Color to the Rescue

Spring has moved through us with a speed that is unfamiliar to me.  With exception to the week I spent resting my ankle on the couch, it seems I have been in constant motion, and doing what I can't really say, its just been the usual cooking, laundry, dishes, diapers, weeding, planting, watering, feeding, milking and nursing.  I honestly thought life would be slow on the farm..........

  

Perhaps it is the steep learning curve that I've been running up against or perhaps it is simply trying too many things at once, I don't know, but the truth is it has been just as painful as it is beautiful.  But by occasionally returning to what I do know and enjoy, playing with color,  I have found relief from this overwhelming load I have chosen to carry.

Maryanna helped me with this first project.  After planting the garden we discovered more than a few pairs of boots were no longer serving us, the holes in them made for very muddy feet.  So we spray painted them and planted them with a variety of wild flowers.  Maryanna was diligent in watering them.

But the chickens were also diligent in knocking them over and picking through the seeds.  So after a few tries we simply filled them with beautiful flowers from a nearby nursery.  This funny scene of flowers nestled into a rainbow of farm boots lifts me as I go in and out the door about my many chores.

 Next up was the flower bed.  There is no before picture because there was no time for that.  What previously was a bed of overgrown mint and violets called for immediate attention when poison ivy was discovered just steps from the door.  I have never planted a flower bed in my life so instead of stressing too much about the do's and don'ts I just played with the colors and stuck the plants in where I thought they looked balanced and pretty.  I got one "do" right - use containers with free ranging chickens.  And I learned one "don't" the hard way - don't think that chickens are the only ones to ruin a flower bed, just yesterday Archie dug half of it up!  At least I got a picture and enjoyed it while it lasted.  I know now to get a little fence or simply stick to containers.  

Then there was the left over dyes from tie dying.  They sat untouched for over two weeks but since I didn't want to dump them Henry helped me make a rainbow blanket for Charlie.  

And here's where I turn into the mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".  Cleaning up all the tie dyes reminded me of some the old purchases from Salvation Army that I wanted to dye.  Here is a portion of the befores.

And the afters  - just the thing I like to wear when physical energy is waning.

The green shirt I'm modeling below use to be white when I made it 8 years ago but after many many wears it was due for the dye bucket.  This moment was captured at a nearby country auction where just for the fun of it I waved my green number up and ended up with a few little treasures.

Lastly, I pulled the tub of acrylic paints out for all the kids.  It has been awhile since their last paintings

so I thought it would be fun for all of us.  Oh how wrong I was.  That is exactly where the fun with color ended (with a portion of it even splashed on my camera).

George mixed colors like I mix soup, the end product looking a lot like soup on a canvas, enough to wilt the canvas and have to wrestle him right into the reach of the hose.  Neither of us enjoyed that, but we got through it. Henry was a lot more careful with the paints, as were (most) the other children but I told them frankly this was not a good mom idea for the amount of patience I had at the moment.  So we packed up the paints and are leaving the canvases as works in progress.  Seems I had my fill of colorful projects for one week so I'll pull them out the next time we need some emergency color therapy.