May long weekend

Every year our family joins a few hundred people up in Princeton for a camping weekend that is pretty special.  While not as warm this year, my boys didn't seem to notice.  They were having too much fun.  The kids (with suckers in their mouth...) noticed a little group of deer in the forest- that's the closest we've ever been.  And hockey, whenever you want it.  Sasha got to be in net for the big hockey tournament with the big kids.  As you can see, he needed a little extra help! Hard to move around with all that padding, I'd say.

Hope your week has been great. I've been glazing all week getting ready to photograph and ship the kindred work off next week.  It's long hours in the studio with sore hands and neck at the end of every day, but the largest load is in and cooling now.  Phew, hope it all works out.  Fingers crossed!

Mountain to lake

Hello June!  Wow, did that ever happen fast! Six months into 2011 already...
So a couple of weekends ago we made it back to Princeton for Dean's yearly staff conference.   The boys and I rode the Zip-line from one side of the valley over the lake to the other.  We went on boat rides, the boys swam in the pool.  They played hockey with their friends and my hands took a much needed break from making work.  I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, but I liked the pairings of these ones: Sky to mountain top, mountain to lake.  Not perfectly matched up, since I wasn't really planning it out when I took them, but there is something about the topography that is similar in each one.
**In the studio this week:
 With all my spring shop orders finished, I will be focusing on getting ready for Renegade, which is a mere month or so away.  I've got a few things sorted out: getting there, where to stay, where to ship to, & hopefully how to get the work to the show from our friends' place.  There are just a few more details to sort through.  It's tricky doing a show across the line.  Apparently there are a lot of rules, which make it nearly impossible to do this sort of thing.  Anyways, we shall see how it goes. 
In other news... supposedly Canada Post is going on strike.  Tomorrow.  So this affects my shipping rates and time-lines until the strike is over.  I will be shipping via UPS in the meantime- this means extra time for me at the post office filling out forms, and extra costs associated with shipping. Good times!

Birch

Another watercolour in the works inspired by my time away...

Hike to the top

Good times!

It was good to get away for the past 5 days, to spend time in a beautiful setting, connecting with new and old friends, and enjoying my kids as they had so much fun! We went on a little walk to the old homestead on the property, a far cry from the grandness of the camp that is there now! It was wonderful to be back and we're already talking about next year...

A weekend plus...

One of the real reasons I've been so frantic to get work done the past 2 weeks (besides the obvious solo show at the BC Gallery of Ceramics July 4th...) is because I have been looking forward to heading off to RockRidge Canyon for Dean's annual staff conference for 5 days. It's a beautiful camp in Princeton BC and I usually get to go there twice a year, once in June and once in October for their Women's Camp, where I usually teach an art workshop! It's a great conference with childcare provided in the mornings, and activities all afternoon for us to do as a family. My boys are pretty familiar with going now and they have a line-up of activities they want to do including canoeing, going on a speedboat to watch the wakeboarders, going swimming in the pool, skim-boarding at the lake (pictured above), and hiking up to the Pinnacle (1st photo). I'm looking forward to getting my reciepts from this year in order while the childcare is going on in the mornings, going on the Zip-line and possibly the ropes course again, and having some down time from the past few months of business.
In the meantime, I'll have a few posts ready to go here on my blog, especially since I have new work coming out of the kiln for the Poppytalk Handmade Market's Here Comes the Sun edition! And I think I may have another give-a-way in the works....