It was finally nice out

Friends came to visit and it was finally nice enough to eat and play outdoors.  Here are Friday's photos.

Lovely Homes Part 1

Lovely homes in our  neighbourhood that make me sing 'if I had a million dollars'.  And while they are no mansions, the price tag is, well, way out of our league! I love the veranda on the bottom photo on with the clover pattern.  The windows (so great!) make me think the view of the ocean would be so sweet from inside. 
Hope your weekend is great!  We've got friends staying over and hopefully we will finally see some sun after having a week of solid rain...

The Disa & Heather Collection coming soon...

The collaboration that I worked on this spring with my friend Disa is finally starting to come out of the kiln.  Introducing the first completed glimpses of our handmade vase collection in Chevron and Lotus.  The last shot is our vases in process, while we were making them. I'll keep you posted on the shop reveal very soon...

Recently featured

A lovely bunch of Etsy front page features last month made for some busy shipping days!  Here's a few snapshots!  My poppy cake plate is also featured on a Storque article as of monday- all about cheese- lol!  My cake and cup-cake stands do make great crackers and cheese serving platters when they aren't being used for the obvious, so it was nice to have a few more hits on my Etsy shop from that over the past day!
One last linked feature:  A new one for me the Emmaline Bride Blog, featuring Cake and Cup-cake Stands that are handmade or vintage!  You can see one of the cupcake stands that I made for a magazine shoot (coming out at the end of the month- I hear there may be a front-page debut- albeit in the very background of the shot...)!
 I've been thinking that it's time for me to do another give-a-way on my blog again soon before the summer starts!  Any suggestions?  What would you, my dear readers, perhaps like to receive?  A ginko mug?  A new cup-cake stand?  Perhaps a Poppy Bowl?  Please leave a comment, or browse my shop to get a few more ideas! 
I'm off to the studio, have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Birthdays for boys and a diagnosis

Well, we officially have an 8 year old boy in the house and for his party this past weekend 2 of his closest buddies came over for a sleepover complete with mini-golf, nerf gun target practice, a late night movie, pizza and cake and a pancake breakfast to boot.  Wow.  I felt like I needed the next couple of days to recover from all that!  The decorations were kept pretty simple- just some balloons, streamers and paper airplanes hung over the table.  A couple of old trophies made for a fun centerpiece.  I did end up putting a 'Darth Vader' Birthday Candle on the cake so it was a little more appealing to the boys.  Anyways, it was fun and wild and sometimes crazy but that's how it goes with boys this age.

Yesterday we had our meeting with the school psychologist who actually did do some diagnosing.  I'm still trying to process some of the results- more the labels and associations that come with the diagnosis.  It seems that Johnny has some form of ADD and dislexia that are inhibiting his ability to learn to read and write as smoothly and quickly as other kids.  Both diagnosis were kind of a surprise to me. Johnny has never mixed up letters and he can read and write, albeit slowly and below his level.  So there is a program he might do for 10 weeks in fall to re-learn how to read and write geared for kids with mild dislexia. 
I think what surprised me more was the whole ADD diagnosis.  I sat down to do some research yesterday and frankly, it's hard not to see every boy Johnny's age as being somewhat ADD.   Knowing that about 7 of Johnny's classmates have undergone a similar psychological assessments this year makes me a little frustrated that we aren't looking at the process of teaching kids as opposed to simply trying to medicate and diagnose our kids into being good students. ADD or ADHD seems to be a catch-all phrase for kids who have a lot of energy and a low attention span.  Perhaps it's not just our kids who have the 'problem', perhaps some of the issues have to do with educators and parents who haven't completely learned how best to motivate these kids to learn and cope with life at their optimum.
With that in mind, I can see that there are a few strategies that I can work on personally as a parent to make life a little smoother for both Johnny and us as parents.  Some of those parenting tips I found here, some more I found here- both sites and the video being advocates for the concept of 'positive parenting'.  Essentially, the idea behind positive parenting is to learn how to avoid conflicts/power struggles with your child while trying to teach them how to make positive choices.  For me it will mean being more intentional about how I relate to my boys and not trying to rush over the parenting tasks that I do every day.  Also making sure that we have a more consistent schedule, complete with lots of meals/snacks, good sleeping habits and lots of physical activity will be on the agenda.  Good thing I bought some new running shoes on the weekend- I have a feeling I'll be playing a lot more soccer and going for more hikes and runs throughout the summer...

Peony Princess

The palest of pink peony in my vintage Korean celadon bud vase has even our little kitten stopping to smell the flowers...
Hope you have a great weekend.  It's Johnny's 8th birthday today so we are planning and getting ready for a slumber party complete with mini golf and movies!

Cross-stitch Pendants in the works...

OK so it's been a loooong time since I've made porcelain pendants. I only made them for one of my retail shops by request a couple of years ago and really lost interest last year when the production for my functional work picked up.  Frankly, I'll admit that jewelry seems to be that go-to thing for ceramic artists wanting to appeal to a different kind of clientele.  People at craft fairs often hum and haw about whether they have the cupboard space for another mug or a bowl, but when it comes to jewelry, the impulse to buy something they can wear seems to be an 'easier sell'.  Now I know what all you jewelry designer's are thinking- the market is extremely competitive out there and that most craft fairs are totally inundated with jewelry.  I'll be the first to say that I'm no jewelry designer, per say.  But every now and again I'll make something that is small and lovely and think- wouldn't that look lovely in soft white porcelain with a pretty silver chain. So that's what happened here, I started silk-screening these lovely little cross-stitch designs and before I knew it, I was making porcelain pendants again. 

**These aren't for sale quite yet... this was the first batch and I think the screen needs to be a little darker and possibly a few more colours (black?).  What do you think?  Feed-back would be swell!

My week with the boys

Well, Dean is back and my stint of single parenting is over until July!  It's amazing how having him around in the morning makes all the difference in getting these boys out the door. When I'm trying to get them off to school I feel as though I am a broken record saying 'please get dressed. or get your shoes and socks on. or where is your back pack?' several times over.  Yesterday I finally made a list for my oldest son to follow with all the steps written out (why hadn't I thought of this sooner?) and he managed to complete all the tasks on his own.  I think that will be my strategy from now on, so much easier on my patience level. 
When I had young toddlers I thought that once the boys got into school things would get so much easier for me as a parent.  I don't think that any more.  It's been a challenging year with my oldest in school.  His ability to retain information in school has been quite slow and he was recommended to the school learning psychologist to sort out why he is having trouble retaining/retrieving information.  After filling out 2 long surveys about my son's behavior, I started to wonder what kind of issues he has that will affect his time in school and in life from here on in.  We meet with the psychologist next week to find out what the results from all these tests will be.  
The one thing I've thought about in all this is that I really need to step it up in terms of finding an outlet that my son is really good at so that school doesn't feel so painful.  He is amazing at sports, and I've really hesitated to want to put him in organized sports because of the time commitment and over-scheduling that I resist against.  I can't stand the thought of driving my kid around from soccer to baseball practice, eating fast food in the car because we don't have time to sit down and have a proper meal.  I also don't like the thought of our kids being so over-scheduled that they don't have time for 'free play'.  Like the photo above, where the boys took a whole Saturday to find boxes and build themselves a fort on the drive way.  If we had soccer practice and swimming lessons on Saturdays, that wouldn't have happened.  As I think about this next school year, I'm already thinking about how to sort out this dilemma- the innate talent I see in my son for all things sports-like and my resistance to want to sign the whole family up for all the practices and games that organized sports requires one to commit to.  Well, I have the summer to think about it and hopefully in the end I won't have any guilty feelings either way...

fiddle heads

Such characters these guys were, pocking out all over the place!

studio shop

It's been in the works for a couple of weeks now, a group of designers and makers from our studio building wanting to get together to have an open studio event before summer gets started!  I'll be posting more details here this month, along with some little insights and interviews with some of these great artists and designers (more than just pictured above).  If you are in Vancouver June 26th and 27th, you'll be sure to want to come by the Mergatroid Building to kick start your summer off! 

DIY Gardening Ideas for a long weekend

I really like succulents and mosses.  So when I saw these planters the other day at our local public garden, I was pretty excited about trying it out. Since the May long weekend is coming up (yep you can start planting those beans and tomatoes soon) I've been thinking a lot about making some planters for our front porch and these might be perfect. I've found a few instructions that might help:

here with some really lovely ones here and finally a bit more info right here.

Reaching

 

We've had 6 people stay over for the night (on our living room hide-a-bed) in 2 weeks.  Today Dean left for a week of skateboarding in Mexico with a crew of guys.  So I'm just hanging in there this week with the boys and some recent orders that have me crunching time at the studio yet again.  I hope to have time to touch base and blog but I was feeling overwhelmed yesterday and today, I'm feeling a bit foggy after a 5 am drive to the airport.  Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Happy Weekend to you!

One last back alley gate for you with rays of sunshine to bring you into your weekend! I'm hoping to do a little more gardening this weekend, some more spring cleaning and purging, but will most likely get in a little more studio time to finish up the work from this past week.  I'll also be reading this book a little more in depth- it came to my doorstep VERY quickly from the time of ordering and seems to be an amazing resource!
I posted a link on my facebook page about a tutorial I found about printmaking on clay using photocopied images- really cool!
Hope you have a beautiful weekend!

Noticing: Nest

I'm still not sure where this wasps nest fell from- I found it in our yard under a tree and noticed it before I nearly stepped on it.  Wasps are usually unwelcome guests when we eat outdoors, swarming our food and making the kids run for cover.  But I couldn't help notice this nest and think about what part they play in the life cycle.  Can't say I really know what they do, but with the shortage of honey bees and the impact that can have, no doubt these guys are around for a reason too.

Mr. Adorable

Hello!  His name is Mr. Adorable and yes, he's really cute, especially since he's found his smile.  Just had to post his little smiley face here to make your day a little brighter.