ashley.mancuso.illustration.: Childrens

Mindy loved the wintertime, but even more than that, she loved wearing her mittens. She was good at building igloos, making snowmen and sledding, but she was also good as losing one of her mittens. She had about six pairs of mittens, but now she only had one of each. She just lost one from the last pair she had, and now she was mitten-less.

Overnight there had been a snowstorm, and school was cancelled that day. Excited Mindy finished her breakfast in a hurry and ran upstairs to get ready to play in the snow. She was all set except for her mittens. She went downstairs into the kitchen where her mother was cleaning the dishes and she turned around just in time to see Mindy opening the door, all dressed up except for her bare hands.

“Mindy! Where are your mittens?” she said.

Mindy stopped and looked at her mother, “I lost one.”

“That is the sixth pair this season!” her mother exclaimed. “You’re not to go outside until you search for your lost mittens!”

Mindy frowned as she closed the door and headed upstairs to take off her snow clothes. “I’ll never find them all!” she said. “But I guess I’d better try or I won’t be able to play in the snow.”

So determined Mindy started her search. She looked around her room: under her bed, in her closet, in her dresser and under her pillows. She spotted her toybox in the corner of the room. She emptied it, and all the way at the bottom was one yellow mitten.

“I found one!” she exclaimed, and put it with it’s pair.

She continued out of her room and went to her brother’s room. He was downstairs playing video games, so she carefully crept in.

“I’ll never find anything in here,” she said observing the pigstye around her. She looked under his bed (yuck!), in his closet, in his dresser (most of the clothes were on the floor anyway) and saw a box in the corner of the room. She looked inside only to find it was a bunch of things she was missing! Her doll, her pony toy, her favorite bouncy ball and all the way at the bottom: a green mitten. She took the box in her room, returning her things to their proper places and put the green mitten with it’s pair. Two down, four to go.

Mindy went downstairs to search some more, stopping to look out the window at the snow still falling. I have to find them, she thought. So she headed to the living room, where her brother was playing his video game.

"Get out of the way!" her brother yelled as she walked in front of the T.V. screen. She gave him a look.

She decided to search the couch. She looked underneath, behind and on top, and started picking up the cushions. She found some pennies, a pen and a piece of candy, but her brother was blocking the last one.

"Can I look under your cushion?" she asked him, longingly.

"Will you leave me alone?" he asked.

"Yes, I promise!" she said.

So he got up, and she pulled up the cushion, and there was a red mitten. She grabbed it and ran upstairs to return it to its match. Three more.

She thought for a minute, of where to look next. The car! Mindy ran downstairs and into the garage, and opened the door of the mini-van. She looked on all the seats and in the trunk. Then she looked under the passenger seat. She found a stick of gum, a quarter, and a pink mitten. Excited Mindy jetted upstairs to complete the fourth pair.

She hopped down the stairs as her mother was calling her for lunch. The day was passing by! She ate her sandwich and thought about where the next mitten might be hiding. After she finished, she went to her room and looked in the corner at her book bag. She took out her homework (she had time to do it later!) and dumped the contents of the bag on the floor. She picked up a book that looked particularly lumpy and opened it to find one blue mitten. This must be enough for me to go outside, she thought. She put it with its pair, put on her snow clothes and ran downstairs.

The sun was crossing the sky and she still had one mitten to go.

"Mom," Mindy exclaimed, "I have found five mittens, can't I play in the snow now?"

"You've come so far Mindy," her mother said, "I bet you can find the next one if you tried. Til then, you are to stay inside."

Mindy sighed, and took a seat next to her brother on the couch. She scratched her head and thought to herself. Where would I put a mitten? She put her hands in her coat and felt something soft. She pulled the object out of her pocket: a purple mitten! Mindy grinned from cheek to cheek as she ran upstairs to grab the other purple mitten.

She came downstairs and ran up to her mother with her purple-mittened hands.

"I found them all!" she told her mother. "Can I play in the snow now?"

"Of course you can!" he mother said. "I'm so proud you found them all. Now try not to lose them, and you can play in the snow all day next time."

"I won't!" Mindy promised, and she ran outside to build an igloo, a snowman, and make a snow angel. When it was dark, Mindy came in and placed her pair of mittens on the heater to dry as her mother made her hot soup and cocoa.

Mindy never lost a mitten again.

This is a painting I started in the early summer, just messing around with 'abstract colors' and texture. I don't usually paint in acrylic, let alone on canvas, but it was fun to mess around with no solidified color and the defined lines of the tree that I did with a Staedtler pen, which I didn't realize WASN'T waterproof like Micron pens. The fox I just added yesterday. I knew I wanted a fox, but I didn't want to mess up the canvas by just painting on it. So I drew it on a piece of paper, and then made a copy, cut it out and then used gloss medium to adhere it to the canvas. Then I painted it. I tried to take a photo that really gets the colors right....and I couldn't. It's so much prettier in person. The orange specs in the trees are actually a metallic gold, and the white flowers are a pearl finish.

Anyway, it was fun for me, so enjoy =)