Bits and Pieces

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2010-12-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well...I arrived home from China last Tuesday (December 14th) at around 10 pm. Since then I've been dealing with jet lag, emotions over being home and trying to catch up with family and friends. I'm trying to catch up on the blog too. I couldn't access blogger from China so I switched to Wordpress. In the middle of November I stopped being able to access my Wordpress blog either. China apparently blocked all the blogs in the middle of November. So now I'm finishing the China blog and trying to figure out what's next. I loved blogging while I was there. I hadn't kept up with it much this past year or two, but I'd like to get back into it more. I guess we'll see what happens. At any rate, you can read all the blog posts at Then Something Tookish. I'll continue to finish posting about my time there and then I'll decide if and where to blog after that. I doubt anyone is reading this blog anymore, but in case someone stumbles across it I send you my wishes for a very blessed Christmas and New Year. :)

Countdown...

2010-09-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

So...in less than three days I will be on my way to the airport to board a plane for San Francisco where I will switch planes and go to Shanghai. And that will begin my study abroad adventure! A special adventure calls for a special blog! Or at least, that's what I'm telling myself. I'm going to be blogging all about my trip over at:

Away We Go

I may or may not be updating on this blog too...so much has happened in such a short time that I wish I could fill everyone in on, but telling you all that God is absolutely amazing and loves us so much even though we don't deserve it is all I have time for right now. Seriously, God has been pouring out love and provision on me and I am in complete awe and I feel so unworthy of it all. But I'm incredibly thankful too!

Okay...if you want to keep up with me head over to the new blog for now. I'd love to hear from you all while I'm in China so feel free to leave comments or email!

:)

Right now...

2010-08-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

I am re-reading this book...
In the throes of packing...the room looks much better than this now...just keeping it real...
Begging to braid people's hair for them...I'm quite in love with braids these days...

I'm also:

considering cutting my hair when I get back from China and donating it...

feeling a little unsure of all the changes coming up and freaking out a little...I get mean when I freak out and it makes me hate myself...

waiting for my visa to come back...

updating the blog...

starting a China blog...

loving that my niece loves praying at meals...she tries to hold hands and when you say "in Jesus' name..." she says "ammeh."...I don't think she gets it but I love that she wants to pray...

wrapping up last-minute things before I move back to school on Wednesday...

having a lot of neck/upper back pain...I think it's from falling off the merry-go-round/twister at the park a few weeks back...wish I had a good chiropractor...

thinking I want to double focus in ceramics and photography...I seriously need some instruction in photography...my photos are proof...

excited to see my roommates, friends and new apartment...

excited to get back involved with Campus Crusade for Christ and church back at school...

feeling homesick before I've moved...

thinking I want to move to Idaho or someplace out west if I ever graduate from college...

I am not sure why but I'm feeling all sorts of emotions about moving back to school and going to China. On the one hand I'm excited, but on the other I'm scared and sad. I know I'll miss my family. I guess it's normal to feel a little bit torn. As much as I want to believe that I'm really open to change now I still fear it quite a bit. And I'm sad that I'll miss fall in the USA. And worried that when I get back everything will be totally different and really hard to adjust to. Am I overthinking things?

Well...that's all for now. Goodnight...

rainy day snapshots

2010-08-16T20:12:00.001-07:00

We had our first good, soaking rain in weeks this weekend. I normally don't like rainy days...they make me sad. I was very grateful though for this rain. As I mentioned before, we needed it so badly!
I was feeling kind of bored...I felt like putting off packing so I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures. The light was kind of cool in the room so I was trying to capture that. I didn't really achieve it but I got a few photos that I liked anyway.

Our friend Kristi made this print for my sister when she got married. Isn't it gorgeous? We're trying to convince her to start an Etsy shop and blog...I think she's considering it!

This was the creamer pitcher from my "Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired-tea-service." I like that handle...it's quite comfortable. :)

Adam's party

2010-08-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

We painted faces on marshmallows using food coloring gel and then dipped their heads in chocolate to give them hair. When I saw ''we'' I mean Jacqueline. The inspiration came from this blog!

We gave them out as party favors!

I made a 7 layer salad...although my salad may have had more than 7 ingredients.

Matt and Jacqueline bought a helium tank and we blew up balloons. And some of us may or may not have swallowed helium during the process. When I say ''us'' I mean me.

We actually had quite a turnout. Friends from Bible study came, friends from old times came, family members were there...it was lots of fun! We roasted hotdogs and made s'mores and had lots of salad. Adam's friends Matt and Jonathan stayed until 11:30 at which point I kicked them out because everyone else had gone to bed and we were ready to get some sleep too. When I say ''we'' I mean myself. Adam and Holly probably could have stayed up longer but I'm a pansy during the summer...during the school year I get very little sleep so I take summer sleeping seriously. Overall it was really fun. I enjoyed hanging out with everyone and talking and catching up.
I think Adam enjoyed himself too. He is starting up at university this fall so we wanted to have a little party to celebrate with him.

On a brighter note...

2010-08-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

Happy 25th Anniversary to my parents! I love you guys!

Nothing

2010-08-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

I really have nothing to say right now. Not that a lot isn't going on...I'm just too frazzled to write very much! Thursday is my last day at work...my parents and siIblings are coming up from NC tomorrow...it is also my parent's 25th anniversary tomorrow...I go back to college next Wednesday...I have not packed at all...I'm leaving for China in early September...I'm filling out my visa application for China...

Here is a picture of some daisies. :)

I'll probably be kinda MIA for while. I guess I've been MIA most of the summer! I just feel like I have so little time left before school starts and I regret not spending more time with my family this summer so that's what I'm going to do before I leave next Wednesday.

Picnik.com

2010-08-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

So I'd seen people use this site before but I never bothered to look at it. Now I'm not sure why because I'm having loads of fun with it! I just think it makes showcasing photos a little more fun! :)Spring break fun with my friend! We have been friends since 7th grade. We will be roomies this year too!Me along the river at school.Walking the rail-trail...good times!

Thai food with my friend!

Harper's Ferry trip from 2008! I tried to make this look like one of those verydemotivational.com posters. ;)

Django...what a handsome devil!

Me and my favorite Olive!

My sickeningly photogenic little sister...

The fair...

Old photos of me...

Fun times with my roomie!

Friends and gorgeous places...

I thought editing the photos was super fun! You can even whiten your teeth in photos with it (which is always a cool thing for this dental assistant!)! Easy, free fun. What more could a college student want?

I went somewhere beautiful...

2010-08-08T19:39:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I travelled to the middle of nowhere (figuratively speaking) to visit my roommate in her hometown. I think it may have been the most gorgeous place I have ever seen! I had a wonderful time visiting my roomie, her family and friends who were also there! It made me realize how much I miss my school family. :)

Is that not absolutely gorgeous?

My friend Amanda and my roommate Whitney. We went hiking.

We met this stalking rooster named Norman!

Whitney got a summer job at a stable so she treated us to a horseback ride! She has the coolest job ever! I had never ridden on a horse before but I loved it!

My horse was named Goldie. :) She was a slow-poke, but I think that was good since she was my first ride.

It was a wonderful visit. In addition to hiking and horseback riding we stayed up late talking, hung out with Whitney's family, went to a big picnic where we saw old friends and met new acquaintances and got rained on (but luckily there was a pavillion so we had shelter. It was still really fun!) and listened to live music! We went to church and to a cool little restaurant. Fed sheep at 10 pm. Saw the stars more clearly than I ever have, rode up and down mountains and just had a wonderful time. I'm so grateful that I got to visit my roomie and friend Amanda! Amanda is leaving for China in 4 days! She is going on a missions trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. I am hoping that we will be able to meet up while we're both out there.

We need rain!

2010-07-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

My friend and I went to a local park yesterday to walk around. I've been there before for a wedding and another time for a baby shower but I have never walked around to see the rest of the place. I got to become acquainted with these geese...I think they were hoping I would feed them.
Look at how yellow that grass is! It's so burnt. It looks like that everywhere. We need rain so badly! I'm a blue-skies-sunshine-loving kind of girl, but I am really hoping it will rain a lot! Soon!

Happy Birthday, Holly!

2010-07-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

Today my little sister turned sweet 16! I can hardly believe she's that old already! She's halfway finished with being a teenager. Boy, we're getting old! :)

These are some pictures of Holly that I've taken through the past couple of years. Some of them are very recent, others are a bit older. They aren't in chronological order.

She's such a cool person. I don't think she has any idea how special and unique she really is, which is probably partly why she's so cool. She's sensitive and sweet but edgy too. She reads biographies on Beethoven and enjoys his music and also listens to Guns and Roses. She has her own sense of style and knows what she likes. She's very down-to-earth as well. Much more so I think than I was at 16. And she used to always pose for the camera if I told her to. Now she tells me no sometimes. I'm losing subjects for photography every day! :) She's her own person and I love who she is and who she is becoming.
Happy Birthday, Holly! I hope this year is amazing!

Happy 20th Birthday, Adam!

2010-07-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today is my brother's 20th birthday. I cannot believe that he is 20 years old now. So I compiled a few photos in honor of his special day.

I feel like these pictures show a little bit of Adam's personality: he's cute and has a sense of humor and a serious side and he sure loves his guitar. :) Other facts about Adam: He can do impersonations like no one else I know. I love the way he impersonates Willie Nelson and he does a good job of talking like President Bush too. When he was really little he would call the little girls on the playground "toots" like Curly from The Three Stooges would. He was one of the students at my school that tried to help start a Campus Crusade for Christ ministry at our community college and his dedication and commitment to trying to make that work was an inspiration. He can do almost anything he puts his mind to and is usually one of the best if not the best at what he likes to do. He has natural leadership qualities. We sure love him!
Happy Birthday, Adam! I hope this year is the best one yet. :)

Lancaster County

2010-07-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Lancaster county with my coworker friend Pam. It was a beautiful day outside and a fun-filled day with shopping, eating, conversation, laughing and just enjoying being in a lovely place. I hadn't been to that part of Pennsylvania since I was a little kid.

We got to feed some goats and see lots of puppies and horses. We went to lots of bakeries, markets, a couple of farms and a really awesome thrift shop.

Kitchen Kettle Village was this really cute little village of shops with markets, coffee shops, boutiques, galleries and more.

I thought this family was adorable.

Lovely sunflowers...

My friend took this photo for me. I love sunsets. I feel like I'm watching God paint the sky for me. It's so gorgeous.

During our trip I enjoyed seeing such beautiful country. I sometimes wish I could move away from the mid-Atlantic region and go west or something, but I will say that sometimes I see how beautiful the area I live in is and I just thank God for allowing me to live in such beauty. No matter where I end up in life I will have a special place in my heart for this area.

Home again, home again...

2010-07-13T17:30:00.001-07:00

So we are back from our trip to visit my parents and younger siblings at their new home in NC. Mom and Dad's new house is lovely. Their neighborhood is pretty sweet too (hello private community pool!).

little house in NC...

where I spent most of the evenings while I was visiting down there...

the little poolhouse...

the tennis courts which we did not use. I've always wanted to learn to play tennis though...
As usual, I came home from my trip with more than I originally brought. Clothing bought at my first ever visit to an H&M, tons of pictures, seashells from the beach, stuff to take back to school with me, and probably a couple of extra pounds along with some fire ant bites (blast those pesky insects!) and a nasty sunburn!
(I have tan-lines for the first time in years. lol. I haven't cared about having a tan for a very long time so this burn was unintentional. I'm not the type to purposely burn to try and get a tan.)

Yes, it was quite a full week! I miss my parents and siblings, but it was reassuring to see them settled in their new house. They are quite blessed because with what they sold their house up here for they were able to buy this house without taking out a mortgage and are in a place where the economy is still pretty good. It's been over a year since my dad lost his full-time job so I'm happy for them since this move has presented them with more job opportunities. Dad already had an interview today and has another tomorrow! We're praying that he'll get a job offer soon! Now I can't believe that there are only less than 6 weeks left in the summer!

NC Natural Science and History museums! (Or, too many pictures!)

2010-07-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

On our last day in NC we visited the Natural Science museum and the NC History museum. I loved the science museum. 4 floors of so many interesting exhibits! I highly recommend it! The history museum was okay, but I guess I'd rather read or listen to a lecture when it comes to history. Science seems to capture my attention much more these days.

Can you spot the T-Rex skelly in the window?

Both museums were across the street from each other. History on the left, science on the right.

Huge whale skeleton!

My parents in front of the indoor waterfall.

he he...playing around. ;)

Cottonmouth Water Moccasin. I believe this is NC's deadliest snake!

Huge disgusting cockroaches. Blech!

Huge disgusting tarantula! Ick! Seriously, these are the things my nightmares are made of.

They had a conservatory with butterflies, turtles, snakes, spiders and sloth.

Somehow I identified with this poor thing. Don't ask me why. ;)

My younger sister thinks this is gross. I thought it was fascinating.

My favorite exhibit at the history museum! They had potters there giving live demos. I watched for awhile. Ohhh, how I miss it!

This was cool too. It was an interactive screen demonstrating a Sabbath meal. There was a large exhibit for NC Jewish history.

Cool ceramic pot made by old North Carolina people. Not sure if Native Americans made this or not. I snapped a photo to file away for inspiration. :)

So that was our last sight-seeing stop in NC. There were a lot of cool things in Raleigh. I'm hoping that when I go back during my Christmas break to walk around downtown a bit and explore. We mostly just drove around the city during this visit instead of walking. I much prefer getting out and looking around. You find so many things you would miss when just driving.

North Carolina Museum of Art

2010-07-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we paid a visit to the NC Museum of Art. I've never been to an art museum before so it was a lot of fun to go there. I got to see works by artists I studied this past semester. It was a beautiful place.

This piece was called "The Dentist." I thought it was funny since I'm a dental assistant.

There were quite a few different displays of art from other cultures. This menorah was very large and beautiful!These were traditional African articles of clothing

These glass vessels were part of one of the multicultural displays.Picasso

Giacometti

This piece was cool. It was a large picture of the Mona Lisa upside down and it was made of spools of thread. You had to look through the glass ball to see it right side up.

I thought this piece was funny.

The museum had a large collection of Rodin pieces. Among them were a small sculpture of one of his ideas for The Burghers of Calais. Most were housed inside the museum, but a few, including this one were displayed outside in the garden.

This metal tree reminded me of The Tin Man. I'd like one for my yard. :)

And that was it!

Just Plain Simple...

2010-07-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

During our week here I had a chance to catch up with my friend Brianne. I hadn't seen her in several years so it was really neat to see her again. She brought some samples of pendants she's been making. They're made from metal and copper. Most of her work is custom made. I loved the simplicity of the materials and was impressed at the intricacy of some of her designs.

These business cards were designed by Brianne's older sister, Laura. Actually, the entire family is very talented artistically and musically. I very much enjoyed seeing them all again and finding out what they're up to.

One of Brianne's greatest passions is animals. She is very involved in animal rehabilitation. In fact, she brought some of her "patients" with her. She brought a baby robin and a nest of baby house finches that she is handfeeding. Once they're old enough they will be released back to the wild. She has an etsy shop called justplainsimple where she sells her creations. A percentage of her proceeds go to wildlife rehabilitation. I think it's very cool! She doesn't know I'm plugging her like this, so go check out her shop and see her handiwork. :)

Just a few shots from this week...

2010-07-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

Some of these may or may not have been edited...I'll never tell. ;)

We went to the beach!!!

2010-07-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

It was 96 degrees but the water was great! I got a few photos of my family and the scenery...it's been so long since I've been to the ocean. I went to Hampton beach back in 2005, but it was during May and a freak nor'easter blew through and it was SO cold! Labor day of 2001 was the last time I've been to the beach while the weather was nice.

We went to Carolina Beach.

I like one-point perspective...ha ha!

I love this picture of my Dad and Olive.

And I love this one of my Dad and my brother.

Me with my brother. It seems like whenever my dad or brother take pictures they always cut people's feet out...lol.

Ahh...the ocean...it was nice to see it again. I did not adequately prepare for the sun exposure though and am now looking a bit like a pink zebra...I'm very sunburnt!

On our way back home we stopped to see my dad's grandmother. She is 102 years old. She still lives alone. I hadn't seen her in about 10 years and she still looks so similar to how she did before. She's still spunky. As we left my dad was teasing her saying we needed to leave before one of her boyfriends showed up. She spanked him for saying that and then laughed.

Olive with her great-great-grandmother. She was very shy of her and was trying to get away in this picture.

The quality of this photo is very poor. I had to lighten it up a lot just so our faces could be seen. But I'm glad we got one with her. This is me with all my siblings and my niece.

It was an exhausting day! I felt like we were in the car for most of it! Yesterday was a bit more relaxing. We hung out at home and then went to Crabtree Mall in Raleigh and I visited my first H&M. We ended the day with a trip to the community pool in my parents neighborhood and aside from one lady and her granddaughter we had the entire place to ourselves. Pretty sweet! :)

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

Long may our Star Spangled banner wave...

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Happy Independence Day! And happy birthday America!

This 4th of July was great! It was spent in NC visiting my parents at their new place, having a cookout with friends I haven't seen in 7 or 8 years, swimming in the neighborhood pool, a wee bit of crafting, and a firework (yes...just one, lol). Matt, Jacqueline and I drove out to see fireworks but ended up missing them. We heard the neighbors apparently put on a fantastic show which we also missed. But when we drove home one of the neighbors across the street set off a mortar in the street and it was quite beautiful. :) I didn't get a picture of that one, but this is one we barely saw over the treetops on our drive home that night. I just love fireworks.

All in all it was a very nice day. I am thankful that my parents are settled into their new home and are in a good area. I think they are excited to be here. I'm thankful that I live in this country, regardless of its problems.
I'm enjoying my vacation here in NC! We went to the beach today which is where I took the picture of the American flag kite. I'll write more about our visit here later. In the meantime, I hope everyone else had wonderful celebrations! I'm signing out for the evening! Too much sun has me exhausted! :)

this is how much I love ceramics...

2010-06-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I ever posted this or not, but my friend took it when I saw my stuff that came out of the kiln. I was so happy because it looked tons better than the first kiln did, but my bubble was properly burst the next day when I saw the genius NCECA guests show their skills. It was good though. I have so much to learn...I am so looking forward to getting my hands back into clay and squishing around in it and making stuff. I love learning about ceramics. It's so enjoyable. :)I miss crafting and working with clay...I miss the studio terribly and I between being sick, a long weekend trip back to school and getting ready for this move I must say that I've been very bad about doing any crafting at all. I think this move is making me anxious and I find that when I'm anxious (unless my project is an assignment with a deadline) I can't seem to make myself focus on a project. So much time is wasted...such a shame. Once I'm settled in though I hope to be able to work on little things here and there.

Does anyone else find themselves caught in a crafting rut when they have a lot on their mind?

We're going places...

2010-06-20T15:01:00.001-07:00

"Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking stick."
JRR Tolkien~ The Hobbit

Whatever...

2010-06-08T15:09:00.001-07:00

Finally brothers:

I love this idea and am going to do it again. Only better next time. Unfortunately I think this series falls under the "you lose some" category. But I think it has potential.

I did this as a way to deal with my frustration with certain teachers who seemed to think that art dealt with mainly lewd, crude ideas. I had a very bad week that week and Philippians 4:8 really spoke to me during that time. It's funny because I remember reading that verse at the beginning of that rough week and then it came back up during a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting. So that weekend I started these guys.

Even though they're really rough around the edges I am going to push this idea farther and keep working with it.

I love handmade!

2010-06-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

My roommate painted this picture of a Newfoundland for me as a birthday gift last year. I love it! I love the colors and am in awe that she was able to actually paint dog hair. Painting seems like such a mystery to me. How she was able to paint things as intricate as the hair and whiskers is beyond me. I think she did a beautiful job.
We don't have our newfies anymore. This picture is a nice reminder of those sweet doggies. And a sweet reminder that I have uber-talented friends! I love getting a handmade gift. It's so special. :)

PS: I'm sure she'd take custom orders if you want a lovely painting. ;)

Journaling

2010-06-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

So since I started blogging I've pretty much given up writing in books. Sad isn't it? I found my old journal from when I was 16 (talk about sad...hee hee...I think I mostly wrote about what was bothering me) and read through it. I love the convenience of the internet. Blogging is such a fun and easy way to document photos and ideas and memories and emails and facebook are such a quick and easy way to communicate. But I miss writing letters. I love getting mail and rarely do anymore (I don't consider bills to be real mail). Anyhow, this book combines my long-lost love of snail mail and hand journaling. I've begun to glue all my letters and some pictures into a journal instead of keeping them in a box. They're much more accessible and portable. This book can be thrown in a suitcase. You can't really do that with a shoebox full of letters. Plus this is a prettier way to keep all your letters available and tidy.
This would be much easier with a spiral bound book. This is leather bound so it doesn't close all the way. Luckily it has an elastic strap to help keep it closed. Next time I do this I'll use a spiral bound book but for now this works fine. Plus it gives it an older look which some find appealing.
I don't just keep letters in here. I also keep pictures, poems, song lyrics, Bible verses and memorabilia. This is a picture I took at the park and a poem by Robert Frost. Below are two bumper stickers. One is a Pro-Life sticker and the other is one I got while in Austin. I know...they're supposed to be on a car, not in a book. I use my parent's car so I don't feel free to put stickers all over it.

These are notes from friends...

This is a Christmas card my roommate sent me. She designed it herself. I'm going to blog about something else she made for me in a different post!

I have lots more to put in this book. I think it would be a great idea for a gift for someone in college, a friend or family member who is moving away, or a loved one in the military. Have people write letters and then glue the envelopes with the cards or letters inside and pictures of everyone who loves them into a book and give it away. It's nice to see pictures and read handwritten notes (I love people's handwriting...it makes things so personal) from people. It can help with homesickness. I am planning to bring my book to China with me to look through when I miss home.

Watching an Olive

2010-06-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I watched my niece, Olive, while her mom and dad (my sister and brother-in-law) went out on a date. We had lots of fun eating her parents out of house and home while they were gone (don't tell me I'm allowed to raid the fridge...lol...just kidding). We did actually share some homemade blackberry cobbler (when did my sister turn into Martha Stewart? That girl can cook!) and homemade whole wheat oatmeal bread. We played with toys. We listened to the Dean Martin station on Pandora (I love the way he sings Sway). We sang songs and snuggled. And we played with water in the bathtub. Olive just LOVES playing with water. Seriously, put her in the tub with a couple of containers of water and some spoons and she has a ball.

She also loves cell phones. She accidentally dialed 911 with one of her parent's phones. She is such a little genius. I let her play with my phone while I was eating my dinner and she loved it. She got mad when I took it away.

This is where I took the phone away.

I'm pretty sure she is signing and saying "please" here. My sister is teaching her sign language and she can say "please," "more," "all gone," and "ice cream." She is walking around now and saying more words. She calls the cows next door to us dogs and when they moo she will moo back at them. She likes to pretend she's a puppy. She plays patty cake. She is snuggly and blows kisses.
I can't imagine how we ever got along without her.

And you lose some...quite a lot actually.

2010-06-06T12:52:00.001-07:00

As you can see not all projects turn out according to plan...

Most don't. To be honest I don't really have a definite plan for many of my pieces. I just experiment and see what happens.

salt-fired...not good...I'm very sloppy.

sloppy again...gotta work on that...

This went into the wrong kiln. It went into salt instead of reduction. And it's sloppy. But I think the idea of it is cool. It was inspired by Banksy. I am going to try this again sometime. In the meantime I think I'll go destroy these. lol. Actually, Adam (my brother) has decided that he's claiming all my ugly mugs (which I collectively refer to as my "ugly muglings.") and keeping them. So I think he claimed the middle one.

Tea Pot

2010-06-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the finished "Alice in Wonderland" teapots. I didn't turn this one in for my critique. I ended up making 3. I gave one away already and my sister has the actual set that I turned in. I am going to photograph it sometime soon. Anyway...this set was just a teapot, creamer and a sugar. Where is the creamer pitcher? Well...it was loaded next to a sculpture in the kiln and during the firing that sculpture fell over and fused to my creamer pitcher. So this is all that is left. I like the color. It is a tenmoku over celadon, but our celadon was messed up so it's not typical of regular celadons (so I'm told...I'm so new at this I really don't know what it's supposed to look like.). It was a very fun set. Each piece was wheel thrown. The lids were wheel thrown and so was the spout. Only the handle was hand built. I fired the lid separately from the teapot and it warped a little bit so now it doesn't fit inside properly. I'm going to have to take away some of the rim to make room for it. I like them better than the very first teapot I made, but I am excited to continue experimenting with teapots. I'm hoping when I get to China to try throwing with porcelain. I can't wait to be good at what I do. It's nice to see improvements, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be. It's good though. It's always a challenge and that is part of what keeps me coming back. I love it.

I miss it SO much! As wonderful as it is to see my family I miss working with my hands on the wheel and at hand-building. I don't have access to a wheel at home. This summer is already going by so quickly though. I've been home for 4 weeks and 1 day now. I'm going back to school to visit my friend this coming weekend. I can't wait! I'm also going to get some paperwork taken care of for China, but I'll get to stay for three nights and maybe visit a Bible study or church service while I'm there. It will be fun to go see the folks who are still in town.

From this...

2010-06-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

to this...

(excuse very poor picture quality)

One of the most time consuming and frustrating projects I've ever done. It got a bit messed up during my trip home so I need to retouch it in a few places. I'm glad I finished it. My teacher said the skin looked scaly. :P I'm hoping to get it retouched and take a better photograph of it since I need it for my portfolio in school eventually.

one last piece for tonight...

2010-05-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

I forgot to put this piece with my favorite pieces in the last post. It's okay though because this one is glazed with colored glazes, unlike the others. This mug makes me smile. It is kind of a misunderstood little mug. Not everyone likes it. Although someone did offer to buy it from me, so it is appreciated too by a few people (I said no...we're not allowed to sell our work). It reminds me of a Ken Ferguson slump pot. I was throwing with a very soft clay and the middle got too thin and collapsed. I really loved the way it collapsed though so I saved it anyway and put a handle on it and dipped it in either 3D matte or Eustes and then in tenmoku. I had it fired in oxidation which I really like. It seems like colors are much more vibrant in oxidation than in reduction. Oddly enough, it's probably my very favorite mug I've made. I think it was a happy accident and I'm going to try to recreate it.

My favorite pieces from the semester.

2010-05-31T22:01:00.000-07:00

The funny thing about these pieces is that I didn't use colored glazes on any of them. For the bowl I did a wax resist design (I'm not sure how visible it is in this photo) over a shino glaze and had it salt fired. The inside is glazed with Eustes (I think). I think it looks kind of natural and minimal. I like it.
This was one of my first pieces this semester. It was wheel-thrown and then altered so that the bottom is square while the top is round. It is painted with blue slip. I mixed some of the blue slip with a white slip to make it a lighter shade and it worked out really well. After painting it I carved designs in it. I think that concept is sgraffito, but I'm not sure if what I did can really be considered that. I really liked the colors. I played around with that pattern in the dark blue on a few of my pieces and someone started copying me towards the end of the semester! I was sort of flattered. :) I used it as a cup, but it could also be a pencil holder or toothbrush holder.
Another wheel-thrown/altered piece. This one I used different colored slips on to paint designs. It was then glazed in a clear glaze and fired in oxidation. I liked how bright it came out. Not sure why, but this screams "toothbrush holder" to me. I guess working for my dentist again this summer has me thinking of teeth a lot. Oh, bad news: I have another cavity! It's only my third. Oddly enough I never got cavities until I became a dental assistant. Hee hee. I know it's just a coincidence, but I think it's funny.

And finally this little cup. Even before I majored in ceramics (a loooong time ago...as in 5 months ago, lol) I preferred to drink out of mugs instead of glasses. I like the idea of making ceramic cups to drink out of. That's what this little guy is. It's very similar to the one shown above. It's just painted with slips (my painting skills leave much to be desired...something I definitely need to work on in addition to many many things!) and then glazed with a clear glaze. The only difference is that this cup was fired in reduction instead of oxidation which is why I think the natural clay has a very gray look to it.
This past semester I got to make a couple of different slips and make glaze tests. I also got to help stoke a wood kiln (which was very exiting...every time I pulled out the brick to stoke flames would shoot out...did I mention that I have a little aversion to fire?) and unload several different kilns. I had pieces wood fired, salt fired, reduced and oxidized. I would love to watch a raku firing. Kilns are so exciting! I also got to watch the sculpture students do a bronze pouring which was also very exciting. This may sound silly, but it was almost like watching a ballet...everyone rehearsed their part in the procedure and then performed it perfectly and there was this feeling of excitement and anticipation that I can't quite describe.

Sometimes I just love being an art student. And then sometimes I wonder what on earth I got myself into and why did I do it? But mostly I love it. :)

bobbies with buttons

2010-05-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

Remember these? I got them at The Purple Fern (I love that store!) in Winchester, VA. It's such a fun and inspiring little boutique. I love buying the little fabric covered button bobby pins that are sold there. I love digging through the little bucket she has just for these little hair clips.

I have since found out that these are SO simple to make! I bought a fabric covered button kit from Joann's and a bunch of refill packs (and 2 spools of elastic thread, although that's completely unrelated to button bobby pins) for $7.23 cents the other day and this afternoon I made 5 of these little guys. It was super fast and easy...sometimes that's exactly the kind of project I need.
Ta daaa...aren't they cute? I am thinking of putting a couple on a snap-clip for my niece. She can still pull bobby pins out too easily.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial day weekend.

What's a girl to do?

2010-05-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

(sigh) School is out. I came home on May 8th or 9th. Any normal person would be jumping for joy shouting "hurray, school is OVER!!!" But me...I miss school. Very much. Yeah, it's lame but it's the honest-to-gosh truth! I miss my friends. I miss my dorm. I miss ceramics terribly! I especially miss the Bible studies and Campus Crusade for Christ. It's strange to come home and not have Cru here. I love seeing my family and friends from home, but to be quite honest I still feel lonely and surprisingly homesick for school. I think a big part of it is that I'm not nearly as busy as I used to be. Now that I'm finished I don't quite know what to do with myself for the summer!

This summer promises to be busy and full of changes. My parents are moving. I'm going to spend the last 6 weeks of summer with my sister and her husband and my niece here in town. I'm getting ready to study abroad in China this fall. It's just a tiny bit overwhelming. Even though I'm less opposed to change than I was when I was younger I still have a hard time embracing it wholeheartedly. I am happy for my parents (my Dad lost his job a year ago and this move is a great opportunity for him and my family) but it seems strange to think that the next time I go visit them it will be in a new city. I won't know my way around. I won't know anyone there. I don't really mind that, it's just weird. I guess it just feels like I don't have a permanent home right now. That must be kind of normal for this stage of my life.

It will be an adventure though. I think this whole year is going to be one crazy adventure. I can't believe I'm planning to be in China for (almost) 4 months! One of my favorite books of all time is The Hobbit. It talks about how hobbits are homebodies who don't like adventures. In the book, the hobbit is roped into going on an adventure with Gandalf the wizard and 12 dwarves to reclaim stolen treasure. Throughout the book the hobbit wishes he was back home waiting for his tea kettle to start singing...however every once in awhile something in him wakes up (something Tookish...since his relatives the Tooks were abnormally adventurous hobbits) and makes him long to see places he's never been and hear songs he's never heard and be a part of stories that will be told for generations...
sometimes I feel just like the hobbit. My natural inclination is to stay where I'm comfortable...where everything is safe and familiar. But every once in awhile...more lately than usual, something inside me wants to go out and have an adventure. To experience what I can only read about. But at the same time I am sure I will be homesick for my family and friends and school. It's only been 3 weeks and I'm very homesick for school. I know when my parents and siblings move I'll be homesick for them. I know I'll be homesick for my sister and brother-in-law and niece. But in a way it is comforting to know I'll miss them. I am blessed to have a family that I love and that loves me. I've been blessed to make dear friends who are like family and to be a part of a ministry that challenges me to make my whole life about serving Jesus. I am blessed beyond measure to be loved and sought after by my saviour, Jesus, who sent his Spirit to be with me wherever I am. So I don't have to be too afraid to go anywhere or do anything because I'm never truly alone.
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

That's a promise to hang onto!

That's about all I have to write about tonight. I'm in the middle of packing and organizing...it's a lengthy process and I keep stopping to check facebook and blogs! The internet is not conducive to productivity sometimes. :)

Ch..ch..changes...

2010-05-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

I thought I would give my blog a make-over. It's been kind of ho-hum these past couple of years so I thought I'd paint the walls. :) Shabbyblogs.com has some very cute layouts for blogs which is where I got mine. I want to get back to making things and posting about them here. I know that my summer is going to be a bit difficult though (will talk more about that later) as far as finding time to get involved in a project goes, but I miss making things and want to get back into the habit of trying to be creative and putting my thoughts into words.

Hopefully I'll be able to put more time into this blog this summer. Regardless of what I accomplish this summer I have rather grand plans for it this fall!

:)

in love...

2010-04-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

I found a new blog. Help me...I may fail my critiques (or crits as the folks at school call them) because instead of working I just want to read blogs. Go check out ~Ruffles and Stuff~. It's so fun! I seriously can't wait to get home in a month so I can sew sew sew...I love it when inspiration hits!

xo~
Gracie

Sneak Peek

2010-04-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

of my final project! I'm making a tea service based off the tea party from Disney's Alice in Wonderland (the cartoon). So far it's been fun, but I've only made two teapots in about a week's time. I have until Tuesday to make tea cups, saucers, a creamer and sugar and tray...wish me luck! I'm going to be busy! But, oh, it's going to be so much fun!

new and improved...

2010-04-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

From the mugs I made last year. I think these look much better! They're taller and thinner and glazed better...when I first saw them when they came out of the kiln I was SO excited because they looked SO much better than my mugs from last semester (which were really awful). Then the next day I went to the pre-NCECA show and thought to myself, "my mugs are really awful." And they are. But compared to last semester, they're much better! It's nice to see some progress but it's motivating to know you have a long way to go before you're good at what you do. I'm really enjoying slip-work and wax-resists and putting texture on my stuff. It makes glazing more fun.

That pitcher on the top right side of the shelf is not something I made, but everything else is mine.

Landscape art....or at least let's call it that...

2010-04-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

My 2D design teacher gave us an extra-credit opportunity. We had to do landscape art and the only rules were that it had to involve the landscape, wool, and bright colors not normally found in the landscape.
This is what my group came up with. We used several colored yarns to tie a tree to a rail. I think our teacher liked it. We gave it a really pro-environmental interpretation and I think that my teacher liked that. It seems like all people want to make art about the environment these days. I believe we should take care of the environment, but to be honest I'm getting bored of everyone making art about it. So to me this project wasn't as much about making a statement about the environment as it was about getting extra credit, but it was pretty fun anyway.

Scenes from Spring Break...

2010-04-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures from my break a couple weeks ago.I did quite a bit of driving, but the weather was perfect for traveling!
I spent HOURS on this project. It took forever!!! It made me hate my life. For real!

A very special baby turned 1 YEARS OLD!!! I cannot believe how quickly one year went by!

This year's ceramics...I think they're definitely better than last semester's mugs and bowls!

photo from my little jaunt to Harper's Ferry...

My cereal bowl with a handle...I love having a bowl with a handle! :)

Flowers just make the whole house seem so cheerful.

When I got back to school I was surprised to see that everything had bloomed while I was away. It was gorgeous! My roommate and my friend and I all went down to a local trail by the river to walk around. It was such a nice way to end the week.
I still have pictures from the Pre-NCECA conference that was held at my school that I'm waiting to get my hands on! Can't wait to post about it. :)

Photos from our silhouette project

2010-04-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

Silhouette...it's a fun word to write and say....anyway, here are photos of the finished product. They're better than the video I posted.(photo credit goes to Jason Lee)

(photo credit by Jason Lee)

We individually made A- grades on the project, but overall we made a B+. I'm not really sure how that works. I'm kind of disappointed because we did everything we could to communicate with our teacher and get feedback along the way and she told us we would get an A for it, but the overall grade was still a B. Grrr!!! The teacher who is in charge of the entire foundations department for the art school came in to photograph them and told the whole class that ours was the best. I wish my teacher thought so too. Only 3.5 more weeks of class! Hurray!

I like

2010-04-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

* sunny days
* pretty rain boots
* flowers
* playing my iPod while driving
* going for walks
* puppies
* watching my favorite one-year-old eat her first birthday cupcake (she loved it!)
* having conversations with people
* cameras (trying to figure my brother's camera out)
* spring
* silence
* thinking about how much Jesus loves us
* letters from people
* paper
* singing when no one can hear me

Just a few things I am liking this week. I have lots of pictures to post from this past week. Once I figure Adam's camera out I'll be posting! In the meantime, Happy Easter!

Good news and bad news

2010-03-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Bad news first: My camera gave up the ghost...breathed its last...went to camera heaven...basically it died. It was on the fritz for awhile...I knew it was going to happen. Still, I am very sad about this.

Good news: I'm home for Spring Break! And my brother is going to graciously allow me (I'm 99% sure) to borrow his camera for the rest of the semester. Isn't he the bee's knees? :)

I just got home today. I'm completely exhausted! I stayed at school until today because NCECA is in Philly this year and it starts Tuesday, but I'm not going. Our school held a pre-conference and ceramic artists Sarah Jaeger, Steve Godfrey, Tom Bartel and Von Venhuizen came to do demos and lectures for us before they went to NCECA tomorrow. It was really cool to meet them. One of the fun things about going to events like this is that you meet people who enjoy the same things you do and you can get a lot of information and ideas from these people. Another cool thing is that these guys aren't "hoity-toity" just because they're well-known ceramists. They're really friendly, casual people. A lot of them are professors at universities just like my professors. They're approachable, funny, and happy and willing to answer any questions you may have. They also occasionally mess up their work or encounter problems that they have to solve while working and that is encouraging to see professional potters still have to deal with problems that I deal with. Clay seems to have a mind of its own. It's good to know that the experts still are learning new things about it each time they handle it. In fact, Von and Tom had this conversation while they were working about a talk Von had with a student who was afraid to mess up something they were working on. He told them that you learn best from mistakes. You learn a whole lot more about what you can or cannot do with clay when you mess something up than you do when you get something to work. Sarah Jaeger also said that it's the whole idea that you learn something new about clay every day that keeps her coming back to work with it. She said if she knew everything about it and there was no challenge she would lose interest. Hearing these artists say that was so encouraging because I am such a perfectionist sometimes with my work and even though I'm not afraid to ruin a mug or a bowl while trying something new, I get frustrated when I feel like I'm not catching on fast enough.

So since my camera died I didn't get to take pictures the whole time I was there. My friend came with me this afternoon though and allowed me to use her camera to take pictures so once I get copies of those I'll upload them to this post! For now I have a couple of homework assignments to work on and aside from those I intend to thoroughly enjoy my time off school/work and have fun with my family and friends. A very special person is turning a year old on April Fools Day! That's right! My niece is almost a year old. I just can't believe how quickly this year went by. My baby is growing so fast! I am going to try to make her a little present...not sure what yet though. But that will give me something to work on before Thursday!

I'll try to update some stuff later. For now though I'm going to bed. A tea party with my sisters and friends is on the agenda for tomorrow...it's SO good to be home! :)

Locker Art

2010-03-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have classes upstairs in our school twice a week and to get to my classrooms I have to walk past all the lockers. I've been saying for months now that I'm going to photograph the lockers and I only now have gotten to it. Of course, some of the stuff on the lockers is obscene, but there are a few fun things to look at. I particularly enjoy the ongoing saga of Samurai Cat and Ninja Goldfish (pictured below), but also thought some of the other things were cute too. Have a peek:

Here and there...it's been quite a week!

2010-03-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't been so busy in ages! I had no idea art school was so exhausting! Luckily this weekend I was able to fit in a few days of rest since my week was very tiring. On Friday I went out with my roomies to go to a couple of stores and then we got dinner. Saturday I slept in and worked. Today...ahh, Sundays....today I went to church (I love my church!), went on a picnic and a 6 mile hike, went to a Bible study and had a work meeting. It was a great day! And the weather was in the 70s...you couldn't ask for a more beautiful weekend.

Here are some pictures...My roomies and Dash. He's my roomie's friend from Swing dancing class.

I was pretending to have fallen off the wall I was climbing. I think I could actually get into rock climbing.

It's warm enough for skirts and flip flops. Hello, Spring! I missed you!

My roomie and I have been stealing...er, that is collecting rocks for a Bible study project. We've been picking up rocks all semester and we're going to paint them. We've got about 55 and we don't need anymore. I still get the urge to pick up rocks while I'm walking back and forth to classes though. :)

This is me with my RA, Amanda. She is a sweetie. All my RAs are pretty awesome. I'll miss them next year. I'm going to be getting an apartment with my roomies and another friend. I also signed up to study in China next fall with the ceramics department. If I can figure out a way to pay for it without going into crazy debt then I'll be living in China for about 3 and a half months. Scary and exciting all at the same time! I hope it all works out!

It's been kinda muggy around here lately...

2010-03-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's almost looking like I don't do anything with ceramics anymore! I never post on it it seems. In actuality I've been making quite a few things. I've had 2 more critiques since the Admiral. We're back on the wheel now. I love it! As my teacher said (in reference to throwing on the wheel), "there's no place like home." Yes, that is very droll. :)

Here is a little mug I threw and had salt-fired. I didn't use any glazes on it or anything. I really like how it came out. It reminds me of the beach for some reason. I guess because it looks like sand. I've got about 15 more that have been bisque fired and glazed, but haven't been fired again yet. I also threw a few more last night. I have this idea for graffiti mugs...I'm researching Banksy for an artist powerpoint project and his work is somewhat inspiring me to graffiti my mugs. I'll let you know if this goes anywhere. :)

I feel like I can see a definite improvement in my mugs. They're thinner and the handles are better. It makes me happy! I thought I would never figure them out but I learned a new way to make and attach handles and it works much better for me than the old way did. Another thing I learned to do was make slip! I made a new red slip because our old one kept burning out when it was fired for the second time. I'd like to try to make a yellow and maybe purple slip too! My teacher said he wouldn't mind if I did. It's just a matter of finding time for it. I can't believe this semester is getting so close to being finished!

I glazed a bunch of my mugs and upon my teacher's advice drew sketches of each mug I've made and wrote down what I used to glaze it. He said this is a good idea because sometimes you'll do crazy stuff to a piece while glazing and it will come out really good or really bad. Either way you'll want to remember what you did so you can repeat it or so you know not to repeat it. So here are a few pictures of my sketches and notes.
I can't wait to see if they turn out alright. Glazing always makes me a bit nervous because sometimes my stuff comes out so ugly! I'm hoping that this time when we unload it I'll be happy with the results!

I'll try to get more pictures when I have something to show for my work!

I draw such exciting things!

2010-03-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

I think our still life drawings are boring. I would like to draw something besides silverware, ladders, boxes, jars, etc. I understand we are going to be drawing the figure when we get back from spring break. I think that entails drawing nudes. I don't want to draw anything that exciting. Why can't we have a happy medium?In the meantime, this is my homework that I turned in a day late because that fork was giving me a fit! I'm not exactly pleased with it still, but I'm glad it's done! This past week was exhausting! I didn't get to bed before 3 am all week and had to be up between 7:30 and 9 am each morning. On Friday night I made it a point to be in bed by midnight. However, at 3 am some crazy drunk guy was pounding on the door and trying to key into my room. I was not amused! I called my RA and woke her up and she took care of it, thankfully. I still managed to go back to sleep until 11:30 am. I think I was catching up on my lost sleep from the week. I am now officially ready for Spring Break!

As a side note, I think college is great training for parenthood. I am realizing that I can function (maybe not super efficiently, but I still manage) on 3-6 hours of sleep and then manage a full day of classes, work, Bible studies and homework. Sure it's not really preparing me for actual parenthood, just the sleep deprivation part.

Okay, that was all. :)

Silhouette Project

2010-03-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

In my 2D design class I had to pair off with someone and create a silhouette that demonstrated some form of conflict. My partner and I decided to do a storm scene with a tornado. We decided to make our tornado 3D by having it come off the paper. We even added a strobe light for special effects. We were going to try to have a whole bunch of other cool stuff like a fan blowing things around inside the tornado and storm sounds and we were even thinking about bringing in spray bottles and squirting people while they looked at it. In the end we just had the strobe light though. :( Oh well, it was still pretty cool. It was too awkward for me to photograph, especially since it was hung in a narrow hallway so I videoed it instead. This way you can see the strobe light too. We wanted to put the strobe light inside the tornado, but it didn't end up working out. Instead we had to put it on a stool and let it shine on it from the outside.

Check it out!

Sorry for the poor quality of the video...pretend it's awesome, okay? :)

photo-shopping

2010-03-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

This week has been nuts. And it's only Tuesday. :( I went home this past weekend and while it was good to see my family again, I got behind in my homework! Not so good. I haven't been prepared at all for any of my classes. But on a lighter note, it is only Tuesday so even though I've gotten off to a shaky start, hopefully I'll end the week with more productivity.

My partner and I finished the Tornado silhouette project. I think it looked pretty good. :) For my next project I have to do a self portrait and use magazine clippings to "paint" the color on. It's kind of confusing to explain, but basically we have a lot of artistic license with this project. So today I am going to show you what the "rough draft" of my self portrait will look like. I took this picture by Botticelli....
And superimposed my face on it....
and I may try to change the colors around a bit before I start the project. I think we look a lot a like. When I first saw this painting online I thought we looked similar enough that it would be fun to put my face on hers, but now I think we look almost eerily alike.

It's kinda creepy and fun. :)

The Admiral

2010-02-15T17:50:00.000-08:00

This is my latest project in my ceramics class. We had to slab or model a palm-sized object or do a self-portrait bust. My classmate is an excellent sculptor and he did a self-portrait of himself. I knew I would not be able to do that so I went out and bought a kids' toy and decided to model it. I went to Wal-mart and all they had was Strawberry Shortcake and Avatar figures so when I found this little Star Wars alien I chose him. Our finished project had to be about a foot tall. I think this guy is a bit taller than that.

He was so fun to make. I would have never picked this project for myself. I like throwing and am interested in slab-building, but I would never of my own accord make a model of something as useless as an alien. As it turns out, he is my favorite object I've ever made. I'm SO glad my teacher gave us this assignment. Even if I never do anything with the Admiral, I had a lot of fun making him and I learned some stuff while making him. It was great. I hope I get a good grade on him! I'll try to update this with a picture of the toy I modeled it after.

Bringin' back the hairbow...

2010-02-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

Paper-napkin style! :) Not really. We were just being silly. I love being a girl and pal-ing around with my girlfriends. It's so fun to be able to talk about girly stuff and make silly paper-napkin hairbows and share our lives. I've had the opportunity to meet some wonderful girl friends up here. We have fun together. We all went to Campus Crusade for Christ on Thursday and afterwards we went up to the student center to hang out and get free food. Molly and me

Whitney and Courteney

Amanda thinks something is really funny!

All of us girls. :) Unfortunately, my camera has been on the fritz lately. I'm worried that it got too wet when I took it outside during the snowstorm last weekend. It's been a trusty camera for the past few years...hopefully it will last a bit longer. It's really hard to get a clear picture and lately it won't turn on properly. Pleeease don't die, camera! I need you!

I finished a ceramics project. I'll try to get pictures soon!

Sunday, Sunday...

2010-02-14T13:22:00.001-08:00

So far we have been surviving our cold, snowy weather. I am seriously not used to this much snow. It snows every day it seems. And the roads are getting all messed up. My little car doesn't like it very much. And our city won't scrape the sidewalks which the students hate! snow

I went to church today with my friend. I only started going to this church since the beginning of this semester and I can't say how much I like it there. The teacher is really good and I come away with a lot each week. I feel so blessed to go there. It seems like a young church. It's small and they meet in an old theatre downtown. A lot of people from Campus Crusade for Christ go there too so I was pleasantly surprised when I visited and recognized or knew quite a few people. I go to a small group Bible study that meets in the home of one of the couples and in just a few weeks I feel like I'm already a part of that body of Christ. It's a blessing.

After church my friend and I went across the street to a little restaurant called Madeline's. We go there occasionally after church for lunch and it's a cool little place. It seems like everything is home-made, not heated out of a package which we all appreciate. :) I enjoy places like that much more than a chain restaurant.

Ha ha, I included this picture of the ladies' restroom. It's kind of an intense room...so purple and cheetah-ey...it makes me laugh. We are considering finding a guy friend to go into the mens' restroom to take a picture so we can tell if it is as wildly decorated. We are curious. Hee hee.

So it's Valentines Day. On Friday nights I go to a Women's Bible study that is through Campus Crusade for Christ. It's awesome. I love ladies' Bible studies. So on Friday the guys' Bible study gave a big bouquet of roses to the girls at the womens' Bible study. I don't really buy into this holiday. I think it's kind of silly. But I know I wasn't the only girl who thought it was really sweet of them. :) Nice move, guys! On the subject of Valentines day so many people I know are bummed because they don't have dates. It is kind of funny actually. Some years I am bummed too, but this year I don't really mind not having a date or valentine. I'm going to my friend's house tonight with my roommate to watch chick-flicks and hang out (I'm sure chocolate will be involved *smile*) for the holiday. Whether or not I have a special guy friend for Valentines day I feel so incredibly loved by my family, dear friends and especially by Christ. I can't say enough how amazing it is to me that He loves me. This semester I have become more aware than I ever was of how greatly He loves us. I mess up so often and am so selfish and act in what I think are my best interests and He always forgives; always takes me back, builds me up and then gives me another chance. Who else does that?

I hope your Valentines day is full of love from the people around you. Have a marvelous day!

Drawing class

2010-02-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

My teacher has been making us do still life sketches. We're going to start working with value this week.
I still don't draw very well. At all. But I am excited that my drawing resembles the still life my teacher set up.
I am glad to announce that I no longer am about to have a panic attack when I go into that class. The first class we had my teacher set up a skeleton in the middle of the room and said, "okay, everyone draw this." I almost packed everything up and left. I was like, "there is NO way I can do that...no way!" But I didn't run away screaming, I stayed. And it's cool because I can see some improvements! This makes me so happy!

Snowstorm!

2010-02-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

We had a snowstorm here! School is closed tomorrow...we never close! This is so exciting! It's my second snow day EVER! We got about 15 inches of snow here. Back home they have about 3 feet! 15 inches is enough trouble to maneuver in. I've never even seen three feet of snow.
(layering up on our gloves...next item to buy: insulated gloves! I didn't even think to get any until this storm hit!)

Anyway, I usually hate snow. I complain about it and say how terrible it is. But I think I like snow up here. This past weekend has been fun! My dear friend got stranded at my dorm with me and my roomie (who also is my dear friend) for two nights and we had a blast together! We got Nutella and pretzels and Reisens and played outside, listened to music, watched youtube videos of Christian 80s rock bands (their hair is hil-hair-ious), veggie tales silly songs with Larry (who knew there were so many?), made awesome dinosaur sandwiches and talked...talked...talked. I also got to see my sister and her husband and my niece who were traveling back home this weekend. Thankfully they made it back safely!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend! I'm so glad I don't have to go to classes tomorrow! It's so exciting!Cleaning my car. My RA was kind enough to lend me his scraper so I could get the snow off my car so I could get into my car to get my scraper. I'm wearing my new $3 hat! It's totally awesome!

Beautiful snow-covered branches.

The little seating area outside our dorm.

Our Resident Faculty Leaders brought food over from the dining halls and cooked a bunch of hotdogs for us so we wouldn't have to walk down to the dining hall for lunch. They also hosted a pancake dinner for us.

This is one of the guys from my dorm. He and his best friends who live here are sort of like a "breakfast club." We've got the smart guy, the jock, the quiet one and the clown. They come to our dorm Bible study and they're hilarious. This guy was running around outside WITHOUT SHOES!!!! I told him to "get thee inside and put some socks on, fool!" These freshmen (shakes head)...We made a trip to the store to get...um...provisions. Of candy and such. Well, we like to be prepared!We went outside at night while we only had about 6 inches.

Boy, do I look 80s here or what?

Some of the people from my dorm went sledding down one of the big hills. They were having so much fun! We opted out of sledding, but we still had fun too.Cold!

Unfortunately, you can't see it here, but it was so sparkly and it looked like glitter. Or a giant opal or something.
Okay, these dinosaur sandwich cutters are quite possibly the best 3 dollars I ever spent, (besides my new most favorite hat in the world which was also three dollars it has ear flaps and is lined with fleece. And it's fairisle...completely amazing!). Lunch is so much fun now!
And the next day the sun came out for awhile. It was so pretty to see the blue sky! It went away pretty quickly and it even was flurrying again today. We sure have had a cold, snowy winter this year! I can't say it enough, I'm so excited to have a snowday tomorrow! The gym will be open and hopefully the studio will be too. If so, then I think tomorrow is going to be a really fun day!

Snowy weekend = productivity! And me finishing my homework before 4 AM!

2010-01-31T21:01:00.000-08:00

Never have I been so grateful for my iPod as I have been these past three weeks. It makes it so much easier to focus while doing homework. :) I got a lot done this weekend. All my sketches for my drawing class and my 100 Implied Lines project for 2-D design class. I never made it into the studio to play because I was too busy.Fun items: sketchbook, pencil, iPod, kneaded eraser (who knew how much fun erasers are?), and m&ms...I have fun homework. Well, until my hand cramps up it's fun!
Finished project! It's due at noon tomorrow! So glad I finished it at 11:50 pm instead of 4:15 am like I seem to have been doing right before my critiques.

It's amazing how these past couple of weeks I have been reminded constantly of how much Jesus loves me and all of us. I have always known that Jesus loves us (John 3:16), but now I'm beginning to understand how He loves us. I guess there is a difference in knowing and understanding something. I'm adopting Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. Eph 3:14-21. Between the sermons I've heard at church these past couple of weeks, the lessons from the Bible studies I go to and what I've read in my own studies of the Bible recently I am blown away by how much He loves us. The cool thing is it's not just talk. It's action! He continuously blesses us, loves us, teaches us, disciplines us, forgives us...he repeatedly takes us back when we hurt Him. I always thought of God as being above being hurt, but we do hurt Him when we disobey or don't trust Him. But he is so patient and faithful...He never gives up on us. When I slow down enough to actually think about it it is such a wonderful reminder. The maker of the universe LOVES ME!!! Now if only I could keep up with the "slowing down enough to actually think about it" part...I took a 3 hour nap today. It was so nice. I needed it so badly! I am way behind on my sleep!

I'm thankful for a day of rest, productivity and fellowship. Today was such a blessing.

I had a visitor!

2010-01-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

My niece, Olive, came to visit me!!! Actually, my sister and brother-in-law were passing through town on their way to visit family and they stopped to visit me at school for an hour. We went to Starbucks and got breakfast and had a little chance to catch up. Oh how I miss them. And this little girl...she gets cuter and sweeter every time I see her! She is almost 10 months old now. It seems like time has sped up since she was born. Does having children make it seem like you're living in fast forward? I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. She says 'hey dere' now. And she makes an angry face which consists of her squinting her eyes and puckering up her lips and breathing really loud through her nose. It's hilarious! :) If I get an apartment next year I hope my siblings/family can come visit me for a weekend or so. That would be fun!I had my first ceramics critique yesterday. I made an 18 inch coiled pot and had to put an all-over pattern/texture on it. I spent about 50 hours on it in the past 2.5 weeks. Actually, I didn't even get started on it till Thursday of the first week I got back, so it's more like I spent 50 hours on it in the past 2 weeks. And I spent 8 of those hours on it the night before/morning of the critique. On Wednesday I had class from 9-3, work from 4-8 and then from 8:30-4:15 am I worked on it. If I didn't love what I do there is no way I would get anything done on time. I couldn't imagine spending 8 hours in one day on chemistry homework or accounting homework. I'm not going to say I exactly enjoyed being in the studio until 4:15 am, but I didn't mind it too terribly either. I was just exhausted by the time I got home and had to be back up for my 11 o'clock class. Let's just say that eating and sleeping have definitely dropped on my priority list this semester. I'm having a tough time balancing my 6 classes/homework/work and 4 Bible studies every week. I love everything I'm doing, I'm just really having a tough time keeping up with all of it. And it's only week 3! Gah!

Wish me luck! I'll hopefully be back with pictures of my ceramic pot soon! :) Happy Weekend!

comics...

2010-01-20T18:40:00.001-08:00

This is the comic that I drew for my 2D design class. It's loosely based on a true story. :) I gave my niece a monkey-in-the-box for Christmas and it scared her. She didn't cry though. And because I think that clowns are way scarier than little sock monkeys I decided to change that part of the story around. I was up till 4 o'clock this morning finishing it and then I got up at 7:30 to go to class all day. I was going to work on my 'coiled pot that swallows time' for awhile this afternoon but I was so tired that I came home and took a nap. And now I need to do art history homework. But as soon as I'm done with that I'm going straight to bed! I don't have class till 11 tomorrow so I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep!You can click on the image to see it larger if you want to. It was a fun project, aside from the staying up till 4 am part. :) What would I have done without my iPod? Thanks to it I was kept company by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Bob Marley; from Phil Keaggy and Fernando Ortega to the Bee Gees and Electric Light Orchestra...yeah. It helped a lot!

a little wip

2010-01-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a little headband I've been working on. I made a bunch of those little burnt-edge flowers and am attaching them to a fabric headband. I'm not sure if it's something I would wear, but it's fun making it.

Last pots

2010-01-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

These are the last pots I finished. I like the one on the left. I'm wasn't thrilled with the one on the right. I had a feeling I would either love it or hate it...I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I'm back at school. Classes are back in session. I'm taking all art classes! 6 of them in fact. In addition to ceramics I have drawing, 2D design, art history, art orientation and Intro to art education. I think I'll be pretty busy this semester. It's funny, we've only been back for a week, but it seems like it's been so long already. And I already have lots of homework! Today the ceramics studio had a throw-a-thon for the faculty, students and community. We all met up and threw bowls to donate to a charity event. The event is a soup dinner. People come buy our bowls and then fill them up with soup and have a dinner. I helped my classmate and teacher throw bowls for a similar event that took place in my hometown last semester so I was happy to get to help again. I only made 10 bowls. The grad students and faculty were whipping them out! It was pretty cool to watch. I got to meet some of the grad students who were in China last semester. I would LOVE to study in China for a semester. It's one of my goals. Anyway, the throw-a-thon lasted from 9-5. I left around 1:30 and we had a lot of bowls. Tomorrow is part two where we go in and trim the bowls we made. I think the students and faculty end up glazing them so hopefully I'll get in on that too.

It was great to get back on the wheel. I was afraid I'd be all out of practice after not being on it for a month, but I guess it's kind of like riding a bicycle. You get it back pretty quickly. I'm excited for my class this semester. I think my drawing class will be good too. I think I'm horrible at drawing, but already I feel like some things make a little more sense. My 2D design class is kind of intimidating...I hope that I become more confident and comfortable in those classes as the semester continues. I keep reminding myself that I'm a student and I'm here to learn. So it's okay that I'm not great at this stuff. I can get better at it. I have art history with two of the guys from Campus Crusade for Christ. They're both graphic design majors. They make it fun. It's encouraging to have them there. And they're pretty funny.

Well, that's about it for week one! I'm going to do some drawing homework!

Flowers for your hair...or coat...or hat...

2010-01-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

We had a girl's day out. It was great! It included shopping, Thai food and crafting. Could you ask for a better day? I couldn't! It started with a trip to the Purple Fern! I just love that store. It's very inspiring. :) I bought the yellow and red button hairpins (pictured below) there awhile ago. I was going to blog about them a long time ago but only just got around to photographing them this week. When I went back this week I bought 4 more. My sister also bought a couple. We spent the longest time trying to pick the ones we wanted. There were so many. I am the worst at making decisions. I eventually settled on these and I love them. I like that they go together without being too matchy. I wore the first ones I bought all the time so I know I'll use these a lot too.

(hairpins purchased from The Purple Fern)

My friend bought a flower hairpin there and it was really adorable. She wore it a lot. Later in the day when we got back to her house she and I tried our hand at making our own. It involved fire and synthetic fabric. I accidentally caught a piece of the fabric I was burning on fire and almost threw it on the floor. Luckily I just screamed and then dropped it into the fire instead. I have a little fear of fire. When I took chemistry I made my brother (we took the class together and we were lab partners) or my teacher light our bunsen burner. I was afraid that I'd end up setting the place on fire. Luckily that didn't happen in either situation and we ended up with these pretty flower pins. I'm going to put the two on the right on pins and wear them as brooches. I made the pieces for a few more of these today but all my beads and buttons are at school so I'm going to wait till I get back to put them together. It's a very fun and easy project!

I love girl's days. :)

It's done!

2010-01-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

The quilt I started during the summer is finally finished! Aside from my wonky quilting (it's puckering in a few places) and having some difficulty attaching the binding I am pleased with it. It's very bright, but I like it. I think it's sort of cheerful. Cheerful is a good thing because winter seems like such a grey, dreary time of the year to me. Bright colors make me happy right now. And I'm glad I finished it just in time to take it back to school with me!

It was a fun way to use up a bunch of fabric scraps!

More pots!

2010-01-04T22:27:00.000-08:00

These are two little pots that I made and glazed recently. I didn't really care for them so I didn't mind being a little wild with my glazing. This first one I don't particularly care for, but I like the second one better. I really enjoy using wax under my glazes to make different designs. I want to keep playing with that this coming semester!

I can't believe that in less than a week I'll be back to classes. Suddenly I feel just a little bit anxious! I have a couple more pots that I will photograph and post here soon.

Self Portrait Tuesday and Braid Wednesday...all on a Monday!

2010-01-04T22:09:00.000-08:00

I have lately become somewhat addicted to some of the style blogs around here. Through these I've learned that there is apparently such a thing as Braid Wednesday! I've also found tutorials for how to braid your hair different ways and decided to try some different hairdos. :) I've been french braiding my hair to the side for awhile now because I think it is less damaging to my hair than throwing in all in a ponytail. The tutorial I found was for braiding your hair inside-out instead of just plain french-braiding. I liked the effect a lot. :) I think I may just switch from regular french braids to french-inside-out braids.

I sometimes feel like I run around looking like a mess or worse, a messy teenage boy (I have nothing against teenage boys, but I'm a 21 year old girl and I want to look like one!). Especially when I'm at the studio since I can't wear skirts very easily while working on the wheel and I usually wear stuff that I don't mind getting really messy. In the end I am usually wearing jeans, a teeshirt and either sneakers or crocs. So it's nice to try to do something fun with my hair. It makes me feel better about myself. Before I did dental assisting I used to do crazy things with my hair. I'd put it in a ponytail and twist sections and pin them all over the place. Sometimes I'd twist a ribbon in with them. Or I'd rag curl it really tight and then pin the curls all on top of my head (my friend called them fraggles after the muppets). I did lots of fun stuff with it that I felt wasn't quite appropriate for a dentist office. I miss dental assisting. I enjoyed it a lot. But since I don't feel like I'm representing a professional office I feel like I can be a little more carefree with my hair. You find your silver linings where you can. :)

On pins and needles...but really just pins. :)

2010-01-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

I made these little pins or brooches just before Christmas. I thought they would be a fun way to dress up a jacket or bag or to hold a scarf together. They were very quick and easy. They're really just pendants that I got from the beads section at Michaels that I Krazy-glued to little craft pins. I'm thinking of even pinning them to hats. :) I particularly like the owl and little turtle. :)

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

2010 is here already! I was sad to see the old year and decade go. I wasn't sure I was ready to say goodbye to it. But it was pretty painless. :) Here's to a new year and decade (raises glass of sparkling grape juice in a toast)! May it bring new adventures and challenges along with opportunities and blessings! I have a few posts lined up that I'll probably start to publish tonight. They're all of projects that I made last year but never got around to blogging about. I did finish a project today that was started last year and if the light is good tomorrow I'll photograph it and show what I finished!

I thought I'd write a short recap of the year's highlights and then maybe list a few resolutions.

Hightlights of 2009:

Brought in the New Year in DC at Campus Crusade for Christ's conference: Radiate.
Was surprised when our dog unexpectedly had puppies!
Welcomed my niece, Olive, into the world.
Was accepted into college.
Moved to a new city for school.
Took my first ceramics class.
Fell in love with ceramics.
Switched my major to ceramics. :)
Got involved with 3 different Bible studies on campus.
Met new friends. :)
Lost 15 lbs!

Other highlights include: day trips to beautiful places! Getting to know my niece and hearing her laugh and start to talk. Spending time with friends during summer break. Crafting and cooking and exploring with those friends! Making the President's list for the 3rd time! Getting our Havanese dogs. Being the recipient of a surprise going-away party. Celebrating holidays with friends. Reconnecting with old friends. Finding new interests. Learning a new city. Learning more about myself. Learning more about God.

Every year I like to make resolutions. Most of them I don't keep. Here are a few goals that I would like to accomplish this year:

Learn to budget my money and be more conscious of how I spend my money. Start a travel fund!
Love others more. Really, truly love others.
Be a better friend, sister, daughter, aunt.
Take swing dancing classes.
Learn as much as I can in my classes.
Pursue other interests like nutrition (I am still interested in it even though I am not going to major in it).
Travel somewhere. Anywhere. It doesn't have to be very far away to still feel like you've traveled. :)
Learn about accupressure.
Keep up with blogging.
Try something new. Be adventurous! Explore!
Train for a 5K.
Grow closer to God. Learn more about Him. Become a woman after His own heart. Trust Him completely.

More ceramics...expect to see more of these posts in the future because...

2009-12-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

I switched my major to ceramics! Yay! I know..."what were you thinking, Gracie? What on earth will you do with a degree in ceramics?" I'll make ceramic stuff! And if all else fails and I become a starving artist, well, I'll finally be skinny for once in my life! Okay, all kidding aside, I am so excited to have switched my major. From the first class I remember thinking, "I wish I could major in this...but I won't." Gradually as the semester continued and I spent more and more time in the studio I decided to minor in art and emphasize in ceramics. However, the more time I spent there the more I realized that if I were to minor in ceramics I would spend way more time working on my minor than I would on my major. So I decided to switch my major. It makes me a little anxious because it's not something that will guarantee a job for me when I graduate (which may never happen at this rate...I'll be in college till I'm old and decrepid, lol), but for the first time in 4 years (yes I've been taking college classes for that long) I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to go to school to study something I love. Before school seemed like a chore. Now it seems like an opportunity for which I am so grateful!

Anyway, enough of my gushing. Here are some of the last things I made this semester! There are a few jars with lids that I made that I will post about later. These are specifically the things I made before the semester ended.
A cup (without a handle) with dots specifically requested by a friend of mine. A cup that I went a little crazy on with the glazing, but actually ended up liking!

I was trying to get a burn-out pattern by using wax under the second layer of glaze. But I dipped it 3 times and I think it was too much to actually let the waxed part show through.
I used wax to paint little flowers inside the cup and then I dipped it in celadon which kind of burnt out enough to see flower (some people say they look like stars) shapes inside. I like this. It's the same as having a fun lined jacket or something. No one really sees the pretty fabric on the inside (or in this case flower design) except you and it's fun because you know it's there even though no one else does.

I made a pitcher. It didn't come out very well, but it was only my first one. I can't wait to try to make some more!

And my pride and joy...

my teapot! It's functional too! The biggest problem with it is that the glaze smoothed over the spout to the point that it dribbles a little bit while pouring. My teacher told me to try to make the inside of the spout a little bit sharper so that the liquid will cut off more easily when you want to stop pouring instead of it dribbling. I did make it sharper, but I think I should have made it a little sharper than I did because the glaze did kind of take the edge off it. And my glazing job on the lid was a little sloppy as you can see. My lines aren't very even. :( But for my first teapot I was very pleased!

I am SO sad that this class is over. Seriously, every time I thought about it ending I nearly started to cry. I know that sounds silly, but I truly did feel that way. The only thing that kept me from crying was knowing that I get to take more classes next semester since I'm now a ceramics major! I am so excited about next semester and the chance to learn more! I have been sketching ideas that I want to try and my brother-in-law drew my name for Christmas this year and bought me a book with loads of ideas and tips and techniques for ceramics (best book ever!) and now I have so many ideas for things that I want to try. I am actually excited about going back! I fully intend to work as hard as I can to be the very best I can possibly be, but the great thing is that no matter how hard I've worked in there it always feels like I'm playing. And time goes by so quickly! I once spent 11 hours in the studio one day and didn't realize how late it was. I spent a total of 16 hours in the studio that weekend and would have been there longer except I realized I was running a fever and felt awful so I left. I imagine though that I will be spending many more hours in the studio from here on out (which is pretty much my favorite place on campus!) and will be trying out lots of new things so I will probably be showing the things I've been working on here. :) I think this is going to be lots of fun!

Finished project from November

2009-12-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

I actually knitted this hat during Thanksgiving break. It only took me a couple of days. It's the first thing I've knitted in quite awhile. It was very nice to finish something. Once I got back to school I decided it needed a little embellishment. :)

I crocheted the flower and made a chain stitch for the stem and sewed it on while I was supposed to be doing homework. :)

Modeled by my lovely, obliging, patient sister. Thanks, Holly!

Finished projects

2009-11-25T19:29:00.001-08:00

I realize these photos are pretty bad, but here is a general idea of what my work looks like now that it's been glazed and fired. I got to help load and brick a kiln last Tuesday and then I got to help unbrick and partially unload it on Friday. It's really like Christmas! It's so exciting to be taking down the brick and seeing all the stuff inside. And if things turned out kinda cool then it's SO exciting! Very fun. :) Unfortunately, I was really tired while helping unload the last kiln and a little bit grumpy so I'm sure that if I was not recovering from a flu and running on 5 hours of sleep while facing a 3 hour drive home (not that I'm complaining here or anything...wink...) then it would have been even more awesome. Because even being that tired and grumpy un-bricking/unloading a kiln is really fun and exciting.

Just thought anyone who reads this may want to know that. :) Anyway, this is my casserole dish. It's been glazed in tenmoku. I love tenmoku.

This jar had leaves painted on it in slip and then was glazed in celadon.

This ugly thing was glazed in rich blue matte and celadon. Definitely not my favorite.

I liked this one a little better. The bottom was glazed in tenmoku while the top was glazed in celadon and then the entire thing was dipped in shino which caused the bubbly look. I had no idea what I was doing and thought I had ruined it, but after it came out I decided I kind of liked it.

I'm really not sure what these were glazed with. The tops are eustace, but I can't tell if the bottoms are shaner red or tenmoku and I think the middle may just be where the two glazes overlapped. I'm really not sure what it is. But I like them.

This is a bowl from my table service. The flowers are painted with slip and then the entire thing was glazed in celadon. The same goes for the stem glass below.

I made plates but I haven't glazed them yet. Time just got away from me and it didn't get done. I have several other mugs that are really ugly and I didn't want to photograph and I also have quite a few jars that haven't come out of the kiln yet since the kiln was still kind of warm on Friday and we only got the front unloaded while I was there. I'm looking forward to seeing them when I get back to school. I have a few more things I want to make before this semester is over. I have to finish my final project but I'm hoping to make a few little extra things too if I have time to.

I can't say it enough, if you have an opportunity to take ceramics, do so. It's really great. :)

Fun with friends

2009-11-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

My friend Beth turned 19 earlier this year and I recently just turned 21. Since we missed each other's birthdays we had joked about buying a cupcake and 40 candles and celebrating together.

Since we are both on break we met up and decided that we actually wanted to do it. So candles and a lighter were purchased and we went to a coffee shop and bought a muffin and went outside to light it up.

I'm glad we decided to do this outside...I think we would have either A) set a fire in the building, or B) at least set off a fire alarm in the building. I didn't want to do either. Especially since I used to work at this particular coffee shop. We only got about 28 of the candles lit but the flame was big enough that we decided to stop and just sing before our whole muffin was covered in wax.

As you can see it was still a little waxy when we finished. Don't those candles look a little like french fries?

Ahh...I love my friends. And that muffin was awesome! Once we scraped the wax off it. :)

Inspiration

2009-11-24T19:06:00.000-08:00

Today I went out with Becca for an afternoon of fun. We went to a couple of indie shops that were so very inspiring...they made me want to start knitting and sewing and crafting. NOW! They were two very fun stores and I am more than happy to be able to support both of them today. I bought some covered-button bobby pins (so cute...when the light is better I'll take a picture of them) and some yarn. Because lately I've really wanted to knit and these gorgeous (affordable!) yarns are going to be so fun to work with!

Here are some pics of the places. The yarn shop is called Never Enough Yarn. Click on the link to go to their website. The owner, Pam, is very friendly and there is such a welcoming feel to the place. She not only asked for our names and remembered them the whole time we were there, but she told us to go on in and get water from the fridge and chocolate from the candy bowl. I think I may ask her to adopt me! You can tell she has a great rapport with her customers and I can see why. I would gladly come back and take classes or purchase yarn from her any time.

(check out that dress form! Awesome!)

This lovely shop is called The Purple Fern. She not only has a website, but an Etsy shop too! So if you're not local you can still share in the fun! I wanted to move into her store. She makes a lot of her own stuff but also does consignment. Very awesome! I loved practically everything in her store (which is amazing because I'm pretty picky!) and adored her decorating/displaying techniques. Look at this button mural on her wall...um...I want to do that!

And look at how these necklaces are framed and displayed...I love it!

I want to make some of these button brooches!

And I love these reversible wrap skirts.

Look! Ceramic stuff! Well...there are some wooden things too. But ceramic stuff also!

I would LOVE to own a little shop full of lovely handmade goodies. Ahh...it would be so nice. :)

Photography moment

2009-11-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

Home for Thanksgiving break! Ahh...so sweet it is. :) So far I've spent a lot of time sleeping, visiting with friends; I enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner with my Bible study, went to church, went out separately with both my sisters and even got a little Christmas shopping done for the sibling whose name I drew out of the hat this year! On the agenda today: visit my sister again before they leave for Massachussetts for Thanksgiving this year, stop by the office to visit my boss and co-workers, and then off for an afternoon of fun and catching-up with my dear friend Becca. It's going to be a great day!

These photos were taken at Harpers Ferry on Sunday. I drove Holly out there for some hang-out time and it was so nice. The weather was great, it was sunny and not too cold. We walked around, I took lots of pictures of her and then we stopped in at a pottery shop (because I'm obsessed) before we went home. I think I've established that I love Harper's Ferry, and I hope I've also established how much I love my younger sister (and how much I enjoy taking her pictures! Thanks for being a good sport, Holly!).

Catching up

2009-11-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't written in awhile. I've been sick...I caught the flu. Not sure if it was H1N1, but it was enough to get me very behind on my homework. I was sick for a week and I'm only beginning to feel better since yesterday. I don't realize how much I take my health for granted until I get sick...then I can't wait to feel back to normal. Luckily this past weekend was warm and sunny...I always feel better when the sun is out.

So I had my second critique last Monday. I was feeling pretty ill but I went anyway. We had to design a table service of three cups, three plates and three bowls (along with any other pieces like pitchers, casseroles, etc, that we might want to add) and they all had to have a common theme. I made a set designed around a pie plate. All the edges are wavy. Unfortunately I never made the pie plate because I was sick and didn't get to go in and work very much. When I was already in the middle of the project I got a card in the mail from my sister with an article about dinnerware that was designed with portion control in mind. It's called Thinnerware and I fell in love with it. I decided I was going to change my whole theme two days before the project was due and make my own set of thinnerware (Hey, I was a nutrition major...I needed a set of these for myself) dishes. So I finished my first pie-themed set and started throwing new plates, bowls and cups for my thinnerware set. I got all of the plates made and trimmed and that's when I started running a fever and decided to go home and come back later to finish the bowls and mugs. Well, I never went back later so I ended up turning in my original set (so glad I decided to finish it!) along with the extra plates and article from Thinnerware.
I made an A. :) Hurray! But because I was sick and am already a week behind on our next/final project (can't believe this class is almost over! I think it's absolutely tragic!) I'm going to just keep the plates and not worry about finishing the others. I have too much to do in too little time to try and complete everything. Perhaps someday I'll have a chance to finish my thinnerware service. I eat in a dining hall anyway. I can't bring my own plates in. :(

I glazed all my jars and serviceware and my matroyshkas and they're going in the kiln tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have something to show for all the work I've done. I got my mugs out of the kiln and boy are they ugly! I was very disappointed in them. But I think I learned some things and hopefully my next set of things to come out of the kiln will be better. One lesson I learned: Don't try to make striped things...especially if you're in a hurry. Mine came out really wonky and ugly. :)

I'll try to get some pictures of the better ones up here soon. But for now, I think I'm going to fold my laundry and take a little nap before class this evening. This flu still has me a little wiped out.

21 years old today.

2009-11-01T18:19:00.001-08:00

I got to go home for my 21st birthday. It was great to see my family and eat indian food and chocolate cake...sure beats all the fried food at the dorm! :) My sister gave me this necklace that she bought from a jewelry maker that she met at a craft fair in Ohio. It's made on a domino. I love it! I was never able to find stuff with my name on it when I was younger. You know, like pencils and pens and note pads...stuff like that. My siblings all had school gear with their names on it...I never did. So even as a twenty-something I still get a kick out of getting stuff with my name on it. Especially when it's creative like this. :) Thanks, Jacqueline!

Visits home are always too short. I'm looking forward to my next one at Thanksgiving!

Russian nesting dolls

2009-10-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

I made these this weekend. Each are thrown and then hand-painted with slip. They sort of fall into the category of pots with lids because each one comes apart. Now that I think about it though...even though they're all narrow enough to fit into each other, I'm not 100% certain that they are all going to fit while wearing their lids...I'll have to check on that tomorrow! Our new project is a table service. We each have to make 3 plates, 3 bowls and 3 cups. They all have to have a theme that ties them together. I have no idea what I'm going to do with mine. I'm still sketching and trying to figure that out. I've made one bowl that came out somewhat decent. I'm hoping to make much better ones though before our next critique. I want to get another A! Oh, I want another A so badly!
Anyway, I went ahead and made these this weekend because I know that I'm going to get crazy busy with my table service and I wanted to make these before I had no more time to work on them. I got the idea during our last critique. They were fun to make. Very different from anything else I've made so far...I loved carving their features and then painting them. If you EVER have a chance to take ceramics...DO SO! It's absolutely amazing!Update: Just wanted to add that they all fit inside each other! I tested them tonight. Yay!

I made an A! I am so incredibly happy!

2009-10-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

So I was really nervous about this second critique. I spend hours in the CAC this past week between glazing and throwing and painting...my back has been hurting from all the hunching I've been doing this week. And my hands are drying out and cracking a little bit from working with the clay and the glaze so much. But I don't mind. I made an A!

These first two pots I don't particularly care for. I like the other ones a little better.

This one has a lid now, but it wasn't dry enough to trim last night which was when I took these pictures. It looks better now.

This was inspired by Diana Fayt's work. She has a blog. Google her and see what you come up with. Her work is beautiful. This is a shoddy imitation of her work.

I decided not to put a knob on this one. I kind of liked how it looked without one. Plus, I was running really late for BCM (Baptist Campus Ministries) and decided not to mess with making a knob at 10 past 8 at night when Bible study started at 8:37 (yes, exactly at 8:37 pm) and I still needed to go home and change and I was also picking up a friend too.

I was seriously very nervous before the critique tonight. I was the 3rd to the last person to go and by the time I went I was feeling a bit sick. I was sure he was going to give me a B or lower. But he looked at them for a few minutes and then said, "wow, these are good. You can tell you've put a lot of work into them." And then after class I went to find out what my grade was and he said I got an A. If I knew how to do a backflip I would have. But I don't. So I didn't. But I was VERY happy! I was not expecting that good of a grade.

Actually, this whole week was a good week for my classes. I made As on all my tests and quizzes. :) But this one made me happiest by far!

Majolica

2009-10-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

My teacher threw a bunch of plates and let us paint them! Even though I can't draw or paint at all it was still a really fun class.

My second critique is tonight! And I'm nervous. Although that could have less to do with my critique and more to do with the fact that I have a new job orientation this afternoon and I'm trying to finish my last-minute portfolio so I can switch majors. But I'll talk more about that later. :)

For now, I have to run. My next class starts soon and I have so much to do! I'll be back with pictures of the things I had critiqued!

Night time

2009-10-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

It's been raining ALL week! I'm normally not a fan of the rain, but I think I've been holding up well this week despite how cold, wet and dreary it is here. As I was leaving the CAC the other night after finishing glazing my mugs (I got them all done! Yay! Can't wait to see how they turn out once they're fired!) I was just struck by how beautiful it was outside. Sure it was cold. Sure it was dark (after being a very gray day). Sure it was raining. But still, there was something about the light and the water and the colors that just seemed so lovely to me. So here is my attempt at capturing it.

I've never been able to figure out how to take photos at night. Someday I should really take a photography class. It's going on my To-Do list!

My newest jar. :)

2009-10-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

This is the largest thing I've made so far. Trying to center 5 lbs. of clay is tough when you don't know how to do it. My arms and hands took quite a beating while I was trying to figure out how to do this. I threw the lid upside down on a plaster bat and then I threw the knob separately and used slip to attach it. Since then it's been trimmed and is now waiting to be fired...hoping it will help bring up my grade since all my other jars look rather terrible. I have two more large-ish jars to trim this week. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow and be able to throw a couple more as well to have finished on Monday. Wish me luck as my next critique is this Wednesday!

It's beginning to look a lot like autumn!

2009-10-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

Everywhere I go!

I love love love this time of year! Even though it's very cold, it makes me so happy!

A trip home!

2009-10-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

I went home this weekend because I needed to get my car inspected. And I needed to get my big girl license, as one of the guys from Bible study put it (I turn 21 in less than a month!). And I needed to figure out my life because I'm changing my major and I need to pick out classes for next semester and I had NO CLUE as to what to do. In the end I got my car inspected and have some idea of what to do next semester...but unfortunately I didn't have much luck at the DMV. Social Security is down till Tuesday so they can't do anything with licenses until then. Oh well, I'll have to do it some other time. Two out of three isn't bad!

In addition to doing those things I just needed to see my family. And I needed to have my retainer adjusted, which I got done on Friday afternoon when I got into town. Not that anyone wants to know that. :) After that my family went to a hotdog roast at my sister's in-laws' house. It was a lot of fun and I got to see friends I haven't seen in quite awhile! The next evening I went to my sister's house for dinner and got to see the Bible study guys and my dear friend Becca for awhile. The visit was not nearly long enough, but at least I got to see them. :) The rest of the time this weekend was spent with my family talking, going to the store, snuggling with my niece, watching The Jungle Book and carving pumpkins. Seriously, we didn't buy the Disney's The Jungle Book OR carve pumpkins until I was 19. I'm catching up on all those kiddie activities now that I'm 20. :) It's great fun!
Here are pictures of the weekend!

I carved the smiling one with the teeth...I think the reason mine got teeth is because I worked for dentists for 2 years. :) Adam carved the one with angry eyes. >:
This little puppy is Abby. She is our other Havanese (Jude's girlfriend) and she is a ball of energy. She's a riot!
And she LOVES pumpkins! She and Jude kept running over and eating the pumpkin guts (I just had to call them that, lol). They couldn't get enough!
I make the weirdest faces when I'm concentrating on things. When I was younger I did ballet and made the funniest faces while dancing. I find that I bite my lower lip while I'm doing ceramics too. Does anyone else do stuff like that while concentrating hard on something?
My *not-so-little* little brother. He came out and carved a pumpkin with me. :) Thank you, Adam!
Holly preferred to just document the whole process on film. She is actually taking a photography class and was doing homework for it. So she missed out on the pumpkin carving fun. :( Maybe next time.
I love going home. Being away makes you appreciate your family and friends and hometown more. I am so glad I live close enough to go home every so often and be with my family.

A little outdoor fun. :)

2009-10-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I had just about had enough of dorms, of towns, of college...so I called up my dear friend and asked her if she wanted to go to the state park just a few miles away and she agreed. I was in the car 5 minutes later to pick her up.
It turned out to be just the thing to cure me of my city blues. The weather was just right for climbing hills and rocks and boulders and by the end of our little visit I felt completely refreshed! Ahh...the great outdoors!
Here are some pictures from our trip!
I love these tree roots.
I'm pretty sure I took this while precariously perched on a ledge in a sort of cave. The place we visited seemed to be like a rock forest. Seriously, I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings. There weren't any real paths like you would find in a regular park. Basically we just got to run around in a forest full of trees and enormous rocks. It was amazing!

This tree is growing right out of the rock. I thought it was so cool!

Me trying to spider crawl up the rock walls...I wasn't very successful.

The overlook...so beautiful!

I loved the railing at the overlook. So cool!Looking down.

I love the colors in this picture. It's like a combination of my favorites: greens, browns...and the rocks are gray of course but they have some blueish and purplish tints to them.

It felt so old. And kind of mysterious. But that was probably just me trying to romanticize the place. It made it more fun. :)

My dear friend...since middle school actually! You can't tell from the picture, but she is pretty high up in the air.

It was such a lovely afternoon. I am such a blessed girl. I am not nearly grateful enough for the blessings in my life. I have a wonderful, supportive family. I have dear friends. I am able to go to college. I have access to a car and am able to get away from college when I've had enough and escape to the beautiful outdoors. :) I just can't begin to number all of my blessings. Most importantly, I have a Savior who loves me so much He died for me and continuously forgives me for my sins and gives me so many wonderful blessings. It's almost too good to be true, but I'm so thankful that it IS true!

Old project...

2009-10-11T18:55:00.001-07:00

I made this skirt back in August. It is loosely based on the circle skirt from Chic and Simple Sewing (aka: most awesome sewing book ever!). The way it is different is that the one in the book has a gathered waist while this one does not. It has a zipper closure. This material is rather heavy and it would look terrible gathered. It is still pretty much a circle skirt though. It was pretty easy and quick to make, except for my zipper. I have so much trouble with zippers it's not even funny. Mine always end up looking really wonky! Speaking on wonky, that is exactly how I would describe these two photos. They're both pretty equally bad. The one on top is missing my feet...the one on the bottom is my reflection in the mirror. Our mirror has this funny thing on it...I don't want to call it a residue, but perhaps that's what it is. It won't come off though. Kind of strange, huh? Anyway, I only wore the skirt once...just to take this picture actually, because I was waiting for the weather to cool off before I wore it. Well it cooled off. So much so that now I think it's entirely too cold to wear a skirt. Even with tights (trust me, I've tried). We went straight from summer to late autumn here. I guess that's okay.

It seems sort of 'fallish' to me because of it's muted colors and the fact that it's plaid...lately I've got a thing for plaid. And I kind of like the 'lumberjack' shirts that I've seen around lately. Not that I think I would look good in a flannel lumberjack shirt, but I know people (including my little sister) who pull it off very well. :)

Anyway, I got my sewing machine back! Hopefully there will be some sewing action going on around here. I blame it on fall...my urge to craft seems to have finally found me. Last fall I hardly did any crafting...and I regretted it. One of the things I love about crafting is that it helps me to slow down and be in the now. By being both physically and mentally engaged in a task I can let go of the things that have been occupying my mind and just release some energy in a productive way. It's hard to do that while I'm at school. I guess it's why I am loving my ceramics class so much. It has the same affect. And it's quite a workout too! Boy my arms have taken a beating these past couple of months. I don't mind a bit though. :) I guess when you find something you enjoy you don't mind the little pains that come with it.

More Mail Love!

2009-10-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

I received this care package in the mail this week. It is from my cousin Caity, her husband Brian, and my Aunt Liz. It is so fun to get stuff in the mail!

There were all sorts of goodies in here! Thanks so much Caity, Brian, and Aunt Liz. Your kindness means so much to me!
I love you guys!

Jason Lee

2009-10-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

I had to go to at least one talk given by a visiting/local artist as an assignment for my ceramics class. I went to one given by Jason Lee. He is a sculptor. One of the reasons I chose to go to this talk as opposed to one of the other talks was because I thought sculpture was fascinating. You know...like real art. Like Michaelangelo's David.

This was NOT that type of sculpture. To be honest, I'm not sure what message Mr. Lee is trying to send through his art. I think that part of it is a protest. A protest against our carbon footprinting, tearing down the rainforests, ruining the earth society. And I think some of it too, especially his earlier stuff, was just to mess with people a little bit. Which is rather amusing.

These are the pieces that were displayed in the gallery.

You can't see it very well in these pictures, but the green stuff in the orange boxes are actually pictures of grass. The lights on the wall are pictures of clouds. It's supposed to be a different take on 'bringing the outdoors in.'

This was my favorite piece...it's supposed to be like a flowing river.

I have mixed feelings about this artwork. I like it well enough, but it's not my style. I feel like Mr. Lee is trying to make you a bit uncomfortable with his work. He is obviously a talented man, though. I enjoyed his lecture a lot. Particularly because it completely changed my ideas on what sculpture is. It's basically anything you want it to be. I was always under the impression that sculptures were made from marble, clay, or wood...but it's not necessarily the case.

Maybe if I paid more attention in my Art Appreciation class last year I would have known that. :) I am glad that I went. Sometimes it is fun to be exposed to new ideas and different interpretations of the world around us. Even if you don't always agree with those ideas and interpretations.

Ceramics update

2009-10-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

So I had my first critique in my ceramics class last weekend. It went alright. I made a B+. I was a little bit devastated. I really wanted an A! These are my mugs...most of them. It's not a very good shot of them. Some of them look better in person. I actually threw away quite a few of them. The ones that I didn't like that much went back in the slurry. I think I made more than anybody else did. I didn't reach my goal of 40, but I submitted 21 and had made close to 30. I've made a few more since then too. My classmate, James, made these guys. I liked his monster mug so much I asked if I could take a picture, to which he replied, "please do!" Oh, I might add that I'm the only person who brought my camera to class. :P Apparently no one else in my class knows the bliss that is blogging.

Such awesomeness. :) Now that they've been fired once (I think it's called bisque firing) I think all the mugs look even better! I think we're going to start working on glazing this week too which is exciting.

We're working on pots with lids now. It's quite a bit more complicated...we'll see how this goes! I'll probably be spending a lot of time over there tomorrow working on those. Wish me luck!

What Doesn't Kill You Only Makes You Stronger...Or: Who Needs a Stairclimber in this Place?

2009-10-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

I think that statement applies very well to my new town. Seriously, this place is built into and on top of a mountain. I took a few pictures of some of the stairs around here to show you what I'm up against.

Okay, I know this doesn't look like much, but this is just the first flight of stairs. It turns the corner to the right and goes up several more flights.

This looks a little more challenging. But guess what? I took this picture when I was already halfway up the stairs. It's actually about twice this long.

Even though you can't tell, once you get to the bottom of these steps you walk a few feet and then there is another long set of stairs that gets you down to the street/PRT station, etc.

These are the steps to the PRT. I was about halfway up the steps when I turned around and took this picture too. It's not nearly as challenging as the other sets of stairs. I just took it to show you that no matter where you go, you will have to climb stairs.

Oh by the way, this is only about a third of the way up this particular set of stairs. This set has a total of 88 steps...I counted. It's really hard to actually photograph how large these staircases really are. But basically that guy who is walking up the stairs is blocking the view of part of the stair case. I climbed this set of stairs literally 2 hours after giving blood and I almost died while climbing them. It was awful. :*(This doesn't look like very much, but once you get to the top you realize that there is another set of stairs to climb that are past this set. My friend made me climb these the day after I had given blood. I almost died again.

Seriously, I had no idea that giving blood takes so much out of you...no pun intended.

Well, maybe it was intended a little bit. :)

More stairs...

Yep, if they don't kill me then they should definitely make me stronger! In fact, I've heard it said that you can tell what year you are here by the size of your calves. So if you're a junior (like me even though I'm a transfer student so I don't quite apply in this situation) you would supposedly have really big strong calves. I definitely feel a lot stronger than I did when I first got here and I've dropped a few pounds too without even trying. And I'm sure I've increased my cardiovascular health too. :) Win, win, win!

A quick update!

2009-09-23T06:28:00.001-07:00

Good morning! I hope everyone is WAY more chipper than I am today! It's 9:30 am and I woke up at 9 am but am completely exhausted! So far out of all my assignments this week I have done 1 test, 1 paper, 1 quiz, and completed 3 homework assignments. So now I just have to go to my critique, take my other two tests, write my other paper, give my presentation, and do 3 more homework assignments (just three as long as none of my teachers surprise us with a last minute assignment...I've already had one of those this week!) before I hit the road and go home for the weekend. :)

Speaking of my critique, I was at the ceramics studio until 12:30 am trying to finish the mugs I had made. I hade this wonderful goal of making at least 30 mugs but after breaking a few and messing a few up I only have 21. My teacher had told me that if I wanted to be good to turn in 10 mugs, but if I wanted to be great to turn in 30. I was going to try and make 40 so I could be superb, but time got away from me. I still made about 30, I just didn't keep all of them. Hopefully I'll get a couple of photos of my slightly-more-completed mugs to post on here.

Oh, PS: I am going to try my hardest to minor in art. I just love this class too much to stop here. :)

(Sigh) I have a meeting to get to in about 25 minutes and then 4 classes today. I am SO tired. I have at least one blog post that I'd like to do once I upload the pictures from my camera onto my computer. I went to a lecture here at the Creative Arts Center given by a sculptor and it was very interesting. I got a few pictures of his work and I'm going to try to write about it.

When I'm not SO tired that is. :) I'll be in touch!

Friday night~

2009-09-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

After a long week it was nice to take some time to do something fun and so I went out with my friend to celebrate her 22 birthday. And I felt like celebrating too because I finished my trigonometry homework early that day and was free from the bonds of trigonometry for a whole weekend! Yeehaw! (the sunset from the parking lot)
(ahh chinese food...how I love thee. )

(birthday girl)

My ''fortune.'' Not a bad one actually. Maybe it means I should become an art major...Oh I can dream can't I?

Here I am hugging the craft books at Barnes and Noble. Chinese food, Barnes and Noble and a Pumpkin spice latte...good times. :)

Back to the daily grind tomorrow. This week I have 3 tests, 2 papers, a presentation and a critique and then it's home for the weekend. So wish me luck! I'll probably be kinda MIA for awhile with all that work to do.

Have a lovely week. :)

More handmade jewlery

2009-09-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

I got this old Chinese coin (at least that's what they told me it was) at Radiate last year. I was assigned to East Asia for my breakout session and they passed these little things out to everyone. I really liked it and wanted to find some way to wear it. This week I was fooling around with my craft stuff while I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer. It's been acting up. :( But anyway, because I'm not a good jewelry maker and because my idea of making jewelry is to just hang something on a ribbon and call it a day this is what I came up with. I won't show a picture of the clasp. It looks kinda rough.
Not very exciting. But I still like it. Plus it reminds me to be aware of missions and Christians in other countries. :)

Simple pleasures

2009-09-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

I checked my mail the other day and found two envelopes addressed to me! Hurray! One from my friend, Sarah, and the other from my sister, Jacqueline (she made the one on the right). Sometimes something like getting something in the mail can really make your day.

It sure made mine. :)

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

2009-09-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, my brother and sister were surfing channels on the TV and they came across an Elvis Presley movie called Girls, Girls, Girls. They thought that was a hilarious name for a movie.

That really doesn't have anything to do with this post except it is the inspiration for my title: Dogs, Dogs, Dogs. Because that's what we're going to look at. These are some pictures of our weimaraners, who are unfortunately no longer with us. Weimaraners are absolutely beautiful dogs. And they're SO intelligent. They're scary they're so smart. You can find stories about the crazy things they do because they're just so intelligent and they're sneaky. They're a handful, but they're wonderful companions because their personalities are so fun and they're very loyal.

I took these pictures at least 3 years ago. I remember it was snowing outside and we had a snow day from college (woohoo!) and I had nothing better to do with myself (like who does homework on a snowday???) than to take glamour shots of our dogs and the puppies they had recently had.

This is Jumper. He's the papa dog. He's a handsome devil! And the funny thing about him was he knew he was being photographed and would usually hold a pose for me until he heard the camera click and then he'd try to get off the coffee table where he was sitting for his picture.

I thought it was fun then, now I have to wonder what kind of sane 17 year old takes glamour photos of their dog? Kinda embarrassing actually.

Weimaraner puppies are so cute! They truly are. They have blue eyes that eventually turn hazel or a whitish blue. Our female, Dancer, had whitish blue eyes that were almost a little creepy. But she was a hoot!

I'm sure I thought I was the feminine version of William Wegman...lol.

This was the whole litter. All seven of them. This was incredibly hard to take because they wouldn't stop moving around. That's why the one on the far right is kind of behind the one next to it. This was the best one I got though.

I just put this one in because it makes me laugh. They were a little older at this point and I was still pretending I was William Wegman. Yawning puppies are so cute, but this one looks like he's laughing at me.

This is Hank. He was a very special puppy. Look how grumpy he looks. We identified with each other.

Hank couldn't find a home. No one wanted him...and he was such a terrific puppy. It just didn't make sense. So we kept him. He got very sick right before Thanksgiving. He stopped eating and drinking on a Friday night and began vomiting and by Monday morning was a very dehydrated puppy! We took him to the vet and had to stay overnight in the vet's office on antibiotics and IVs. We never found out what was wrong with him, but he made a full recovery which made us all happy. Two summers ago my family thought my dad's job was going to transfer him to another state. At the time we had 6 dogs and we knew that if we moved we would not be able to bring all those dogs. Hank was the youngest. My parents decided that it would be best for him if we found him a home with someone. I was so upset. So upset, in fact, that after they told me I left to go to work and instead of putting the car in drive I accidentally put it in reverse and backed over their grill. So not only was I sad about losing our puppy, but I took out my Dad's grill and felt really bad about that. It was such a bad day. In the end Hank found a wonderful home with people who let him sleep in the bed with them and treated him like their son. I'm sure he's very happy. And I'm happy for him. But I still occasionally miss that dog.

So let's talk about a different dog now. While I was pretending to be Wegman I decided to do some glamour shots of my sister's dog, Django. He is a mutt, but he's so pretty. His markings are really symmetrical. I've never seen such a symmetrical dog!
You know, studies have been done that show that the people we rate as "most beautiful" have extremely symmetrical faces. I think that's why I always thought Django was such a handsome boy. That and his ears were too big for his head. Oh so cute!

He looks so miserable. He's saying, "boy dogs shouldn't be covered in tulle!" lol.

This is him now. In a much more manly setting. He still looks a little mournful. The dogs probably know to be wary of me when I get around them with a camera now.

So that is my post about my awkward glamour photos of our dogs. I would like to say that if only my siblings had let me photograph them on that snow day, I wouldn't have subjected the dogs to ribbons and tulle and all that jazz. So it's Adam and Holly's fault.

Yeah...that's right. Adam and Holly's fault. :)

Never forget!

2009-09-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

I will always remember September 11, 2001. I was at home. My mom was at the dentist, my dad was at work. My sister turned on the television and they were saying that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. And they were saying that it wasn't an accident. Someone was attacking us. We lived behind a military airport at the time so it was very normal to hear planes taking off and landing over our house. That day it was really quiet because all the planes were grounded.

(the flags are all being flown at half mast in rememberance of the terrorist attacks 9/11/2001)

I choose to never forget the men and women who died tragically and heroically in the World Trade Center, on the Pennsylvania flight, and in the Pentagon 8 years ago today. To all our service men and women and their families and to the families of the victims of 9/11/2001, our prayers go out to you.

God bless America!

My newest obsession!

2009-09-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

I think my favorite place on campus is the ceramics studio. Today I pretty much had it all to myself. A few of the students and/or teachers walked through a few times. But for the most part I was all alone. It was wonderful! This is my first mug. It isn't finished yet. I just put the handle on today. It was the first time I've tried to attach a handle. It's kind of complicated and in the end I had to perform surgery on my mug to try and salvage it. I think for a first attempt it isn't too terrible, although my teacher may have a different opinion. :)

This is the wheel I was working on. I was trying to get a picture of my tools but did not succeed.

There, that is a better idea of what my work station looks like. Although normally I don't leave my cell phone out. I wasn't actually throwing anything today, I was just letting the mugs I threw last night have a chance to air dry while I tried to smooth and attach a handle to the mug that was already ''leather-hard.'' If I was throwing pots I would be using a lot of water and my cell phone would end up water-logged. I just had it there because I had to leave by 4 pm and it helped me keep track of the time.

These are the little pots/mugs I've saved so far. I've thrown a few others but I ended up throwing them in the slurry. I liked these better. Now I have to try to attach handles to all of these. Our first actual graded project is mugs and we have to make at least 10. I am going to try to make a few different shapes and see what I like best.

And here is a sideview of the other mugs/pots I threw. I think it's so weird to say "throw," "threw" because it makes you think we're actually tossing things around. We don't. That just means you started it on a wheel and pulled up the walls. At least that's what I think it means. :)

I'll be posting some more about ceramics as I continue to make progress on these projects. I'm excited to see what they look like in the end!

Update: 9/13/2009. My teacher said that the first mug I made was, "not bad." Sweet! :)

There and back again...a Hobbit's..err College Student's tale

2009-09-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

The reason I haven't been too active on blogger lately is because adjusting to a new school is...well, an adjustment. And it's exhausting! And for the past two weekends I have gone home to visit which is also exhausting, although worth it.

Here are some pictures from my last trip home. Coffee with Adam and Holly.

Bananagrams! Fun game!

We finally have a bookstore!

Adam told me I needed to buy these books. Thank you, Adam. Ha ha.

Snuggle-time with my niece...she's so loveable. And chubby.

Me without my braces! Yay!

Driving back to school. (I was not driving while taking these pictures. We pulled off at a rest area/ overlook site and that's why I took a picture of how they cut the road through the mountain.)

It's always wonderful to see my family. It makes me realize that I take them for granted. Sometimes absence really does make the heart grow fonder. :)

We have a winner!

2009-08-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

And that winner is Christy!

Congrats Christy! I'll be shipping your book out as soon as I get your mailing address!

I'm thinking of listing the other books on Amazon.com. Or maybe we'll do another giveaway sometime in the future.

I'm settling in (sort of) to college life. I actually enjoy all the walking I'm doing. I walk everywhere! Dad brought my car to me on Friday which makes me very happy. I missed my little car. I still plan to walk as much as possible though and save the car for when I have a late class or am coming home late from Bible study or if I get a job or need to run to Walmart or go home for a weekend, etc. It is SO hilly up here. And the stairs...oh the stairs...lets just say who needs a stair climber with all the stairs I climb every day? :) I plan to lose the freshman 15, not gain it! I'm not a freshman anyway so I definitely don't want to gain a junior 15. :)

Not a whole lot of crafting going on here. It's kind of hard to find time in the middle of classes and homework and Bible studies. Plus I try not to pull out something that I can't put away easily. I think my roommate would be rather unhappy if I left fabric and patterns out all over our tiny floor while I ran to class. I do plan to do some sewing though. And in the meantime I have some knitting and card-making stuff here to keep me busy.

And how could I forget to mention that I'm taking non-major Ceramics this semester! Right now we're working on wheel-thrown pottery. I had my first real lesson last Wednesday when we practiced centering the clay on the wheel. It was amazing! I came home covered in clay and my hands felt wheel-burnt and my arms were sore (it's hard work!), but I loved it. I think it's going to be my silver lining while I'm here at college. I feel so incredibly blessed to have gotten into this class. I not only get 3 credits for taking it, I also have to practice outside of our class meeting time which means that anytime I want to I can go to our classroom (as long as there isn't another class meeting) and play with clay. And aside from the 4 assignments we have in the class our teacher told us we could make anything we want (aside from ashtrays which he said is like a desecration to the art of ceramics...I think my teacher is SO cool!). Yep, I think I lucked out on this class!

I'll post more about it as I learn more. I am so excited about this class! I already want to switch my major to ceramics, but I won't (don't worry Mom and Dad!). Maybe whenever I finish school I'll go back and get another major in ceramics. That would be so fun!

Happy weekend all~ I hope you have a lovely week. :)

Skyline Drive

2009-08-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

We (Dad, Adam, Holly and I) took a little trip down to Skyline drive last weekend. It's so beautiful there. We brought a picnic lunch and spent part of the day driving around and stopping at various overlooks and taking pictures. At some of the places we stopped we were over 3000 feet in the air. It was absolutely gorgeous! It's about 109 miles long and we went through about 45 miles of it before turning around to go home. We got through some of the highest points and decided to call it a day after that.

(doesn't this make you want to sing, "the hills are alive with the sound of music!?")

If you have a chance to go it is very beautiful. We were hoping to see a bear but didn't end up getting to. I'd love to go back in the fall and drive through again.

Please check out my giveaway! You have a week before names are drawn!

Harpers Ferry on a summer evening

2009-08-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I went out my Matt, Jacqueline and Olive to visit some friends and to go down to Harper's Ferry. They let the baby stick her feet in the water. I don't think she liked it very much. Not nearly as much as she likes bathtime!

Anyway, these are a couple of photos I took of the town. The last time I'll be down there this summer. My how this summer has just flown by!

Goodbye lovely place. Maybe I'll get a chance to see you during the fall. I'm sure you will be gorgeous as ever!

Pretending I live in Denmark...

2009-08-18T19:44:00.001-07:00

A little dessert I made for my former co-workers as a little goodbye. I can't believe I am moving in 2 days!

These are a two day project. But they are oh so yummy!
They are made by scratch and so are the fillings (except for the nutella). They have 5 cups of flour in them and two were whole wheat, the fillings were made with frozen blackberries and cream cheese and the nutella (yummy!). So they were not as unhealthy as they could have been.

These are the kind of food that can only be made once or twice a year. Any more than that and you're in trouble. The recipe came from a Baking With Julia cookbook. :)

GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-08-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is my 91st post! I've been blogging on this site for a little over a year now and I've had a lot of fun. Even though not all my posts are craft-related I've tried to keep that the theme of this blog. It's motivated me to do creative things and I've met some pretty talented crafters through it!

So...I was packing up for my move to college and I realized that I have a pretty large collection of craft books. Some of them I've used frequently, but then there have been others that I've never used. 8 of them in fact! And because I'm going to be moving on Friday to school and I know I won't be able to use these books anytime soon I thought it would be great to give one to someone who would enjoy using it. So in honor of moving away, and in honor of my 91st post, and in honor of blogging here for a year, and in honor of anyone who reads this blog...we're having a little giveaway!

Here's the plan: One person will any book of their choosing from this collection. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment saying what your favorite thing to sew/make is. Be sure to specify which book you would want if you won. If you post about my giveaway on your blog, comment here again for a second chance to win the giveaway!

Here are the books up for grabs!

Simple Sewing with a French Twist:

The Crafter's Companion.

Sew What! Fleece

Sew U: Built by Wendy.

All the patterns in this book are intact!

Saturday Night Hat. There are directions on how to make everything from berets to cloches to fedoras to sunhats.

In Stitches.

All the patterns in this book are intact.

Printing by Hand.

All the patterns in this book are intact.

Simple Sewing:

All the patterns in this book are intact.

So there you go. That's the giveaway. The winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday the 30th of August.

Locket

2009-08-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

I LOVE our new Michaels craft store! They have the coolest pendants. I gave up my interest in jewelry making back when I was 10 years old and I lived in NC. I used those big chunky alphabet letter beads to create such masterpieces as necklaces made of shoelaces with MOM in big chunky letters strung on. My mom was a great sport and wore that necklace a lot (I love my mom). I enjoyed playing with beads but I never figured out how to make my jewelry strong (a lot of my stuff broke and the beads all got lost) enough to wear very much.

This is my more grown-up version of a necklace now. I used a very thin ribbon and strung on a locket pendant and then I tied the string to a toggle closure. I painted the ends of the ribbon with clear nail polish to keep them from unravelling. I'm thinking now that I could probably put a few stitches into the ends of the ribbon to secure it even more. And if something should happen to the ribbon I could always cut a new piece of ribbon or find a chain for it.

It took me about 5 minutes to make. Every once in awhile I need an instant gratification project. It makes me think I've actually accomplished something! Now I need to find something tiny enough to fit into it. Any ideas?

A gift

2009-08-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Last week was my last week at work for awhile. I decided to take 2 weeks off to get ready to leave for school. All summer my boss (a dentist) has been taking a pottery class. I have wanted to take pottery for forever. So naturally I kept asking her how it was going and if she liked it and when she was going to bring in her work so I could see it and she kept saying stuff like, "it's not very good, but I'll bring some in to show you."

Last week as a gift she gave me two pieces of her pottery and I was shocked at how gorgeous it was! I say she was totally being modest about her work because I think that her work is beautiful and I was so excited that I got to keep a couple of pieces of her pottery. And I am so in love with this color lately. How cool that I now have pottery in such a lovely color!?
I just love handmade. :) I love it when someone gives me something they worked on. I think it's cool when someone makes something for you because it gives you an idea of two things:

1. What their perceptions of you are. Did they design something because they think you would like it? If so then their work probably reflects some kind of characteristic or trait that they see in you.

2. What their own personal style of craft is like. Is it bold, colorful, earthy?

So in the end you usually get a unique blend of your tastes mixed with someone else's vision and talents. Awesome!

I am hoping this fall to work on developing my skills as a crafter. Maybe I'll finally sign up for a pottery class too. Either way I hope to make time to continue working on crafty things and I will definitely be posting those things on here. :)