Every now and then when I find a project that GRABS me, I dive right in and loose myself in it for a few hours. A week or two ago, I painted a few little wooden people into fairy tale characters for Jay and Rose. I only got about half way through our list of “fairy tale guys,” as Jay and Rose call them. Yesterday I was creatively recovered enough from that first paint job to finish the rest of the people. I experienced a bit of Shaina-mania when I started painting. Jay and Rose sat on stools by me and watched me paint for HOURS! Every now and then they got down to get something or play a little, but they always came right back. I was surprised that they were so interested in my slow-poke color-mixing and paint dabbing. I was at it for more than 4 hours!
When I painted Jay’s wooden toy soldiers last March, I didn’t think about painting something for Rose too. When finally I had the idea to make these fairy tale people, all of the nearby craft stores AND Amazon were not selling little wooden people for any kind affordable price. My search led me to a website that sells wholesale wood craft items. Yay! We ordered a boxful, and I got a-painting. I have 6 bottles of acrylic paint: white, black, red, yellow, blue, and brown. So I had to do a lot of color-mixing to get the necessary hues. When I finished the people, I sprayed them down with acrylic paint finish to protect them from wear and tear. It was so much fun! I mean, Rose kept trying to steal my paint and paintbrushes, and Jay kept asking me if he could play with the unfinished people, but we still had a pleasant few hours sitting and talking while I mixed and painted.
The knights, with Jay’s classic toy soldiers behind them. Jay adores the knights (I used a fine-tip Sharpie for the faces and other details).
Left to right: Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, a princess, a queen, a baby, and a king.
[Rapunzel’s hair]
Cinderella people, left to right: 2 stepsisters, Cinderella, and the purple-haired fairy godmother.
Cinderella is two-sided: her work clothes are on one side and her ball gown is on the other.
Left to right: a wizard (Jay says it’s Gandalf, I say it’s Merlin), and the Beauty and the Beast peeps—Maurice (Belle’s father), Belle, and the Beast (the marker ran a little on Maurice’s eyes).
The Beast is two-sided. Kind of creepy and Professor-Quirrel-ish, but still. I felt clever thinking that up.
Left to right: Jack and the Beanstalk people—Jack, Jack’s mother, the giant, and the giant’s wife. To the left of the giants, we have Gollie and Bink (from one of our favorite books), and Granny and Little Red Riding Hood.
Left to right again: Awesome Man and Professor Von Evil (from another one of our favorite books), a generic witch/bad fairy, Sleeping Beauty, and another prince.
You guessed it, Sleeping Beauty is double-sided.
16 toy soldiers plus 12 knights makes quite the phalanx.
I also made a few accessories: some extra removable capes and two paper/tape hats.
This weekend we moved all of the toys down to the big empty extra room in the basement. When we moved into this house last year I had high hopes of a happy messy playroom where all the toys could lay “scattered and free” for weeks, with the very occasional clean-up. But Jay and Rose brought all the toys upstairs so often that I gave that dream up after a few weeks. Well, the daily chaotic messes in our upstairs living area were getting out of control (we love blocks), and the nightly cleanup was becoming a huge ordeal. So we tried the basement plan again and IT’S WORKING! I told Jay and Rose that if they didn’t want to clean up the toys every night, they needed to keep them in the playroom. Any toys outside the playroom have to be cleaned up every night. It’s working like a charm. Jeff is a little sad that we had to move the ping pong table out to the garage, but really there’s more space for it out there anyways.
The playroom! I think 90% of our toys are blocks. 9% are homemade, and 1% are “real toys.”
Yesterday morning after breakfast, Jay and Rose ran down to play in the playroom and left me in a quiet, clean family room upstairs. I read my scriptures in silence WHILE the kids were awake. It was oddly lonely! But oh so nice.
And last but not least, I must share the fairytale land the kids and I constructed on the bookshelf today. I had so much fun making it! We put all of the fairy tale people in one community. The beanstalk is growing up on the right.
On the top shelf at the top of the beanstalk, we have the giant’s castle and Sleeping Beauty’s room.
The middle layer has Rapunzel’s tower, the king’s castle, and the Beast’s house.
The bottom is the most crowded: Cinderella and her stepsisters with the fairy godmother watching from above, Little Red Riding Hood, a green forest, Merlin, Bink and Gollie (with Gollie’s treehouse and Bink’s cottage), Granny’s cottage (on the other side of the woods), and Jack and his mom’s house, with the beanstalk growing to the left and Rumplestiltskin hanging out front.
These fairy tale people are so handy because if Jay and Rose really want me to play with them, now I don’t have to invent lame stories. I can just act out a fairy tale story and call it good. It gives a time limit to me playing (very nice for days when I don’t feel like it). Plus, the kids can help play along.
3 comments:
The fine details are very cute! Love the two-sided figures.
Your creativity never ceases to amaze me! Your kids are lucky to have you :-)
That looks amazing! To be honest, when I saw your fairy-tale land on the bookshelf, all I could think was, "How on earth did she manage to build that AND include so many rooms and so much detail AND take a picture of it with it all still in one piece??!" But I guess your younger kiddo is a little older than mine is. :-)
You're so clever! And blocks are awesome toys... I love that I can see your kids imagination going wild in their play pictures! Must be the teacher in me!
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