! My only involvement with their paints was getting out the supplies. They took right to it and were careful to include the elements discussed in the video. I was definitely impressed by their enthusiasm.


I have a few other art programs I am looking at, and we will be trying the Kindergarten preview lesson next week, but this program is a good possibility for this Fall.

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Filed under art

What took me so long?

I finally started painting my bathroom! Before I started painting, I was a bit nervous about the color I picked, but once I got some on the walls I realized it was perfect. I’ve got two coats on most of the walls, and this evening Dad is coming to take the tank off the toilet so I can paint behind it. I’m pretty sure it will be completely done before Steven gets home on Thursday. Hopefully he will be able to find time to go buy the new baseboard this weekend. I’d like it to be installed this weekend, but I’m not gonna be too upset if it isn’t. I’m just ecstatic to get it painted!

The color is Valspar, Mocha Syrup from Lowe’s.

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Filed under home improvement, work