Don't Be Afraid To Get Your Hands Dirty!

Nothin's better than the squishy feel of paint between my fingers!

Hiya, Friends!

Hey, if you know me, you know I'm a kinetic kid.  I really am.  I love to be on the move, on the go, in the middle of things.

I love to get my hands dirty!

One of my favorite ways to get my hands dirty is by FINGER PAINTING!

Oh, my goodness, Friends.  Finger painting is just glorious.  It really, truly is.  If the last time you finger painted was when you were in the single-digits age-wise, you really need to re-visit this way of makin' art.  You really do.

Why?  If I told you you oughtta have a cuppa hot cocoa right now, would you ask me why?  Probably not!  You'd be pullin' the marshmallows outta the cupboard!

But I understand.  As Big People, you've forgotten just how much fun it is to paint with your hands, with no expectations of perfection, but every expectation of just havin' a good ol' batcha fun.  Don't feel like I'm yellin' atchya!  I'm not!  Grownups, you spend a lot of your time tryin' to keep things clean, and for that, I commend you.  I think your efforts are nothing short of heroic, especially as I am on the other end of that spectrum, putting forth my best efforts to ensure that your best efforts are for naught. 

We are cosmically destined to be on opposite sides of the clean spectrum, Friends, and that's just something we need to accept.

That isn't to say that sometimes I don't like to come over to your side, Big People.  I like to help Mommy clean the windows I can reach, and I like to run the feather duster.  I like to use wipes to wipe up hard surfaces.  I really do!

But nothing compares to getting out a clean piece of paper and my finger paints and just going nuts.  And that's what I want YOU to experience right now, Friends.  If not right now, in the very near future.  It's Saturday, after all.  Saturdays were practically DESIGNED for gettin' your hands all messy!

Try it.  Get yourself a four-pack.  A good old four-pack of finger paints.  The ones with red, yellow, blue, and green.  If you've got those four colors, you can make pretty much any color you want.  And it's so much fun to take a squirt of this color and that color and then mix 'em together and see that you've got a whole new color! 

I was particularly shocked to find out that getting blue in the red made PURPLE!  I LOVE PURPLE!  I was also rather taken aback to find out that if you put a squirta all the colors on the paper and keep swirlin' 'em around, you get brown.  That's GREAT, because I decided I wanted to make my finger painting look like chocolate.  But it's important to keep in mind that if you do too much swirling on those colors, you won't get Color Swirl.  You'll get brown.

Friends, I wouldn't know these things if I hadn't tried it.  I'd hafta take somebody else's word for it!  I don't wantchya takin' my word for it, for how fun it is to finger paint and to let your hands get all finger-painty and dirty.  I want you to EXPERIENCE it again.  Because you've just forgotten how much fun it can be, and you don't have to keep it forgotten.

...Except shavin' cream.  Shavin' cream feels GREAT in the hands!

It's okay to do little-kid things sometimes, even though you're an adult, Friends.  People always say how happy little kids are, and I think that's because there's a little part in all of us that stays a little kid.  A happy little kid.  When you're little like me, that little kid isn't so insulated in growin' up yet, so we're pretty much right out there.  By the time you get to be a Big People, that little kid is still in there, but there's so many layers of Being a Grown Up around it that sometimes it's hard to remember that the little kid's still in there, wantin' to get his or her (or really, YOUR) hands dirty.  Try it, and see how FUN it is to say "hiya!" to your inner little kid once in a while, Friends!

Then, when you're all done finger-paintin', before you go and wash off the finger-paint with soapy water, I suggest you squirt out some shavin' cream and really mux it around with your hands.  Squish it between your fingers.  Swirl it around anyplace where the fingerpaint got- on your hands and on your work surface.  You'll be surprised at how much easier it is to clean up then.  And also, it smells great and is a heapin-helpin' of FUN!  And that's what I want for you today, Friends!  FUN!

I love ya, Big People!  Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty today!  Don't be afraid to not be So Grown Up all the time!  I love ya lots!  Muah!