One fall, I was incredibly bored. It was a posting season, and
I was left to my own devices. The kids were little. We’d made Christmas cards, with
real twigs and leaves, slapped paint
footprints on curtain material. Had trouble
cleaning off their feet. I made so much fruitcake, that probably no one would
eat. I ran out of freezer space.
It was time for a new project.
We were living back east . Big house. Lots of walls. Lots of ceilings. I’d
been scouring DIY magazines on how to freshen up the house. I got a rip roaring idea from watching a talk show.
PAINT. Be creative with paint. And lots of it. “Don’t be
afraid to experiment” said the paint experts.
“Okeedokee,” I thought.
So I plopped the kids into the car and we toodled down to the
paint store. I bought them each a small paint brush.
My good friend, the paint lady, was very helpful .She said I had “artistic
flare”, and I should “run with it”. The newest thing was to sponge all sorts of colours on the walls.
I came home with cans and cans of pink paint, a can of robin’s
egg blue, a can of bright green, wallpaper, wisteria stensils, big painting
sponges and stir sticks. I gave the kids
a couple of those to go with their paint brushes.
Most of the rooms I had already covered up. I started with the
music room. I painted it bubble gum
pink. Had trouble with the corners and the top edges. Got some paint on the
ceiling. Didn’t have any painters’ tape. So instead I took a roller brush and a
long handle and smacked pick swishes all over the ceiling. Looked like pink
feathers.
In the kitchen I slathered water on striped wallpaper. Then smooshed
the pieces against the wall. Only half
way, with a big border. Then sponge painted the top half, over old
paint. I chose pink and green. It looked
kind of festive.
The kids wanted to sponge paint. I gave them newspaper to paint on. the wall. They got
pink paint everywhere. Then the cats walked thru it. Paddy pink paw prints all thru
the kitchen.
The kids just watched, at this point, and pointed if I missed
a spot.
Systematically, I worked my way through the house. It took me
10 days. I ran out of pink paint twice and had to go get more. My friend from the paint store, came over to
have a look. She was very diplomatic.
She was intensely interested in the wisteria room with the pink swishes.
She kind of stopped and
stared at my handiwork in the kitchen. “Creative,”
she warbled “ very creative. And you did this all yourself?”
She marveled at the striped wallpaper. A little crooked but
not too bad. Gave the eating area a jaunty look.
In the dining room and music room she made “Ohhhhs
and Ahhh’s” at the bubblegum world I created. “And no tape whatsoever?” she
said “None? Well, well well”
We found pink paint dried on the grand piano. So we spent the
afternoon carefully scraping it
off. Guess I didn’t quite cover the
piano at the time.
When she left and I closed the door, I saw her doubled over at
her car. I thought, at first, something was wrong. But no.
She was just laughing so hard she was shrieking.
The kids liked the bubblegum
house. I let them draw on one of the pink walls.
We had to live in it for a little while, then we were going to
sell the house and move. Got student pro painters to come out and give an
estimate. They craned their heads around to look at the wisteria rambling down
the wall.
I wondered if they laughed themselves silly as well. It was
pretty funny.
They covered the entire house in white paint. Covered up the wisteria., the blue, the green and all that bubble gum paint. All
those wonderful swishes disappeared like they never existed.
I never painted again……more’s the pity, cause when I go by the paint store I get this awful hankering………
Photographs 2022
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