Out of Breath!

Holy cow. Every time I think I am about caught up, something else just keeps getting added to the list. The "move" was truly more massive than I thought it would be...although, when we were moving two huge, heavy units of furniture, I'm not sure why I didn't fully understand the scoop. Maybe it was because I just wanted it to happen so badly that I didn't want to be discouraged. But, I digress.

In any case, I did some touch up staining where the years had left dings and scratches and then hit the entire family room unit with a good soaking of lemon oil. I apparently did such a good job with the stain and lemon oil that when the "gifting" daughter came by yesterday, she said she wished she could have it back. Although, that lasted for about a nanno second before we both knew that this unit had definitely found its forever home. When I sell this house, the unit will go with it because I will never be a part of a move like that again! All of the luster is back and I am totally in love with it. Of course then it was time to move everything back into the units that had been emptied for the move and, because the old family room one was configured differently, it took some doing. I think I might still need to pick up a few organizational pieces but, since all of that is behind closed doors, I can wait for that to happen.

Of course, as is always the case with me, one thing always leads to another and my hyper self has been flitting from one unfinished thing to another today.

As much as I was enjoying getting things off the to-do list, I was really chomping at the bit to do a craft and so, I pulled out some of the things for a pillow cover and began my next adventure.

Now, I will say, even though I had an inspiration piece, I really had not thought out how I would do this. I knew I wanted a water color effect but that is hard on fabric because the paint pretty much sets where you first lay down the brush.

This was meant to be a sort of free form heart but, knowing my OCD symmetrical self, I decided to use the old fold paper in half and cut heart trick so that I could sketch at least the start of the heart shape.

Then, I used craft paint that had already been diluted with textile medium and thinned it down even more with water. I started with the red-which, reads as red here but in person reads more as a dark fuchsia. Not really the color I wanted but the color that it is!

Then, I did the same thing with white paint and tried to knock down some of the stronger lines to look a little more blended. And then, I threw down some drops just to add to the mix. And, I probably should have stopped right there but it still looked too "stiff" to me.

And so, before I knew it, I was adding drops of water as well as drops of undiluted red paint.

I was kind of liking the way the heart was bleeding but those red dots were too static for me, so more water went down! And then, I added some dots of white...just cause I could. It is definitely getting more water "colory". I am waiting to see how it looks when it finally dries before I will know if I'm done.

So, while I wait, I decided to give a slow cooker minestrone soup recipe a try. It sure is starting to smell good and, I love anything that uses the slow cooker because all I have to do is chop, add and let it go. Fingers crossed I will have found a new favorite!

Soup is still cooking but the pillow is done. I think I like it...even though it is reading way more pink than I would like.

And, since I could still use one more Valentine's pillow, I have another one up my sleeve for tomorrow. Stay tuned.