Happy New Year!

Just a little note to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  We had a fresh blanket of snow fall on our friends' cozy place on Silver Star Mountain and have been enjoying great food, some sledding, ice skating on frozen lakes and ponds, and even seeing a play on a horse drawn carriage!  Tonight there will be fireworks to bring in the New Year!  I'll be back at it next week with some photos, but for now I'm basking in some much needed family time and time off!  

Thanks for all your support and encouragement this year! I truly enjoyed meeting and connecting with so many creative people and am looking forward to more of that this next year!  All the best and have a safe New Year's Eve! (I guess we are one of the last ones in the world to bring in the New Year over here in the Pacific Northwest!)

Dreaming of a White Christmas

We are going to have to do  a whole lot of dreaming this year for a white Christmas.  Here is our yard last Christmastime- lots and lots of snow! 
Wishing you all a 'White Christmas' and a Happy New Year!

Learning to knit

I've been wanting to learn to knit for a  while now- it's been on the mental to do list, and I finally got to it this week.  I picked up the yarn (and borrowed really thick knitting needles size 17- thanks Megan) from Room6.  It's an Alpaca/wool mix, super thick, super soft and I loved the midnight blue colour!  Then at home I looked up the directions with drawings on the Learn to Knit website.  I got a wee bit confused when the second row came along though and headed over to a U-tube for the 'How to knit' video, which was golden as far as I'm concerned! Super easy folks, really! It only took me one evening to get a ball of yarn into this super cute neck warmer.  I did happen to have a porcelain button I had made a while ago with the midnight blue ovals on it.  And for some reason it felt more relaxing to me than reading a book, although that's also on my to-do list during the holidays too.  Any good reads anyone? 

Spraygraphic feature!

There's a little interview on my work on the Sprayblog today!

Christmas cheer!

 

The Christmas tree finally got put up on Friday, just in time for Dean's Birthday party on Saturday. The boys had their school Christmas concert- the little angels singing and doing actions were soooo sweet!  There is a little post I wrote over on Stephanie Levy's blog for her advent Calender series that you should check out. I've been loving all the posts from various artists all over the world!  

I've delivered all the Christmas gifts I made for people and today the boys and I will be making some Christmas gifts for my sister's new baby (due in March).  Hope you are enjoying some time off to make presents and put your feet up too!

Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas!

It's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks and I am nearly done with the Christmas rush!  The magazine shoot at the studio this week went really well and all the orders for Christmas are finished, most of them have been delivered, just a few left.  I'm so glad to be nearly done for the year! The studio is so close to being empty of work and I'm really looking forward to starting fresh in the new year!

Thank you for coming by my blog this year! I may blog here and there in the next week but I'm excited to be spending some good time with my family over the next 2 weeks and want to devote all my time and attention to them.  So until the new year, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

shiny fuzzy muddy, Muddy edition

I'm doing a quick post before returning to day 2 of the shiny fuzzy muddy show.  It's been a great experience so far- the show has such amazing work, it's not an overwhelming show (as in not too much stuff) and the response from the public has been amazing! Thank you everyone who came by yesterday to support local artists!  I nearly sold out of a lot of what I had brought, so I'm off to the studio this morning to replenish the stock! A good sign!
So here is a look at the Muddy portion of the show-  hey day designs, dahlhaus, cul de sac (aka Laura McKibbon), and Jasnart.  All of us do such different work, but it's a great mix to put together. A little slipcast porcelain, wheel-thrown Porcelain Cone 6, and hand-built lowfire with screenprinted designs, and Jasna's beautiful sculpture and wall art.  I'm being a little lazy with the links today, due to time constraints, but will be back tomorrow with more work to look at!
PS my Etsy shop is currently on vacation!  I'm gearing down in a big way this week and any left over work will be at the BC Gallery of Ceramics come thursday!

One more plug

Here's another 30 reasons to buy local and handmade this weekend!  The shiny fuzzy muddy show is back for it's annual Holiday show! shiny fuzzy muddy members astrosatchel, kari woo, laura mckibbon & arleigh wood

are pleased to invite guest artists atomos, anat basanta, bpa metalcraft, cielo kids, holly cruise, dahlhaus, erin dolman, fiveleft, flightpath, funk shui, heyday design, luprints, caroline miller, morena, audra neil, olie, bronsino, jasna sokolovic, studio-oodio & thousand flowers

for our 10th holiday show & sale

join us for our opening celebration... saturday, december 12, 2009 - 7-9 pm

sale hours: saturday, december 12, 2009 - 11am - 9 pm sunday, december 13, 2009 -11am - 7 pm

this year at Heritage Hall 3102 main street, vancouver, bc

Sycamore Street Press in person

I had a lovely lunch with Eva and Kirk from Sycamore Street Press! It was great to meet them in person and lovely to receive their Thank You cards that I had ordered in the mail when I got home today!  What great timing!  

The Christmas Spirit

No snow on the ground but it's a little brisk out there these days!  We are listening to Johnny Cash, making Ginger bread cookies and houses with sheds, writing Christmas wish lists and starting to get very excited!
I had my interview for a great magazine article yesterday, and I'm starting to make the studio ready for the photo-shoot, next week.  I got a little worked up about what to wear for the shoot, whether to pluck my eyebrows or not- you know, silly stuff.
I'm also excited to have lunch with Eva and Kirk from Sycamore Street Press this week! They are in Vancouver to visit friends on their show tour and were kind enough to want to have lunch or tea with me! So nice to meet internet friends for reals!

This week

Hello everyone- I hope you had a great weekend! We have unusually dry, cold and sunny weather here in Vancouver, making the morning views through in our bedroom window misty and magical!

I've got another busy weekend coming up with a couple of glaze firings in time for the Shiny Fuzzy Muddy Show this coming weekend!  A few other things are in the works that I'm excited to share with you as the week goes along...
In the meantime, you can check out this little post on the musing about mud blog, where they have a clay artist of the day feature going on for the month of December!  Happy Monday!

Pictures from the Past

We recently found this great photograph of my dad pulling a sled, back from the 70's.  It really could have been taken yesterday with all the facial hair that's been grazing the streets these days.  I have lots of good memories of my dad being part of my child-hood.  He's always been there for me and lately, it's neat to see how he's now 'taking care' of his dad and mom, making sure they are living to the fullest in their late 80's and 90's.  I should clarify that my grandparents are pretty perky at their age, they still live on their own in a duplex without assistance, and they even insist on butchering their own chickens on other people's farms, like they used to do back at their old farm.  They are quite a pair, and sometimes I even find it hard to keep up with the likes of them:)

P.S. My blog posts have been a little tardy and slow this week due to a little down time with the kids, making gingerbread cookies and houses, going to parent/teacher interviews, and enjoying the sunshine outside since December 1st.  Also lots to do at the studio and lots of work getting shipped off for Christmas! Thanks for hanging in their with me.  I have some very exciting news to announce coming up, but won't 'open my presents before Christmas' quite yet:)

starting to look like Christmas

With the boys getting excited about Christmas I pulled out their little Christmas Tree and all the little ornaments that they've made over the years to get us all in the spirit.  It's a real menagerie of stuff, but it makes the house feel cozy when it gets dark and cold by 4:30pm.  Along with a few of our Christmas Records from the Vinyl collection, we are starting to listen to Christmas music too.  Also been checking out Bliss in a Teacups Christmas playlist she has on her blog these days! Worth checking in on daily:)
My Etsy Shop might look a little bare, but I do have a fair bit at the studio and am taking last calls for Christmas orders by December 10th. This really only works best for local people as shipping just gets more dicey and expensive after the 15th of December.  I've still got Shiny Fuzzy Muddy coming up on the 12th and 13th with some new work coming out by next week!  Busy Elf!

artists advent calender starts today!

Here's a little winter photo from last year to get us in the holiday spirit!  Also, I'm looking forward to the Artist Advent Calender that Stephanie Levy is hosting on her blog this month!  Nina Van de Goor from the Netherlands is the first one with photos of her lovely ceramics and small holiday decorations during the season!  I'm working on a post myself, so stay tuned!