Thankful

I have not had the time to post this last month as I was feverishly producing for the Mistletoe Market.  I can report that the show was a great success again this year with a lot of Angel & Santa Hat ornaments finding new homes.

The ornament display when I had forgotten to bring the Christmas tree...

The rest of the booth.

I brought the tree the second day and placed it on the other table.

I had some great feedback about the ornaments.  Some thought the angels should have bells inside to go with the famous quote from It's A Wonderful Life.  Some thought the Santa Hats should also have bells, jingle bells.  I am not sure if I will do either, but they are not bad ideas.

Here is a close-up of the Santa Hats.

Santa Hat ornaments, introduced 11/18/2016

Thanksgiving was a fabulous day filled with my family and delicious foods.  This evening I am house-sitting & cat-sitting for a friend.  Tomorrow is a long day at work.  Black Friday and we will also be staying open late during the Tree Lighting Ceremony on the Village Green just out in front of our store. 

With all of that going on, the return of kidney stones is not a good thing.  Hopefully they will sit in one spot and not move. 

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving (what is left of it) and a Merry Christmas.  May the New Year bring you peace and happiness.  (I do hope to check in with you before then.)

Happy Halloween!

Here are the finished pumpkins!  Only 4 of them are ones I made, the rest were made by my students!

Progress!

I have been busy with a lot of house & pet-sitting jobs lately, but I am trying to squeeze in some creative time in between to build stock for the Mistletoe Market.

I have a kiln load of angels bisque firing at the moment, and included in that firing are some pumpkins!

The pumpkins second from the left in both rows are mine, the others were made by 3 of my students.  I have since made more and will have some available at Mistletoe Market.

A customer came in The Mercantile yesterday and asked if I had a new design for ornaments this year (in addition to the angels), so I am working on a couple of ideas there.  I am also working on some leaf ornament samples for a class I will be offering in a couple of weeks.

I had a scare today while Dad was out, I looked out the front window as a Pendleton Police car pulled into our driveway.  P A N I C!!  It turns out that some kids called 9-1-1 and would not let the operator speak to an adult.  And it was from a cell phone that showed it was about where our house is.  I sent him to a house a couple of doors down where I know they have children.  There aren't many on our street.

So, that is about all I can report on today.

The latest to be completed...

I have been working on creating for stock and for Mistletoe Market again.  Most of what I have at the moment are my angels.

First, what they look like after the first firing but before glazing and assembly (no, the pumpkin and the bowl will not change into angels...):

Once they are glazed and fired again, I add gold highlights and the heads and halos.  There is a hook at the top to hang on a tree if desired, but I have a lot of people say they leave theirs out on a shelf all year round.

9/29/16 update - B3, R1 and P2 have sold.

I do have more I am creating, after-all, I did sell over 200 of them last year (YAY!).

The angels are one-of-a-kind, no two exactly alike.  I create whatever the clay tells me to when I pick it up.  If anyone requests anything the guidelines are: size (larger/smaller - none are over 3" to the top of the ceramic robes), arms or not, and color (from the four colors I routinely offer - Blue, Purple, Red or Green - as shown in photo).  I can also personalize with a name in gold at no extra cost.  Other than that, it is whatever my hands create, I cannot even have people choose wing style, because they are what they are at that moment.

The cost is $20/angel with shipping additional, if needed.

I wanted to update everyone and let you see some of the results.

Off to a new pet-sitting job this evening... an adorable Westie!

Christmas in July Iris Folding

I said that I would show the completed samples of the Iris Folding cards I designed for the Christmas in July class.  Well, here they are!

Well, after seeing the patterns I drew, did you think the cards would look anything like this?  It was so much fun creating these for my students.  I love how they all turned out but, I do have my favorites, which one(s) are yours?

My Dad's 85th Birthday

Yes, my Dad is turning 85 on August 15, 2016!

If you are reading this and want to send my Dad a birthday card, 

his name is Bill Earl and you can send it to him through me.  

My address is PO Box 173, Pendleton, SC 29670

I just thought this would be fun to see where the cards come from.

Thank you!

A breakthrough!

After having a gazillion ideas running rampant through my brain, I finally was able to create today.

First, I graphed out the patterns for my Christmas Iris Folding class that is on July 30.  (I will post the samples once they are finished... waiting for some papers to arrive.)

 

Christmas Iris Folding 2016

 Once I had that finished (Yes, I know the photo is upside-down, Instagram did that to me, and I just left it.), I actually was able to create 6 new clay angels!  In the last several months I have only been able to manage 3 total, so 6 is a really big thing for me!  I do have other ideas swimming around in that grey matter in my head, but this is the first step and the rest will come in time.

Clay Angels 2016!

No, it's not world peace, but I myself cannot achieve that.  It is a big deal to me to break through the creative block.

I had an extra day off yesterday.  We were planning to close the store on Saturday for our trip to Atlanta to the wholesale buyers market.  Terri was wanting to leave earlier on Friday to get to see some showrooms, yet it was not a good idea to have the store closed 2 days in a row.  So, I proposed that Terri, Ben & Phyllis go and I stay home and keep the store open all day Friday while they got an early start.  Our friend Marsha spent the day with me and we had a good day!  It was worth me not going to Atlanta.  Yes, I missed going, I haven't been since last July (I was so sick at Christmas that I stayed home to continue recuperating in January.), but it was the best decision in the long run.  So, what did I do with my extra day?  I spent all the money I have been saving for months from my house & pet sitting.  And I got something that should last me a long time... 55,000 miles... a set of 4 new tires for the Equinox.  I usually have been buying used, but the price was right for a set of new.  Oh, and I also got an oil change.  I know, I really know how to party, don't I?

This week has been a series of emotions.

• Tuesday marked 5 years since Mom passed away.  Sometimes it feels like she has been gone forever, sometimes I can hear her voice in my mind and almost feel her presence.  
• On Thursday, my little sister from my college sorority sent me an email because of this blog.  ((( Leslie! ))) I have not been in contact with her in about 15 years or so.  I was so happy!  She is a special lady and hearing from her made my day!  
• Then, on Friday, one of my best friends through high school sent me a message request on facebook. Another special lady who helped me break out of my shell all those years ago.  ((( Jacque! ))) I have not been in contact with her in over 20 years.  Another day made!  
• In among all that I sent a care package to my niece Sammy who is undergoing breast cancer treatments.  In it were scarves that Verne gave to me as well as ones his mom gave to me.  I also made her a pair of earrings and sent some other little somethings to let her know I am thinking of her and wish I could be closer.

Well, enough for today, I need to get some other things done this evening.  I am grateful for the break in my creative block :~)

Me again :~)

Checking in, I have nothing new to really share, but I wanted to make an effort to post.

I start a house & cat-sitting job after work today... and when I finish next Tuesday morning, I go to another one Tuesday evening for 3 days, home for a day after that and then 5 days at another.  I leave that one on one day, and go to the next one the next day!  Busy time of year!  But I love it!

The only drawback to the pet-sitting is that I am afraid to bring my clay.  First of all, I don't want my clay mess in their homes and secondly, yet just as critical, cats and wet clay items do not always mix well... I remember that well from Max.

Well, I need to get back to some things I am working on.  I don't even know if anyone reads this anymore.  But I felt I needed to try to make a habit of posting again.

It's been too long

I could make up all sorts of excuses for not blogging like I used to.  But there is really only one reason: I got out of the habit and it is tough to get back into it.

I work 6 days a week at our store and as much as I love our customers and what we have to offer the world, it is still a lot of energy used and one day to recuperate is not always really enough when there are so many other things that need to get done that day as well.

I try to spend what time I can creating with clay.  Last year I had a wonderful run with some clay angels I was making (I plan to make more).  Each one is different and I can not promise that I can make one to anyone's specifications.  What happens when I pick up the clay is what happens.

All of these have since sold...  :~)

I have also been doing more of the house & pet sitting than I was before.  Right now I have 5 clients (friends & family) that I help out.  Three homes of cats, one of dogs and one with both.  In fact, today I am finishing up at one of the homes with cats and later this week I head to the other.  I already have times booked in July, August & September!  This month alone I think I will only get to sleep at home a total of 7 nights!  Dad doesn't mind, I usually still have dinner with him and I stop in every morning to get lunch together for work.

The extra cash sure helps when I need car repairs and really came in handy when I got sick over Christmas.

Nothing earth-shatteringly serious, just a really bad case of Bronchitis set off by a sinus infection.  I was out from work for nearly 3 weeks and missed Christmas with family.  I was cat-sitting at the time.  That threw me into a pretty deep depression that I am still trying to climb out of.  I have come a long way, but still have a way to go.  All I can say is that I felt nearly totally deserted.  I had two visitors the first week, one from a friend with bags of groceries (thankfully!) since I had run out of food.  I got sick the night I moved in.  I had planned on eating with family for Christmas & the day after.

I learned recently that my niece (well, technically, my late ex-husband's niece) has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Cancer does suck!  But, she is young and has a wonderful family, friend, medical support system.  And, from what I can tell, it was caught early.  I have a package of things I plan to send to her this week.  It is difficult being so far away.

On the creative horizon, I am doing a lot more hand-building these days.  I still love my Ebony porcelain, but I am exploring other avenues. Among the hopeful projects:  Toad Houses, Soap Dishes, more Angels, Santas, Christmas Trees, Buttons, Pendants, and more... at least the creative juices have started flowing again!

Until next time... I will try to find at least five things to be grateful for every day.  For today: 1. My general good health, 2. family, 3. friends, 4. faith and 5. a good station on Pandora!