NOOOO It is Back!

They ARE bringing it back. The Church Nativity Walk. Why is it called walk, when all you do is have People's Nativity's all over the gym on tables...I dunno...uh you walk over to them maybe...but it is SO boring and this has REPLACED our Ward Christmas party!! All you do is for the three nights it is open is you go and LOOK at Nativity's. No food, no fun anything. Just bring non-Mormon friends and LOOK. and then leave.

So I got roped in last year to do a Mural. I did NOT volunteer, I was emailed and ASKED...and did I say NO, like I wanted to? No. I made sketches up and let Beth pick the one she felt most went along with her ideas, as the Ward...uhhh....crap...Activity Director!! Knew I'd remember! So she picked the one and told me, it would be QUITE large, I'd get paint and it was on sheet rock that someone was building to be standing. And I told her my requirements, I wanted them on plastic, so I wouldn't ruin church property, and I wanted them at the church by THIS date so I had time to paint this HUGE thing. She assured me she had paint,etc.

So I get to the church with a couple of family members, and first, I find it on the stage, the carpeted stage. I said ON the gym floor, as it is wood and easier for me to work on. And was it ON plastic? Nope, had to do that ourselves. Was it free standing? Nope, they NEVER did that, it was all leaning against the walls. And my paint...was housepaint, which wouldn't have been so bad, if not for the fact that it was ancient paint, most were rusted closed, and couldn't be used, they would have HARMED me and any family member I had helping me on a particular day. So we had to go through 75 cans of paint to find out WHAT colors they were, and if we could USE them, and how much was in each bucket. Sam helped me with this it took hours. AND was it nice smooth flat sheet rock, as PROMISED? Of course NOT! Why be correct about even ONE thing. No I was very upset and dismayed to see it was particle board. VERY textured, so very hard to paint on, and get in ALL the grooves and crannies. And as I knew I was going to be using my hands for blending...was going to be very scary painting-wise. SO we left for the night.

I returned a few days later with Sam and Mom, and sketched it out onto the particle board with charcoal, I needed to know where the lines were. And that took forever, Boy was I really sorry I had gotten hoodwinked into this. I was ready to lose it. And so I got OCD, and knew I wanted it done ASAP. Mom and Sandy helped me one night, the basic layers and basic colors for the sand and rocks and trees. One day I went over and Katie showed up a few hours later and helped me do the buildings which was just in black except for the windopws but took hours and hours. Then I went over again, and my Dad was like don't, go another day, RELAX. But I was miserable!! I HATED this, I was SO unhappy, the painting, even the basic stuff was taking multiple coats because of all the nooks and crannies needing to be filled. And this was going to LOOK GOOD. I was not going to have people say Wendy did that at church and it look crappy, so every NOOK had to be FILLED!

So I went over by myself, time to work on the sky and make sure it all looked right. I had used my hand only a little for blending so far, so I had not really experienced how my hands would be treated. I started to mix the paints, I needed about 6 shades of blue from light blue to a very dark blue to achieve what my goal was. Over the city the lights of the sky would be a light blue, from all the city lights but as you went further out, into the dessert I wanted the sky to look normal, so DARK. So I was finishing up making all these colors/hues with this crappy house paints I had been given, when I hear a knock on the glass doors down the hallway. I left the stage and went out into the hall and saw....my Dad! Not an artistic bone in his body but he was there ready to be the next paint slave!! So I drew lines of where he should paint a blue and then when he was done I drew another line, and while he was on to the next shade of blue, I started using my hands to blend the colors so it would look like a gradual transition from light to dark.

OW!!! I was worried and I was right to worry, As I swirled and squished the paint, the particle board stabbed me over and over again. As I blended it BIT me. And I LOVE using my hands. My Dad could put up the initial paint, but I had all the buckets and pans available so I could get the paint to really blend. That means bare hands into buckets, coating them in paint so I could really work the colors in...and really working them in was ripping my hands! Owwww!! Even when it didn't puncture it still scratched and felt like little stabs.

So after that I had some touch ups and I was done...and happy...with IT, not the experience. Then we had to clean up, which took forever. My Dad went down the street and brought us back McD's. And we gathered all my supplies together and finally LEFT, DONE. I contacted Beth and reminded her, that as she had said this was to be used year AFTER year, she had to have it sprayed with a product to lock the paint in. And I told her to do it OUTSIDE as it is powerful stuff. She SAID she would have the missionairies do it...did she? EVER? No, so I have NO idea what shape my mural is in now. Which will be a shame (I am downplaying my anger) because everyone said they loved it, which made me feel nice. But here is one thing...if they asked me AGAIN? NEVER. NEVER EVER EVER again, will I make them a Christmas mural. That might make me a bad girl but I don't care! They LIED to me about everything. And this was SO stressful, even with the help of my family as paint slaves, they so did NOT enjoy putting the base colors on...especially when they dripped (old BAD paint people!) and they KNEW I would make them fix it. So here is my "labour of love"....never again.