Monday, February 25, 2008

Torn Paper on a Snow Day

The winter season has been very challenging this year. Along with all of the freezing precipitation come "snow days", when we wake up and realize it's not worth risking life and limb to leave the house unnecessarily. What to do? I look through gardening magazines and plan for Spring and watch out the window for a while. I soon realize it's a great opportunity to start a home improvement project, a "free" day to get things done. Just like the cobbler with shoeless children, I never seem to find the time (perhaps, desire) to work on my own home. Thanks to this lingering winter weather, I'm now on a total home improvement binge.
My current project is hanging torn paper. Like working a giant jigsaw puzzle, there's something very satisfying in the process. Several years ago my partners and I ran across a great method for filling in odd pieces in a hurry. When working with a partner, it's helpful to have one person tear and apply the paste several pieces at a time while the other person is hanging. The "hanger" yells out names of states for the shapes he or she needs to fill in. A long narrow Tennessee, or a mitten shaped Michigan, a Florida, etc. It makes the whole process go much faster and it's actually fun. This election year in particular, (with all the color coded state maps), even the geographically challenged can picture the shapes needed. Give it a try. Oh yea-- if you're yelling out Colorado, you're doing something wrong.