Taking a Likeness

I have just been dying to do some creative things lately and seeing that the real creativity is going to be in finding time. Right away oil painting is out. I can't really scrapbook unless I can leave the table covered for the next week or so. So I started one project, a sort of artsy, altered scrapbook looking bulletin board that I decorated a little and have plenty of room to add to when I get the creative bug and have a little time on my hands. I bought a small stack of old pictures from the antique store down the street, and came home and arranged them with black thumbtacks. ...The only thumbtacks I could find were magenta so I colored them with a sharpie.WELL>>>>> as it turns out, there was a really cute proud young soldier pic I put on, and my hubby being a bit of a military buff I said, "so where is this guy from?" And he just started laughing. It seems the crowning photo on the board was a Nazi. I had no idea. He said, "couldn't you see that swastika?" no, I just thought it was a bolt of lightning or something. Ugh. Now I suppose I have to take him off the board. I paid extra for that guy too. The antique store lady must think I love Nazis. Now my husband is teasing me all the time, and to make it worse the kids tacked on a picture of Anne Frank and a star of David from an add that had come in the junk mail. I'm taking him down. Then I had another brilliant idea for art in a small amount of time, the old standard, which should have occurred to me earlier, and that is sketching. So I dug out sketchbooks and decided I would commit myself to art by sketching a little right away. "Taking a likeness" as Jane Austen would say. I love the view of the pine trees and mountains outside my bedroom window, so that would be my first sketch. Good or bad, I did not care, I just wanted to be doing it in an artistic way. Then I decided I would really capture artistic passion by climbing out of my window onto the roof of the kitchen below, of course, for art's sake. Yes, sweetie, if you are reading this, I really did it. I took out the screen and climbed out and sat on the sloping roof with my book and pencil and started drawing. For about 90 seconds and then big fat raindrops started coming down out of nowhere, we were actually enjoying a reasonable sun break at the moment. For a moment I thought the watermarks on the paper would help express my passion and desire to make art. Then I decided to just sit up in the window sill where I would be covered.But I still feel joy not only at making art, but doing something different, something I don't HAVE to do.Yeah Me.