slow and detailed

{on the happiness of making rough wood lay flat}

Measuring, cutting, sifting through heaps of lath; measuring, cutting, searching through piles of lath again. It's a repetitive sport, this thing I do. But I've been learning to be more selective, to pay more attention to detail, to work slower. I've now started spending more time with each strip of wood, deciding where it should go, where it feels right. I started hand-planing the back and sides of every piece, getting them straighter, making them more even. It's a heck-of-a-lot more tedious, sure, but now my surfaces are smoother and level, and the seams and cracks are getting tighter or disappearing completely.

It's interesting -- to slow down. Normally, I feel like at this point I should be speeding up, working faster, making more. But with this new slowness in me, I'm teaching myself, and it's a wonderful feeling to still know you can learn. I can always get better, and that makes me want to keep going.

And speaking of slow things, on the exact opposite end of that I've now joined something rather fast: Yes, yes indeed, I am now doing the Instagramy Thingy. Hooray! I know some have said it was about damn time I got a fancy phone. Well, I held out long enough, and the pull of the immediate has finally caught me. And the thing is... I love it! I love seeing everyone's photographs and I've been happily flooding the internet with a stream of pretty little squares just like an over zealous newbie should.

Find those little squares @arielealasko.