January Adventures

I've been working on making some pieces with hearts instead of birds stuck on. Here's a picture of a small group of them:

I made these for the Blackbird shop in Almonte. I figured with Valentine's Day approaching, I could indulge my liking for hearts!

I also made more Bird pieces, including a salad set I rather like. It's not easy to design a series of pieces that work together as a 'line'. I want the shapes to be consistent and the design to work on the different items. In this case, the birds work fine on the flat pieces and the open pieces but I'm darned if I can see how to use them on, say, a teapot or a sugar bowl! Maybe inspiration will strike one of these days....

Everything was ready last Wednesday, but delivering them was another story. First I realized that Thursday morning was my eye doctor appointment. I have been waiting close to three months for this, having broken my glasses back in October, so I wasn't about to miss that. Unfortunately, in the morning there was freezing rain with snow forecast. Since I hate being late for things, I left the house early and thank goodness I did because the roads were dreadful. What would usually be a 35 minute drive took over an hour. My new 'specs will be ready tomorrow or Friday, hurray! (No more going out in public with glasses held together with that old white adhesive tape. A young fellow at the eye doctor's, also waiting, told me how he and his brothers so often had to tape their glasses like that when they were young. I tried to suggest to the waiting room that white tape was a new fashion accessory but I don't think anybody was buying it.)
Thursday afternoon it was just too icy to venture out again.

Friday morning it snowed and snowed..... but I thought I'd try it and of course got the truck totally stuck. I was doing quite well, out of my parking spot and starting down the driveway, and then, in a blink, slid sideways off the driveway into a foot of icy white stuff.

Saturday it took an hour of shoveling and the door mat pushed under the spinning tire to get out.

Good thing I like winter.

Be It Resolved:

Yes, New Year's resolutions can be deadly. Especially other people's. But I can't resist. In the interest of making 2012 the best it can be, I hereby declare that:

1. From now on, 3 or 4 weeks behind will be the 'new normal'.

2. I will stop feeling embarassed and looking around to see if anybody noticed when I run over a curb in one of those parking lots designed for Mickey Mouse cars. I am driving an intermediate-size pickup, darn it. I will instead look like I'm proud to have turned so tight a corner.

3. First Husband is retiring this summer. He is going to have plenty of time to pursue interests he never knew he had: cooking, shopping, laundry......

4. I will stop procrastinating. If you think I've already failed on that one, go back and read #1.

5. I'll finally make that bowl with the cut-down rim for Siobhan. Her broken one has been sitting on the shelf in the Studio for (yikes) 3 years now. She did say 'no hurry'.

6. I am going to teach Kip (First Dog) to enjoy riding in the truck. I don't know how because it is impossible to drive with a large Border Collie trying to sit on your head, but I'll think of something.Maybe First Husband will have to come along. Then Kip will only be trying to sit on my head half the time, and I can drive the other half of the time. Wherever we go, we'll get halfway there.

7. I am going to finish off some of the multitudinous buckets of random glaze that are clogging up the space under the counters in the Studio. I used some last year for vases, planters and so on, but then didn't I go mix up more new ones. Super Helper is getting really tired of mixing up buckets of glaze just so I can dip one bowl. Any customer who asks for a colour I don't have will be persuaded that she would really rather have it in blue.

8. I will blog regularly. 'Way more fun than housework.

9. No more doing the crazy woman dance when the recycling truck barrels on by just as I get to the end of my driveway. I will be calm. I will calmly look around at the scenery. I will calmly turn the truck around and calmly drive back to the house. I will calmly put the recycling back in the garage. Then I will NOT kick First Dog, yell at First Husband or otherwise show my true colours. I will remember #1 above.


Yes, 2012 will be a good year!


Hope yours is too!