Paper work

I hope this season of giving, eating, laughing
brings you much joy!

Two Old People Wrestle Dog!
Every year at Christmas we receive newsletters from our
friends. I love to read them, and this year, as we got our
letter composed, I thought it would be fun to take a picture
with our dog. She is afraid of cameras (who knows why) so
it is a struggle to get her in a picture unless she is asleep.
This is our attempt at coolness!
Our news letters will go out late this year because daughter
April still has our address book. She took it last summer to
copy addresses for wedding invitations.

I have been experiencing an obsession with making Origami
boxes! Once I figured out how to make them, I can't stop!
These are made from gift wrapping paper. I just found some
handmade paper at COST PLUS, and am excited to make
more of them.

Beauty As a Function

These pieces are going to Brown's Gallery today. I make functional pottery that is unique in its beauty. It is not supposed to look like mass produced pottery that is found in department stores. This Sake/Brandy set is pleasurable to hold, as well as having visual beauty.


This is a wine goblet set that is also going to be in Brown's Gallery for sale.

Post Thanksgiving

Images Out of Sequence! After Thanksgiving day Paul took these images for me that I can use to sent with my entries for art shows this year. There was discussion about if the photograph is confusing with a grey background or a black. Some organizations prefer a format with black backgrounds only. I don't agree there will be confusion of what is object and what is background, but I'm not the judge!


On Thanksgiving Day, and the day prior, I was busy in the kitchen with preparations for the meal. I didn't take any photos. These are a couple of Paul's of Cooper and Kelly (AKA "the vehicle") Cooper did all the driving!

Cooper is working hard to master balance. Until he can do it himself, an adult has to walk him around! A few times he actually stepped 4-5 steps before his daddy caught him. Cooper was so excited that he screamed and clapped, as did his audience of Mom, Dad, Grammy T and Grampa Ed. Jabez followed him around too. She is anxious for him to be big enough to play. She has played with some neighbor kids, and she knows the potential for fun is in this tiny package of a little boy!

Cooper also enjoys any electronic gadget that has buttons to push. Here, he was writing his Autobiography. In it he tells about how wonderful his Grammys and Grandpas are. His other favorite gadgets include cell phones, tv remote controls, and laptop computers. This is the new generation learning "computer logic" in his infancy!

Cooper is also trying to master feeding himself. I'm sure he'll get better, but for now, even Jabez our dog, got tired of eating Cheerios! There was quite a collection under the table.

At Jolts and Juice in Caldwell on 10th street near Linden, April makes me a white chocolate with mint, soy milk, sugar free and decafe! She always says I take all the good stuff out of the coffee drinks.

Presentation is everything, as they say. Who wouldn't be happy to receive coffee from this smiling face!?

The saga of the 70 mugs to Sidney Australia continues! April allowed me to put up a display in her store to sell the mugs. I am selling them at $10 each. I should at least be able to get a return on my supplies. It was a labor of love regardless of the results. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving too!

70 handbuilt mugs to go to Australia! Just kidding!

I had an order for 70 mugs. The order came from Sydney Australia.
As emails were sent back and forth I became wary and eventually realized the
order was a scam. A call to the Better Business Bureau of Boise confirmed my
suspicions!

Meanwhile, I have 70 mugs waiting for the final glaze! They will be displayed
and will be for sale through the holidays at Jolts and Juice in Caldwell.
Thanks, April!

This mosaic is for auction in Sun Valley for the yearly
National Alliance on Mental Illness fundraiser.
The closing Gala Reception will be on Sunday, December 13th from 4:00-7:00

This is Bad!!!

Okay, the leaves lost their green color!!! Doh! This is bad!?!


My mother came to visit. We planned a trip to Utah for Cooper's 1st birthday and his Baptism. Before we went, we had a couple of days to visit. We made these place mats with some fabric I had for some pillows I never made. We put the fabric to good use.

Daughters Erin and April came to Utah with my Mom and I, for Cooper's B-day.

The Birthday Boy and his daddy. Sorry, I was so excited, that all my photos are blurry. You can see more pics of Cooper's big day on his parents blog.

Ed went out of town Saturday, (Oct. 24) for a whole week, and I went shopping! I found this cast iron tea pot (with enamel coating inside) at Ross, for $2.99!!! I don't drink much tea, but at that price, how could I not? When I got home I re-examined the sales slip, to congratulate my great deal. OMG, the sales slip said "$21.99!!!?" Wait that's funny,(WTF)!

As you can see, I have been trying to find the right tea. I'm committed now! I must find a use for this new tea pot! Oh, and I MUST have my glasses on my nose so I can correctly read the fine print. Sucks to get old.

This is our winter garden that we planted 10 days ago. We planted seeds of Arugula, Spinach, lettuce,White and red Raddishes and Swiss chard. I know that the lettuce will be okay for most of the winter. We hope to harvest some raddishes before it gets too cold for them to grow.


Raddishes


I have entered a local art show in October, and will finally get to show my sculpture, "a boxful of pre-memories.


These are some beads for my "build your own" sculptures for Thousand Springs Art Festival Sept 26-27. This will be our last show this year. We went to two other shows this year, but I had 15 sculptures at the Initial Point Gallery in Meridian City Hall building in June.

2009 Garden

This is a blossom on the butterfly bush. The flowers are really a little bluer. I love the orange center with the light purple. And I wish you could smell these flowers...So sweet!

I've heard a lot about "square foot gardening" this year. You make small manageable 1 foot square plots and plant them with different seeds. We are looking forward to next year's season and we are going to plant vegetables in each of these tubs that we had left after April and Zach's wedding. Ed started to rearrange some plantings that we already had there and found a large bone in one of the tubs.

This is Jabez with her bone.

When my mom was here in July, we made chokecherry jelly from the trees in my yard. That really gave me incentive to make more jam. I made plum jam, and plum/pineapple jam.

We planted two Asian Pear trees last year (2008) in the Spring. This year they set fruit which was a surprize to us. They are sweet, crisp, and juicy!

This tree had to be propped up because the fruit is too heavy for the thin branches. Below is an experiment. We planted fennel seeds. I have a lot of recipes that call for fennel bulbs. I know you can get them at the store, but these are easily grown.

Last Fling of the Summer

These are out of sequence, but I wanted to have one picture showing that the firewood I tried to pick up was "too much attached"!

Fly fisherman, Ed and his gear, which includes a custom made fish net that my son Paul and I gave Ed for Xmas last year.

Well, Ed and Jabez (dog) and I went camping this weekend for one last fling of the summer. Ed needed to get in some premium float tube time. This photo was to show the lake we stayed near, and the many mountain ranges behind it.

Jabez and I wandered the hillsides exploring. There are many tall, bare trees where we go camping, and also many mossy covered trees.


The fall colors were out, as well as the usual summer annuals, mostly lupine.

There is a dragonfly in the center of this shot, but I was really interested in the pattern of light in the water.

Here is Jabez content. She had at least 5 walks a day!

This is what one looks like after fly fishing!

The danger of mistaking a cooking aid for bug repellant is shown here. After a while we just got used to saying things like, "Are the eggs sticking to the pan? Just put a little bug spray on it!

We were on top of the world. We were at the crests of all the mountains. It was a beautiful weekend.

The lake, as viewed from our camp spot.

I am getting pieces ready for the 1000 Springs art festival the last weekend in September. The process starts with making slabs of clay and texturing them. Then shapes are cut from patterns that are made from plastic containers.


The cut shapes are made three dimensional by joining the sides. For these conical shapes, a circle was cut, then in half. Joining the sides gives the pieces strength to stand up. In this position the pieces can dry a little before putting two pieces together.


When the pieces are pretty firm, but not quite "leather hard," I cut a hole in the top and bottom of each piece, and I adjust the top and bottom where it was cut, to make it level so the pieces will stack straight.

When the pieces are dry, they are loaded into the kiln. The purple flower you see is a white clay that has a lavender underglaze on it.


These pieces have been bisque fired already. The final phase is glazing the pieces and putting them in the kiln for the final fire. Then the pieces will be packed up and set up at the art fest in September!