God help me.  It has finally happened.  I dreaded the day.  I had thought we may have escaped it since we are so close to the end of the year…. The do-it-at home art project. 

Jon and I are both left-brained people.  Logical, rational, linear.  Where are my right-brained sister and brother when I most need them? Ok, so I exaggerate a tad bit seeing the project was simply to make a morpho butterfly from the rain forest in 3D.  Doesn’t sound too hard. Right? 

We bought clay last weekend, and that ended up going nowhere fast.  We got the clay a bit wet to mold it better (my left-brained self followed the instructions to a tee) but then the clay stuck to the plate and then to our hands and then to the knife as we cut through it.  Maria was in tears within five minutes and I was ready to throw the clay at the wall if only it would have peeled off my hands.  We also thought about cutting out the morpho butterfly on construction paper and stuffing both pieces of paper with tissue paper.  I think that idea may have been our smartest but Jon thought we should use big sheets of paper at his office and nobody wanted to make the commute up there so we ditched the idea completely. 

We landed on colored molding clay which was a lot easier to mold than the grey modeling clay.  Ri and I worked on two wings for the butterfly after reviewing internet pictures.  I thought for sure that Ri would freak at the wings that I (we) made for the creature but I think she was too tired to complain at that point.  We were out of pipe cleaners for the antennae so we used Q tips (cut off the ends) instead (they don’t have that cute twist but whatever…).  Next, Maria had a great idea for the shoebox that would be the butterfly’s home.  She drew trees and put real leaves on them and then stood a paper tree up in the front of the box so the butterfly could perch in it.  After a bit of drama about getting the butterfly to stick on the tree (she takes pride in using scotch tape everywhere) , she had our creation and, most importantly, she was happy with it.  

Jon and I were, too.  After all, it is quite a piece of work for a lawyer and a business executive.