life is just a pair of bowlies.....

New bowls by Gary Rith... Action packed weekend, here, how about you?

s-n-o-w....

The National Weather Service predicts snow here both Saturday and Sunday mornings...it won't stick around, but make a mess, right?  Maybe Buffalo will get 8 feet..... (or maybe not!).

Thursday was GLORIOUS, great fall color, warm and sunny.  I took down the last of the screens, storm windows in place.  My boots are in order.  NY state allows you to put your steel studded snow tires back on as of October 16....guess what I am having done to the car  at 9am??????????????

Little cuties below, hmm?  Springish, with the bunnies and flowers!

morning glories and me

One of my very few gardening successes are morning glories.  One packet of seeds a few years and HUZZAH! They are everywhere, in a good way.  I had an Australian customer remind me that they are considered an invasive species in some places, where they don't die back in cold weather.  Ours do, after 4-5 months of vines and blooms.  In the fall we gather some seeds for next year, but at this point we hardly need to, as it seeds itself now, considering its abundance (as you see below!)  We have purple flowered plants, and out in the wild we see a different variety which has even prettier pink and white flowers, the most cheerful, pretty vine anywhere. I wanted to try painting them onto pots, and it was tremendous fun and looks GOOD, and I was able to run the vines on the pitcher handles which is a bonus.

And the best part?
Their leaves are heart shaped :)

 

ribbet....

New frog cups and saucers by Gary Rith...

KILLER pumpkin pie and the reason why....

(GORGEOUS weekend at our house)


OK, it is a pretty good story:  the wife grew up with her grandmother living with the whole family.  I was lucky to meet her at her 90th birthday and beyond....I remember arriving at the house the day of that birthday party and my SIL unloading one pumpkin pie out of the oven after another.  Her birthday fell on Columbus Day weekend, and her favorite was pumpkin pie....and as much as my wife LOVES anything rich and tasty, pumpkin pie is also a favorite of hers.

I don't eat many treats and havn't had a dessert after lunch or dinner in a very long time.  I ate a box of raspberries yesterday, that is my idea of a treat.  BUT I am into the New Englander idea of pie at breakfast! So dang CLEVER, coffee and pie first thing in the morning!

I surprised the wife with this pie yesterday, because we always celebrate her grandmother's birthday. I make a SUPER TASTY GF pie crust with rice flour (not my recipe, but great gf pie crust advice if you click here) and a pie recipe without dairy using coconut milk (in my recipe, instead of sugar you use 3 TBS maple syrup--so the pie is not a sweet, but rich as hell!).

BONUS: the house smells LIKE HEAVEN for the whole day!

DREAMS of one kind or another....

First off, I had day 2 of my open studio which ended with a friend and her 10 yo daughter messing around on the wheel---she learned QUICK! And had a ball and will return to glaze sometime, and give the wheel another whirl.  This was a very good kid, and, well, they don't have money for lessons.  Anywhere.  Their school has a pretty good arts program, but it gives you pause to think "what a a great country the US would be if there were better after-school arts programs for kids.  Imagine how many would go on to start companies like Apple and the many others who would grow up making pots (or whatever) rather than doing drugs and becoming criminals."

Aside from that, i forgot to put out the tasty CHOCOLATE CHIP COOOKIES I had baked for visitors...so I have a freezer full for the wife's snacking pleasure......

It is abundantly true that if I had not found art I would surely have ended up a juvenile delinquent, throwing away any chance at a decent life, wasting my advantages. All teens need to find SOMETHING that gets them excited! Thank goodness I did.  Anyway, my friend's daughter is A+ awesome, smart and polite, and it makes me sad to think of the chances she might miss because they aren't rich  in America.

ANYWAY I dreamt just now that I was at a restaurant that frustrated the hell out of me.  I was there from 8 till 11 waiting for my breakfast to be cooked and served, and had to LEAVE.  The only thing I got, and I had to pay up front for the whole thing without a refund, was coffee that I had in that red mug up there.  Which marks the SECOND time I have dreamed that mug:  first before it was made, now that it is out of the kiln. Because you see, I dreamt that mug decoration. Then I made it. I made the green one to try a variation. And now that it has been dreamed of, the wife has asked to use it.....

Open studio and a carload of puggies...

Open studio, day one, was really quite wonderful (although Murphy's law states that customer number one will always have a 100 dollar bill to cash..........).

Of note:  my sister lives 1500 miles away and was driving her pugs to stay at my parent's farm near us, and she and the pugs came over on a glorious afternoon.  Penny had never met a pug.  Spike the cat had definately never met a pug.  My sister said that Penny is a real dog...pugs are special :)

Today is day two of the open studio, gonna be another great one!

Open studio! C'mon down...

Whoa, how did we get here?
This is always a fun weekend.  I had been on the Ithaca Art Trail before, which is a countywide effort with maps and webpages, but it costs hundreds of dollars.  And a)  people would come looking for a snack...not always the buying public, you know?  Speaking of which b) even school groups came over and crammed into my studio...not exactly the buying public either.  Which brings us to c)  when you have spent hundreds of dollars on these things, you have a pretty HIGH ANXIETY LEVEL because that is a LOT of mugs to sell, just to break even.

SO, these last few years I have done my own off-Broadway production. It a)  costs me nothing! and b) I only tell people I know, friends and customers.  This reduces the c) psycho-killer off the street factor and d) it is a nice, fun, no-anxiety weekend where nice people stop by.

11-5, today and Sunday, 540 Main, Etna, NY!

emergency surgery and brave beagles

Sounds dramatic, I know. No big deal in the end, really!

I went to put Penny's collar on before walking yesterday and...!!!!
She has always had a small cyst on her neck, size of a pencil eraser.
It was awful yesterday, big and swollen and bloody...I called the vet and said "we need to see you!" and Penny loves the vet...she loves everything, actually.

SO, at the vet she got a lot of treats and a lot of love and attention, which she likes and the doctor came in and wanted to do surgery.....and I was like "DO IT".  So we did, me holding her.  A shot to numb the area, a scalpel, a few flicks of the doctor's wrist, then some staples..... can you believe I assisted in that?

Well, Penny is FINE now.  She came out of the exam room and the 3 people at the front desk said "she just had SURGERY?" because she was as cheerful and energetic as always....

 

slow and steady wins the race....

These turtle banks turned out rather well, don't you agree? There are holes for corks underneath...
have an awesome day!
 

running bunnies....

Make a good band name, hmm?  Running Bunnies!
I have barely adequate drawing skills BUT I feel compelled to draw on pots, and so I am ..... :)
This is a cutie, doncha think?

"redneck woman in a monster truck..."

This is ALL true, folks, even here in NY state...which has downstate and NY city, and it is Alabama all the way up to Canada...excepting for our little college city, it is all country here...

The wife and I are walking the dog yesterday evening and I hear it long before I see it and I tell the wife:
"I want to see the guy driving that monster truck" and it is the red monster truck with Louisiana plates we see parked at the apartments on the corner, with huge, fat, nubby tires, a Rebel Flag in the window and (the icing on the cake!) mud all over and an ATV in the back.

And it is NOT a guy at all, silly me and my assumptions! It is a redneck gal....which inspired me to sing a little song (SURE, I had a little sip of wine with dinner, inspiring much hilarity...)

REDNECK WOMAN IN A MONSTER TRUCK, an original composition as sung by Gary, sung to the tunings of DEAD SKUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD...and go to comments to add your own lines! This song could go on forever....

"Redneck woman in a monster truck, you got mud all over and you don't give a F**K!

Cause redneck woman in your monster truck, you drove across the swamp and you don't give a F**K!

Redneck woman in a monster truck, you gonna drive your ATV and you don't give a F**K!

Redneck woman has a monster truck so you know she's not gonna get stuck, so she don't give a F**K!

That redneck woman ain't after duck, too small to  give a F**K!

That redneck woman gonna shoot a buck for dinner out there off-season but and she don't give a F**K!

Redneck woman ain't got her deer, all she got that day was muck, but she don't give a F**K!

Redneck woman got slim jim for dinner and a lotto at the Quik Stop, she ain't got no luck but she don't give a F**K!

Redneck woman in a monster truck heads home that day "shit, I ain't got no luck but I don't give a F**K 'cause I still got my monster truck"



You may think that this piggy cup and saucer I made would delight any redneck...or anyone! On sale now at my etsy gallery (click here!)

3, no, 4 orangutans....

You never know where the orangutans are going to pop up, now do you?

An exhausted self falls into bed after a weekend of vigorous fall hiking...as you see.
And the dreams!
The last:  the wife and I have just bought a new house, which is actually our old house, and the realtor comes along, because we plan to sell the house right away.  I am not dressed and the realtor comes into the house without waiting to be let in, so I throw on what is close to hand...a mink stole.  Just a little fur covering, but the realtor, who is a woman, does not seem to notice....and chats and chats and chats, looking around, despite my embarrassment, while I explain we are just moving in, but ready to move out at any time.

SO THEN a pickup is in the driveway and another woman has arrived, with 3 orangutans and she explains they won't travel across the border with her unless I make them a puppet right away! NOW! It is odd, even in dreamland when you are wearing a fur coat that only covers your parts and talking to strange ladies, to have a truck full of orangutans arrive. BUT I am ever creative and resourceful and find a paper bag, drawing a human face on one side and a dragon on the other, and the orangutans are satisfied, and so is their human, and off they go....the realtor too.

BUT THEN fedex arrives with a huge delivery.  Plates, spoons, all this stuff, unexpected.  The delivery person says that it is the reality TV show that is coming to film me, they are gonna need all these plates and things..... and I tell her about the last visitor with the orangutans.  WELL, the driver tells me, she has one of her own, and pulls out a cute baby orangutan from the back....and at that point I have had enough orangutans.  I awake, I crawl out of bed...it is Monday....

looking back...

(mom, me, horse)

My mom has a photo somewhere of me with Eva and her little brother Christoph-we are 3, 4, 1.  Eva IS one of my longest standing friends. We we neighbors in Iowa, then we all moved to different places for 14 years UNTIL by great coincidence we ended up at Bennington, a tiny college in Vermont.

ANYWAY, Eva is nominated for one of those facebook things:  "post a 15+ year old pic of yourself each day for 5 days and nominate someone to do the same each time" and I am it today.  BUT a) I am too lazy to spread it over 5 days and b) I am not going to nominate 5, or even 1 person.  Post your own baby pics if you want!

(in college with my bunny Tex-he ended up moving to Minnesota with my sister and her little kids)


(In college with some of my pots.)


(I taught as a special education teacher in Chicago...blind students.  Alicia was pretty sharp, fearless and reckless and liked to roller skate I KID YOU NOT)


(the wife and I juts before we got married in 1992, when I ran my second Chicago marathon....)

elephant bank...!

What YOU NEED is an elephant bank, right????  Piggy banks are cool, but this might be cooler. For sale now at my etsy gallery! Click here.

For those who live nearby, c'mon over to my open studio next Saturday-Sunday Oct. 10-11, 11-5 pm, 540 Main St, Etna, NY.

 

tortoise and the hare....

I was about to take pics of new pots out of the kiln but...well, the light box still had the LAST batch of fine pots sitting in, on, around it.  I was too lazy to clear it and take pics of new...BUT there were even newer pieces to photograph, so I did.  Some of the things I was finishing yesterday include 2 turtle banks and a big bowl with bunnies, or hares, on it.....
and a whole lot of frog things too.....

nobody saw this coming....

Said to the cat "Look! Flowers in a little vase!"
*Swat*
"Feed me!  Don't give me flowers, feed me!"

dreaming of Christmas....

Not that this has anything to do with this cup up here....one thing I find with faceting pots is that if I don't do it for awhile I have to remind myself how....like speaking Greek:  don't practice and you start to forget!

Had a very moving dream:  the wife and I had bought a small downtown department store, one of those small town independents that so many towns had when we were kids (lost in the Smallmart shuffle now), just a big room with small menswear, women's, childrens, home furnishings on every Main street until the 70s. The stock was probably worthless, but there were several employees and we had high hopes of doing something with the space.

It was the week before Christmas and the employees blew us away:  everybody had modestly brought in their decorations from home, and the store, sad supplies and all, took on a wonderful and heartfelt glow--people would come from all around to marvel at its simple sweetness.  It really gave me hope that in the new year we could make something happen there....

that dog, this house, those pots, a rodent and a snake...

We let these morning glories go nuts all over our house, tear them down in winter, and they reseed themselves again in the new year, just gorgeous, right?  A rare example of me gardening successfully!

I am rather pleased with the pots below.  No big surprise, considering the wee beagle who helps with them, right?

OK, I wondered whether I should share my mildly freaky story with you which has made me mildly crabby this morning...my  online philosophy being:  stow the crap!  Be sweet online :)

But this is one of those wee stories that people love to read:  OK, I am not fond of snakes.  YES, some live in the foundation of this old house (150 years!). The foundation is river stones, and I diligently fill crevices, but can you ever finish such a job?

WELL, the little snakes and rodents move in to the crevices.  I s'pose it should balance out, right?  Rodents move in, snakes eat them.  And up here we do not have poisonous snakes, just shy little garden snakes, the occaisional milk snake.

OK, so yesterday I go into the basement to get clay, which is not as scary a place as it once was (having been cleaned last spring, as you remember)...and as I enter I see that a chipmunk has devised a NEW way into the basement.......and there in the middle of the floor is a big milk snake looking at me.

Milk snakes look like copperheads or some other awful and scary snake, but they are not.  They just want to live in my house and eat my rodents.  I tell myself this.  I took a rake and tried to gently move his ass out of the basement to some distant county or state...but he naturally slithered off to some part of the foundation that is probably right under my bedroom....

OK, so you know I dream in technicolor, right?  I had this horrible dream right now that a snake bit my cat Spike in the heart....I had to get up and check that he is FINE.  He is.  We all are. And as Miss Clavell tells the girls in MADELINE "thank the Lord that you are well..."

doodle to teapot....

I showed pics of this guy in the making, it is out of the kiln now...from a scrap of paper doodled upon while walking the dog to teapot in one fine week :)