Debi was reading Amelia her bedtime book, when Amelia saw this picture she shouted "turtle on a computer!"
It's kinda like my computer at work.
Are you annoyed by signs with unnecessary quotation marks? If so, you will enjoy perusing some of the ridiculous stuff on this blog: http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/.
And I'm sure I'll go to hell for this one: http://crummychurchsigns.blogspot.com/
I was drawing with the kids the other day and I drew some pots I'd like to make: 
Yeah, yeah... I'm no artist. I know. But the kids thought they were artistic masterpieces.
I've never tried a pitcher, but if/when I do, this is what I'd like to make (coincidentally, it looks a lot like a pitcher that Debi and I bought in Ireland on our honeymoon). The mug I've kinda made, but haven't quite perfected; I'm not sure the form is one that really floats my boat though. The bowl is similiar to the last bowls I made (except for the surface decorantion); I really like the shape.
I also drew a wicked cool duck-dragon. The kids thought it was very funny. It wasn't supposed to be a duck-dragon and it wasn't supposed to be funny, but hey, I'll take a laugh anyway I can get it.
What started as a diversion has now become a family tradition. It was the first year that my wife and I were decorating the Christmas tree with our 2-year old daughter, Isabel. She was racing around the room in excitement, knocking things over and stepping on lights. We realized we needed to distract her, so I asked her to help me unpack our special ornaments. As we unwrapped each one, I told Isabel that ornament’s story. Surprisingly, she listened intently as I talked about the special memory associated with each one. She loved every ornament more than the one before. We finished decorating the tree then it was bedtime for Isabel. I gave her a hug & kiss and said goodnight and she went off to bed with Mommy. Halfway down the hall, she stopped, slipped her hand out of Debi’s and ran back to the living room. She stood on her tiptoes and gave me a kiss on the cheek and said “thank you for all my presents Daddy!”
We just heard from my niece Tiffany, she is in Marine boot camp and doing quite well. She had a rough start but is definitely in the groove now. She’ll be graduating in about 3 weeks, so she will get to be home for Xmas! I’m very proud of her – boot camp is no walk in the park. It’s an experience that definitely puts you in touch with who you are (I bet a lot of people in rehab or therapy could benefit from a couple of months in boot camp).
We had a great Thanksgiving at the Lemberger house. Val & Steve were there. Everyone contributed to the good eats and boy, were they good. It was the perfect low-key, peaceful holiday gathering. It was a good day for visiting, eating and football.
On Friday, Debi, Penny and I went to a bunch of arts/crafts sales in the area. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I was thinking it was going to be more about art and less about crafts. There were at least one or two potters at each sale and enough other art to make it interesting. It was a nice enough day - chilly (the kind of chilly that makes you really enjoy a cup of hot coffee) and a little hazy. It had an almost otherworldly feel. Although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, it was still fun and a good way to pass a day with family.
Debi and I strong-armed one little old lady into buying one of Jen’s pots at Sandy’s sale. Well, we didn’t actually force her – she really wanted it but just needed some help rationalizing the purchase. We were happy to oblige.
I bought an old magazine about the opening of Disney World (1971) for Isabel, an old needlepoint picture of a turtle for Amelia (she’s big into turtles), and a jar of homemade chow chow for my momma.
Debi bought a jar of homemade pickles that she just keeps going on about. She says they’re just like her Mimi’s homemade pickles. After she got them home and tasted them, she told me that she had a feeling about the grandma who was selling the pickles. She just KNEW they were going to be good pickles. Well, I guess they were good pickles because she ate the entire jar in less than 24 hours. WOW. Good lord, she’s got a pickle addiction. She actually got the lady’s phone # so she could get another fix. Next thing you know, she’ll be buying pickles in dirty back rooms of bingo parlors from little old ladies across the county. If she gets too bad we’ll have to do an intervention and lock her up in a cucumber-free facility. I hope it doesn’t come to that.
A couple of weeks ago we helped our friend Joey celebrate his 40th birthday. The big 4-0. Jen actually put 40 candles on the cake; it was ablaze. It took Joey and 4 little girls to blow it out.
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Here are the tumblers we bought at the CPF. Este Libre (aka, I am a book) is the one I picked; Debi picked the Namaste tumbler.
Debi and I went to CPF last weekend in Shelby with friends Valerie and Mary Anna. That is one big pottery festival -- I couldn't believe how many people there were (potters and customers). I saw a bunch of pots that inspired some thoughts about things I might like to try and there was such variety in the work I saw there.
Most of my favorites that I saw there are the potters I already know: Ron Philbeck, Julie Wiggins, Adrienne Dellinger, Corine Guseman & Hal Dedmond. In my opinion, Ron's booth should have gotten the 'best in show' award - it had great feng shui and flow, unlike many of the booths I tried to squeeze into.
A new favorite potter that I found is Jeff Martin (Boone). I bought one of his tumblers (I'll try to remember to post a picture later). His work was striking (sgraffito in black & white, with a small splash of red). Jeff's tumbler is my new favorite drinking vessel. Debi and Val bought tumblers too.
Debi bought a dinner plate from Marjorie Hawthorne (Gaffney). She came close to buying at least 3 other plates before we made it to Marjorie's booth. I'm glad she waited... when she showed me Marjorie's plate, I knew it was the plate for us. I think it's a nice plate, but I don't know for sure, because Debi hasn't let me use it yet.
I got to see Rust Pottery (Gastonia, Fred & Debbie Rust) again. They have this one glaze that I fell in love with the first time I saw it. Debbie said the glaze was called pussy willow (266 on a dark clay body). It's a sort of grayish brown with a silky smooth matte finish. Unfortunately, the only piece they had left with the pussy willow glaze was a large planter, so we didn't get anything from them. We'll definitely be looking for them at the sales this weekend.
Goodall Pottery (Charlotte, Babs & Greg Goodall) had some interesting pieces. Debi and I were both very curious about their trumpet flower hose guards. I thought they were funky, upside-down candleholders at first. Hose guards - who knew?? I also really liked Babs’ cowboy plates.
Valerie liked Ray Pottery’s (Seagrove) work a lot. Their glassy red glazes were very striking & made their work stand out quite a bit. She would have bought a piece but couldn't get close enough!
Tom Seelos (Marietta, GA) had some interesting carved pieces. A lot of luminary-type pots that were very intricately carved. Looks like it would be a lot of work.
Valerie liked Skunk Hollow Pottery’s (Campobello, SC, Arthur and Debbie Chapman) incense burners.
I enjoyed Center Point Clay Studio’s (Asheville, Kathie Kline) blue/brown glaze combination. They also had some nice big mugs.
Valerie bought a fun piece from Gardner’s Dirty Dog Pottery (Morganton, NC, Betty L. Gardner) for a gift.
We bought a sort of art deco cat sculpture for Isabel from Connie’s Clay Creations (Candler, NC, Connie Bennett). We bought Amelia a turtle at the Barn Sale, so we go the cat for Isabel. Both the turtle and the cat have both been repaired a couple of times. I actually made a back-up cat and turtle for when they are busted beyond repair.
Debi loved Hog Hill Pottery’s (Vale, NC, Scottie Fox & John H. Post) semi-circlular vase. I thought they were weird looking. But then again, vases are not really my thing. They had some kaleidoscopes that were way cool. I’ve loved kaleidoscopes since I was a kid; combining them with pottery is a winning combination for me. Their Angel candlesticks caught our eye too. You knew they were angels, but they were subtle.
Val bought a bird feeder from Anne B. Thompson. Anne’s mom really loved my “Make Pots, Not War” t-shirt. We chatted a bit while Val was making her purchase and decided that George Bush’s time would be better spent taking pottery classes and that we’d take up a collection for his tuition. Wishful thinking. I liked Anne’s logo:
It seems we saw a lot of potters who had horsehair raku pieces. It’s funny how you don’t see a particular form or style for a long time and then it seems to be everywhere.
I’ve been trying to figure out what to submit for the “I am thankful for…” feature on my company’s intranet. Of course, I am thankful for my family, my health and that George Bush can’t run for re-election, but I wanted to submit something different… maybe a multi-media representation of the things in my life that are important, maybe something poetic or artsy, maybe something that tugs at the heartstrings or possibly something funny.
Saturday night, one of my beautiful little girls wrote a book. This is not Isabel’s first book; no, she is a prolific author. But this is my favorite book to date. She wrote this book completely unprompted; she was simply entertaining herself with some crayons and paper while the adults were talking. When she read the book to us, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
When you read my little girl’s book you will know what I am thankful for.
We love our kids and we love taking pictures of our kids. Below are just a few of our Halloween adventures. Click here to view more photos of the hallowed eve.
I'm not a big Halloween lover, but I can get into the spirit (pardon the pun) of things and we did have a fine time. Amelia wore her costumes (sans red sparkly boots) to dance class and I have to say that she really has the superhero stance down pat. Isabel was a fine Little Red Riding Hood.
The kids had a great time and we had quite the crowd of trick-or-treaters at our house. Thanks to Aunt Penny and Uncle Marky for manning the candy bowl while we went trick-or-treating.
It was a good time and a relatively uneventful night except that there was some nutbag on the street scaring people with a real chain saw.
Oh, the first picture is one of Amelia playing with my costume (our next president).
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