Birthday thoughts

I am very grateful for all of my family, friends and friends who are like family who have been there with and for me over my lifetime.  I would not be who I am today without all of you.

Life...

 ...it definitely takes it's twists and turns and keeps us on our toes.

I have been mostly busy with house/pet sitting this Summer and into Fall.  I am enjoying spending time with some precious pets that are well loved by their humans.

Sammi

Callie

Jet

And now, as November fast approaches, I am madly creating for the Mistletoe Market at the Anderson County Museum the 3rd & 4th.  It is the only show I do each year and I love it!

I have made more of the soap dishes, different textures, different sizes, soon to be different colors.  Of course, my angels are top on my priority list.  I have 50 of them in various stages of production.
(I neglected to take photos of the soap dishes and there are only 2 remaining.)

Most of my booth for Mistletoe Market 2017

Oooops!  I spilled half a bottle of Gold Enamel paint into my lap!

New color Angel Ornament for 2017 - Sweet Potato Pie

In my role as Secretary of our local Business Association, I have been thrust into a position of being in charge.  Our President announced his resignation (moving away) in February or March (effective in June).  Our newly elected Treasurer passed away unexpectedly.  That left me.  Thankfully, I have had another member step forward to take care of the checkbook and all of that, but nobody for the President's position.  Active members are difficult to get motivated.

The glazed bowls from A MUSE

Really quickly, here are the results of the bowls that were glazed (as well as a soap dish prototype).

Wishing all that celebrate, a very joyous Easter tomorrow.

Is it April already?

My, how time does fly!

I do have a photo of the completed heart pieces my students made.  They turned out beautifully!

I did not glaze mine yet, I have not decided how I want it to look.

Last month at our A MUSE meeting, I brought clay and everyone was able to make whatever they wanted.  I did bring a couple of templates for simple slab bowls if they wanted.  Terri decided to make a wall pocket and Nanelyn was the only rectangular piece.  Suzanne had the ruffled edge.

The ladies who were able to come to yesterdays meeting glazed theirs and I will fire after I am done with house/cat sitting.  I do promise to post a photo of their completed pieces.

We had a wonderful Spring Jubilee last weekend here in town.  But I am surely enjoying the first day off in 2 weeks today!

I have been trying out use of essential oils for a variety of things in life.  I don't know if they have kept me from getting sick, but I feel better because of them.  I diffuse them at night in an effort to help my sleep and they do seem to help.  I also have a diffuser bracelet that I wear with my favorite EO (Thieves).  Thieves is purported to help with overall health and well-being... I LOVE the smell of it!  Essential oils date back to biblical times and sometimes the tried and true natural ways do make more sense than artificial chemical derived ways.

Just a couple of days left to house & cat sit.  Enjoying the lake while I can.

And, before I go, here are the candy bar wrappers I designed and made for Easter this year.

Happy Wednesday!

I am getting into a creative groove and was excited to have a customer/student ask if they could make a dimensional porcelain (or other ceramic clay) heart wall hanging.  She showed me photos of what she had seen another artist do.

Well, not wanting to copy, and not having the photo in front of me (just my memory of what was in it), I proceeded to try to fabricate a hump mold to create them on top of... that failed me... so, instead I just used a curved piece of lightweight chip board, like gift boxes are made from.  In fact, I used some shirt boxes I purchased at the dollar store.

This was my prototype.  It is still un-fired in this photo.  It is difficult to see that it is a convex curve.  The ones in class are much more pronounced.

The glazes I ordered on the 4th didn't arrive until the Monday after the Saturday class... frustrating!  But, they couldn't have used them that day anyway.

I have made multiple test tiles to sample a variety of glazes and their compatibility with one another.  When those are done, the ladies can glaze!

Out with the old and in with the new

It has been a busy year.  I have been working at our store, which consumes 6 days a week, and I have been busy with house/pet-sitting as well.  My one regret is that I have not had as much time to put into my clay creating as I had wanted to, for a number of reasons, including not being home in the evenings while house sitting.  I also was just not in that frame of mind for a bit and it took a lot to get myself back into the groove.  I hope to not have that happen this coming year.  (I think I say that EVERY year!)

One thing I did do was make a family favorite treat at Christmas time: Strufoli.  It is an Italian treat, from what we can tell, it probably is Sicilian.  I had not made it since the 1980's!  My intention was to make it last year, but the very night I was planning to make it was when I got so sick.

It started with Mom's recipe:

This is not the copy we used to use in her cookbook, but it is in her handwriting.  The "original" was long ago stained with oils and probably honey as well.

Then, after mixing the dough, I rolled it into small balls:

Once I was about 2/3 of the way through rolling them, I started heating the oil in a shallow pan on the stove.  I also started to heat the honey mixed with the orange rind.  I added the surplus lemon rind I had grated for the dough.:

Once the dough had been fried to a light golden brown, I drained it on paper towels, along with some slivered almonds I also had lightly toasted in the oil:

Into the infused honey they went, and then they drained a bit before placing them in the serving dish:

Once in the dish, they were joined by the almonds (which had also gone into the honey bath) and sprinkled with colorful non-pariels:

It was sooooo good!  Memories of Mom & Nana came flooding into my head as I taste tested the first piece.  Brother Rick and his wife Alice were visiting over Christmas and he approved of the taste.  We also brought it down to our niece Karen's house the day after Christmas and our Sister Sue approved.  Karen and her brother Bobby and his wife Shelly also approved, although they don't recall ever having it before.  I was sure to leave some with all of them.  I then brought a bit into the store yesterday to share with our friend Marissa (who had made it before) and she liked it.  (Her 2 year old son loved it so much he stole all of the leftovers from her!)   I just wish I had known her mom Rose was going to be in the store on Christmas Eve, I would have brought some for her to try, it is one of her favorites.

If you have never had it before, it is not an overly sweet treat, the sweetness comes from the honey, but it is delectable!

My next project is to get a sample puffed heart wall hanging done out of porcelain for a class I am teaching in January.  And also pull out the Teapot mold so I can make an Ebonyware teapot for a customer who received one in the 1990's and had broken it.  It was such a surprise to open that email and read that she had looked to see if I was still out here and still making pottery.

May 2017 be a year of healing and of joys.  I was horrified at how nasty all sides got during the US presidential election.  I can only say I did not like any of the candidates from the time the first one threw their hat into the ring.  But we must persevere and try again next time to find a cast of candidates better suited to the job at hand.  I know some of you may disagree with me, that is fine.  If we all had the same tastes and same opinions, the world would be a very boring place.  It takes all to make things work.  And a lot of the politicians on both sides need to learn how to work together and compromise.  This all or nothing attitude has made the work of our presidents difficult for many years, through several presidencies.

Ok, my semi-rant is over.

Peace to you and yours.