Boo Boo Kitty and other fun things.

My Little Leopard Dipping bowl up there to the left made it into this super fun treasury this morning on Etsy so I'm happy about that.  It is a gorgeous sunny day here in Northern California.  No fog which is awsome.  The wind is blowing and all of the fall leaves are racing through the air and getting kicked up by the car tires.  It is really beautiful.  However, I did have to chuckle a bit as the leaf blowers were trying to work around in the wind.  Seemed a bit counter productive.

I still haven't set up my little kiln yet but I did get a small slab roller.   Woo hoo, thanks, Kathleen.  It should be perfect and is just the right size for my little basement.  It is almost set up and soon I can get to experimenting.  I bought a couple of hand carved wood Indian block stamps from Amanda James on Etsy and as soon as they get here I am going to try them out on some slabs.  I can't wait, they are transit right now. One more thing, I'm also part of the Etsy Mud Team so I'm excited about that also.

I have quite a few new pieces out of the kiln and will get to posting some images after I get some of my grad school applications sent out.  Priorities, you know?  Have a delightful fall day wherever you are, or spring if you are on the other side of the world.

My Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Yesterday we cooked the traditional turkey and all the trimmings for the meat eaters.  However, I have recently decided to go vegetarian so I had to come up with something else for myself.  Who knew that tofu and brussel sprouts could be so delicious?  I got the inspiration for this dish from the blog 101 Cookbooks.  The recipe is called Carmelized Tofu.  I adjusted it to use sliced, roatsed almonds because I had no pecans and I also tossed in some dried cranberries and sesame seeds. Then I substituted maple syrup instead of brown suger.  I made the sauteed brussel sprouts and put it all on top of some nice, fluffy quinoa with a splash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos and a little sesame oil.  Oh my gosh, I was in heaven, and no turkey, mashed potato food coma!  Now if I could have stayed away from the pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream that would have been another story altogether.

Other fun stuff going on includes my new (ahem, used) little kiln baby.  I drove out of town on Wednesday to snatch her up.  I can't wait to try her out.  We have the 220 outlet in the laundry room but the room is so tiny only the washer and dryer fit in there.  So, alas, I will have to get a small shed or run the proper electric out to the garage.  But, oh I am itching to try her out!

Last, but not least, my Black Friday/Cyber Monday Etsy sale is in full swing and is proving to be pretty successful so far.  Most of the work in the shop are one of a kind items, so if there is anything you would like to purchase you might want to head on over there and get it before it gets snapped up.

20% Off Sale in My Etsy Shop!

Shop homemade for the holidays on my fabulous handmade pottery Etsy store!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Winter Wonderland

My reindeer tea bowl made it into this lovely Etsy Treasury today! This treasury was curated by Kristin Gabriel of Trunk Couture.  Have a great Saturday everyone!

Constructing Elements

Lately I have been thinking about how to make some mixed media work so while I was working on photos for my website I decided to start playing around with compositions of different ceramic elements. 

For now I am just using the ceramic elements but I felt like a kid again playing with my building blocks.  It is rather freeing to allow oneself to play like a child.  Now my mind is thinking of what different kind of elements I can add or structures I can build to put these in or hang them on or any number of crazy and fun things.

I am suddenly feeling a trip to the scrap yard coming on and my hands are itching to get a saw into some wood and metal and start creating!

Maybe some yard sales if it doesn't rain tomorrow.  Hmmm...mind is racing.

Magic in the Park

I've been pretty busy lately.  I would like to say that I have been super, crazy busy but I don't think that I am being that efficient with my time.  Either that or I have unrealistic notions of just how much I can fit into each day.  Or it might be that I spend too much time surfing the internet.  Hmmm...   Anyway my grad school applications are coming along nicely and I have gotten the worst part of it out of the way.  I have been making work to add to my portfolio and I have been editing images so that I can update my website. Since I have been spending a lot of time in either a dark room in front of the computer or in my basement studio I decided that I absolutely HAD TO get out of the house and out from under the trees and get into some the wide open space with sunlight.  Of course I had to grab my camera just in case.

I headed up to Upper Bidwell Park which is one of my most favorite places to go.  It always holds some kind of magic for me no matter when I go.  But this time was a special treat.  I'm not sure that I have been there before when the leaves are changing.  It was absolutely gorgeous there this afternoon.  Everything had that special glow about it.  I really felt like I had entered into some kind of fantasy realm.  Everything was entrancing. I was only going for a short drive through the park but it ended being a three hour walking photo shoot.  It was very relaxing and inspiring and now I feel like I need to go back everyday, all day.  Sigh, too bad other things have to get done.  Maybe I'll bring some of these colors into my work?  I have to justify more research, you see.

Oh the enchantment of it all.  I'm kind of lazy when it comes to writing creatively although I do have my aspirations.  This makes me want to sit down and write poetry.  I love the images but they don't recreate the smells and sounds like the hawk talking or the owl hooting or the silent, delicate flight of the bats skimming over the lake.  I didn't want to leave but the sun was going down and it was getting dark and colder by the creek so I decided I would end my adventure and try to get back home and back to work.  But this is what I found when I got back to my car...  And that meant I had to stay for another hour.  Smile.

 

 Yes, a truly delightful day!