of course, when you buy the frame...

The birthday gift painting was almost finished, so it was time to purchase the frame. I had ever-so-carefully checked on line and painted to the American standard paper size. Being a "belts and braces" type person I hadn't cut the paper but had painted over the measured edges so that there was room to crop a nice clean edge.

I hadn't counted on the frames available not matching the official standard paper sizes - oops!

Daughter and I looked hard. Then we both spotted the perfect frame. Common sense said take the smaller one, it was closer to the painting size. But the next size up... well... who could resist?

So, the long and short of it is that today has been spent extending the composition and painting out the splotches on what is now a white border around the image.

A few more brush strokes to tidy up part of the design, and the painting is ready. One little boy is already intrigued by the tiny images and bright colours, and crawls over to inspect it regularly.

Today I am grateful for little fingers clasping mine.