Racing and Airbrushing

The weekend started with us saying goodbye to Dean and Drew, who flew to Dallas to do a Spartan race in the stadium. Lucas and I watched Insidious 3 at the theater - we were the only people there, and it was CREEPY! (Good movie, if you're a scare-aholic, and I just learned the older psychic lady is the crazy over-tanned neighbor Magda from There's Something About Mary - that chick has quite a range!) Then we got up at 6 AM Saturday to run Lulu's Hot Trot 5K. This was Lucas's first 5K and he was a-might nervous!)


Then he nearly had a heat stroke because it was about 100 degrees with 95% humidity, so we finished in 58 minutes, but at least he was still conscious when he crossed the finish line. Note the redness of our cheeks and ears - and this is AFTER we cooled off in an icy water sprayer.


We ran home to take showers, then Robbie joined us for the great Alabama Chanin Airbrushing Experiment...where we also nearly had heat strokes! We set up in the garage, where it was probably 110 degrees with 97% humidity, and proceeded to paint for about 3.5 hours, and yes, sweat was dripped onto fabric as well. This was our first test piece using a thinner knit fabric and Angie's Fall stencil with mostly transparent paint in a slate color. We discovered the transparent paint is actually see-through, takes longer to dry than opaque, and flies out of the airbrush in about 10 seconds, whereas the opaque lasted quite a bit longer. Behold the beauty:


Now what could this be? This is Robbie's black fabric with Anna's Garden stencil taped up to achieve a couple of small flowers (trust me).


Voila!


I may have to frame this next one. This is persimmon Alabama Chanin fabric hanging off the table, and we've already painted the bottom half with a black/white mix of opaque paint. Looked silver in some cases, and brown in this case. Of course the part on the table is unpainted.


These are some of our finished fabrics laid on a bed to dry. You can see my white top there too.


This is what you feel like after you've lost 4 pounds of sweat in a stuffy garage surrounded by paint fumes.


No - just kidding! The fumes were nothing, so we didn't wear masks, and we took breaks for delicious pork butt sandwiches and cole slaw that Robbie graciously provided. Also a break at the beginning because I couldn't remember how to set up the airbrush. There are 3 pieces that have to go together with a tiny screwdriver, so instructions and reading glasses were necessary before we started.


So I'll get better pictures of my dress and top after they've "cured" in the dryer and I have some better light, and Robbie promised to send me pics of her garments when done, so maybe I can post them here too. Oh, and speaking of that Spartan race - here are the boys after finishing in 1 hour 45 minutes. I need to go see if Drew can lift himself out of bed this morning