the internet is OH SO many silly selfies, cute dogs and cats in boxes

Helen is our dogsitter with a side of cat sitting thrown in and asked for a cone coffee filter...I told her I would make one like ours, except with a green CAT!  I mean, why wouldn't you want a cat to go with your coffee?

Trevor across the street tells me he has an enormous box, would I like it???? I was glad to have it, but Spike claimed it for his own....so I tossed his blanket in there so he would be fully comfortable...and finally?  GOSH it was a gorgeous and warm (warm for US here, because southerners will be like "he is wearing a sweater and coat, how warm can it be" and my reply is "notice:  my coat is open and I don't have on a wool hat!") and I had a dogsitting job myself...and walked, according to my pedometer, 4.5 miles with Nook for nearly 2 hours.....isn't he cute?  His family has a pink dinosaur costume for him (YES, there is an 8 year old girl in that household :) and I need pics of that pink dinosaur costume...have a great THURSDAY!

oooh ooooooh, witchy woman.....

I took Penny down to our cemetery yesterday to get some spooky pictures....this part of upstate NY is not as old as the Hudson Valley, as far as European settlers, but old enough.  Village of Etna cemetery has at least one dude in there from the Revolutionary War and many from before, during and after the Civil War.  A favorite headstone of mine is the Union Captain Bartholomew from here who died like 1864...and his widow, buried next to him, died around 1915!  There is also a terribly sad series of stones, (to the best of my recollection):  5 children from one family who all died on different days within 2 weeks around 1870.  The parents are buried next to the kids, having outlived them by many years.  As a matter of fact, the cemetery is filled with kids (some of the stones are cute--I will get more pics another day).  Life was pretty flippin' tough 75-150 years ago, and beyond...

The cemetery is beautiful though, and could NOT be closer to our house, less than a 1/4 mile down Main St, and surrounded by a beautiful nature preserve.  The problem for the squeamish is the VERY REAL problem of woods, bushes, undergrowth and deer ticks.  The ticks have become an unbelieveably horrible part of our lives, and I do not venture off sidewalks and into woodlands until they die down for winter....

In other news, I heard on the radio that etsy is allowing factory made products to be sold alongside handmade items.  I am not giving up my etsy gallery, but the radio mentioned Zibbet as still being onluy handmade, so I was like, wth, lets open up a shop there....and basic is free! have a look at my new shoppe there (CLICK!)

Penny the working girl dresses UP for Halloween and her fans...

You know Penny is a therapy dog, visiting Longview senior living every Monday morning.  She went dressed for Halloween this week.... my neighbor had been like
"I am making a purple tutu for my little girl.  Does your dog need one too????"
Is there any question my dog needs a purple tutu?????



You probably need dog and cat mugs, right?  New items for sale at my etsy shoppe!

PUMPKIN-CHOCOLATE COOKIES: not as nutty as you think...

(bear jar by Gary Rith)
I was making this bear the other day, trying to do a panda, right?  I did not manage a panda and will try that again sometime...but this bear was so much fun I quickly made a cookie jar for it.  I usually make the cookie jar THEN the knob figure and maybe this is the first time a sculpture has asked for a pot ...

I was getting rice pizza crust recipes off the web here Sunday and I saw this woman's recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies, gluten-free!  I started to make them and realized "the heck with the spice, let's add a cup of chocolate chips instead!" and it was BRILLIANT.  The wife was like "these are so light!" and I was like "sooooo moist and rich"....

Finally, you can see the cat and dog helping the wife make curtains (for our neighbor) while I was baking....have a great Monday!

pottery plane with a piggy!

You will hear me recall seeing Pinnocchio (sp.???) when I was 5 and I wanted to be Gepetto!  The guy who made toys!  So, you know, you could say that guides my daily work, putting a little pig on a mug, for example, or a hippo with a bowl...fun things added to useful things.

2 weeks ago I showed pictures of a couple airplanes I was making.  I just woke up one day wanting to make airplanes on the wheel!  You have seen me make robots,  cars and rockets, and I figured I could do an airplane.  I worried that they would crack and warp in the firing but the cup I showed yesterday fired fine so I chanced this plane....and I am SO PLEASED.

I was telling the wife "there will be these 2 elderly women at a fair one Sunday morning, on their way home from church and...."
the wife adds "they will pick up the plane and say 'that's different...what do you DO WITH IT?' "
and I reply "well, you don't do ANYthing with it, it just sits there, looking cute, gathering dust...."

Whoa, update:  my buddy Armin is like "PIGS CAN FLY!" and I am like "BRILLIANT!"

Have a great Sunday yerself :)

a couple of RANDOM thoughts....

OK, 5 on Saturday?  "You're up, Gary?  You must love coffee...".
I do.  And I like getting up early.  But today? a) there was a crash a minute ago, which is why I got up. I go downstairs and the cat is MEWLING happily...next to a broken lamp on the floor.  I am not angry or upset:  it is cold and he was probably chasing a mouse.  Old house + oncoming winter = mice in the walls.
b)  the kiln!  I wanted to crawl back into bed and go to sleep, but the kiln!  I had fired it yesterday and it is cool enough to peek into...and there are many fragile little experiments in there that seem like they are OK...it is still pretty hot in there, it will cool until 2-3 this afternoon, but I am excited :)
c)  I made an airplane cup!  Sorta steampunk looking, hmm?  In the top of this kiln firing is an actual clay airplane I made and it looks GOOD... this one actually does something..need to make another, right?
Have an awesome Saturday!

speaking of PIGS, flying and otherwise...

I was dreaming just now that I was a short order cook....my first order of the day was preparing a plate of eggs and pancakes for a friend.... in reality:
a)  I am about to make gf oat and rice flour pancakes with apples AND
b) when I was in high school I worked at a diner as dishwasher which meant
c)  that I could make myself eggs and pancakes and donuts and milkshakes (I was a little piggy!) and also
d)  one of my many jobs included filling in at the short order cook station for their breaks---I am amazed that my 16 year old self was expected to cook food orders for customers!  But I did, and still do.

Speaking of pigs, you probably need an awesome WHEN PIGS FLY mug handmade by me! For sale now at my etsy shoppe...

shooting for perfection...or at least a favorite!

I ask the wife a question that seems obvious, but has not been asked before:
"what is a favorite mug shape?" and she wanders into the studio and points at these here (click!).
I am like "AH HA! Really?!".  Good choice.
So I make it for her in green with green....
I tell her: "I like those to be tall and narrow and curved just so.  I should make you a small one too....."
I have not worked in that style in a bit but this week I am....

you work your WHOLE life for this...

Well, I am pretty proud of these.  Like I said, when Heidi saw my hippo bowls she asked about mugs... the wife and I puzzled out the form and she said a dancing hippo could become the handle....
mmmmm mmmm good!

(hippo mugs by Gary Rith)

Penny is a WORKING dog...

Sure, she does her shift FULL OUT, 110 percent..then comes home and sleeps DEEPLY.
Working at what, you ask?  Retrieving ducks, chasing rats, hunting rabbits, bomb sniffing, drug sniffing, airport screening?  Guiding the blind????? Carrying a cask of booze around her neck to people lost on Swiss mountains?????????? PULLING A CART????????????

No.  Charming people. That is her SKILL and her JOB.  She is VERY good at it. You know that she is a therapy dog, and um, I was trained and she, ah, does what she does best:  kiss and cuddle.  Every Monday morning we go to Longview Senior Living where we are loved and she loves back HUGELY :)