wood you be my friend?

I painted these wooden doll pins to be play people for Malcolm about a month ago. They have eventually evolved faces, but otherwise they remain very simple in nature.

When I first conceived the idea to make these my thoughts were going all out: hair, clothes, personality. But when I finally sat down one afternoon with the paints and pins, I gave myself some guidelines: keep it simple, and finish before M'boy wakes from nap. Because, I knew if I didn't they might never happen. Keep it doable. I didn't worry too much about perfection - partly because the sponge brush I was working with wouldn't have allowed for it and partly because perfection was not the point.

We are having some fun playing with them. This morning Malcolm was feeding them "eggs for breakfast". Some times he uses them as drum sticks, sometimes he covers their heads with a singe red mega block (this probably needs a picture for you to get the idea), and sometimes he puts them to bed and then says "wakeup".

Side note, one week ago today Dave and I celebrated 5 years. Just as marvelous and mysterious as witnessing a fern unfurl. Love you Dave.

meditations on a peel of wallpaper

I'm getting back in the grove of posting here again, so even though it is 9:40 and I feel I could crawl into bed right now I'm going to put out a few words just for practice sake. Today I spent Malcolm's nap time peeling, scraping, and stripping down wallpaper in the side entry. There's more to come down there, and in the kitchen, and in the nook, and in the bathroom, but at least I gathered up the courage to start it up again. Entering the house greeted by partially peeled light house wallpaper is not feng shui. In fact it is like walking head on into a wall of blocked energy. Even though it is still in the partially peeled state as I write, at least I gave part of that wall a nudge towards a new direction. I put on some music and as I started peeling away, shedding the layer, my mind went to that relaxing place where it can wander where ever it will. Do you know that feeling? Don't you love it? When the task at hand is so mindless that it actually can become mindful meditation? Could it be called productive zoning? Although I can't recall them now, it sure felt like I was having some deep thought at the time. Funny, right? Can you see me now in sneakers on my step-stool, scraper in hand, humming along, tapping my toe, wallpaper falling to the ground, thinking "deep thoughts"? That was me. What do you want to bet that future wallpapering sessions will have lost some of that magic? That's okay, I picked up this month's book club read on CD from the library today so that should help me get through. And speaking of feng shui, there was a Feng Shui for Beginners CD on display at the library that I threw in the basket, why not?, I'm mustering up all the help I can get. So now I ask you for your deep thoughts, what's your favorite kind of productive zoning?


{See the light houses?}


(About the ferns last posted, if you want to hear Oliver Sacks thoughts on ferns and time and all sorts of other interesting things give this a listen from Radio Lab's 1st season. Become a Radio Lab fan today, you won't be sorry.)

fern

{unfurl - May 1}



{unfurl - May 27}