My $2.50 Renoir Painting!

Don't you just love wandering about the $2 stores willy nilly, with no plans to buy anything at all... yet destined to walk out $20 poorer, with flimsy plastic bags full of bits and pieces you never knew you desperately needed until you discovered them here, in this store, for just $2!


Such was my experience yesterday, when sheer boredom encouraged me into the $2 shop. Such hurrahs to be had! Fern of course disappeared in the first 30 seconds, to be located minutes later with ripped open packets of horsey stickers... oops, we'll just pop those back on the shelf and hope that no one notices...

Idly I wandered the store until I reached the crafty section. Always dangerous, of course. And there I discovered a little packet containing water paints and a miniature canvas and easel! It would be rude not to buy such frivolity, I thought. Fern is surely a desperately frustrated artist, given her mother has an aversion to mess and is terrified at the thought of letting her 22 month-old daughter loose with a paintbrush. But I took a deep breath and added it to my cart, along with some hot-pink paint and 3 mini-canvases for another project which I'll share with you later in the week.

Dan came from work early and couldn't wait to 'help' with this project... any excuse to get dirty! We popped a picnic rug on the grass out the back, got a little container of water for the paint and showed Fern how to paint onto the little canvas. 

Needless to say, Fern had an absolute ball once she got the hang of what she was doing... she had to be forcibly removed from the paint in the end! Even little Elliott seemed interested:

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of Fern after said painting adventure. Needless to say, her entire outfit from top to toe is currently soaking in Napisan. 

.. and the finished product? Try to guess which is Renoir and which is Fern's!