Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

Family Paint Night Activity

By 2 Comments

Playing as a family is one of the essential ways to build a connection with one another. Do you know what are some of your favorite ways to play together? For our family, having a family paint night is something we all enjoy. As the kids get older, it might not be what they suggest anymore, but if I do the work to set it all up, they still get into it.

Do you feel like your evenings can be a mash up of running kids to their activities, someone working late, homework, filming projects, school board meetings, and it’s rare to be all home on an evening together? That can’t be just me, right!?

It’s been a bit crazy over here. As I saw a night approaching where we would all be home (and knew we had all been carrying a lot), I wanted to create a fun moment for us to connect, play and recharge together. Here I give you our family paint night!


I love a good collaborative project.

When we all start with the same base shape or project, it’s fun to brainstorm and see the similarities and differences each of us comes up with. This is a fun way to see how each other’s mind thinks, portray individual interests into the project, and see the different styles and techniques emerge. The energy given off is usually lighthearted and playful, as the goal is to just have fun.

This egg garland project allows us to each have our own project, but they will be strung up together. It’s always fun to work towards something as a ‘team’.


The set up is part of the fun for me.

It’s been a while, since I have set up a paint workshop. I had so much fun picking out paint colors and pulling everything together. I have learned that although art can be freeing and messy, we still have a lot of power and control in what supplies we break out.

I choose to use just paint and only certain spring colors of paint. Even though my creative heart thought of glue and sequins. I decided to not break those out, and keep it more simple. As a result, it was…

  1. Less intimidating for artists to decide what they want to do.
  2. Less clean up for me.

Reagan did end up pulling out the black paint. Her creative heart needed it 🙂

Having the set up ready to go is helpful when you are inviting and asking for participation. It makes the start easier and you don’t lose any way-ward artists to distraction while you gather it all together.

The goal is to have fun.

We laughed and painted that night. I know the moods in our house were more uplifting, light-hearted and connected after this playful activity. It was a break in the fast pace of life. We slowed down and did something intentional together. It’s important to remember the goal is to have fun. If we put too much pressure on the results then it becomes stressful and we didn’t need anymore of that.

After all the eggs dried, I strung them up and added some fabric and yarn for extra texture fun. I love looking at it hung up now.

  • I see my Caleb and his forever love of basketball.
  • I see my Jeremiah in his blending and mixing of all kinds of colors to make his “perfect” purple shade.
  • I see my Reagan having a vision and searching up how to paint a jellyfish and bunny.
  • I see my husband putting so much care into his focused pieces, as he slows down from a busy day.
  • I see my simple designs, because I had more fun watching and connecting everyone else.

 

 

 

 

Having a physical piece as part of this night’s memory makes the memory and connection that much stronger. If you haven’t played by a having a paint night with your family recently, I highly recommend it!

If you want to do this project, I may have a few of the kits I created left for sale in our store. It’s worth jumping over to check!

In summary, these are a few tips that help guide our family paint nights. I hope they can help you too!

We had so much painting.

Occasionally, we still reference jokes from that night, as we enjoy our new spring decoration together.

Having this activity right after dinner one night, made for a fun evening. After all the eggs were painted, I used the leftover paint to paint the paper that had been a part of our set up. I painted big swirls and smalls dots, as Matt told me about his day and the kids got going with the rest of their night. Having my hands creating, while talking has always been something I enjoy!

Those scrap papers became their own creation, as you can see below and snatch up in the store as well.

Now, what about you? Will you have a family paint night soon?

Remember, the most important part is to have fun. Protect your table, embrace the process, and watch your artists unplug as you connect together. It will be an experience you tuck away in the long term memories.

If you love this little imagination starter, you might enjoy my list of 30 Ways to Play as well. Enjoy!

Floral Hallway Mural Makeover

By Leave a Comment

When your mind frees up and gets a little white space, you can see things in a new light. This is continually something I am amazed by as I go through the seasons of life. I showed you in my snow room remodel, how this idea looked after closing our art studio. As I come out of a heavy season of launching my online course, my mind is once again a little more free and I have been able to create a new floral hallway mural in our home.

The wall has had many different looks over the years.

We have used it to as our our own family’s Instagram reel as we add pictures to it over a year to highlight some of of our favorite memories made. Reagan has also painted an under water mural on it, and then we tried to add the pictures back on top, once we were tired of it. The pictures didn’t like sticking to her acrylic paint, so they kept falling off and we just never really did anything to change it.

I knew I needed a fun, creative project after I wrapped up my course launch and it hit me one day, as I was sitting on our living room couch staring down the hallway. That little spot needed fixing. I had to decide if I wanted to paint it solid to go back to holding pictures again or to create a new mural. You can see I choose to paint a new mural. I talk about the process and show more in these three YouTube videos. Check them out, if you want to see the action happen and how many times my dogs and kids walk past me as I painted :).

Video 1: The Start of a New Mural

Video 2: Mural Progress Update

Video 3: Mural Reveal

I’ll go into a few more details below, to walk you through my process, but in summary you can see the wall transformation quickly in this picture combo.

Step 1: Clean and prepare the wall

The first step was to take down all the pictures. It was fun to relive those moments, as I pulled each picture off the wall. I then sanded the wall quickly to erase any lumps of paint from Reagan’s mural.

Next, I wiped down the wall and gave it a coat of Kilz primer to neutralize an even surface once again.


Step 2: Begin to design

After I did all the prep work, it started to get fun.

I knew I wanted to paint some kind of floral design, but I didn’t want it as symmetrical and perfect as I did on this previous bedroom mural. One of my goals was to create a bigger scale and for the layout to not be even. I began by sketching the design out in pencil on the wall. Next time, I will sketch it on paper first, so there are not as many pencil marks. Those turned out to be tedious to cover in the yellow and lime paint.

Once the image was roughly on the wall, I was ready to cut it in with the base color. Since my base color was so dark, I didn’t want to paint the whole wall with it. I just kind of painted around my design, so I created a coloring page for me to fill in.

Step 3: Add the color and final details

This is where it begins to get really fun! I started doing one color at a time to get everything filled in. Once I did that in spacing out the colors, I started going over the colors with a second layer and then I wrapped it up with a few details on top of some of the design.

This incorporated new colors or mixing my current colors with other colors to make different shades.


When I was trying to decide about a color or if a shape was the right size, I would stand back and stare at it. At one point, Caleb, walked through talking to me and the moment was too cool not to capture.

It was actually hard to decide which shapes to give more details too. I could have kept going with details, but I didn’t want it to feel too precise. I wanted some whimsical aspect, so I just added enough details to make some of the blander shapes pop.

Enjoy your Creation!

Now that the wall is done and it looks so good, it’s hard to believe we left it at such a rough spot for so long.

That’s what happens with a full mind though. We get used to seeing things a certain way. Other aspects of life take over your attention and thoughts, and you just settle in.

It may be a matter of not having enough time to get to that project or you are just so use to seeing it that way, you forget there could be anything wrong with it.

Have you wanted to draw or paint on your walls?

I love the intentional care to this forgotten spot in our home. It now looks so happy and makes me smile every time I see it. I’m racking my brain on what other spot in our home could use a little attention. I  few ideas that come to mind are…

  • kids’ bathroom cabinets
  • kids’ bathroom walls/floor
  • pantry walls
  • master bathroom closet
  • kitchen accent wall
  • laundry hook wall

These areas could just use some organization or maybe a simple paint job. OR maybe I should paint some more murals. That really was so fun. Have you ever wanted to paint or draw on your walls. We grow up being told not to do so, but then we forget when we are grown and have our own house…that we get to make the rules. It’s like one of those habits or ways of thinking you just keep going with because it’s what you have always known. If you want to try something, I say…go ahead and do it.

Be a Crazy One

Your idea might seem crazy. You might fail at it. I certainly “messed” up as I painted this mural. There were even some big “oops” where paint got on a different wall and the carpet, but it’s nothing a little hot water and soap didn’t fix.

I learned and now I know what to be more careful with and to do differently next time. Anything worth wild or that comes to life first takes imagination. It can be crazy to see something differently, but maybe that leads to something beautiful.


Have you done something that filled your heart up recently? I know I need creative fixes after big projects or seasons that are stretching. Painting has always been a great brain break for me. If you need help figuring out your own brain break, I’d love to journey that with you in my Create More Connection Course. Enroll today and we can get started.

Now, what do you think? Are you ready to draw on your walls too? Maybe start by just looking around your home and deciding what is one area that you have gotten use to seeing in that way, and it could be so much more.

Have fun and imagine the possibilities!

The Making of a Mini Mural

By 2 Comments

Mister Rogers. Was he a part of your childhood?

I watched the show a little growing up, but I think Mister Rogers really became a hero for me more as I was an adult. His philosophy and perspective for children and their development is one that I just really respect.

I recently read Fred’s biography, as I was wondering what made this man into who he was.

I have been in a season of change with my own work. As we worked to close down our non-profit studio, I have been thinking through what do I want to do now!? I really still want to help people tap into their imagination, be creative, and feel empowered to bring their ideas to life. So, not much has changed in my passion. I just want to go about it differently.

You can imagine how encouraging it was to read about Fred’s life and how every 5-6 years he changed the work he was doing. Did you know that!? I’m not going to get this perfect but in a quick summary…

  • He left a growing career at NBC to work on a free children’s program in Pittsburgh.
  • He began and worked on the Children’s Corner for 6 years
  • He stopped that and went to seminary
  • He then did not get a church after seminary, but he wanted the TV to be his pulpit
  • He then moved to Canada to begin Mister Rogers in a 15 min show
  • He moved back to Pittsburgh to begin the Mister Rogers Neighborhood that we know
  • He quit that to work with adults -wanting to help them, so they can better help kids
  • He went back to Mister Rogers Neighborhood

I’m not sure how you sum up Fred Rogers work, but I tried. One theme that I took away from his life is he stayed true to two core principals.

  1. He knew who he was and what he cared about and loved.
  2. He had a passion for children development with education.

He might have changed how he went about his work, but he never stopped trying to help children imagine, learn, and walk through big emotions and situations of life. That was so encouraging to read, as I still want to do a lot of the work I used to do. It just needs to be different in this season.

Fred’s mom often said to Fred, “Look for the helpers. There are always people helping”. That phrase helped Fred through scary times and he used it to help others. As I process the world and how many people’s lives have changed drastically the last few years, I wonder how ok people really are? This concept can go lots of directions, but without talking politics, pandemic, or work force, we still know there are heroes all around us. Heroes on the front lines.

The concept of a “hero” can be a big pressure to feel or believe is impossible to reach. How do you become a hero? Maybe you don’t want to be a fire fighter, nurse, doctor, policeman, or teacher, but you can be a helper.

We can be helpers by doing simple acts like…

smiling at a stranger in the supermarket.

holding the door for an older citizen.

taking the trash out for your family.

pushing the shopping cart.

playing a game with a younger child.

making a meal for a hurting family.

sitting with someone grieving.

writing someone a card.

There are so many ways we can be helpers. In this simple ways of being helpers, we really are being heroes too. I love how Fred used easy words to say powerful concepts.

This quote stuck with me and I imagined how inspiring it could be to live on a big wall in a community. I took Fred’s whimsical, childlike heart and paired it with his mom’s powerful words and dreamed up this mural.

I had to get the idea out of my head, so I painted it on a sign and got my talented friend, Beth, to do the words. It’s our mini mural.

We can all be helpers. We all have that power. Being a hero might seem intimidating, but we can all do simple, everyday acts to show the people we interact with that they matter. Taking the time to really “see” people is what can help heal whatever we all just went through these last few years.

We are better together.

Now, don’t you see this painting on a city wall!? Where should it go??? Do you relate your life to books and back to real life again? Go out and be a helper today. I am off to make my family dinner ;).

Margin is needed for Creativity to Grow

By 4 Comments

Have you ever looked at something and seen it all of a sudden completely different?

I sit in my snow room (which is like a sun room, but in Indiana it has snow outside more than sun) daily. It’s my favorite room to drink morning coffee and wake up for the day. As things have slowly winded down with our Spoonful Studio and the days of it closing are nearing, I have found myself with more and more free time.

One day, I was sitting there and looking at the same mantel that I have every other morning but I asked myself, “when did that turn yellow?” I noticed the stain had yellowed and it now looked dirty and old. I realized that as my mind was being freed up from running a business- it all of a sudden had margin to process other things.

It was such a cool moment to mentally process the margin I was working hard to find-I was finding. If you listened to Matt and I share why we are closing our non-profit Spoonful Studio, you heard that wearing all the hats felt like I had 5 full time jobs. I was working nights and weekends, and I desperately needed to be freed up to be more present at home (physically and mentally) to my fast growing kids.

So, here I am now remembering how creativity is a muscle. It needs space and time to heal, play and grow just like any other muscle. Below are a few very real life pictures of the mess my snow room had become with the busyness of life and my over crowded brain…

I love to work on our house. It is part of how this blog began 14 years ago, by sharing my projects with all of you. Yet, as running an art studio took over my time, I have found I have not worked on or done a project on our house in a long, long time.

Side Rant: Our houses don’t have to have the latest trend or constant projects, but I do believe our houses should be a safe place. I want my house to breathe rest, peace, and love to my family and those who visit. We all know that messes, piles, un-attended decisions can lead to more stress or tension, which is in conflict to what we want our houses to represent. Part of finding margin in my days was to make our home more peaceful as well, which for me is attacking some of the projects.

What began as “I’m going to paint that mantel” led to…painting the walls, painting the trim, painting the doors, ripping up the carpet, staining the concrete, panting the handles on a chest of drawers, washing the curtains, and reorganizing some games we pull out regularly in this room. Here are a few pictures of my process.

This room isn’t very big, so I did half the room at a time. Whichever half was not getting worked on, kept all the furniture piled up.

What I found as I created was I was super rusty. I stepped in the can of paint and literally spilt almost an entire gallon.

I then went to shake the gallon of cement stain and the lid wasn’t on all the way. Stain went flying on my freshly painted trim and walls. I wasn’t even mad though. I felt alive.

As I have been finding more time available in my days, I have done yard work, read and felt rest filtering into my new routines. I was doing things I enjoy, but have not had time to do in a long time. Yet, I did not feel completely like myself. When you change what you have worked so hard to build and have a lot of identity wrapped up in it, I am sure it takes a lot of time to deconstruct and process all the feelings and experiences just lived. Getting messy with paint was one of the first moments I have felt so alive and like ‘Erica’ once again. I needed to create and dive into the process myself.

It didn’t matter that it got worse before it got better.

It didn’t matter that I was rusty and “messed up” a lot along the way.

I was creating, and my heart needed it.

This room reminded me that creating is a muscle and it needs practice and margin to grow. We can’t live extremely stressful and busy lives and expect to come up with our best ideas, most creative dreams, and to see everyday things differently. Just like athletes need to rest after a big game, our brains, souls and creative spirits need to recharge as well.

It took quitting my job to find margin to see this room in a new way and imagine how I could keep my favorite bohemian, colorful vibe but breath new life into it.

For laughs and because it makes me smile, I did leave a hidden footprint in the cement. It’s a reminder to make time to play with paint and not to take anything too serious.

What about you? Do you need to create margin in your life? You may not need to go as extreme as I did with changing up your career. You can form a new habit by switching out an old one.

Go for an evening walk after dinner.

Get off social media, if you can. I did, but that will be another post.

Make a no laptop or phone spot in your house so you unplug.

Sit on the patio, as the day turns into night, being with the people around you.

Tell a few close people what you’re going through. It matters.

We only have one life. I am encouraged how one of my favorite writers, Bob Goff, said “he choose the life he wanted and placed work around it- rather than choosing a job and trying to squeeze a life into it.”

I will always look fondly back on the times Spoonful Studio was open and the powerful work I got to do with it. Yet, I need more life. I want to enjoy my kids and have time to let creativity grow. Because we all know, I believe a Spoonful of Imagination leads to a more beautiful life.

To see more of my room remodel, Caleb created this quick video for me to share with all of you!