Today is catch up day for me. I’ve got to get the house cleaned, laundry done, and a few last minute errands before our trip tomorrow. We leave for Arkansas for the surprise 80th birthday party we’ve been planning for ma (Bobby’s Mom). Bobby and I are taking care of the ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, cake, ice cream and all the paper goods… but we’ve made this pot luck luncheon so everyone can bring their special dish and not leave all the cooking on us, which would be hard for us to prepare. We’ve rented a hall in her little town for this event where there is a refrigerator, stove and such so we should be able to pull this off without a hitch. This is working out really well and looks like we are going to have such a yummy meal with what the others have signed up to bring.

The really cool thing is that while visiting with ma last year she had her address book out when I offered to type everything up nice and neat for her as well as make the font large so that she could read without a struggle. Bobby and I were already planning to have a surprise 80th birthday party for her so that address book came in handy. We hope to make this a special day for her and hope her day is as special as she is.

I didn’t get that nap as planned yesterday and I suffered for it last night. I was able to stay awake all the way through the 7th inning but my heavy eye lids gave in after that.

By the time Bobby got home last night I had all the candles going and dinner was just about ready. Bobby put a log on the fire and we settled in for a nice game. Our team won 5 to 0. The Cardinals have won 2 of the 3 games so far in the Series and we hope to bring in another win tonight.

Bobby left for work before daybreak this morning and I tried going back to sleep after he left but that wasn’t in the cards for me. Hope I can stay awake for the game tonight.

After my regular 6 month visit to the dentist (Dr. Hargrave) today I was given another thumbs up. As I was listening to Dr. Hargrave tell the hygienist about a filling that needed to be watched, he was saying that it appeared to be pulling away from the tooth. I immediately asked the Dr how long ago it was that he put the filling in. He said he had no clue how old it was and that he was not responsible for that filling. I then brought him up to speed that I only had one filling in there and he most certainly was the one who did the work. After further checking it out and a little embarrassment on his part, he admitted that indeed it was not a filling but just the natural groove in my own tooth. I’m happy to say I still only have one filling in there period. I’m a firm believer that it’s all in the genes; I went to the dentist for the first time right before starting kindergarten and didn’t walk back into a dentist’s office till I was around 22. I had my first and only cavity at 35 and don’t think it has anything to do with brushing, flossing, seeing the dentist, it’s all in the genes if you were to ask me.

 We are having such a great weekend together.

Today was the Harvest Moon festival where Hubby and I enjoyed a good part of the day. Our friend Ron, a potter buddy, had his display out there and was so good to see him in the show. He’s been like a mentor to me always happy to provide information and always willing to lend a hand. He taught me how to use the sprayer to spray the glazes on pottery and has given valuable information regarding shows, pottery, the business side of things and just an all around great guy. Ron is a great friend and an awesome potter. We appreciate all the advise he’s given over the years.

Friday evening we went to a BB-Q where we had a great time with some of the guys Hubby works with. I finally got to enjoy some really good sauerkraut and bratwursts. It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve had good sauerkraut and what a great treat! Mom used to make the kraut with pork chops along with mashed potatoes but I don’t get around to making it in our home. Hubby is not a kraut fan so it’s out the door and I only get it when someone else makes it, what a yummy meal and fellowship last night.

The Cardinals didn’t do so well last night as they lost the game. The Mets and Cardinals are now one for one, playing at the home of the Mets. Bobby and I were getting anxious for the Cardinals to pull through, his friend Dan from California kept calling as he and Bobby are from the same town in St Louis. Those two were as funny as can be, they decided to put their rally caps on adding a little more spirit to the game from home. I couldn’t help laughing as it was too funny, who knows maybe they will wear their rally caps for the entire game tonight. Bob’s other friend Mike from St Louis lives here and all 3 of those guys had a three way call going the other night. We are serious Cardinal fans doing our best to hold up our end of the fan club.

When I took private oil painting lessons years and years ago, my teacher would call these type errors ‘happy mistakes’. Yesterday while in my studio throwing vases and platters I went to make a smaller vase when all of a sudden things didn’t go the way I wanted them to. The clay got a little too dry and my fingers created a drag on the clay causing the clay to fold. I normally wad the clay up right then and there but before I had the chance, the clay spoke to me. It wanted to do something so I began to pinch it with my fingers allowing the clay to fall and drape where it wanted. I was pretty pleased with my little happy mistake, so here it is.

You may notice my brand spankin new red clay body. I’ve just changed to this color clay body because I like some of the effects if gives under certain glazes. You may not realize this but the glazes are different shades of color depending on which clay body that’s used.

Dave and Pam’s son Ryan has been taking Tae Kwan Do Lessons under Steve for 5 years. Ryan was 6 when he started and at 11 he received his black belt. Ryan teaches a few classes and helps out quite a bit in the class. He earned his black belt this past weekend and had quite the big ceremony there. Ryan was Steve’s 1st student to receive a black belt and we are all very proud of him. I wish we could have been there for that awesome event.

I’m off to go shopping! I’m going to spend some of the money I made on a few more supplies for my studio. I’ve thought about a Giffin Grip for quite sometime but didn’t really know if I’d use it. There are a lot of potters who don’t like fooling with this tool but after talking with some of my other potter buddies they sold me on it this past weekend so now I need to rush right out and claim mine.

A giff-n-grip is a tool that’s used on the wheel after the piece turns leather hard. Leather hard is the stage where the clay is hard enough to handle without losing its form and also the stage where the bottom of the pot is trimmed. The Giffin Grip grips the piece and centers it automatically holding it tight while the piece is being trimmed. As seen in the picture, it can hold and center any size or form by adjusting the grips which is totally awesome!

I’ve been trimming the manual way by placing my pot on the wheel and centering it myself, which takes a while. After the piece is centered clay needs to be placed around the base of the pot and bat adhering the clay to the bat so that the piece doesn’t fly off while being trimmed. This is going to be another awesome tool and can’t wait to get it!

The pottery show started out to be a cold and rainy event. It remained cold and rainy both days. We didn’t have the best weather and my feet are still trying to thaw. That said I sold more than I thought I would have on a good day, so I’m more than pleased to say the least. As you can see in the above pic, it was a dark, stormy & wet weekend. Even with a flash, I couldn’t get a good pic of my booth. I ended up with 3 tables which allowed me to spread out the pieces. More than anything I was thrilled to see others show appreciation for the art work.

My favorite customer… A husband and wife entered my booth with such a loving spirit. She had bright eyes that twinkled and her husband was pleasant and showed the world that she was his true heart beat. They were oh, I would say mid 70’s and the sweetest loving couple. They ended up purchasing my highest priced piece, the large vase I featured just the other day fresh out of the kiln. I have to admit, it was a little hard to say good bye so fast to that piece. As I lifted it from the table and placed it in their care, I realized at that time I would never hold or look at that vase again. I’m so happy that piece went with them and I know its in good hands.

Bobby’s favorite purse… When Bobby learned the purse with the wood grain and white flower sold for $5.00 under what I priced it, he said “I was hoping we could have brought it back home”.

My favorite comment of the weekend from one of my customers… Are you the one who sells the purses to Niemen Markus? Even though the answer was NO, my heart smiled.

Most frequent question was… Did you throw these on the wheel? I was happy to say yes. A lot of potters have to hand build pieces by using the coil method to get their pieces to this size. ‘Throw’ is the correct potters term for ‘throwing on the wheel’ and cracked me up when one of my customers asked if I ‘hand tossed’ these pieces.

Most crazy thing I thought was that other potters were purchasing my work.

Can I say “Happy Happy Joy Joy, Happy Happy Joy”? I was happier than I’ve ever been when opening the kiln. In the past I may have oh, 1 or 2 pieces out of the batch that I like but this past batch really made me HAPPY. I don’t have to take a hammer to anything and I’m thrilled about that. I’m sold on the sprayer and will continue using it from now on.

I used a really light celadon (green) glaze then applied black over the top of it. It produces a beautiful deep blue/green combination that I really like. As a matter of fact, that’s what I applied to all the vases yesterday and am so glad I did. I plan to revisit the turquoise and kemp red combination in the near future to see how that works out with the sprayer.

Dad is doing fine; he goes to the Dr for a check-up today.

Went out to the studio to see all my buddies yesterday. I enjoy the Wednesday group so much. I used the sprayer on my bisque ware and am anxious to see how that’s going to work. I used to dip my pottery into the glaze or pour the glaze over my work but was having trouble with my larger pieces getting an even coating. I was encouraged to use the spray booth out there and loved it! Now I hope I applied it correctly, we’ll see tonight.

Bobby filled the kiln with a load of glazed work last night

The kiln should be cool enough to open by this evening

Bobby will load the kiln with another batch of glazed work tonight

Cleaning the house and doing laundry today

Our high today is going to be in the mid 60’s and a very windy day. The windows are closed tight and don’t plan to open them anytime soon.

Meet for lunch with my buddy Monica

Sent out lots of invitations for Ma’s upcoming 80th surprise Birthday party that Bobby and I are planning.

The ole’ gray mare needs hair color tomorrow!

Manicure tomorrow

Print out my business cards and price my work tomorrow

Pottery In The Park is this weekend

Made reservations for Thanksgiving dinner.

Magic, our feline friend is having a fit it seems on a daily basis while the windows are open. He longs to go outside and frolic in the nice green grass while the birds sing their little tunes. His parents will hear none of that and refuse to succumb to his cries. We do let him outside on the upstairs balcony /porch but that’s not quite like being totally outside in his opinion.

We’ve started lifting the blinds to one of our windows in the family room where he loves to sit and this has turned out to be one of his favorite places in the house. It seems he is settling for second best quite nicely.

I received the call from mom last night that dad had no control over the left side of his face. He felt fine and didn’t feel any pain whatsoever no headache or anything at all, just no control over the left side of his face. She thought it was Bell’s Palsy since dad’s younger sister had this once or mom thought it could be a stroke. Dad was able to see his Dr. along with a visit to the Hospital this morning and was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy which we are all so thankful for. It should take about 2 weeks for the medication to do its thing and he will have normal control over the left side of his face in two weeks or so. It’s such a relief knowing it will go away in time. I was feeling quite upset the last 24 hours because I couldn’t do anything at all for him. I was too far away to see him and felt completely helpless so the one thing I could do was pray, and that I did.

Dad was telling me today that he went in to take a nap Saturday evening feeling fine and all but when he woke the left side of his face felt different. Mom had a look at him and knew something was wrong right away. He was joking with me before he went to the Dr’s office today laughing and carrying on about how funny it was to look in the mirror while raising his eyebrows when only one eyebrow would raise and the other just stayed in place or how only the right side of his mouth would move when he smiled… At least he had good spirits and it was so good to hear his voice before he was off to see the Dr. It took everything inside me to call him because I was so scared but I’m so glad I did because he definitely had a way of lifting my spirits. It’s crazy how the one who was suffering was the one who cheered me up. I love my dad so much.

I carried on over at the studio today having more glazing fun and even took a rest on the picnic bench outside overlooking the river which was very calming. Bobby invited me to meet him for lunch over in the area and it was so nice to see him in the middle of the day. I’m feeling so much better this evening knowing everything is going to be alright. Thank You God for taking good care of dad.

I have never posted a recipe before but today makes an exception. Being the Mexican coinsure that I am with Mexican food as my absolute favorite… I came across this fantastic recipe that is absolutely divine! This morning found me up bright and early starting in on this very easy recipe. My chicken was boiled and shredded and placed in the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. I’m already enjoying my first bowl of soup at 11:00 am and I’m sure this won’t be my last bowl today! WOW is this good!

Enchilada Soup

2 Cans Rotel
2 Cans Fat Free Chicken Broth
2 Cans Fat Free Cream Of Chicken Soup
2 Cans Fat Free Cream Of Mushroom Soup
12 oz Diced Chicken Breast
2 tsp. Chili Powder
2 tsp. Oregano
2 tsp. Cumin
1 Med Diced Onion

Directions: Cook for 30 min.

Makes 12 Cups

Only:

98 Calories per serving
2 Fat Grams per serving

Side Note: We like our chicken shredded and instead of the Med Onion, we go for the extra large and then some…