Another Watercolor Portrait

How to Draw a Fish

Start with a football shape, but don't connect the ends.

Next add the back fin to the right side of the football shape. You'll draw a sideways flat V and connect the ends with a squiggly line.

Followed by the top and bottom fins. The top fin looks like a wave and the bottom fin is a curvy cone shape.

Next add a sideways raindrop to the left side and a circle for the eye. 

Now you'll add the top lip. For the eye add a small circle towards the top and another circle "behind" that. 

Fill in the center of the eye. Make sure you leave the small circle you made white. That's going to be the light reflecting in the eye. You'll also add a horn shape to the midde of the fish. 

Add a few lines to the fins to give them texture, and draw a curved line by the face.

Now you can start on the scales. Simply add some half cirlcles by the face. 

 For the next row you'll add more half circles like this.

 Keep going! Try to make your half circles a little smaller as you move along your fish.

It's ok if they aren't perfect! Fish don't have perfect looking scales! 

Almost done! This part can take a really long time!

Draw your scales from the face all the way to the back fin. 

Now add some squiggly shapes on either side. Don't draw these lines over your fish. We want the fish to look like it's in front!

And that's it! If you don't like how your fish turned out just try again. You can also print this one out and color it!

My First Ever Watercolor Portrait!

Current Project

Since the girls are in school this week I've had a little bit of free time. Here is a picture I've been working on the past couple of days and the process of making it.

Raising Good Employees

In the summer of 2014 my husband and I both lost our jobs within just a few weeks of each other. We very quickly stopped all our spending and used our savings on only necessary bills. We worked at jobs we didn't necessarily like that didn't pay what we were use to in order to keep some sort of income coming in.

Stories like this are all too common, but one thing you usually hear about when these things happen to families is "Our kids didn't know how little money we had. We wanted to protect them." For my husband and I my kids DID know how little money we had! We wanted to protect them!

I hear adults admit that as a child they didn't really know how poor they were, but yet still found happiness in life. When I was a child I had an idea of how poor our family was, but yet still found happiness in life... and a much greater appreciation for everything I had/have.

When I worked as a manager I watched a new generation of employees step into the working class with a sense of entitlement. These kids wanted a pat on the back for doing a good job everytime they did a good job. My parents always taught me that you earned your paycheck by doing a good job and a pat on the back only came when you went above and beyond the job expected.

My goal is to teach my kids this same work ethic which isn't the easiest thing to do in the world we are living in right now. Sports programs give kids the same size trophy no matter how hard each of the kids played. Imagine if everyone got the same participation bonus at work even if some worked harder than others? "Good job for showing up to work today! Here is an extra $100!". Schools give kids awards for "almost" making it. Every year I watch Angel's award ceremony at school and one of the things she gets recognized for is "almost making perfect attendance". I don't hang those awards up on the fridge. (I do however frame her awards for getting As and Bs for the whole year!) How would you feel if you hired a lawyer whose office was full of plaques that said "I almost won that case!". I don't want my kids to think that "almost" is good enough or that simply showing up to something is worth the same as doing your best while you are there.

If you see us walking around the store you'll notice both my girls carrying a purse full of change. It's change that they've earned for times when I felt they went above and beyond the job expected for their age. When they spend the money in their purses they do it with pride and tend to take better care of the things they bought with the money they earned. My girls are only nine and four years old and already appreciate hard earned money. Imagine what kind of employees they will be one day.

It's not just about teaching kids to feel good about themselves, but teaching them to feel good about the things that they do. 

Sorry I've been gone...

It's been almost three years since I've written a blog. Sorry about that! I'd like to think that my life has just been way too boring to have anything to write about, but that's not the case at all. It's really been the opposite.

The truth is that I started working real jobs because we needed the money. While working those real jobs there were many times I wanted to write a blog, and I certainly had plenty to say! (Just ask any of my friends!) I was just way too busy, and while writing out my thoughts is important I saw taking care of my family and making sure I got plenty of sleep as more important.

I'm finally at a peaceful place where writing about what's happening in my world is doable. At least for now... So we'll see how it goes!

Meanwhile, here is an update on our lives:

Angel is 9 years old and Abigail is 4. Abigail is still fairly wild and Angel is still the calm one. We have 2 dogs

now. Tank is a chihuahua and belongs to Angel. Rosie is a pit bull/lab mix and belongs to Abigail. The girls are going to have a new baby brother sometime at the end of this summer. Angel is super excited! Abigail is getting there... as long as she gets a remote control car out of the deal.

Cory finally works a normal 9-5 kind of job with weekends off! I am still making and teaching art, and I too am trying to keep it normal with weekends off.

There is a lot more that has happened in the past three years, and maybe some of my blogs will flashback to it a little. For now though.. This has been an update. Hopefully more blogs will come soon!

Abigail's Birthday (Part 2)

As promised although a little later than I'd hoped here's part two :)

We finally make our way into the grocery store. In the foyer of the store, I grab a cart and put Angel in the big part and Abigail in the little seat. We then don't make it through the next set of doors before Abigail begins to climb out of the little seat, into my arms, and then climb down the front of my body right onto the floor. "I want walk" She says in her cute little two year old voice. Rather than fight it I just let her walk. It's slower in the store so I figure I won't lose her in any crowds.

 First things first as we walk in the door, Angel says "Can I have a cookie, Mommy?" I tell her that we of course can.

Just as soon as little Abigail's two year old ears hear this she starts yelling "Cookie! Cookie! I want Cookie! Want one!! Want one! Coookie!! Mommy! Mommy! Mama! Mama! Mom! Mommy! Mommmmmmmyyyyy Cooookiieee!!..." That continues right up until the cookie is in her hand.

And now after being at the grocery store for over 30 minutes and cookies in hand I can begin shopping. I pull out my list and get right to work starting in the bakery section and working my way down trying to be patient as little Abigail chews on a cookie, while staring into space, and walking three steps... five steps... 10 steps... behin... wait! Where did she go?? Where is she??

"Abigail?!?!"

There's really not too many people in the store, and I'm able to successfully follow her cookie crumbs to a few isles over. I grab her and what I need from that isle. "Out!" She screams as I hold her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "I want out!!" She manages to wiggle her way down. "Abigail, stay with me. ok?" She gives me that little mischievousness grin of hers, turns around... and runs!

Meanwhile Angel is still in the cart... being.. Angel.

I run out of the isle we are in and to the main isle between the registers and the groceries. I'm standing at isle 2. I look down and she's at isle 12!! Luckily for me all the employees at this store know me and know my kids, and I see one of them reach out for her. She giggles and slides right past their grasp. Now me and another employee are chasing my two year old around the store. Once she is finally in my arms again she starts wigging her way back to the floor. I knew this wasn't going to work out. She's two now. She talks now, and she understands now, so I got down and held her face so her eyes met mine "Abigail." I said in my mommy means business voice "You have to stay with me or you have to ride with big sister! Do you understand me?"

Abigail replied with "bugabuga abba abba giddle giddle do do da... I... Baby... I... Know"

She then grabbed the bottom of the cart and said "push, Ad-jole(Angel)" Now we are getting somewhere. For the next 5-10 minutes things were working out great. Abigail is helping push, but then she decides to help me shop! She started grabbing anything she could get her hands on to throw onto Angel! "Abigail, we don't need that! Abigail! Put that back!" Each time saying "I want this!" Of course she was grabbing weird things too like olive oil and corn starch...

We do finally make it through shopping, but our trip is not yet over. We still have to wait for Cory. After we had the groceries in the car we had just a minute or so before Cory got off work. I knew we could freely walk around the store now and I could keep a really great eye on her. Unfortunately instead of a nice stroll through the store it turned into "Abigail! Stop! No! Put that down! Don't you run from me!!"

After about 10 minutes of that I thought it might be best to sit in the break room with some coloring books and crayons. Once we sat down Abigail found a back of chips and starts chomping away. I have no idea who they belonged to, but hey, they left a half full back of chips sitting on the break room table!

Angel starts coloring saying "Look at my pretty picture mommy!" Abigail starts scribbling very harshly on her paper and says "Adigadiga bebo bee bo... pretty! Mommy! Loook! Mommy! SEE??" I assure them they are both gorgeous pictures. Now that it's calmed down I decide to play a game on my phone while we wait. Just as my game loads I hear Angel say "Mommy! Abigail is eating a crayon! I look up and see little specs of black around her mouth and all over her tongue as she's spitting and spewing black crayon particles. I get up to grab a wet napkin to clean her up and while I've stepped away I look back back at the table only to find black scribbles all over the table!

Ok.. time to put the crayons away and leave the break room!

We head towards the bakery to see how my brother is doing. While I'm chatting, Angel is looking at cakes, and Abigail has made a fortress of solitude underneath the bakery display tables. She sits and watched the customers pick out bread and sweet treats. I've got a nice spot where I can stand and chat while watching her... We stayed there for the next 20 minutes while we waited for daddy... Yes.. my baby has turned... two...