Crank'n

About a week has passed since last posting.  Feels like I am getting back in the groove. 

Back on the hamster wheel and gasping for air.  

About a month ago I was asked to sit on our City Charter Review committee.  The committee made me do stuff that makes me shutter......... like submit all questions in writing!  I work off random thoughts and this was an exercise that was just grueling for me.  By the time we got to the first meeting it ran smoothly and quickly.  Whoa! take notes and apply this new learned technique to my life!  Read, re-read, take notes, submit!  What a flip'n concept!  What took me 30 hours to muddle through took the committee 90 minutes.  Articles were rationally discussed, voted on and we clicked through the city charter with ease.  I really need to try this, it was mind boggling.  Apparently not everyone thought the changes recommended were sane and later in the week a crazy person unloaded her opinions in public.  Wow! 

Good God I hate confrontation and immediately spouted back something like;  You are crazy and you're wearing granny panties.  My brain just short circuits in these situations, I have no excuse.  But realizing this was going no where I retreated to the studio.  Sitting at the wheel I became brilliant with the things I should have said!  In the solitude of the studio I vowed to not go out in public again, ever.  You really need a dog! 

It has been a turbulent winter; clay projects, house projects, city stuff and body failures!

This is my new secret weapon.  Gruel, a combination of rye flakes, quinoa, teff, steel cut oats, flax seed and buckwheat groats.  Every morning, no exceptions.  Whining loudly when wheat and dairy flew out the door.  Well sort of, I still have a bit of yogurt 1 or 2 times a week.   Anyway, Saturday morning there is a big pot of gruel bubbling on the stove.  Cooked gruel is divided up and dumped in the freezer for the week.  After 3 months I can get out of bed pain free!  My joints have stopped clicking and popping too.  Maybe it's the loads of veggies, way less meat, sardines everyday.......no idea but the pain is pretty much gone and I have stopped running into the wall when I vault out of bed in the morning!  Really miss wearing my helmet to bed..... 

  I stood in the studio yesterday afternoon and looked at a ton of clay, neatly boxed and stacked on the floor.  Time to spin straw into gold, call me Rumplestiltskin!  I dropped to my knees and wedged out 2 boxes of clay on my concrete floor.  Yes, I have a wedging table but I hate it.  For some reason my back feels so much better when I wedge on the floor.   Jumped up, cranked up the latest audio book and dipped my hands into a bucket of warm luxurious warm water with the addition of lavender oil.

It really is the little things in life :) 

7:30 p.m. stood up and had a good days work on the table.  Crank'n!  Down to the pub by 8:00 pm to hang with the neighbors and have a pint.  Hit the bed and knew it was a good day.  

The first part of the week I threw these lovelies.  The tallest is 14".  I stood back and thought yuck, call me the constipated potter, they looked like giant poops!   Not quite ready to throw them in the recycling bucket I grabbed my carving tools and set to work......... an afternoon later they looked a bit better. 

Still not sold but going to glaze them anyway.  The hammer is ready! 

The remains of the day..... chip carving makes such a mess.

and I will never have shoes that are not covered in clay ...... or jeans or sox or glasses....... 

Finished these two small woven pots!  

Pots finally found their way home via Boston and Virginia.  The packaging they came in ..... YIKES! Well let's just say it was a lesson in how to get things safely through the postal service.

Spring has been delayed.....  a balmy 18 F. this morning and more snow on the way.  

I guess I'm running with Mother Nature because the snow has kept me in the studio and with Boston and orders looming large, it's good.   And I support Butler County's decision to call for the death penalty for Punxsutawney Phil! 

and look what MMp brought home!  This is False Evidence Appearing Real! 

It's the boss's car.  The boss's daughter had to take her driving test again and as Dad's car is too big to pass the test he borrowed our little clown car, the Versa.  Oh this just makes me feel so good about being on the road because after she passes her test in the clown car she will be driving this behemoth again.  Again........ don't leave the studio!  

The neighbors have paraded down the driveway thinking we hit the lottery.  Everyone knows how painfully aware I am of my carbon footprint and I am insisting he park this beast across the street!  Get it out of my yard.  It leaves Monday morning.  Seeing as I am always covered in clay and a hot mess I'm thinking I might sit in that black leather interior and leave butt prints on those heated seats!