Another Year

Today was my birthday. I had thought it was going to be dull and lonely, but it turned out much better. The day flew by. So many people sent me their love. I just want to say, Thank You, one more time, for all the wonderful wishes! I am truly blessed with the Best Family and Greatest of Friends. I know this is going to be a Excellent Year! And thanks to my best friends in Tahoe, Jennifer Haereiti & Te Kanawa Haereiti, for a delicious Basque dinner and great conversation. I tried Rabbit for the first time, it tastes like turkey.

So another year begins. I am looking forward to the rest of 2010. Wonderful things have happened so far and I just know that the second half with be even better. Things with my pottery have been coming together lately and I'm very proud of the work I've been creating. I've spent some time creating gifts for several of my cousins who have wedding bells ringing.

I've made several very nice Flower Pot sets. I have been experimenting with the shape, size and color of these groupings. My favorite of all sets is the one I recently made for my Cousin and his Bride. I chose to use a chocolate brown glaze and a crystal glaze called Outer-space. I think the combination is beautiful and I look forward to using it again in the near future.

I enjoy the challenge of creating flower pots with saucers attached. When you throw a piece like that you have to center the clay in two different locations and then pull out a bowl and a saucer. It's also challenging to trim the pot. You have to find a way to put drain holes with out gouging the saucer. I'm getting pretty good at throwing these type of pots and I just love it. I love the shape. I love that the saucer is attached. This particular pot is my new favorite, mostly because of the glaze that I used. It is called Fantasia and it has shades of blue, green and cream all mixed together.

Another style of flower pot I've fallen in love with is a square planter. I saw a video on Ceramic Arts Daily that showed how to create this style of pot. I've taken what I've learned and created my own designs. I really like the look of this particular square planter. I took a swirl stamp that I had made and pressed it all over the slabs of clay before I assembled this pot. I think it just looks so fun. I also love the color, I used a glaze called Organza-Orange.

I look back over the last year and see how much I have learned and how much I am loved by my friends and family. I look forward to taking what I have learned and transforming it into something that will take me through the future.

Bug Buffet

Let's face it, my car, The Turtle, is just DIRTY! I could see that it was covered in a layer of dust and pollen, but I didn't realize how gross my car was until I saw some birds perched on the hood and realized that they did not want to leave their bug buffet. I was walking up to my car the other day and I saw two birds hanging out on my car. I thought this was interesting because they didn't fly away when I opened the car door and got into the car. And then I thought it was strange that they still didn't fly away after I started the car, put it in reverse and started backing out of the parking space. What really got me was that they stayed there for at least 20 more feet once I started to drive forward. I thought to myself... WOW... What's up with the birds? Fast forward a day later when I happen to walk past the front of my car and it dawned on me.... OH! They were eating.... Eating all the nasty things I kill on my 70 mile round trip drive every day.

For weeks now I've been contemplating washing my car... but I don't see the point... By the end of the day the Turtle is gonna be dirty again and I would have just wasted $10 so that my car could be clean for 15 minutes. Last night was a good example of why I should not wash the car... I'm driving home from Pottery and the bugs are being splat on my windshield like it's raining. Is their a way to prevent this? I have yet to figure it out.... Got any suggestions?