small miracle = good omen?

You hope so anyway!  I am packing up for a fair, freshly cooked pots out of the kiln getting prepped and boxed and OH GOSH the second to last item BONKS the last item and it FALLS to the floor!  I examine both.  I ping the last item with my finger (high temperature stoneware pots ping musically like a bell when you tap them...but NOT if they are cracked...like a bell :) and last item pings musically.
You always feel like with a fair SOMETHING will go wrong.  Felt pretty awesome those guys did not break, makes me feel ...well, lets not tempt Murphy's law, shall we?
Have a look at a few items out of this last firing and catch up to you Monday!

EEEEK! Or, the dominos click down, one after another...

I am pretty compulsive (impulsive too) about time and what I have to do.  I work for myself, but set a strict schedule with goals and take it as an absolute FACT that I have to meet those goals in time.  I can drive other people nuts!  But I s'pose it is useful and appropriate for a self-employed person to be driven and disciplined?  I know how to make a list and move through it.  Or as I tell the wife, the dominos are lined up and I am clicking them down, one by one....
SO, my last fair of the year is at Nottingham High in Syracuse, a new event for me.  My best pals Christi and Dean (the guy I apprenticed to....28 years ago!) are both there.  The weather seems OK.  And, as you see here, I seem to have had a good glaze firing Thursday, and I just need to pack and load the car...so the last dominos of November and this week are in place, about to fall :)
In other news, I am already moving past this fair, of course, and wanted to make a robot bank! He is eating the coins! And a dragon bank!  He is eating the coins! Both will have corks underneath, and both took nearly forever to make, of wheelthrown parts....

the ten minute blizzard

My southern friends will not be familiar with blizzards of any kind, not even the ten minute variety!  Living near the Great Lakes clouds will pass through, dump on you, then move on....and the five miles away they will have had nothing.  Called Lake Effect.  Penny and I set out for a quick walk Wednesday and the snow came down so heavily for ten minutes we could barely see!  Then it was gone....and we were home and she found the cat and...well, the usual, called The Warm Couch Effect.

Time for a wee joke, then I need to glaze a huge number of mugs and start the kiln:
Q:  what do you call a snowman in summer?
A:  a puddle!

if you want something done, give a task to a busy person?

Ever heard that saying?  I feel that way.  I have a fair this weekend at Nottoingham HS in Syracuse.  My friend Christi will be there and ALSO Dean, the man I apprenticed to nearly 30 years ago!  One of my oldest friends, wow.
SO, like a busy little elf, I am making a LOT of stuff...I need to fire that sh!t...therefore all those pots drying right this second next to the laundry over the heater...going into the kiln today they are....
have an awesome day!



You may find you need this piggy bank...or some other lovely pot from my etsy gallery!

time warp Tuesday....the first cat and dog....

You know Jen leads Time warp Tuesday, a weekly look back at your old snap shots....I was poking around the studio and was looking at this picture below of our old dog Petey...what a DOG!  The top middle photo shows him Christmas 2005, a few months before he passed, actually, when he was nearly 19, did not see or hear too well, and he looks, as he was then, a little tired and confused.  Top right is him on the couch with our 2 black labs Buster and Jack, but bottom left, him youthful in the snow barking at something:  that was him most of his life.  We had found him living on the streets of Chicago on a 100 degree July 4th, 1993.  He was a stray with bite marks on his face, but I showed him a leash and he was like "YAY, I have a home and we are going for a walk".  He was super smart and wonderful, and tough as nails.  I remember him being charged at by a loose and vicious German shepherd and he chased the dog back to its own yard, and pooped on the dog's foot.  That is a junk yard dog from the south side of Chicago for SURE ;)
Above is the wife with my bachelor cat Sammy, whose eyes inspired the glaze mix you heard me mention in posts recently.  He was a big fluffy cat, and this is when he and I married the wife and moved into her apt...20 years ago!  He was a stray kitten on the streets of Chicago until I took him home Christmas of 1990 and he was very sick and nearly died then.... but recovered (he lived nearly 17 years) .
Both of these guys passed just after we moved here, and are out in our backyard pet cemetery....the wife looks great, hmm?



Cyber Monday...all last week and hopefully continuing, oh GOSH business is good and so much to ship....I am back and forth to the PO......you can shop with me too, of course :)

a final word about Boston terriers....

(Jessica's dog Josie)
You will recall that Sunday I was talking about how Jessica's husband asked if I could try to make Boston terriers, and it was quite a success...just like their dog Josie! My wife points out that the markings are, well, CLOSE but no cigar, and I am like, rolling my eyes, saying CLOSE ENOUGH!


In other news, as we do, Stev0 and I ran the snowy miles on Sunday...enough snow that you feel Christmassy and thank GOODNESS the fierce and beastly wind died down a bit....


You keep hearing me mention using the new glaze Sammy 2.0, which is derived my old glaze Sammy (named after his eyes) and WOW these teapots turned out nicely,,, anyway, hope yours is an awesome Monday!

it is all about the dogs of course....

(Jessica's dog Josie)


Jessica visits Tom's last week, a gallery in Binghamton I mentioned I had restocked.  Her husband is looking things over (seeing a LOT of beagles) and asks "I wonder if he could do a Boston terrier????" and I am like "I have NOT before, but I wonder too, could I?????" and it is one of those fun challenges and why YES, I do manage it indeed.....before and after here....

naturally there are still plenty of beagle items goin' on....have a great Sunday!

not really a dessert guy BUT....

You will be surprised:  with all the pie in this house (pumpkin and chocolate!) we made the very famous triple chocolate cookies Friday....to impress guests on Saturday, you see?  That is a lot of sweet stuff around the house...and as I say, I am not a dessert guy BUT the wife is....and I like pie for breakfast....I don't know if I had ever eaten chocolate and pumpkin pie for breakfast before....
in other news, we went to what is a city park in Ithaca, but in actuality a zillion acres of forest and gorge called the Mulholland Wildflower preserve or Second Dam on Six Mile Creek...it is hard to believe this enchanted forest and glen is right by our house (many enchanted forests are near our house) but it is dangerous in the summer when teens drink beer and jump to swim...and each year somebody gets hurt or dies...look below and the video shows why....anyway, have an awesome Saturday!

OUT with the gratitude and back to GREED as usual :)

Ever think about that?  One day of gratitude, then back to greed as business as usual? How about grateful all the time??? A person can try!  I personally need YOU to be greedy this holiday season, where my pots are concerned, yes? ;) Shop with ME EARLY AND OFTEN!



We went to the Cornell Arboretum and hiked every which way Thanksgiving morning...a bit frosty and a LOT gorgeous....


WHY YES, we had pie for breakfast.....


recent pots by me.....

that is the only way TURKEY is coming into this house...

(stunningly fun and beautiful bowl by Gary Rith)
It is like people who practice alternative s3x lives:  everybody else wants to know how they do it, what they do and when they do it in the privacy of their own homes?

Thanksgiving in a vegan household:  what k!nky sh!t are we getting into?

AH hA!  Well, I delight in SHOCKING the relatives with our non-conformist ways. Tofurkey is OK, but it is really quite salty and I don't buy it.
Breakfast?  My first attempt at making a chocolate pie (see below!).  It turned out wonderfully, but next time I need to sneak in a layer of peanut butter and call it a "peanut butter cup pie".  BRILLIANT.
Lunch?  Broiled beets and carrots with mashed potato and white beans to back up all that color.
Dinner???? Spinach (with potato and mushroom) calzones!!!!
There will be a pumpkin pie too, somewhere along the way....and probably a VERY tasty pinot grigio and of course, at noon, my old Boston radio station WXRV radio plays our yearly Thanksgiving favorite by Arlo Guthrie, Alice's restaurant....

this is where you say what you are grateful for:  Grateful for good health, wonderful wife, awesome house, the best pets and really, the very best career making pots everyday, so much to be thankful for. Hope you are doing well today too!