The Joys Of Knowing How To Type


A S D F J K L :

Can you relate? Does it ring a bell? When I first sat down to learn to type, my typewriter rang a bell to let me know it was time to take the carriage return and give it a little help so that I could return and continue typing. When I was in typing class, my electric typewriter was broken most of the time and I used a manual typewriter for the most part. I’m so thankful for that little manual as it taught me all I need to know about typing and gives me a great appreciation for my wonderful keyboard that I use today. Can you believe that we actually had to learn to center back then? We had to manually set our margins, and scroll our paper in and get it all situated such that it was all lined up nice and even. We could not change the font if we were board with it or use all the other cool tools Microsoft Word offers us. We’ve come a long way baby!

Does anyone remember their first typing class and how they learned to type? Well I sure do and to this day I don’t take that class for granted. As a matter of fact, I think typing is the class I benefit from most. I’m so happy I elected to take typing in high school, little did I know at that time that one day I would have my very own desktop computer. I type each and every day and don’t even think about where the keys are anymore. It’s just like learning to ride a bike or learning to swim, once you learn, it stays with you for life.

Hubby and I use what’s called the game room on the second floor of our home for our office. It’s a nice size room where we both have our computers and bookshelves set up and the place where we retire at the end of the day. We both love computers and spending time together so it’s our way of being together, chatting about our current events and calling it a day.

Hard Rock Cafe


Hard Rock Cafe Game Room, Not Debbie’s Kitchen

Hubby and I go to all the Hard Rock Café restaurants no matter what city we visit from Shanghai to Seoul Korea, Maui, NYC, London, St Louis and so on. We collect memorabilia from all the places we visit and have plans to have a Hard Rock Café Game Room one day all set up with a little kitchenette, blah, blah, blah…

Now that does not mean under any circumstances that I want my kitchen to turn into Hard Rock. For those of you who don’t know how I like my refrigerator, I’ll break it down for you something like this…I don’t like anything, that’s ANYTHING on it period not even “cool” looking magnetic bottle openers from Hard Rock. Hubby has this really neat bottle opener from Hard Rock St Louis. He plays games with me from time to time to get a kick out of seeing how long it takes me to notice the newest latest and greatest gadget he put on my clean fridge. Of course I notice right away and with a little smile I take it back to “his” fridge because it’s in his garage. I don’t care what he puts on the one in his garage. He thinks I’m silly to have such a notion not to have anything on “my” fridge but that’s the way I like it and he’s okay with that.

The other day I knew he had something up his sleeve as he made a comment to the effect that his Hard Rock bottle opener could perhaps indeed be on my fridge. I didn’t think anything of it because I couldn’t see it and if it’s out of site, what’s the big deal. In my cleaning routine this week I found it! It was on top of “my” fridge way out of my site. I figure, if I can’t see it, then it’s not a problem. His bottle opener is welcome to stay on the top of my fridge and live happily ever after.

360 Degree Workshop


My Saturday workshop was a great success. I learned to apply an even 360o grid around any pot that I create. After I have an even grid all around the piece, I can go with any kind of decoration I choose, whether it be diamonds, squares, tumbling blocks, 3 D designs, or even quilt patterns. I can also choose a verity of colors to give it the effect I’m looking for. The possibilities are endless! I am so stoked about this and will be doing quite a bit of 360o decorating now. I attached a picture of the piece I worked on in class Saturday. I still have to finish glazing this pot and it will need a last and final firing before it is actually finished. The one and only thing I forgot to take with me to class was my digital camera. I’m waiting on a couple of my friends to send e-mails of the pics they took.

Firing Victory

I was able to fire the kiln around 10:00 last night and my baby did dry and was able to get everything in. My kiln has almost reached temperature and will turn off around noon today. Then it will take another 12 hours to cool and everything will be ready for tomorrow AM. I’m elated!

Rochelle! I tried that Crème Brulèe Coffee Mate this morning. Thanks for sharing it with me as it’s delectable! While doing my grocery shopping yesterday, it jumped into my cart. It only has 35 cal per tablespoon and my fat free Hazelnut has 20 cal per tablespoon. I think I can afford a few extra calories and just add them into my daily “point” allowance (for those of you who don’t know, I’m going to Weight Watchers and am on a points system). Jen, and anyone else out there who loves coffee and cream should give Crème Brulèe a try! Thanks to Rochelle, I found my new favorite cream!

Will The Piece Ever Dry

I left my pottery piece unwrapped over night in hopes it would be bone dry by morning. It’s fighting with me and giving me a hard time today. I have to get this piece of pottery dry by the end of the day. The fan is on full steam ahead in there and am praying for this last piece to dry by this evening!

I’m like a mother hen going in there every 20 min. or so and giving it a quarter turn to make sure it’s drying evenly. Dry Baby Dry! As the clay dries, it shrinks and if it does not shrink evenly I could be in trouble as it could “crack” and I don’t want that to happen. I’m crossing my fingers for a dry uncracked piece by the end of the day, please! I need enough work to take with me to my workshop this Saturday and it has to be in the kiln tonight!

360 Degree Workshop

My 360 Degree Decorations Workshop is this Saturday from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. I’ve got my pieces made up and just one of my pieces is still in the “leather hard” stage. The leather hard stage is the condition of raw clay ware when most of the moisture has evaporated leaving the pot soft enough to be carved yet stiff enough as not to collapse when handling. This last piece needs to get to the “bone dry” stage which is the condition of unfired clay that has no absorbed moisture other than natural humidity.

Once my pieces get to the bone dry stage, I load them into my kiln and fire them to 1841o F. Now my pieces are at the “bisque” stage which means they are ready to be glazed. From now till Thursday, my piece needs to get to the bone dry stage. I will then load all of the bone dry pieces in to the kiln no later than Thursday evening. Actually “Bobby” will load the kiln; he officially loads and unloads the kiln, he’s the greatest! I will fire the pieces to 1841o F and have them all ready for my class this Saturday. Saturday I plan to learn the 360 degree decoration and glaze my pieces. After my work is glazed, Bobby will load all the pieces back into the kiln for the last firing to which the kiln reaches a temperature of 2291o F and holds that temperature for 30 min. then the kiln automatically turns itself off and takes approx 12 hours for the kiln to reach room temperature. Then the magical moment arrives and with a bit of luck, some nice results emerge from the kiln.

I hope you all have a great day!

Coffee Anyone


Jennifer has me in the mood for some Starbucks Coffee. I love coffee in the morning, afternoon and evening. I was a very young girl around 4 years of age if not younger, when I had my first acquaintance with coffee. Dad used to leave a little bit of coffee in his cup each morning before he headed for work. My brothers and I would saunter over to the cup (as not to be seen by our parents) to see just how much he left for us that day. Dad always knew how to make the best coffee with just the right amount of cream and sugar and he still does to this day. My mother on the other hand was quite boring in that department as she always drank her coffee “BLACK”. Fat chance of her ever catching us with her cup! Lately I think she adds literally 1 teaspoon of cream to her coffee. I still can’t figure out what in the world that does for her drink other than making the black coffee look a little less black.

When I used to work in the office I would drink coffee all day long. I think I was the only one fixing coffee in the middle of the afternoon. There’s just something about coffee that I love. Of course there’s everything to love about coffee. The aroma, taste and warm feeling in my tummy. When I’m at home I like adding the “fat free” Hazelnut Cream and no sugar as I’m on my diet kick. When I’m not dieting, I love, love, love the regular Cinnamon Hazelnut Cream – Mmm. I can taste it now. However, on this weight loss journey of mine I can’t drink coffee like I used to. There are too many points in that cream and unlike my mother, I can’t drink the stuff black. Ugh! Guess I’ll resolve to have coffee a little bit at a time and enjoy each and every little sip. Ahh.

Pottery In The Raw


I’ve had quite a busy week in the studio. I’ve been doing a little handbuilding and throwing. I’m trying to throw some large pieces this week as I’m taking a “360 Degree Decorations Workshop” next week. I need to have several pieces made up and bisque fired before the workshop. Who knows, maybe this will be just what I’ve been looking for. I am getting so excited about the workshop and I’ll show you some pics of what I’m talking about after my class. It’s really hard to describe, but it looks “WAY COOL!”

It’s time for me to stop playing in the mud and clean up a bit, that is, getting all the clay out from underneath my fingernails… and get our house cleaned for the weekend.

Hope you all have a great evening and a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!