Busy day today

Well as promised, this is one of my experimental pieces, testing out my new glazes. This is 2 different glazes. The bottom I did in cobalt blue and the top is Rosie's red. I'm pretty happy with the results.

I went to the SERA cave carnival for a few hours today. Bumped into a few friends and chatted for a bit then was off and running to do some birthday shopping. Today is my youngest son's birthday, he turned 17. After gifts and cake, which by the way was strawberry cheesecake and super yummy. I went to work on a little project in my studio. I got a request for ceramic mushrooms, so I assembled the tops and bottoms of 2 tonight and comepletly trashed 3 others *ugh* So I get to redo them. Which is fine I reckon because I really would like to change how I did the tops. Maybe I'll buck up and do a video while I make them, depends on my mood haha!
Health wise I feel like I'm about 90%. I think this funky flu stuff has about left my system, just in time too because I'm out of klenex ;o)

fingers crossed!

I woke up early this morning and loaded my kiln to do a test firing of some new cone 6 glazes, I'm testing on a few different body types to see how it reacts. 1 is a cobalt blue and the other is called Rosie's red. The Rosie's red has a reduction type appearance to it and was gorgeous on the samples I saw so I guess we shall see what happens. I put it on a few luminaries and small jewelry / trinket boxes. Good or bad I'll post pictures to share my results with it. I think I may have applied it a little too thick but I'm hopeful.

I worked in my studio for a little while this morning. I got a custom order for some ceramic mushrooms. I decided to throw them on the wheel with earthenware instead of stoneware just so I can use this textured paint that I have, it's fabulous. The earthenware was a dream to throw, very smooth and handled nicely. I've only used it in the past to do hand building. After they dry a little I'll assemble them. I threw them in 2 parts, the stem and the top are separate. I'm kind of eager to see how they'll will look when they come together.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it

I've been very lazy with my blog, I'm trying to snap out of it and stay more on top of things.
This past week I've been sick with the flu and I'm having a very difficult time shaking it. I'm thinking swine flu, I'm waiting for my little piggy tail to grow so I can be sure of it ;o)

I just slipped out to the store to get more medicine and I ran into a man who was very rattled and finally asked me if i could help him. He was picking out a pregnancy test and was clueless. I couldn't help but giggle to myself over that.

In other news, I've become addicted to Mafia Wars and I'm blaming my friend Joe. He put out a call for needing more members on facebook and I offered to help if he needed it, if not then I wouldn't join it. Of course he was like Yes!!! I need you!!! so... yeah, it's Joe fault.

For the love of cupcakes!

I've always loved cupcakes and I love visiting bakeries to see what they are creating.

Alas... I'm much better at eating them than I am at making them.

Here's a picture of me I did when I was working on my 365 days photography project.

I started making ceramic cupcake trinket boxes several months ago just because they are so fun and make such a cute gift. I gave one to my niece the last time I was in Virginia visiting her and she just loved it. She told me last night on the phone that she keeps a very tiny toy inside of it so that she won't loose it.



I started selling cupcake trinket boxes in my etsy shop and I received such wonderful feedback from them that I started making a different type, so now I have 2 styles available.

Monday

Monday
Originally uploaded by ~*Denise*~

Geeze I can't believe the year is almost up.

In about 2 weeks, it'll be my birthday and ya know... I'm cool with it, I'll be 39 on January 13th. I feel like I finally almost know who I am lol

Christmas is over...

Time to get back to work!
I received a wonderful email today from a lady, her fiance purchased one of my mugs as a Christmas gift for her. She emailed me the sweetest feedback and totally made my day:

Hi, Denise, Just wanted to get back to you about how much I'm enjoying the Blue Dragonfly Mug that my fiance bought for me. He was so concerned about the safety of my repeatedly microwaving my morning coffee in a plastic mug. I just love your beautiful blue & dragonfly design, the great easy-to-work caps, the shape of the mug itself, and especially the nice large handle. But as weird as it may seem, the raised dots on the handle make this my favorite mug ever....and I've collected quite a few mugs trying to the find just the perfect one! Now I've found it! Thank you so much for offering this and I'm so happy I found you on Etsy (where I have a shop, also).
Happy New Year, Denise, and keep making these.... Warm regards, Sheri

Me & Santa Claus

Me & Santa Claus
Originally uploaded by ~*Denise*~

My dad met this Santa at a gas station 1972. Santa had just finished a party and was headed home with a few of his friends. My dad begged him to come to our house, at first the Santa didn't want to go until one of his friends said it was cool, he knew my dad and kinda pushed Santa to go. So... he came, I loved him, dropped to my knees and gasped when I saw him. He refused to take the payment my dad promised him for his visit, he said the look on my face was payment enough.

So fast forward: I'm an adult with children of my own and working in animal control in my home town. The sheriffs department pages me to come rescue a dog that had been hit by a car. By the time I reached the location the dog had passed away. The officer waited for me to show up to the scene. Being that there was no rush at this point, we chatted a bit on the side of this country road we were on. When he found out my name and who my folks were he laughed and said "Ya know I played Santa Claus for your dad one year..." And he told me his story. I was completely blown away that there before me was the best Santa I ever met as a child and the man that is in some of my favorite childhood pictures. I finally got to meet him and thank him. My dad will still light up when he tells the story of how it all came about and my reaction.