hey P the chickens chickens so I live in
this house with my husband mark my
daughter Julia right now we have about
500 sheep to Border Collies a great
pyrenees and also about 25 chickens I
live in the town of Leiden which has got
about six to seven hundred people this
is New England and it's very very cold
here in the winter and it's very white
outside so I feel like color is so warm
and inviting and enveloping and cozy so
I just plaster colour all over my house
in textiles in paint colors paintings
lampshades that are decorated I don't
have anything beige in my house in my
living room I actually every wall is a
different colour they all go together
people would say that's just nuts and
psychotic but because they're analogous
they're close to each other in tones it
it holds it all together so my husband
and I have been married for 31 years and
you know like all first married couples
we had nothing and so our relatives
started giving cast-off furniture and my
table in my kitchen is from my mom and
dad and it's open ear and it's all
chipped and it's it's worn out but I
love it because it's 31 years of our
life in that table every time my mom
comes to the house she says you really
got to get that done again and I think
mom I like it I like the layers and
that's how I feel about a house let it
get dents and nicks and everything that
doesn't matter you can always fix it
so I got this phone call from this young
woman photographer and she said I'm
writing for this website called house
and what could she come take some
pictures and the story went live in
September and it started getting these
comments so every night I would go on
read the comments and it became clear to
me that people were terrified of color
so I was able to do a book proposal
about writing about color and write a
book and it was all because of the house
article I'd like to paint furniture I
don't paint really old furnitures
usually I used like a hundred year rule
I have a set of sideboard dining room
table in these great carved chairs and
they came from my aunt
Jenny when she died and nobody in her
family wanted him it was an ugly oak
color and I didn't like it but I put a
wash of oil black oil paint on it and
like the piece came to life just by
changing the color so I'm not really
afraid to change the color of a piece of
furniture if it's not working for me I
have my grandma's Hoosier cabinet which
I painted bright orange I had my great
aunts beautiful sideboard and it's
bright fire engine red it just it makes
a piece of furniture or a house have a
little more soul than something say you
just bought brand-new
I like the idea that I can get up in the
morning and she was all excited at the
breakfast table because she decided to
in the morning she was going to paint a
room in my mind like why the hell would
you ever do something like that but her
mind it's perfectly acceptable I would
be nuts to tell her she could or could
not do something you know that would
just destroy her creativity about four
years ago I decided I needed a dedicated
studio because I wanted to do some
teaching so there was a cement pad and I
was able to put a two-story addition on
it and in the basement is my studio the
walls in that room are white but when
you go in you don't oh you see is all my
things that are all over the walls
because everything I do is in color
I've always loved oil paintings but
couldn't afford them so I figured I
would teach myself to paint and just
started fooling around with it and so
now my house is fully oil paintings so
we raised pigs one year and my first pig
her name was pinky so I thought it would
be really cool to immortalize pinky in a
oil painting so I painted pinky the pig
and so many people have wanted to buy
that but I will not let pinky go I went
to my friend's house in Maine and she
asked me if I would bring some fabric
paint and paint her lampshades for her
so I didn't know what I was doing but I
figured what the heck I'll try it so I
put all these patterns all over it stuck
it on her lamp and then when I moved
here I was like man I am going to put
these things all over my house
so I get a white lamp shade with the
styrene backing and I use a textile
paint called Jack card and it's a
translucent so when the light comes
through it it almost looks like stained
glass and I put different colors pretty
bright around it
when you drive down the hill and you see
these lamps lit up it's just so pretty I
love this home because it's so old and
it has so much history I always wanted
to live in a really old house I was
raised on a small farm as the crow flies
it's probably less than 3 miles from
here you can't really see much more than
a quarter-mile half-mile in any
direction it's really nice having small
pastures small vistas and a mile down
the road it might be a totally different
thing look at him isn't he a looker I
wanted to raise my childhood as well she
has a certain amount of rural country
sense she'll never admit she does but I
can see it just during lambing season
once in a while we get a lamb that's
chilled or who needs a little extra help
and it was one time where it didn't look
too good listen that Julia's comment is
it's not dead yet so most little kids
wouldn't see are not exposed to life and
death like that I feel very lucky to be
living in this family like I have very
supportive parents and I really wouldn't
have it any other way so this house is
like a really nice family house
and you just walk in and you you know
you feel loved in it ever since we've
lived here we've had Thanksgiving here
so that's like one of the greatest
memories for me of this house is
everybody gathering here and having this
pretty you know raucous party in this
living room and then eating in the
dining room and now the kids are all you
know they're in college
moving away getting their first jobs and
but not gonna be able to come anymore
but I hope that when they go on and
their lives continue that they remember
Thanksgiving and aunt Kristin's house
you