inspiration?

What inspires your creativity?
For me, I envision a piece and then try to create it, whether it is beaded jewelry, paper arts, pyrography, or pottery (to name a few). The finished piece does not always end up as envisioned, which is alright with me, I usually like it better.
Sometimes I see something that inspires me to create something else.
Right now, I am not seeing anything that inspires me to actually get in gear and create. And I have a show to do in 2 months! That is not a lot of time!
Yes, I have made this or that, and done a little, but then I lose all interest and momentum.
I have it set in my mind that I will spend Sunday morning creating. I re-set my work table so it is ready, my molds have been cleaned and my clay is ready and waiting... and once I get started, I should be able to do a little each morning and evening during the week (unless I have a class to teach at the store). Sounds like a plan...
One friend on Facebook suggested I try to slow down the rest of my life to find that creative vein again, unfortunately, that is much easier said than done these days. Someone else suggested I find a bigger shovel to dig myself out of this creative slump I've been in.
I'm looking for feedback. If you have any additional constructive suggestions for lighting the spark of creativity, please let me know.

Introducing Fred

You may remember me talking about Shadow, the cat we inherited that then adopted our neighbor. Well, Shadow is gone after a long and happy life. Now our neighbor has adopted a new kitten. The kit's name is Fred.
Fred was to be an indoor cat that went out sometimes... he has turned out to be an indoor cat that LOVES being outdoors, but comes in to take care of business...
One day, I was looking out the window in the sun room and thought I saw a rare White Squirrel in the tree. Some of the panes of the window are fogged, so I moved to see better and realized, it wasn't the White Squirrel at all (known to exist in Brevard, NC), but it was Fred.

Fred has taken a liking to perching in the TiTi tree to observe the bird feeder hanging there. I have seen him there almost daily since the first sighting.
I'm not sure he deters the birds too much though, I see them flitting around in the upper branches teasing him... and if they were on the feeder, I don't think he could reach them. Sometimes he looks as though he may be curled up in the branches to take a nap.

Happy Birthday to the Queen Bee!

Thursday is my little sister's birthday. This photo is from a few years ago on a sunny Spring day back in Alfred, NY, where we grew up. It was taken in our side yard.
Regina has a few photos of herself in the family archives where she is smelling flowers. I especially like this one because the vivid blue stripes in her shirt go so well with the sky.
She calls herself the Queen Bee because her name - Regina means Queen in Latin. And these days, she describes herself as buzzing from one project to another.
Regina is the youngest of our family and currently lives in western NY state with her hubby and her munchkin (who turns 5 this month!). Among her creative endeavors are quilting, rubber stamping, bead work, gardening and whatever seems to intrigue her at the time. All while working a full time job, being a wife and a mom and working on renovations to their house.
All of our family is prone to filling their days with things to do. I spent the day yesterday working (teaching 3 classes) from 9 AM til 9:30 PM with an hour for dinner myself. Terri and I often have days like that. Sue is Quilting, teaching quilting, working on Relay for Life and a bevy of other interests (her hubby Jim does most of the gardening and her 2 'kids' are married). Bill enjoys bicycle riding (serious riding!), camping and cooking as well as woodworking to fill some of the spare time he has, often sharing with his wife and 2 boys. Terri has her bead work, her illustrations and her Assemblages along with teaching a pre-school art class to help fill the little time she has to spare (her DragonBen turned 10 last month!). Rick had woodworking and Blacksmithing along with hiking, kayaking and all sorts of outdoorsy things to fill the time sharing most of the outdoorsy things with his wife Alice and their compilation of 3 teenagers.
We have each been known to hold more than one job at a time, even if one of the jobs is a full time one! But a good work ethic was taught to us as we grew up.
So, Happy Birthday Regina! I know I posted this a day early, but I wanted to be sure you saw it before your special day begins! LOVE YOU!

A South Carolina Snow...

Having grown up in a snow-belt area of Western NY state, snow should be no big deal to me. But we don't get a lot of it here.
As long as I have no place else I need to be, I am very content to look out the windows at the snow, it is a thing of beauty!
I did go out a while back and sweep the snow off the deck... a futile attempt to stay ahead of the snow... it had other ideas and 20 minutes later you could hardly tell I had swept!
They don't predict this to last, most of it is supposed to be gone sometime tomorrow...
The kids around are enjoying it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, I couldn't work on pottery for a while because of my finger injury (it is healing well - thank you!) and hope to get back to some tonight after dinner.
In the meantime, I created two Valentine cards for a Valentine exchange at Mom's Breast Cancer Support group meeting.
The first one (Purple & green) also included, as part of it's design, a lapel pin I made of copper & silver plated wire with Swarovski crystals.
The second one I made with a paper quilting technique.

I swapped the one with the pin & Mom swapped the quilted one. We had a wonderful time at the meeting, it is a wonderful group of ladies we feel are part of our extended family. So sad that cancer is what brought them all together. The sharing, caring, laughter and tears are so inspiring!

OUCH!

So, I was doing a bit of quality control on some mugs for my friend Matt from high school... I've been having so much trouble with these stoneware mugs lately. First, the glaze crazed so much the mugs leaked. Then, once I got the new, better glaze, I had troubles with them breaking somewhere in production. I have orders for 8, 6 for Matt and one each for Janie & Luke. I started out with 18. In trimming, I lost 6. In the bisque firing, I lost 6 more. I was down to 6, got them all glazed, they looked great when they came out of the kiln. I didn't get to take a good look at them for a day or two, too many other things going on. So, this morning, I went to pick one up, and it broke in my hands! The result is this lovely cut on my left ring finger. Or as the kind doctor at Urgent Care called it - a de-lamination of the skin... The worst part (aside from the 2 1/2 hours at Urgent Care) was the Lidocaine shot, IN the cut, to numb it! OUCH! I almost passed out! The Tetanus shot was a piece of cake! Yeah, I'm a woos that way!
Anyway, I now have to make MORE mugs to be able to get Matt his 6! But I have to wait until my finger heals over a bit first.

**No, this is not one of the 'fun' pictures I said I hoped to share this week...