Project SMID: Let Them Help With The Dirty Work

Ok let me start out with saying, it’s insane trying to work two jobs at the same time and be a good Mom. Did I mention that? I am 13 days away from the SMID launch. The planning for this has been intense. My work is getting busier and busier. Murphy’s Law! The “good Mom” thing is extremely important to me and I constantly put an incredible amount of pressure on myself about this. I also have a very strong work ethic, which is a great thing but, it means I am burning the candle at both ends. I won’t let myself drop the ball on anything.

I keep trying to think of ways to incorporate my little ones into the planning for the launch or in my design projects so that we are spending good quality time together while I am getting things accomplished. If you’re a parent, grandparent, or anyone who is heavily involved with children, you will understand that this can be a huge challenge…especially when they are between three and five. It can get messy real fast.

The other day, I let my littles help me with freshening up some of our potted plants on our balcony as well as planting a few new ones. They each had their beach bucket and shovel. Exactly! It was so much fun for them. The balcony however, was nearly a small casualty. I wish I had taken a few photos to share with you. Honestly, I would have if I hadn’t been by myself with them. I could not have left the scene to find my iPad for the photo opp or it would have been bad…real bad.

Anyway, we needed some art in the kids’ room as well as in the hallway to their room. I didn’t really want a print or anything too sophisticated. I definitely didn’t want anything typical for kids. I like to keep things unexpected. I thought it would be great fun for them to create their own real art. We went to Michaels and bought an entire roll of canvas. I chose the roll versus the canvas already stretched over the wooden frame so that they could walk all over it and have a blast. It also provided flexibility on the size of the canvas and how many we could do if we wanted to keep going.

I cut a big piece off and laid it down on the floor in my work space. I set out bowls of acrylic paint and a few squirt bottles. I told them to go for it and get dirty. We put on some great music and they rocked out to it while they painted.

At first I thought you might be able to see their cute hand and foot prints in the final product. Then they got crazy with the squirting and the blobbing of paint. My girl started dancing on it. My little guy started doing some serious spins. They were falling down on their backsides and were covered in paint. One of them gets the idea to strip down naked. The other follows. They were tickled pink…or rainbow rather!

Thankfully we installed an outdoor shower! When the masterpiece was done, they walked to the shower, rainbow colored bums and ALL! It took them a while to scrub down.

The canvas turned out pretty cool and we have another great memory. I am looking forward to putting it up.

-Smid