Author: Lee Thomson

partner, parent, artist, knitter, sailor, cyclist, sketcher, house painter, set designer, safety officer, itinerant equestrian, kite flyer, questions?

happy rug dance

August 30, 2008

My kids were treated to their mother cavorting about the living room singing "I got my rug I got my rug I got my rug…" I was worried it wouldn't make it before the end of the day Friday, and since UPS doesn't deliver on weekends or holidays that would mean the room project was on hold until Tuesday. How to make my head explode! But it is here, and and going to be installed, and on Tuesday I am headed on the long trek to Ikea to get stuff to hold up tables.

My large daughter very kindly helped me paint the trim in the room Thursday. We agreed that it was a classic example of a project that had spiraled WAY Out Of Hand, in a mom kind of way. Really, all I wanted, at first, was a new table to work on.

I'm holding onto that thought.

And going to find Al so we can do the rug thing.

painting, rugs, furniture, sorting and filing

August 28, 2008

Two coats of paint on all the walls, even the one that was white already. Now the trim is so old and grubby I can't leave it, so today I invest in a quart of high gloss white and go after the windowsills and door frames.

I'm waiting for the rug I ordered from Flor.com to come so I can put it down around the edges while the junk is consolidated in the middle of the floor. Then I can move the right pieces back out to the walls, and continue weeding the collection at the same time.

I think the I'll use the Ikea kids' storage concepts, because they are the right height and I can find boxes to fit into the slots. That should free up some space on the wall behind Al's desk so he has places to put robot parts. Eventually we will both fit into one room. At least, that is the plan.

workroom, chaos to ….

August 26, 2008


workroom, chaos to ….
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The top shows how the room started at the beginning of the year. I pulled an astonishing amount of stuff out of it, and realized that I couldn’t bear the wall paper. So it is down to bare walls (as you read here earlier) and I primed it today.

If I start tomorrow early, I should be able to get two coats of paint on all the walls.

Then all I have to do is decide which of several possible bench/storage ideas will be work. Actually they would all work. I am aiming for some happy balance of done, not blindingly expensive, and easy to work with. I think it all requires a trip to Ikea.

further adventures

August 25, 2008

The biggest problem with peeling off wallpaper is that there is so much stuff left to after that.

I took yesterday off to play with dyes with the FAWBBS (Fiber Artists with belly button scars – it is complicated) We experimented with various types of tied and clamped resists, which reminds me that I need to go take stuff out of the washing machine because I forgot yesterday. I was so tired and stiff I felt about 80 years old. Fortunately I was closer to my real age this morning. I managed to get paint and primer, ride one horse a lot, ride another horse just enough to decide she has a sore back, and after some digressions return home to face the walls.

They got washed today. All the old glue is scrubbed off, the walls are smooth and lovely, and ready for priming.

Excelsior!!

Adventures in home decorating

August 23, 2008

no pictures, because I can hardly sit up at the computer to write this for you (all 10 of you – hi Mom! hi Andy!)

I woke up bug eyed and managed to persuade my patient husband that we needed to remove the wallpaper from the room that is our shared workspace. I rented a steamer, and got good advice from the grizzled veteran behind the counter, and came home to address myself to it. Patient Al came in and helped, and it turns out that with patience, the steamer is a magical and faintly zen tool. When you move slowly enough, the wallpaper peels off the wall with the ease and grace, and hardly any scraping. We had giant swatches of paper (many of which reglued themselves to the floor). We thought we'd be lucky to get one wall done. We managed to move EVERYTHING and get three walls done, which is better than it sounds because the 4th wall had no wallpaper.

The walls are plaster over lathe, and I can see some horsehair in the plaster. The house isn't that old – we think 1917 – 1919 roughtly – but apparently it predates sheetrock.

We still have to wash (and wash and wash) the glue off, and prime and paint. And half the room contents are on the floor of my bedroom waiting to be put back once paint and new table and new shelves and drawers are installed. I have gone from a torn apart room that was workable, to a completely blown up room that is utterly unusable.

And yet, I am oddly cheerful. And exhausted.

Jul TIF done

August 17, 2008


Jul TIF done
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

It may not be done, but I am done with it. I have the next month to finish on time, and some other projects that have been percolating so long they are banging on the inside of my brain begging to be let out.

I was thinking about dividing the piece in half, and realizing how permeable a half way mark really is. While Xeno talks about halfway to a fixed point, half way through a year feels much less identifiable, because of the following years piled against it.

I used light-reactive paint to cover half the image, and used rope to mark the wavy boundary between here and there. I like the way the paint spilled beyond the border, and the stitching works into the overflow, showing again how permeable the boundary is. I cleverly combined a need and a desire – I needed portability, and desired to use handwork to make the stitches.

headed north

July 29, 2008

My brother is a year-rounder on Monhegan, 12 miles off the coast of Maine between Rockland and Damariscotta (you know, go down one of those thumbs to the very end, and catch a ferry).  Since the weather is dreadful much of the year, and I am a stone cold wimp, we only visit in the summer, when it is lovely except for water issues. We are headed out tomorrow for the long drive and ferry scrimmage. We’ll touch down for the end of the day around 4:00 pm, having left before 7:00 am tomorrow morning.

For all that I dread the trip, I look forward to the island part. I stop wearing a watch, and we make sure to catch the sunset at least once, and we let the kids stay up late, and we walk everywhere. The island is tiny, about one mile by two, and all the houses are on one side. The rest is hiking trails and coastline.

I’ll bring pictures.