Yikes

Panic, code red! Why are you panicking you say? Because I am a planner, its what I do, I show up on time, I pick out my shoes 2 weeks before I need to wear them, I RSVP the day the invite comes and I like things done way way ahead of time. And like Jessi Spano I feel like there's no time, there's never any time (don't worry I wont turn to caffeine pills like she did). My two biggest shows are looming on the horizon and I feel like I don't have one iota of what I want done.

It wouldn't be so bad but I had a huge ceramics disaster on Tuesday, the only day this week I will be able to do ceramics adding insult to injury. I went to sand the piece for show of heads and I broke it, in half. That's right ruined it. So I did what any mature, rational person does, I called my husband and cried, called my friend and cried, cried to the dog, ate some cookies and then made it again. I like the second one better, but that's a whole day gone to making something I already made. Time cost because I wasn't watching what I did.

It seems like I have months but really I don't, I have time I can squeeze in around work and my crazy life. Its time like these I have to remember to breathe, either it gets done of it doesn't. But when I look at the wrecked piece from show of heads, I cant manage to smash it yet, my heart rate rises and I feel the familiar warm fingers of stress inching around my brain and squeezing until suddenly I am crying and eating cookies again. The good news is I ran out of emergency cookies today, so I guess I am going to have suck it up and get to work, that or go to the store and get Nutella, which heals all wounds!

Opinions

You may notice some few time lapses in my blog here, its not that I am ignoring you dear readers I am just getting used to a schedule change at work, some more exciting things that will remain secret for now (no I am not having a baby, I am not sure why thats what everybody thinks when I say that, is it my budda belly?)  and most importantly getting ready for Artsfest! The summer is flying by and with the changing on the leaves comes time for me to panic about getting everything ready for my shows! So I could use a few opinions.

This is the Soulmates tiles, I am very pleased with the glaze its called Northern Lights and its one of my favorites! Do you think it needs a frame? I tend to lean towards keeping things simple which would be just putting the hanging hardware on it and selling it as is. But what do you think would a frame take it to the next level or be too much? And what kind of frame? This photo isn't great I am still learning how to photograph flat things.

This is a cat tile. I have tons of these! I had had hoped to do something more with them but I think I will sell them individually. That leads me to my question of how to hang them. One option would be as is with just the hardware, another would be put a frame of some kind around them as well. I don't really like the frame idea as these are items I can keep costs very low on and a frame would drive up the price. One idea would be to hang them with a loop of cute ribbon glued to the back, what do you think? Ideas, suggestions?Again I am learning how to photograph things that are flat and also things that have glaze, most of my work is red iron oxide so bear with me folks!

I am sure as Artsfest looms closer I will be asking for more thoughts on my work so stay tuned and wish me luck on getting it all done!

New Chucks

The past few days have made me very happy for a variety of reasons, number one I got a sweet new pair of Chucks for only 20.00!! Whats better than a good deal on shoes?

Well I suppose that would be a good day in the studio! I was also fairly productive on the art side of things as well. I snagged a coffee table for pretty cheap at an antique store (they also had an awesome talking ninja cookie jar it will be mine).  I can now start my monster table project that's been brewing in my head for months.  I am between a couple of ideas and cant wait to start. Even though its hot I gave up and loaded a kiln so I am excited to get some commissions finally finished! I also made this:

Which I call "Get Out of My Head" for the Show of Heads call for entries. I wanted to enter last year and just didn't have time and was happy to see its an annual show, what do you think of my new piece? Does it fit with the theme? Should I stick to what I know and use red iron oxide to finish it or should I go crazy and try a glaze or something?

Leaving it all on the side of the River

There is an unexpected thrill at taking off your sneakers and just leaving them somewhere, hoping they will be there when you get back.

This weekend Chris and I decided to surprise Vicki for her birthday. She and her husband are up in Ithaca NY for the summer, I thought I had been there before but I was wrong, but either way I found Ithaca to be very beautiful! Its a town full of sweeping mountain views, deep gorges and rivers. We spent most the weekend hiking and exploring. We decided to just take our shoes off, jump in the river and hike up and were rewarded with a waterfall that was put there just for us. We went swimming and watched the crawdads nibble our toes. Chris and I are not normally the kind of people that would take off our shoes and leave them somewhere, let alone jump in a river that we had no idea where it lead. It was nice to leave behind planning for a weekend and just do something, embrace adventure and life.

Its easy to get bogged down by the little things and I hope Chris and I left some of those on the side of the river too. It was great to see Vicki and Ray and have a little adventure. Now this weeks adventure will be buckling down and working, working, working until Artsfest!!!