I'm no artist

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.

Why parents are sappy...

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!”

Semper Fi

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).

Thanksgiving & Pickles

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.

Clayworks Holiday Sale

Joey's Birthday

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.

jeff martin tumblers

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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.

Este Libre is Spanish for Be Free

Namaste is an ancient Sanskrit blessing:
I honor the place in you where Spirit lives. I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Truth, of Light, of Peace; when you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, then we are One.

Sanskrit is one efficient language.

Marjorie Hawthorne plate

This is the plate we bought at CPF. Maybe someday Debi will let me use it.

Carolina Pottery Festival (CPF)

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.

Anyway, it was a good pottery day and a fun afternoon with some friends. Thanks a million to Jen & Joey for watching the kids!

A short book by Isabel

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.

Halloween 2007

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).

Halloween Masks

Having trouble pulling together a halloween costume at the last minute? Click here for some very scary masks that you can print from Forbes.com.

Can a klutz be a potter?

I was busy with other things (trimming, glazing, etc) in pottery class last week & didn't get to throw anything, so I went in on Saturday morning to throw some bowls. My "assignment" from Julie was to throw some bowls that were uniform in size and shape. I laughed out loud and then said of course, I'll give it a shot.

So I did. My results were not great. So here are my excuses: I was working with a new clay, which seemed quite different to work with. Julie said I was ready to upgrade from the recycled clay. Oddly I felt less pressure with the good ole' recycled clay. My other excuse is that I was working in different room. The kids’ class was in the room where I usually work so I couldn't use my favorite wheel. Apparently the combination of the new clay and a different room & wheel completely threw off my mojo.

I glazed some stuff and threw two bowls in class last night. I tried a different shape. They were interesting, but still not great. Someone else was using my wheel, so I had to use a different wheel again. And that new clay was still giving me trouble.

I am not usually a person who resists change. As a rule I embrace it. Apparently that does not apply to pottery.

I wonder if it matters that I am a completely uncoordinated, confused-ambidextrous klutz? Can a klutz be a potter?

Pottery is so different from anything else I've ever done. All of my jobs have involved processes, analysis and quantifiable results with measurable timetables. I have had my creative tendencies through the years, but the analytical part of me has kept a pretty tight rein on the creative part apparently.

So I find myself getting frustrated with pottery at times. I don't know if I'm really getting it. I don't know if I'm wasting my time. If someone would just tell me, it will take XX months for you to really get the hang of it... that would be great. I know it doesn't work that way, but I want it to.

I guess I just hate being so completely new and inept at something. I suppose it's probably good to try new things as you get older - you know, keep the mind fresh and all that.

Ghost Story

A co-worker was put in charge of collecting ghost stories to post on our new intranet. Part of our building was built in 1998 and the rest in 2001. There has long been talk that the "old" part of the building was haunted. For about 5 years, my office was in the old part of the building. I never saw or heard anything and I'm not particularly fond of ghost stories. But I felt bad for the chick in charge of this project b/c she hadn't received any stories, so I zipped one off. Certainly not a literary masterpiece, but I cracked myself up at least with the sort of cheesey, retro style of the story. Anyway, here it is:

I was working in my office late one night on the second floor of the clubhouse -- the OLD part of the building, the part that dates all the way back to ’98. Back to a time when people lived by different rules. Some say the putting green was a native burial ground, some say the pond by the 18th hole was used for dunking suspected witches in the witch trials, some say it was the sight of a bloody Civil War battle where countless young men lost their lives battling their own brothers.

At first I did not believe. I was a skeptic. The fact that no one wanted that nice big, comfy office should have been a clue. But I was too arrogant to notice; I thought Lady Luck was looking out for me. Well, someone was watching me… but it wasn’t Lady Luck. I never admitted it until that night, but I always felt it. And at times I would hear things. I would hear a creak, or a scritch, or a hissing. Sometimes the sounds would get to be too much and I would call Engineering to check it out but they never found anything wrong. They told me the creak was just an old building settling; the scritch, they said, was the magnolia tree blowing in the wind against the building; and they told me the hissing was defective speaker in the a/v system.

All that awful wailing and screeching… they told me THAT was the air conditioning unit. I forced myself to buy into all of their excuses. The fact that the Engineers would never stay for more than two minutes and would ALWAYS come in pairs should have clued me in. But no, I still didn’t believe.

There were other strange things as well. The eyes on that painting. You know the one -- the painting of the young lad dressed in blue knickers. If you’ve ever seen it, especially at night -- you know what I’m talking about. Those eyes. No matter where you went, those eyes were always boring into your soul.

Don’t forget about all the things that went missing… I’m not really comfortable going into any detail, but there were things, big things that disappeared from that second floor accounting office.

But I digress… I was working late. It was dark & cold outside. It was common for me to use the stairs outside on the east side of the clubhouse when leaving, especially at night when there were no golfers. Before putting on my coat and grabbing my keys, I went to the exit door to check the iron gate at the bottom of the stairs. It was usually unlocked, but I didn’t want to chance it. I was squinting in the darkness to see, when I felt a sudden push from behind! I nearly went over the railing, but I grabbed on just in time. I was going to have a nasty bump on my forehead the next day though. I wasn’t sure what to think. I was a little creeped out but tried to convince myself I had just slipped on a piece of paper or something.

I tried the door. It was shut tight and locked from the inside. I was contemplating what to do next. I was wishing I had just brought my coat and keys with me -- I could have just gone straight to my car. All those stories I’d heard about what went on here years and years ago were stirring in my mind.

I would have to use the house phone in the clubhouse lobby and wait for FLS to come unlock my office. Why was there no light in the stairwell anyway?? I shivered in the cold and started to make my way down the stairs in the dark when I heard the metal gate clang shut a half a floor below me. I started to panic. I called out, “Hello??!!” No answer. I was practically running down the stairs when I felt that same push from behind again. I heard what sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard; I saw a flash of amber-colored light, then blackness.

I awoke some time later. Looking at my watch, I realized an hour had gone by. “Wow,” I thought, “this side of the clubhouse is really deserted in the winter after dark.” No one noticed me lying there on the ground at the foot of the stairs for over an hour. I was a still feeling a bit woozy as I pulled myself up on the handrail. I wanted to get the heck out of there. As I was making a beeline for my car, I reached into my coat pocket to make sure my car keys were there.

Uh, hold on… I didn’t have my coat and my keys when I got locked out of the building.

I have no idea what happened that night, but I can tell you that I stay out of the clubhouse at night.

The Office Re-Cut (HILARIOUS)

Halloween Decorations

I'm not big on Halloween. Never have been. Debi wanted some decorations. After my company's fall festival, there were hay & mums & such that were going to be tossed. I brought the stuff home and tossed it in the front yard & threw the kids' pumpkins on the pile. She seems to think its some sort of masterpiece. ??? Anyway, here it is:

Even Adults Can Catch On Fire

Yesterday Amelia went on a field trip to the fire station. She was recounting the trip over breakfast this morning. She told us you have to "get low and go" if there's a fire, so I asked: "why should I get low and go?" Isabel jumped in (as big sisters do) and said "because even adults can catch on fire." What more can you say about that?

Mugs

Went to pottery class last night & picked up my finished mugs. I made a variety of sizes and shapes... still looking for one that speaks to me. Anyway, I promised I would post some pictures of some of my pots so here they are; I'm including a sample of each of the glaze combinations I tried.

Wonder what he did wrong?

Meinem Geburtstag, Teil 2

I went to my sister's house for a belated birthday dinner. Penny & Valerie whipped up a very tasty German dinner (German food & beer is sort of a tradition for my birthday).

The evening started with Amelia & Isabel playing dress-up with some Halloween stuff. Amelia makes a pretty scary witch.

Isabel is not quite as scary, but a cute witch nonetheless.

Lots of good eats: pumpernickel bread, sauerbraten, German potato salad, bratwursts, potato pancakes, sauerkraut, and other tasty treats. Penny & Val really outdid themselves!

It was a great evening! However Val & Steve did get a bit chilly sitting out on the deck as you can see by their contrasting kilts.

We had a few good laughs over the pink, prognosticating, plastic Jesus (3PJ for short) that a friend gave me. It's a pink, plastic statuette of Jesus with a magic eight ball type answer cube built into the bottom. Some of its answers are "not a chance in hell" and "I died for this??".

We also discovered that being a mom has taken it's toll on Debi's ability to tell a dirty joke. She was trying to tell her signature joke for the first time (obviously) in a long time and she started off telling a very unfunny, cleaned-up version. The kicker is that she didn't realize she was telling a cleaned-up version until I pointed it out. I guess it's true that if you don't use it, you'll use it.

She was able to get her act together eventually, so she's still got it. It's just a bit rusty. If you haven't heard Debi tell her Little Red Riding Hood joke, you should.

Click here to view the other pictures on Shutterfly.