OK, so it wasn't so bad after all....

I know I was whining a bit yesterday about having a crappy throwing day....it's true I didn't get very far with production, but my big wobbly bowl got fixed right up last night...sometimes just letting it harden a little bit and then continuing to throw can work wonders.
And I had some fun playing with new ideas for vases (and a whole bunch of other things...in this style)

I can't throw for sh*t today....

really, I've tried. I've messed things up, I have a mighty wobbly salad bowl rotating on the wheel as I speak and even tho I know it is beyond saving, and I should just give up, the eternal optimist in me (or the idiot--not sure which) thinks it can be salvaged. *sigh*

This whole week has been a bit of a bust....production-wise. I know I'm off my game and I just don't know when to step away from the wheel. This was going to be my week to get on top of things after the boy was home sick last week.
At least I took some pix of the last pomegranates on the tree--nice and Autumn-ish don't you think?

The Messenger

Went to see The Messenger last night. A new film by Oren Movermen starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster about the trials of two army officers currently working in the Casualty Notification service. You know, they guys who have the job of personally notifying families that their loved ones have died in Iraq. Pretty heartbreaking stuff.
According to director Moverman, his friend, producing partner and screenwriter Alessandro Camon came up with the idea for “The Messenger” a few years ago.

“He suggested writing a script about Casualty Notification Officers because no one was looking at the war from that angle at the time. No one was shining a light on the home front from the perspective of the messengers who bring the consequences of war to the families, to the people who pay a direct, intimate and everlasting price for the decision to go to war,” said Moverman. “It's an impossible, horrible job, and yet it's as real as it gets.”

Moverman insists that the film is not about casualties of war, really. It's about the people left behind to deal with life after casualties of war have gone.

“ ‘The Messenger’ may say a thing or two about war, but I think it ultimately deals with grief and the desire to live, to let life into the darkness, even to laugh,” said Moverman. “It definitely makes the point that there are people who have to deal with war in a way that is not strategic or political, but personal.”

When asked about his hopes for the film, Moverman says, “We obviously want people to see it, and listen to it, and be moved by it. This is a film that a team of people poured their hearts and souls into, and we all feel the film has something to say and a lot of love and healing to offer.”



Harrelson says in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, "It was a good experience for me because it's one thing to consider yourself pro-peace, like I consider myself, and quite another to understand what the soldiers are going through. On the film, we had to shoot at Fort Dix and talking to all the guys there just made me really have a lot of respect for the soldiers. I don't love the war, but I do love the warriors I ran into, so it was very important for me philosophically to have that time with them."

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Regardless how you may feel about the war, this film brings a sense of humanity to the forefront in dealing with a universally human subject.
I'm glad we saw it yesterday, right before Veterans' Day.

have I told you lately...and a GIVEAWAY!!

just how much I love throwing pots? You know, sometimes I forget what a thrill it is to do this work...I clean the table, put away the packing materials, the glaze buckets, the tape gun, step AWAY from the computer and wedge up a batch of clay and crank some tunes and get rockin at the wheel.
anyway, I whipped out these babies this morning and had such a sense of satisfaction looking at them all lined up, I just had to take a pic.

The weather is finally feeling Fall-ish around here, although I still have a few tomatoes and roses...and some of these (whatever they are) and the lantana is gorgeous as hell in her flaming orange-red, dontcha think?

Kitty is settling in--I'm actually keeping her in for a few weeks so as to acclimate her to this being her home. She had taken off twice to return to her former stomping grounds, crossing major roads and giving me quite a scare. I'm just enjoying having her around and she is such a sweetie. Here she is sitting in the chair in my bedroom 'not wanting to pose for pictures!'


and head on over to Down and Out Chic to enter a giveaway of one of my heartbowl/bathsalts sets!!!

can I get an AMEN!!??

whoa Nelly!
got wind of this on Denise's blog along with the link to the original article from Glamour describing the photo shoot of what is now called 'plus sized' models. I don't know what else to say other than "plus sized? they're just plain hawt!"

B happened to stroll by my computer as I was reading the article and well, let's just say he took notice of the screen for longer than a moment....hehe. And as we both looked in awe at these gorgeous ladies, we commented on just how lovely the curves and bellies and thighs really are.

Beauty is subjective, no argument there, but I, for one, am so freaking sick of sleek, bony airbrushed perfection (not that these ladies aren't photoshopped) being our standard of beauty in pop culture!! Real women-- they got some belly, some booty and some gravity doing its job, and it does nothing but enhance their beauty, in my eyes. They look attractive because they do look more realistic. As one reader commented on an earlier image of another 'plus sized' model that caused a bit of a stir, “This girl is normal,” wrote one reader. “Redefine plus-size for me again? Is every woman over 120 pounds and a size 2 considered ‘plus’ now?” scary.

I also agree with Denise, that thin women are no less beautiful, but the absence of natural bellies and thighs in the media has been a joke. It's nice to see it mixed up. And it's nice that it's coming from a fashion and beauty magazine.

time travel, standing on the edge, and a new holiday item in my shop...

sorry dear readers for skipping out on you for a bit--sometimes the blogging bug just doesn't bite, ya know?
I've been all over the place (literally) working on wholesale orders, dealing with runaway kitty issues, (she's here now, for the moment, but really misses her old house and keeps finding her way back there) and taking a weeklong hiatus off to Chicago. I lovelovelove my hometown, and had a really sweet time hanging with family and friends. The boy needed to work on a school assignment, so we did some research at the huge library downtown, paid exorbitant parking fees, ate in cool restaurants, hit some of the old haunts...ate some amazing Cannoli, (yay!) hit the Sky Deck at the (former) Sears Tower with a bazillion tourists...here's me on the edge of the glass box 103 stories up--

holy crap it's high! I still can't believe I stood out in that thing....
So now I'm back for the grind that will take me thru the holidays...I've been brewing up new stuff over here, I just can't help myself. I've been secretly and somewhat obsessively blending essential oils and Dead Sea Salts for a holiday gift set. A pound of luxurious bath salts packaged along with one of my heart bowls...lovely sitting on the edge of the bath and ready to ship to your giftee in it's own gift box.


The winning fragrance is a winter woodsy blend of muscle soothing Spruce, Fir, Cedar and Rosemary that I'm calling Deep Forest....I've been sending it out to my 'test bathers' and the feedback is great! Even B, my manly man likes it. So here we go for the gift giving season. Now I'm off to unload a kiln and get on with the glazing.
Let the games begin!

just when I get used to things...

I have to go and try to adopt a cat....
I love kitties, have been fairly allergic my whole life, so I've never been able to really have a cat as a housepet. We adopted a stray years ago who lived outdoors most of the time around our home for nearly 12 years. What a pleasure she was to have around....she was magic. RIP dear Kali. She died in 2005 after a long, good kitty life.
So when a fellow freecycler posted that she wanted to re-home a kitty that had been living under her porch, I thought, 'could it work?' Maybe we could adopt her as our outdoor kitty and feed her here and look after her, and take her to the vet etc.
I went to meet cat, and she was super friendly--yay! She seems to be a young adult female that was very used to people. The woman had been feeding her and she seemed very healthy. She had checked with the neighborhood to see if she belonged to anyone, and got nowhere with that. I went home and talked it over with B, who was wary of the whole venture, but had rescued a kitty years ago and had a similar situation as mine with an outdoor cat. So we made an agreement.

The next day I brought her here in the carrier and she wandered calmly around the house for a bit, had a treat, played with me and then hit the road. When she left, I thought, "oh crap, that's the end of that" and worried most of the day that she'd never come back. But around 7pm I went out in the yard calling to her and brought out her food, and there she was! We hung out all evening, in the house and the yard and she seemed really comfortable and happy. She sat on the throw rug outside my studio door while I worked, and followed me around if I got up.... B came home from Monday nite football and immediately got down on the floor and played with her. "Cats just love me" he said, and he was right, she was all over him like white on rice. Things looked good. We put her out for the nite and hoped she'd be there in the morning. She wasn't. I worried all day about her yesterday, but she showed up at night again. Same thing: she hung out with us all evening, ate her food, played, snuggled, dozed, and went out around 11. Now she's gone again, so I'm a little worried, but maybe she'll come back for her evening meal.
Like I don't have a ton of work to do, I better get on it.


**UPDATE***
Shortly after I posted this I went out in the yard and called her and she came out from under the neighbor's deck. She came in to eat, wander around and I tossed her a little teabag of catnip that I made last nite for her. She went crazy for it, tossing and biting it till it opened and she ate a bit, and got herself all high and rolled around for a while like a little nutty kitten. She hung around the studio for a while, had a little more to eat and was off again. I think she's getting used to it here.