Beware of Boredom

Winter Break is lots of fun, but I have to admit - it gets a little bit boring when Rex is at school from 8 to 5 and I'm just hanging out at our apartment.  It made me wonder what fifties housewives were supposed to do all day while their husbands worked.  After all, I got all of my household chores finished by lunchtime.  It doesn't really take that long to clean a one-bedroom apartment, especially since I've been doing it every day.  I made lunch, and I didn't have to make dinner because today is Friday (date night!).  I sat on the couch with nothing to do, contemplating what the ideal housewife would be doing.  I figured she'd probably be caring for her children, but I don't have any.  If she had no children, she'd probably be knitting or crocheting baby blankets in preparation for the glorious day when she could finally have a baby to wrap them in.  Unfortunately (?), I don't know how to knit or crochet.  I'm adding that to the list of things I need to learn this year.

I figured I could do something artsy to make up for my lack of yarn-crafting skills.  I tried to create a painting on a canvas using new brush techniques from an art book my brother-in-law got for me (Thanks, Jake!), but the finished product looked like a Space Invaders arcade game exploded.  I got pretty discouraged and sat back on the couch again, totally bored and staring at my blank walls.  Suddenly, I was hit with a bolt of inspiration:

Life is too short to have blank walls.

I picked up my pencil and paintbrushes, revved up my imagination, and went to work.  I decided to decorate the wall where Elvis's crate sits, because I always feel kind of bad for him sitting and staring at a blank wall all day.  I wanted the wall behind him to look like a doghouse, and I measured the doghouse so that his crate would fit inside of it.  I outlined the whole thing in pencil and then waited for Rex to get home.  After all, housewives of any decade probably shouldn't go painting murals on their walls without running the idea by their husbands.  As soon as he got home, Rex said that he loved the idea and that I should go ahead and paint it (See?  He's a good guy.  He puts up with my special brand of crazy).

I got started, and Rex took this picture of me:

About halfway through painting the mural, I decided to go down to the front office of our apartment complex and ask if we are allowed to paint our walls.  I didn't need the permission, obviously...since I'd already started...but I figured it would be a nice plus.  Guess what?  Not only are we allowed to paint our walls, but the office will give us paint to paint over it when we move out!  What luck!  My mural was all systems go.

Five hours later...I'm stopping for the night.  I have touch-ups and details to add tomorrow, but I snapped a couple of pictures to show you the basic idea.  Elsie is peeking around the corner of the bush looking at the house mischievously, and there is a little gray owl in the tree.  I turned the outlet into a mailbox.  I will have to post some detailed pictures later, but if you click on the ones below they will be a bit bigger so you can see them. I really like how it is turning out - hooray for my newly cultivated crafting skills!  Now I just need to learn how to knit so I can make some curtains for his crate.  ;-)