a tale of 2 vases....and mugs!

Both of these vases turned out IDEAL. You will hear me talk about the Japanese influences of my early training in college, which had NOTHING to do with sculpting little doggies or piggies on bright and fun pots later. So, like I say, I work in 2 different directions depending on the day's mood....
the wife saw the black one in progress and was like "OH!  I love big and round pots!" and the one on the left is part of an ongoing ...what?  Series?  Quest?  To make the perfect vase to give to the Quaker meeting we attend.  Quakers are utterly plain in worship and meetinghouse decor.  There was quite a bit of discussion amongst members about an offer to make and install a stained glass window in the new building, and it had to be put in the hallway because it was agreed that stained glass would not be right in the space for worship.

SO, I have made many sacred vessels before, for Lutheran and Episcopal communion and for Jewish services and Unitarians too.  But what would you give Quakers?  And a member suggested a flower vase.  She happens to supply flowers from her garden some weeks, a small glass vase of which is the only color and decoration in the whole building.

What that means to me is that I am unexpectedly nervous about offering a gift to the meeting and having it rejected, as too fancy or....what?  On the other hand, I am sure as heck making a LOT of these particular vases...trying to make one that seems perfect enough :)

 
Monkeying around with mug shapes and glazes too....

(new pottery by Gary Rith)

if you want to piss off a cat...

Put a sticker on his head!
The wife came home from a rummage sale with that sticker. She got a scale!  We have never had one!
By coincidence, we had weighed ourselves the day before ona doctor's scale, and the rummage sale scale, surprisingly, gave us the same numbers.
Scales can make you obsessive!  Like, "I wonder what I weigh after lunch?  Before dinner?  if I take my shoes off?  Keys out of pocket?  After dinner? NEKKID FIRST THING IN THE MORNING?
Remarkably, for me, I was surprised to find that after dinner fully dressed is FIVE POUNDS heavier than first thing in the morning NEKKID.
More surprising, and this will please the vet, Spike the cat really HAS lost weight.  He looks good! Big, but good.  18.5 pounds now instead of 21.....

"I am accepting donations of TUNA.  Anything else, you can fuggedaboutit!"


"Love.  Please.  Give me LOVE.  And some of those corn chips! Why am I tied up?  I can't get at those corn chips..."


This is why she is tied up.  We have gotten too LAZY to get out our table and chairs....have an awesome day!

the prettiest puppies, pussycats, pottery and potatoes you have EVER seen in your life..

You have to admit, it makes for an amusing title, right?

(new pottery by Gary Rith)
Kinda nice stuff from the kiln this week, hmm?  Me and my cheese slicer, going NUTS on the pots....

In OTHER news, I babysat Yogi again Friday.  The young pup has got ENERGY oh yes he does...Penny will romp with him in our yard then be like "lemme in, I need a NAP!".  Luckily Yogi has an active first grader at home to play with.  They can exhaust each other!  Yogi is the most excellent and well behaved and loved guest.
Soon?  The washtub?  Will have tomato plants....


What can you say about Spike?  he has lost weight, ahem, on his, er, DIET....


We had some leftover peanut noodles and I ask the wife "what to go with?" and she is like
"your spinach and potato dish!" and I made yellow rice too ****
Some might say noodles, rice, potato is a lot of carbs.  Others might say there are not many pork chops and cheesecake in that menu.
I think some people demonize carbs and eat a lot of pork chops.

Have a great weekend!


Gary's yellow rice
we get something like this at a favorite Mexican restaurant, and it is not hard to figure out what they do, and IMPROVE on it!

2 cups veggie broth
1 cup rice
tumeric, cumin, hot pepper flakes or hot pepper sauce
____
-cook all that together, as you normally do for rice
-add stuff!  If you put in diced bell pepper, onion, whatever at the beginning, it cooks in, flavors things, tastes like a million bucks!  You can also add drained, rinsed etc. black beans for the last few minutes of cooking, until warmed through

Gary's Indian potato and spinach
-oil
various Indian spice:  mustard and coriander seed, curry powder, tumeric, garlic, ginger, garam masala, all that good stuff
-a diced onion
-4 large yukon gold or whatever potato cubed about 1/2- 3/4 inch pieces
-1/2 cup + water
-hot sauce
-2 handfuls baby spinach OR 5 oz. frozen, thawed and drained

-warm up oil in your hot skillet or big cook pan (it will need a cover), add seeds and spices and stir for a minute or 2, then toss in garlic, ginger, onion, saute several minutes
-add potato and water...you always keep adding water to make a good sauce--heat pan until simmering, turn down to low and cover and cook, stirring and checking that there is still enough water from time to time for 15-30 minutes, until potato bits are done--hot sauce to taste if you want
-toss in spinach and stir around gently for a few minutes, finished and ready to eat!

beagles and back to busy business!

(pottery by Gary Rith)

First thing first:  I had lined up recently finished pots to dry in the sun Thursday, and you can see it resulted in an amusing pic, right?  ALSO, I loooooove this sort of mug shape...love pigs too...love light green celadons, of course, and love all those things TOGETHER especially...and as I have said, this is a new glaze recipe for me.  I discovered that groovy things happen when you dab denim blue under it.  Huzzah! CUTE and perfect! (you are thinking "I swear Gary has 5 glazes that all look the same, LIGHT SPRING GREEN!" and there is some truth to that....but if you were looking at them in person?  You would see the, um, slight differences in each...you will remember it is my favorite color, and we painted our house that color last summer, my second favorite color being that blue there...which is the color of our house's window trim!!!)

Anyway, I tell my pet sitting customers this:

"I pride myself on never going anywhere, being available and reliable, always ready to say YES! "

and having walked Nook and Yogi many times on the PRETTIEST Thursday ever, I got the emergency call whilst finishing the tasty frosty brew yesterday evening:

"GARY!  Yogi needs you again this evening!  What were you planning? Can you do it????" and there is ONLY one answer to that

"  YES I can babysit Yogi this evening.  I was going to finish this tasty frosty brew and walk Penny and bake banana bread.  I will STILL *brrp* walk Penny with Yogi and bake banana bread! No probs...." and he came over and we had an awesome time running around in our yard....whatta clown, huh? And he and the wife look so cute together too in our backyard....

Have a great day and weekend!

busy business and raining cats and dogs....

Somewhere along the way, as I was telling Maggie and Katie yesterday over the frosty brews, I went from being an artist with a house full of dogs and cats who never went anywhere and was, you know, a little, how do I describe myself?  WEIRD.

THINGS have changed, as I was telling the wife, jam packed interesting days.  We no longer have a house full of dogs and cats, just one of each, and there are days like yesterday when I end up SQUEEzing the art into the little corners.  Because my sideline gig as a pet sitter?  HAS EXPLODED.
I think it is hysterical!
OK, so yesterday?  I knew I had Scoop the cat (see pics below, more on her later)...but at the last second Yogi the fluffy dog needs me AND Nook the other fluffy dog needs me...plus my own dog and cat.  It went like this, I SWEAR TO GOD:

5am-breakfast!  maple walnut scones, GAWdamn that is good.
then blog, DUH!  First thing after breakfast every day... nearly 7 years of blogging first thing every day, TOP THAT!
6 something-walk Penny the beagle 1 1/4 mile
6 something again:  message: Yogi my neighbor's dog will need me to walk him 3 times, can I do it. "SURE! Of course!"
7 something-SUDDEN surprise message!  I need to see Nook downtown at noon...oh sh!t, how do I work that in?  Well, I DO.
--run a couple miles myself
8-breakfast number 2, a peanut butter sandwich, I am flippin' HUNGRY
8:30 a load of laundry
9:00--dishes, feed Spike who will murder me if I put off his breakfast any more, clean his cat box, make hummus and cucumber salad for our lunch and dinner
9:00 something- 10--luckily, there are only 6 things on the throwing list for the moment...so, some experimental mugs and more elephant gear
10--walk Yogi
10 something-take my own dog out
11--Yogi again!
-11 something--a quick lunch, I am starving....
11:50-in the car, driving to see Nook, 13 minutes away
12:03--celebrating with NOOK!  He always dances and sings when I arrive! Then we walk to the bank...I have to multi-task and combine jobs and errands, right?  So, Nook comes with me into the bank where he gets a treat and a hug from the manager...Nook is well known at the bank....
1:10--tearful goodbyes to Nook, in the car dashing home to
1:23-YOGI!  Whose family needs him ready by 1:45....we walk in the sunshine and I pass him off to his family then....
1:50 feed Spike and Penny, my own pets! And walk Penny a mile...holy CRAP I am suddenly tired...eat an apple and a yogurt, not feeling tired anymore, but it would be understandable if I was tired, right?
2 something--dash off to see SCOOP the kitten! More on that later
4:07--I had told Maggie and Katie, who live on the same block as Scoop that we would be in the 'hood and....well, I would have a box of cookies for them if....and they were like C'mon over !
4:08  crack open a Sam Adams summer ale......my pedometer shows that I have covered nearly ten miles so far.....
5:38--the wife drives us home...Spike is hungry but we ignore him and have dinner on the back deck with the dog....remember the cucumber salad and hummus I made in the morning?  CLEVER .  PLANNING. Tying up the dog so she can't eat our dinner, also clever.
6 feed Spike, walk Penny ....
7:30 GOOD GOLLY finally looking at messages and then
9ish falling asleep

BUT WAIT there's more!
4 am wake up today feeling like a million bucks, take Penny out back, make a cup of coffee, check messages and HOLY CATS there is already a ton of orders...Bronwyn needs a dragon mug, Heidi comes over later for a piggy mug, ship something to San Fran AND Catherine in Germany needs, I swear I am not making this up, 11 items so far (I think) and Paul around the corner from me left a check on his back step, could I bring over an elephant mug? (YES)

Plus Yogi needs 3 walks and Nook needs me at midday AND we need to go to the bank and finish pots and throw more and apply to a show and take pics and put away laundry and make dinner and...
THEN I TIPPED my coffee over onto my filofax....20+ years I have used that filofax calendar and never dumped coffee on it....all my lovely lists.....
we will both be OK :)

OK, Scoop?  Scoop is a new customer, belonging as she does to my best friend Raymundo.  Many times you have seen me and Raymundo  and his skinny legs running together...well, now I am his cat's sometime sitter.
As I told the wife:  "I love Scoop so much, what an easy gig! I hope he asks me to play with her again!" and I'll be darned, Scoop needs me again Saturday....

Scoop was, around this time last spring, the size of a thumb, crying in Ray's yard.  The vet guessed she was from a stray cat mama in Ray's street, about 3 weeks old.  They bottle fed her and named her Scoop because she has HUGE fron paws with extra toes!  She is probably the nicest most fun kitten I have ever met (that is also true of Raymundo--one of the nicest people I have ever met, truly, and I am not just saying that because he has a mancave with a huge home brewing facility and a bar and a Harley motorcycle too...it is one hell of a mancave...).  So, Scoop grew up healthy and loved, and here she is....

Scoop is quite acrobatic..I don't know how she does that sitting up like a human thing...

"Gary we have seen your elephant gear before" they say "BUT WAIT!" sez Gary

(elephant pottery by Gary Rith)
Remember 2 days ago I showed the big elephant watering can I made for the wife?
Sure, you have seen the cups, sugar bowl, whatever....but I am making the creamer-pitchers differently AND I have added a color scheme to the elephant stuff:  dark denim blue glaze...with polka dots!
Yesssssssssss...more pots from Gary's land of cute....


You are probably thinking "the father of my children needs AWESOME Gary ware for Father's Day! new items for sale now at my etsy shoppe!