Home Stretch

 Mistletoe Market at the Anderson County Museum is one week from today!  EEEEEEEEEEK!

That being said, I am 95% sure I am ready.

Some of the hand painted wood ornaments I will have this year.

This piece is sold, but I can take orders. It is larger than the rest and the tree is attached to the snowman.

This piece is also sold. Again, it is larger and the tree is attached to the Santa Gnome.

A few of the friendly snowpeople.

A close-up mug of the newest friends of the batch - Hedgehogs!

Some of the trees (and a few cardinals in the background).

I am excited. I love, Love, LOVE this show! 

The organizers are wonderful, the customers are too! 

And the other creative folk showing are fab-u-lous!

I have most items that are finished already priced, some packed, some in progress still, but I only have 2 - 3 more kiln firings, one glaze firing tonight, and maybe just one more glaze firing, I think it will all fit. If not, 2 glaze firings, I have time for that. 

(And time to add the gold and other acccents, sign and price them.)

I wish all of the exhibitors at the show a wonderfully fun and profitable time!

I thank the museum staff and volunteers for all they do to help this be such a great show.

See you Friday!

Keeping Busy in Uncertain Times

Here we all are, in the midst of a viral pandemic COVID-19. Our schools (including colleges and universities) here have been closed for 2 weeks and are closed at least until the end of April. All bars are closed, restaurants can only do take-out, curbside, or delivery. (It has forced some to temporarily close.)  People are encouraged to self-isolate, keep a minimum of 6' between, wash their hands, don't touch their face... stay home as much as possible. The big art festival (43rd Annual Spring Jubilee) has been cancelled. Parks are closed. The governor has said no social gatherings over 3 people. Things that are unheard of in my lifetime.

We have not been mandated to close our store. We try our best to practice social distancing while in the store.

We decided to offer some creative outlet for families suddenly forced to be at home. And we made up a few varieties of greeting card kits. We sell them for $3 each and they have been a big hit! Right now, we have Easter cards in the mix, but we will be adding Mother's Day cards next. There are also some all-occasion types.

They have been extremely popular and I spent a few hours this morning, here at home, cutting parts for more kits.

We have shortened our hours at the store starting tomorrow, but we have had very good business, thanks in part to the card kits (Boredom Busters AKA Virus Card Kits) and to virtual shopping for customers and either curbside pick-up or shipping.

I also took the hose and rinsed the pollen off the Equinox. I know more will be more there when I get ready to go to work tomorrow, but I got a lot off today.

May you and yours remain well.

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.

Celebrate Clayton

As much as I really wanted to participate again this year, my obligations to my family's business has taken much of my time and energy.  That has made it difficult to create enough pottery for the show.

I will miss all of my fabulous customers and the hospitality of the Clayton community.

May all of you have a successful show.

Sun & Sea Creative Bead Chat Challenge 2012

I have been part of a group on facebook called Creative Bead Chat.  Bead lovers from all over share their creations and tips and all sorts of things.  They are a wonderful support group, personally as well as creatively.
I was chosen by Random.com to be one of the recipients of the beads for the Sun & Sea challenge.

Here is what I started with.  I pulled together some things I thought would go well with the ceramic, polymer, shell, copper & glass I was provided with.

My own textured & patina'd copper sheet & wire with the challenge goodies.

 The first item I made is this double strand copper necklace & earring set.
I took 1/3 of the sheet of copper & made it into charms.  The bail of the donut is embellished peyote stitch.  The copper ear wires are hand made by me.  The beautiful copper clasp provided is on the back of this piece.

Ocean Breezes

Ocean Breezes Earrings

 This bangle was next.

Shell We Dance

 Adding some pearls, aquamarine & sponge coral helped set-off the beautiful components provided.

On The Boardwalk

 The glass beads were beautiful enough that I wanted to spotlight them on these hoops.

Sunrise

I had so much fun creating with the items supplied by some very talented bead artisans.

My pottery is still my first love, but beads and creating things with them come in a fairly close second.

Thank you to all who organized this challenge!  And thank you to all of the others who have participated.

Feel free to comment below, I won't know what you think (good, ambivalent or bad) unless you do.  And, I don't bite!

Please visit the other blogs that have participated in the challenge.

Most of all, have fun!

http://www.yayjewelry.blogspot.com/

http://cswdesignsbyhehe.blogspot.com/

http://alice-dreaming.blogspot.com/

http://blog.aimeesjewelrytreasures.com/

Come and check out the blog on Sunday July 1, 2012

This Sunday is the reveal for the 

Sun & Sea Challenge 

from the  

Creative Bead Chat 

facebook group.

All of us have created things with a wonderful collection of beads from fabulous bead artisans.  

We then photographed them and are posting to our blogs.

The blogs to check out (besides mine - of course) are:

http://www.yayjewelry.blogspot.com/

http://cswdesignsbyhehe.blogspot.com/

http://alice-dreaming.blogspot.com/

http://blog.aimeesjewelrytreasures.com/

Have fun!

I'm here!

I've been busy working with my sister and our friend Phyllis to prepare for a big card making class we are putting on this Friday evening in conjunction with the Heirloom Anderson Rubber Stamp & Paper Arts Festival being held at the Anderson Civic Center this weekend.  We have 20 people signed up!  It should be LOTS of fun.  We are having it at New York Pizza (can't seem to add another link - grrrr) on Civic Center Blvd..  The students get pizza & salad with their class as well!
I WILL post photos! (Both here and on the store's blog TheMercantileStore.blogspot.com)
Today, my favorite traveling bead wholesaler comes to town for me to pick beads for our next trunk show!  MMMMMMMMMMM - BEADS!  It should be an all day event.  Then our local rubber stamp club (The Crafty Crew) has it's monthly gathering at the store.  It will be a LONG day, but a VERY enjoyable one!

This is not one of the cards we are making, just one I made in a class last week

Hungry?

While the family is off visiting other parts of the family, part of my vacation to-do list is to keep the outdoor plants from frying in the sun or wilting into oblivion with this heat (today 95 with a heat index of 102!).

On Monday, I was really actually looking at the plants as I watered them, and noticed that some of the Italian Parsley looked as if it had been picked.  I figured Mom had taken some with her to my brother Rick... who doesn't LOVE to receive a fresh bouquet of parsley???

Then, on Tuesday, MORE was gone!  I began to think someone was snitching our parsley!  Then I looked closer...

These caterpillars were munching away on the parsley

You can see that now (Wednesday) they have eaten quite a bit!

Not just one...

And not that one and this one...

 In this photo, if you look closely... there are 5... but that's not all...

More than this!

They were EVERYWHERE!

As I looked around the plant, there were a total of 10!

I looked them up in the Butterflies of the Carolinas book that Mom has... I wanted to be sure that they were not destructive (to anything other than the parsley, that is...)...

They are the caterpillars for the Black Swallowtail Butterfly!

WHEW!

Then, I went about my business and let them eat the rest... it was mostly defoliated already... I can always get Mom a new parsley plant...  I took the photos late yesterday, and they had munched all night and there isn't much left... some of the caterpillars even left the plant to go find something else yummy.  (And yes, the plants in the carrot family - of which parsley is - are a common food for this caterpillar)  







I am keeping an eye on the basil now... though the book says nothing about them liking basil...


OK... so now I have gone back out in the sweltering, muggy heat and looked at the parsley again... the pretty caterpillars are all gone now...

And so are ALL the leaves!

Are those little green round things on the top of the soil what I think they are??? 
(see the new sprout coming up on the left?)

And here is one of Mom's miniature roses... just covered with blossoms!

The LOOT

This is the first of Marsha's pieces that I won...

And this is the second one...

And this is the custom Worry Stone I won  from Kelley....

The quilt magazines and fabric item I won from Jill have been designated for her to send to my sister Regina.

I unfortunately did not win either of the last two giveaways I entered, but there were sooooooo many more entries that my chances were really slim.

(I'll plug in the links to these wonderful artisans tonight, when I have more time...)

Under Construction...

I am finally able to find a little time to work on my blog design.  I set up several new pages, but am still working on filling them with the content I want.  I'll take a little bit of time, between work, family, creating, and sleep.  I just got photos onto one page, but am having a little trouble figuring out how to add captions to them.

In time, they will be somewhat like I envision...

New Look

I love this new option from Blogger to customize my blog even more!  I had fun playing for a little bit... now I need to get back to making pottery!  Have a great day!

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.

Hole in The Bead Gang

Last week the Hole in The Bead Gang had their Holiday gathering. It was a nice relaxing afternoon of food, fun and friendship.
One of the activities each year is the surprise gift box. In order to have a turn at opening the box, someone has to roll a 6 on the die. The stipulation is that you must be wearing the work gloves in order to open the box. That person works on it until the next person rolls a 6... The first photo shows Dee working on the outer box, then Phyllis has one of the inner boxes. The last photo shows me with the next to last box (nobody said you cannot use your teeth :~) ). In the end, I was the one to read the note inside the smallest box, so I won some beads. I will post them tomorrow after I take a photo of them.
As always, it was a great gathering of wonderful and talented people.
I hope to post sooner next time... (darn Facebook takes up too much of my computer time...)
Please show thanks for the things in your life and have an enjoyable Thanksgiving day.
I am thankful for my family, my friends, my health and my ability to pursue my creative side.

A Mountain Get-Away

About a week and a half ago, we (Mom, Dad, Terri, Rodney, DragonBen and I) went up to the mountains to spend the day with my sister Sue, her husband Jim, their children Bobby & Karen and their respective spouses Shelly and Matthew.
We were in the western NC mountains just north of Cashiers in a place called Lake Glenville.

This first photo is of Matthew, Shelly, DragonBen, Karen & Jim out on the dock fishing... Karen & Ben caught more fish that day with raisins than Jim did...









This is a view from the lower yard looking up at the house...














...and this is the spectacular view of the lake from the back deck of the house...

Art Camp Part I

I know... I have been remiss about posting... one of the reasons is that I was teaching clay at Art Camp last week.
It was the 6 - 9 year old group... there were 11 wonderful kids.
The photos were from Day 4... we made slab-built mugs and then glazed some pieces from earlier in the week.
I had a great time. And I give a lot of credit to my trusted assistant/camp counselor - Michael. He sure had a way with the kids...
Tomorrow I go in to load everything into the kiln for firing. With the humidity, thigs were drying slowly. After this week off... I have the 10+ group next week.