• Happy New Year!

    At one point during our Tennessee visit last week, Dad grabbed my arms and said “Those are digging arms!” It’s true, I do have digging arms. I’ve dug so many holes around the yard that not only could I not recall them all, I’ve also become a very efficient digger. I know the spots in my yard that can be worked, and those that can’t. To Joe’s chagrin, the first few years in our house I managed to find every…

  • Handbuilding in the Kitchen

    With only two or so weeks until Christmas, I wanted to get in one more batch of pottery for the year. Since the pottery wheel is currently covered in Speckled Brownstone clay, and all I have left to use is Little Loafers, which is a white clay, I’ve moved back to handbuilding inside. I know I could just clean the studio, but baby, it’s cold outside! After glazing 75 ornaments in the last batch, I wanted quick, less tedious work…

  • Making Ceramic Ornaments with Cookie Cutters

    For several years now, we have made Christmas ornaments from clay. Last weekend I brought my supplies into the kitchen to finish up a couple requests from friends, and my kids descended on the makeshift workspace and demanded clay and all my tools. After a morning of wresting on the living room floor and failed attempts at controlling the noise level in the house, the silence that their focus on the clay brought was amusing, even if it took me five times longer than…

  • Frosty Garden

    It was a frosty morning in the garden! I guess it is time to start popping the D3 supplements because it is way too chilly to sit outside with my sleeves rolled up. Pictured below are oregano, some type of choi (bok? pak? I dont’ know), and triple curled kale. Last week, the basil, beans, peppers and cherry tomatoes (the last bit of summer still holding on) permanently bit the dust, so now there’s a good bit of open space on the…

  • Big Wheels Peace Accord

    This morning I’m sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, and listening to the boys upstairs playing with some new action figures. The tension between the two of them has been through the roof the past couple weeks, so hearing them playing together does my heart good. Sometimes the struggle of parenthood is managing to equip children with conflict resolution tools while the bullets are flying… at each other and at you as the parent. Sometimes I succumb to the chaos…

  • Royalty

    Royalty visited our garden this afternoon. After our caterpillar died, I figured our butterfly season was over, until this lovely monarch lighted down on the zinnias. And we waited near the red carpet to get a picture. The youngest confessed to having ill intent towards it (as he does with most bugs), so we sent him to the deck after he’d had a good look.