This time around, I knew that I would not be so lucky as to have such carte blanche. I also suspected that they would want to be involved in the painting process, which concerned me just a little bit. For those of you who have painted on clothing before, you know that it's not an easy task. All I could picture were blobs of paint all over a t-shirt. I decided, though, that I would put my OCD aside and let them at least try.
I had kept a t-shirt that I practiced on years ago, because it had their names and hand/foot prints. I decided to use it again as a practicing area. I added Sydney's name since it was not on the shirt, and the girls each tried to draw simple shapes. Alyx drew a flower, Larissa drew a heart, and Sydney drew a smiley face. They each struggled with controlling the paint flow while trying to make their shape at the same time. As a result, they decided that they didn't want to paint on their actual shirts, because they didn't want them messed up. Whew! I'm glad they came to that conclusion on their own. =)
I pretty much let them choose everything else, though. They chose the color of their t-shirts, the colors and types of paints we purchased, the writing style for their shirts, the designs to be used on their shirts, and the color assignments of every little thing on their own shirts. Wow! Lots of opinions!
All in all it was a pretty fun process. I became stressed at some points, especially when Sydney decided that she wanted a teddy bear on her shirt. I was scared to death! For the longest time, I couldn't come up with a really good way (with paint) to make a bear look right. The day I was supposed to paint her shirt, I went to her and relayed my fears and trepidations and asked her if there was anything else she would like on her shirt instead. She put her head down in thought and just had the most pitiful look on her face. I nearly started crying! So, once again, I went to the drawing board and began working on another bear. I finally came up with something that I thought might work, so I got busy painting. When it was all finished, I was thrilled with the results and so glad that I had continued with her desire to have a bear. It was much cuter than I thought it would be. Here it is...
***FYI: You can click on the pictures for a larger view, if you so desire. =)
Larissa decided that she wanted a rainbow with rain drops coming down on some flowers. My first feeling was that rain was going to feel kind of dreary, and I wanted these to be "happy" shirts. After looking through one of my scrapbook doodling books, I came across an idea for a rainbow with heart rain drops. I loved it and showed it to her, and of course she loved it too! =) Her shirt was by far the easiest and least stressful, but I think it turned out to be so adorable. Here it is...
Alyx decided that she wanted a butterfly on her shirt. I told her that it might look better to have more than one and that it's more visually appealing to have an odd number of items together. She said that three would be fine. As I was laying it all out, I decided to add a couple more (after getting her permission, of course.) =) At first, she wanted me to pick all the colors and surprise her with it all, but I
Now that these shirts are done, I feel much better about the possibility of going into labor a little early. The girls have been looking forward to these shirts for a couple of months now, and quite honestly, the due date has just sneaked up on me way too quickly. If I hadn't had these done on delivery day, I would have felt so badly for them. This accomplishment is just one more item marked off of my checklist of things to have done before the baby comes. Yay! I'm so relieved! =)
