State fair...

The state fair comes to a close tonight and I'm a bit happy for that. The nightly 10pm fireworks haven't gone over too well with Skye. We can't see them from here but we can definitely hear them. Tomorrow I head in to pick up my piece... and my ribbon!

I won two 3rd place ribbons this year!

One was for this pottery piece (thanks to Susanne's hubby for the pic)


Susanne also took home a 2nd for her Iggy hedgehog and a 3rd for her figurine set.. woohoo!


My other 3rd place ribbon was for these chocolate crinkle cookies.


Everything in those cases looks so appetizing but I don't envy the ladies who run those areas... tomorrow they get to unload cases of cakes, cookies, bread and candy that have been sitting in there under the lights for a week and a half.. ick! Its too bad they don't have a climate controlled kind of display set up... that's a lot of food that could go to people who need it.

Its that time of year again...

Well, the summer is over and its starting to cool off.. time to think about getting started on Christmas stuff and finishing entries for the state fair. I've been trying out some new pieces and finally have my fair entry finished. This year I will be entering 1 piece in the handmade pottery/ceramics category and my grandmother's cookies in the baking category.


This is my handmade piece, the plate measures about 10 inches across, the outside of the plate is hand carved as well as the underside and the middle is full of melted glass.



You can see from the close-up, the glass has a solid surface but underneath there are lots of hairline cracks, making for a very cool effect.



I don't have a picture of the cookies because I gave them away right after they were finished but I will get a picture of them next time I make a batch.


This is another recent piece, it started off as a long triangular shaped tube and I manipulated it, cut holes out and then raku fired it.



It needed something more so I used some reclaimed jewelry from Dorcas to decorate it.



This piece now belongs to Kim who runs the Curl Up & Dye Salon in Cary. She runs an awesome Aveda salon and has a great collection of unusual art all over. If you need a new stylist or are just looking a change you should check her out. Here is the link to her website.


This dish was done as a free form piece with random textures from all kinds of things.




These pillow dishes came from using up some leftover extruded cylinders. A clay extruder in its simplest form is basically like a large metal wall mounted play dough machine. You insert the shaped die that you want in the base of it, cram a bunch of clay in the chute and turn the wheel to push out your shapes. To make these dishes I smooshed the cylinders, sealed the ends with some stamps and cut holes in the top of them.




I took another fused glass class recently and I'm trying to get a head start on Christmas this year since I failed miserably last year. One of Mom's presents was cooling off in the kiln when they arrived last year so instead of opening her present, she opened the kiln for it... so... this year I'm looking to do better than that. :)

Spring Daze 2009

This yea Susanne and I were in the 2009 Spring Daze Arts & Crafts Festival at Bond Park in Cary, NC. It was my 1st really big show and really went well.


The full spread of pics are on my flickr account (see upper right corner) but I figured I'd explain it a little here.




The Friday night before the Festival we packed everything up in the truck, my stuff, her stuff, tables, shelves and tent and went to set up in our designated spot.



We really lucked out and got a spot with lots of grass area backed up to the woods.




We met our neighbors Friday night.. on one side people selling funky belts and other fun stuff and on the other a lady doing henna tattoos.




Saturday morning we arrived early, checked in and started setting up.




This pieces actually sold to the kettle corn lady while we were still setting up. It's a 1 foot square platter and was something new I'd tried. That made a great start to the day.




Jess came out to spend the day with us, she was a huge help with organizing things aesthetically and packing things people bought.



Here's some pics of my pieces....









At the end of the day, we packed it all back up, and headed out.

Fun in the kitchen...

I've finally gotten my breakfast/snack bar recipe to a point that I'm happy with it. It is a no-bake one.. I've tried baking it but its worse that way. It chunks off a little bit but I can live with it. You'll notice that they are a little dark in color.. that's mostly because of the hemp fiber protein powder. When you open the jar it looks like a scoop of dirt & moss but luckily it has no spell. Be forewarned though, if you use it in shakes they will look like frothy mud. :)

I'm calling them my Protein Fiber Flax Peanutbutter Bars.
Here's the recipe:



Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups All Bran (the bran buds kind, not the twigs)
1 cup Rice Crispies
1 cup oats
1/4 cup ground golden flax
1/4 cup Hemp Fiber Protein Powder (found it @ Wholefoods)
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

Put the brown sugar, butter, vanilla & peanut butter in a large plastic bowl and put them in the microwave for just over a minute so things melt. Remove the bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Microwave everything for another minute and a half and then press in a 13x9x2 pan greased with cooking spray. Refrigerate and cut into bars. Store in a plastic container in the fridge.



I have my shake recipe done as well but was just informed by my new Dr that I won't be drinking soy milk anymore and yogurt is out too. Sooo... I'm going to get some rice milk and try a few things and post that once I've confirmed it is still good within the new approved guidelines.

Tea good.. soy bad...

So...

Today is the 1st day of the rest of my life.. or something like that. I have multiple areas with varying pain issues... some from my own stupidity (no I will not elaborate) other that just came about from other things. So because I haven't been sleeping well and my sore/stiff neck/headache type things have gotten worse lately I decided to try an acupuncturist to see if they could at least fix my neck, stop the headaches and help me sleep.



I found this Dr. on citysearch, she had a huge number of reviews and everyone spoke very well of her and how much she helped them... so.. I chose her.

At my 1st appointment today we went over everything... medical history, pain, stress, eating/drinking, lifestyle, brain workings and lots more.. there weren't any needles yet but this is part of the big plan as it stands now.

1. I'd been using soy light milk for my shakes because I can't handle milk anymore... she says no more soy. Its way over processed and not good for you. So I'm going to try ride milk and almond dream instead. (Reviews to follow on that subject).

2. Soda is out, completely. I had been laying off the aspartame ones and drinking the Splenda ones.. she said no. Soda is alot of crap that your body has to process and Splenda is just more crap. So today out.. tea in.. unsweetened just tea. As I type I'm actually sitting here with my funky New York mug drinking warm green tea.. and I haven't died yet.. go figure huh?

3. No more dairy. Not that I could handle much but I like cheese and have been putting yogurt in my shakes.. so the yogurt is out and I threw the cheese out... Shelby was not happy about that. She says that dairy slows your metabolism down and its not helping me at all. So out with the dairy...

4. No more ceiling fan... I generally leave it on at night so the dogs don't get overheated, she said this is a problem and can contribute significantly to neck problems... so off it goes. Also on my nighttime list... wearing the wrist splint to help with my carpal tunnel and the boot (every night) to keep my plantar fascia stretched out.

5. Mind/body, etc... I'd already looked into this and am going to sign up for classes with the town but she strongly suggested yoga/ etc (I'm also going to try tai chi) to strengthen the mind/body connection. I will be the 1st to say I'm not big on the whole spirituality of the universe and such but I can see the big picture from what she is putting out here and can reasonably agree with doing it from a logical standpoint... so once the classes start, I'll be there.

So.. this is the big plan... all of the above along with 1 visit a week for the next 4 weeks. Then we sit down and look at things for where they are, what has changed etc. I will let you know :)

It snowed! I draw'd! and more!!!

Welcome to 2009!

All kinds of stuff going on lately.. the most recent news here in the south.. it snowed!!! To most of the family this would probably sound like uh, ok but its the 1st now we've had in 5 years. I think we ended up with around 6 inches here, and it was Skye's 1st time ever seeing snow. Sehlby had only seen it once before when she was a year old.




They both loved the snow and weren't happy when they had to come back inside because I had to still go to work, despite the weather. You gotta love that whole critical staff thing.. ugh. Skye is addicted to the snow, she was insistent to go outside and ended up out there about 15 times a night to play it in. Unfortunately it only lasted 3 days but I'm thinking there will be more before the winter is over.



I also got a chance to pull out my trusty scraper as getting the truck cleaned off took some time. We had rain that changed to ice/snow during the night so there was a nice layer of ice hiding under the pretty snow. This scraper is the same one I bought at Walmart in NY as a kid for my 1st car and I still have it, still in one piece. It's always works and has never broken on me.. so hey.. its a good thing. I tell people they need these things but, like my neighbor the morning of the storm, alot of people prefer to clean their cars off with gloves and CD cases. [No comment]



Don't leave home without yours!


In other news I actually read the whole catalog this year for the town of Cary parks & rec and found all kinds of classes that would be interesting to take. Dad & Mom are taking classes in Florida too so Christmas shopping kind of motivated me as well to get back into Spanish. I took it through high school and for 2 years in college so I think I have retained a decent amount of it.Either way it will help for work and dealing with our Spanish-speaking counterparts so I don't have to use a translator.

So far basic drawing is the only class I have actually started but starting over the next few weeks I'm also going to try mosaics, oil painting, another specialty oil painting class called "wipe-out method", more fused glass, a cooking crepe class, Spanish, and another one for stress & anger management. I figured hey, its free and I have plenty of stress that builds up... why not?

As far as the drawing goes.. I can't draw, like in the not at all sense. But as the instructor said, we've already started drawing.. and it will keep getting better. He is a professional artist and a pretty down to earth guy, so the class is fun. So far we've identified implements and worked on a series of exercises. They seem kind of weird but its a learning method that he says subconsciously teaches your brain & hand to work together so you become able to draw what you see. These are the exercises so far.. they are all series of shapes & patterns:







I'm going to keep practicing... so hopefully my squares will be better soon.


In other other news.. I bought a sewing machine! A real live brand new sewing machine!




It is made by the company baby lock, which I've never heard of before but after using it for a few hours I am definitely sold. I just finished a denim bag that I started more than 3 years ago and it had little to no trouble working through all those layers of denim like the lady told me when I bought it. It came with a 25 year warranty too... which is awesome... and of course the best part.. its not a piece of furniture (literally) like my last sewing machine (freight train) which is still upstairs posing as a table.


This is my denim skirt bag... finally finished after all these years. The outside is a skirt I found at a thrift store, the inside and all the pockets I added to it are from old jeans and a denim dress I had. On the pockets are iron-on transfers.. the washer ripped them off but they ironed right back on like new so I am sewing them this time to make sure they stay. The bottom parts of the bag are rhinestones from those bedazzler type thingys if you remember the 80's at all.. LOL The inside fo the bag has 2 pockets and is attached all around the waistband but hangs free inside the skirt at the bottom because I didn't want to give up the frayed look it has at the bottom. You can't see it from the pic but there is a long shoulder strap I made from more pieces of the denim jumper. It was made of a softer denim (not jean's-like) so it folded and sewed together much easier and it lays nice and flat on my shoulder.



So lots more new things are to come as I'm playing with my new machine, and taking all kinds of classes that are my 1st time at many different things. I'm also working on coming up with my own version of breakfast shakes and bars.. I have a pretty good peanut butter fiber bar recipe going, just need to tweak it some more and it should be good to go.