Keep calm and fortify Terran Creativity

We have a creative household, the two of us, somewhere between the PS4 games, computers, bow and arrows, Dungeons and Dragons books, board games, fantasy books, etc.

I bead, print and sew (see my standard floor configuration below).

He paints. And his paints are called things like this:

Yep. Warhammer.

(I don’t know why, but ‘Moot Green’ entertains me greatly.) 

Something you learn as a couple is that you don’t have to share everything or do everything together. However you do need to be understanding about separate interests and the work that goes into them.

Also about your dining table and lounge room being taken over every second weekend for most of a day… Thank goodness for the hobby/sewing room upstairs! Though these little guys have started appearing around the house:

I sat down to paint with my husband one day, after his gift of some unwanted Marines. I didn't get very far. They might have a bottom coat on if they're lucky... 

Meanwhile this is what my husband has painted:

Morale of the story: you don't have to share everything.

But then my husband discovered the tree people:

And I was tempted! I decided to give it a go. 

You have to clip off all the individual bits from plastic mold sheets: head, hair, body, arms, branches. Then you glue them together bit-by-bit. These are the base, grey plastic:

 Now the same ones with an undercoat. 

I went with a green base for the next undercoat.

They are an army of unhappy trees... so they all look angry. Very angry.

 I put three together and painted them in a day!

 What do you think?

 This thorny one is my favourite so far. I have customised all three with extra parts already. More to paint, but more creative.

It was fun, and there are thirteen more in a box to paint. But I am not about to do a whole army! Warhammer is an expensive hobby.

My husband been relatively guilt-free about his habit for about six months now. Because when he encouraged me to go and buy myself some nice fabric at an art fair, saying that I should buy four pieces instead of the two I was going to allow myself, he didn’t realise that they were at least as costly as his most expensive units per piece… guilt assuaged, apparently.

I could argue that my piece of fabric is a) an art work, and b) is practical as it will be worn. But I don’t want to. Our relationship advice is always the same: absolute honesty, separate blankets in bed, and separate bank accounts so that you have your own money to freely spend. 

We both know what the other would sacrifice if it came down to it, and it would be Warhammer and fabric.