The Ink-Pot and the Palette

Even though I don't come here very often anymore, and I don't know why that is*, I just renewed my paid account. I also don't know why that is.

I think it's the hope that someday, the warm community spirit of more-than-140-characters will come back to me, and to this place. It seems worth the thirty-five bucks to hang on to that hope for another year.

And I just saw this, which reminded me about my account expiry notice:



*it's at least in part, I suppose, because embedding other media here seems anachronistically iffy.

You might remember the great bedroom remodel by means of which I transitioned from working into retirement beginning around this time last year. Once the big work was done, I had a punch list of little finishing details to take care of, and I kept doing them and thinking okay, now the remodel's done.

( Starry starry ceiling. )

The ice must breaking up or something, because I made a thing today, after months of making no things.

I got out my heavy old sewing machine, a magnet bristling with pins, my shears, my cookie tin of threads, and an extra task light, and put two pieces of fabric together.

( Just a big rectangle, but still. Making a thing. )

Both of my sisters came over yesterday and helped me assemble furniture. This may count as an even greater act of generosity than helping someone move house.

Both of them were calm, thorough, and patient, and even if I could have physically managed those giant wardrobes alone (I couldn't have), the task would have defeated me mentally without their help.

( We got about 80% of the way there. )

The electrician is here with his assistant, installing outlets, switches, and light fixtures. Furniture delivery is scheduled for tonight. My sister is coming over tomorrow to help me start assembling it.

I should be able to move my bed back in by Monday. After that, it's a gradual process of cleanup, garage sale, fiddling, reorganizing, slipcovering, probably four more trips to IKEA for bits and parts, and the slow return to normal*.



* Normal includes resuming my online life, finishing Restraint edits, and hopefully getting tired of 2048.

I can't decide whether the best invention ever right now is kneepads, utility knives, audiobooks or ibuprofen. All of these have played major roles in my life the last few days.

( It's a good tired )

The drywall contractors dropped off 20 sheets of Sheetrock the other day, and it's been lying on my sad, sad bedroom floor, conveniently wrong side up, so last night I magicked some of it up.


That's my one and only professional portrait photo, which I had done for my 40th birthday and have had hidden in the back of a closet ever since. I wrote a little history of my time in this house on the back.

The writing is "The Jewel" by James Wright, my forever-favorite poem:

There is this cave
In the air behind my body
That nobody is going to touch:
A cloister
A silence
Closing around a blossom of fire.
When I stand upright in the wind
My bones turn to dark emeralds.


A couple of vigorous fellows came at 8:30 this morning, and had my drywall installed by 2:00. (One of them looked at my Sheetrock enhancement and asked, "What's that?" and I said, "Just some magic," and he kind of nodded, like, yeah, I've heard of that. Apparently people do this kind of thing all the time. Who knew?)


(Look at all my light fixtures! \o/)

Taping tomorrow morning, mudding tomorrow afternoon, sanding on Wednesday, and the contractor says I can paint by Saturday.

Just a fly-by at the end of a long day of obsessive project-detail-absorption, to share my new wall painting idea.

A few weeks ago I was testing a pastel color-meshing technique. It wasn't quite right, and two things caused me to change direction. First, a couple of people commented that the finish would look better with some metallic silver in it. And second, I'm getting new walls! Color-meshing is great for disguising damaged old walls, and I don't really need to do that now.

Silver metallic paint tends to read as gray, so I started playing with pearl powder. Then I thought, ooh, how about stencils?

I discovered Cutting Edge Stencils and fell in love with one called Birch Forest.

Here's my initial--and, I think, final--experiment.

( Winterwood )

Apologies to everyone in my circles for being a bad online friend over the last several weeks. I'm entering the freaking-out portion of my bedroom project, and my level of absorption--not to say obsession--is extreme. I hope to return to regular communication very soon.

( Ready for the onslaught )

Well, one room's empty. The other one is taking up the slack.

( The view from where I'm sitting )