Watercolors

I've been coloring in books since I started making my very slow progression to becoming a nonsmoker last week. I got bored with it quickly. Don't get me wrong, I love to color. It was the coloring book itself that bored me. It featured characters from the Disney/Pixar films Cars, The Incredibles, Nemo and Monsters Inc.

The problem I had was how many times can I color the same characters? Who never have a clothing or color change? I needed a scenery coloring book like I used to have all those years ago. Trees, flowers, little furry animals. The kind where you use lime green and forest green and other greens to distinguish the trees from the bushes and the bushes from the grass. You know what I'm talking about. The Disney coloring books had a lot of order fulfillment.. and that is fine for some I'm sure. (Three year olds.)

Money has been a big issue here in the Skittles household lately but we sold some big ticket items on Craigslist the last two days. Enough to cover the immediate bills/expenses with as much left over. Mr. Skittles said we had enough for me to splurge on a new coloring book.

Off to KMart we go. KMart felt safe to me as there are hardly any people there. Some bigger stores scare me. I'd gotten my first one at Walmart and knew what they had and didn't have. You know what I discovered? You cannot buy coloring books anymore with trees, flowers and little furry animals. They are all Dora, Barbie, Sesame Street, Disney, etc.

I got an idea. Scary sometimes to be sure. We left KMart and went to Meijer.. a regional big box store that is always crowded. I was on a mission though. You see, my idea was to try my hand at painting again.

I learned to paint with acrylics at a psyche hospital I was in once. The basics of course as I wasn't there THAT long. It was a wonderful creative outlet and therapeutic. I later progressed to oil paints and did a bit better with those. One of my sons has a painting I did hanging on a wall in his house. Unless he just hangs it up when he knows I'm coming. *smile* I did a respectable painting of two dogs we had at the time, too.

Meijer has a nice size arts and crafts department and I made a beeline for it with Mr. Skittles in tow. I quickly found the paints and painting accessories. I glanced over the boxes of acrylics and oils. Then I found what I wanted. Watercolors. Just a basic set to start out with. I double checked with Mr. Skittles because this was more expensive that a coloring book, but not by much. (You know this if you've recently bought a coloring book.) He said ok.

I picked up the watercolors and skipped up to the checkout. HAH! I walked ok? Skipping is cuter but if it had been me my fat tummy would have been bouncing up and down making clapping noises. Did you just clap? I did.

I Googled "learn to watercolor paint" when I got home and the first one I went to was just what I was looking for and needed to get me started. It doesn't jump right into painting a picture. It tells you how to experiment with the paints. Get used to the feel of them and the brushes. Take days if I need to. What a relief to know I'm not expected to make a masterpiece my first attempt. It takes a lot of pressure I know I'd put on myself to be GOOD at it.

It's ok if I'm not GOOD at it. The point is to keep me busy. Use a bit of creativity. Have fun. Help me along the path to becoming a nonsmoker.

Um.. by the way. That path has taken a lot of twists and turns and at times I've tripped over roots and fallen.. doubled back to start anew when I got lost. In other words I've been smoking again. Not as much as before, but yes.. an ashtray has appeared in my house again. I'm not giving up though. It's such a stupid and unnecessary expense.