spring is in the air

But at work it is Christmas. And Halloween.

Mostly Christmas and a little bit Halloween. I spent the entire day styling a mantle for a catalog that will come out this fall. I attached douglas fir pieces using putty, pins, wire. It took all day. When I get the knack of things, it will supposedly only take me a couple of hours to do this sort of thing (I asked). I later arranged books to look casually placed in another set. It's incredible how fast it all comes together. Then the client calls and tells the set designers what needs to be changed/adjusted. I'm still figuring out where everything is, and I'm afraid of ruining the final product. It takes me a long time. I re-did the garland a bunch of times. I have a million pin holes in my fingers and pine tree gunk (with dirt stuck to it) all over my hands. It will take thirty minutes to remove it. It's a dirty job. And I still (one week later) love it. Even more so now.

This morning I put shave foam in a mug swirled around to look like whipped cream. And then sprinkled cinnamon on top of it. Yum. Then I stuck two chocolate candies in it. I smelled like my dad's aftershave the rest of the day as a result. But that was OK with me. And I watched the soft stylist make the bed for the bedroom set. They use all this bunting to jack everything up into supreme cushiness. It's an art what they do. He makes a piece of fabric look like it's just thrown over the side of a chair in this very methodical way. I couldn't replicate it. The back of objects in the sets have tape and wire and molding putty holding everything in place. The back of my Christmas tree was a ghetto. It wasn't even lit. Everything just out of the range of the lens is this wonderful disaster. The mantle and everything on it, pure Christmas, just a darling domestic scene. A fireplace at a brick wall. But the wall ends. And it is lifted up on jacks to be the right height. And immediately outside of these parameters are screens and lights and ladders, and concrete and a bunch of metal carts filled with product, and wire cutters, props, glue, hammers, a thousand rolls of tape, a thosand pieces of evergreen, and everything I've gathered from around the building as tools, and sketches, and notes, and coffee cups, and dust. As well as all the debris that falls to the floor in the process of putting this thing together. In this case anyway, the mantle set doesn't show the floor.

And I'm dead tired. Hungry. My hair is a mess. And I need a bath..