involuntary retreat

Well, I just spent the week in bed. A very unpleasant flu. One day I hope to become wise enough to transcend this cycle of over-work, over-stress, ignore-self-care, get-sick-to-compensate. One day soon would be good. Along with watching a lot of bad TV, I read this biography of Matisse, which was fascinating, and gave me new and surprising insights into the paintings I love: I also spent time just lying there with the covers up around my ears, admiring these new friends in my bedroom, gorgeous kinetic sculptures by my friend Cynthia Minden:

These were both worthy pursuits, and a week-long retreat at home is great. I'm grateful for the rest, the perspective, the time to be with myself. And next time I want to do it without the fever, coughing, wheezing, and ick. Let me learn from this one!!

THIS is inspiring.

I stumbled upon this very cool fund raiser while browsing designsponge this morning. Wow. Beautiful wares, some of my favorite contemporary ceramic artists, positive activism - this kind of thing gives me hope that change is possible - something I really needed to be reminded of this morning. Here is an excerpt from Sarah Archer's essay 'Kitchen Table Politics':

On October 15th, 27 top American ceramic artists will unveil a diverse group of cups, plates and other pots called "Obamaware" as a fundraiser for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. What a great idea! A convergence of the handmade aesthetic beloved by progressive Americans, a 'green' object you can use over and over, and a way to support the arts during difficult economic times. What better way to support the candidate for change?

The wares shown above are part of the auction. The platter is by Jill Oberman, and the mugs are by Victoria Christen.

gorgeous kitchen

Well, I usually only show these on our ceramics blog, but this installation is so gorgeous I had to share it here too. (there are more pics on the the ceramics blog, though.) I got a big envelope of photos in the mail yesterday, from a client in Florida who featured our Kyoto tiles in his new kitchen. The kitchen is amazing, with exposed beams, granite countertops, this beautiful professional range, and (I'm seriously envious) a built in espresso machine! I think the tiles look fantastic. We send them off into the world, and seldom get to see the results, so this is really gratifying!

upcoming exhibit & celebration

Painting by Dwayne Rourke and Terry Wild titled 10 CABAN. Caban is the Mayan word for Earth Force/synchronicity.

My friend Cathy is curating the following show - it will be wonderful! Here is the press release:

Celebrate Dia De Los Muertos in Cumberland!
Art show and opening celebration Oct 31st- Nov.2nd at the Abbey Studio in Cumberland

Come and celebrate Dia De Los Muertos, or 'Day of the Dead' in Cumberland. The Abbey Studio for art and dance will be hosting a Day of the Dead art show, with a community altar, and opening celebration on Friday night October 31st . The Show will be up for one weekend only and will feature a variety of art (painting, photography, mixed media, book arts, shrines, and more) by; Terry Wild, Tracy Kobus, Bronwyn Simons, John Tallerino, Dwayne Rourke, Levon and Grant Shilling(father and son), Cathy Stoyko, Sheila Nopper, Marc Randall and Roxanne Cowles-MacPhail. The Day of the Dead, or “Dia De Los Muertos” is typically celebrated on Nov. 1st (All Saints Day), and Nov 2nd. In Mexico where the Day of the Dead originated, the celebration has ancient Aztec roots, and is a national holiday. The belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life. Is a time for remembering and celebrating the dead, ancestors and the continuity of life. Everyone is encouraged to bring offerings for the the altar opening night or during the gallery hours on Saturday and Sunday. Traditional offerings include flowers, food, and photographs of those passed. The altar is a interactive installation and is there for everyone!
Please join us at the opening celebration on Friday October 31st from 7-10PM. Fools Paradise Sound System will DJ the opening and we will be welcoming guests and sharing food and drink. Also, there will be a dance performance by Cathy Stoyko. Start off your Halloween night with a visit to the opening, families and 'trick or treaters' of all ages are welcome. Cumberland will be host to many festivities that evening including John Bates and the Voodoo Dolls at the Waverly and, Six Gun Buddha with Nova Fire Spinners starting at about 10PM just around the corner from the Abbey. If you can't make it to the opening please stop by and see the show on Saturday or Sunday between noon and 5 PM. There will be traditional Day of the Dead crafts and activities set up for visitors of all ages. Paint and decorate mini paper mache skulls for the altar, or create cut tissue paper banners. Curator, Cathy Stoyko will be there to help visitors with these activities. This is a free, non profit show/event and small donations to cover show costs are welcomed.

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

So exciting, and I missed it! I made it to the coveted front page of Etsy!!! Yay! I really needed a bit of fun good news. Other good things that resulted from this feature were: 40 new Etsy "hearts," a request from Stacy to feature my stuff on her fabulous indie crafts blog Nonpareil, being featured on another fun craft blog, The Long Thread, and an invite from Taste Homemade to advertise free for their launch. Wheee! I love these encouraging connective threads in the virtual world, they add a sense of connection to my often solitary rural days. Thanks to everyone who has supported my work on-line!

something different

I just posted this to my etsy shop. What do you think? I've never made anything like this before! I made it one happy fall day in the studio, listening to the radio and chatting with Bob while he pressed tiles... one of those easy creations that kind of made itself while I wasn't looking. I bisqued it and it sat around for about a month, and I finally glazed it last week - I was visualizing yellow, but it came out this nice italian orange. I think it would make a great cookie jar.

Stilton-Pear Crostini

One of the new recipes I tried yesterday was SO yummmy I wanted to share it with you. I adapted it slightly from this recipe, pictured above, from Oprah magazine. I made a peppercorn baguette the night before, and sliced it very thin. I brushed the slices with walnut oil, and put them in a hot oven until they were light brown and crisp. I put some crumbled Stilton cheese on each slice, then popped them back in the oven till the cheese was a bit melty, then spread the cheese, topped it with thin slices of pear and some finely chopped walnuts, then served them warm. SOooo good. We had them with a nice chilled Riesling, which was a perfect match.

happy thanksgiving!

gratitude day

Well, if you are in the States you may not know this, but this is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada. It's basically the same holiday, just substitute Monday for Thursday, hockey for football, and skip the mall frenzy (we do that on Boxing Day.) I admit to a bit of ambivalence about this holiday. I'm not keen on consumerism, colonialism, or factory farming (or hockey and football, for that matter, sorry to say...) but I love holidays and feasts, the pagan in me loves the idea of marking the seasons and celebrating harvest, and the buddhist in me appreciates the idea of taking a whole day for gratitude. And honestly, I love food and cooking and taking a day off to eat! But it's bittersweet. Bob and I are both distant from our extended families, and we feel it now, when most friends are off to celebrate with crowds of relatives. Still, I enjoy making a really festive day for our little family of three. Above is our menu - my daughter and I love to cook together and to make an occasion of meals, so this is right up our alley. We have no one to please but ourselves, so we cook what we want; often salmon, which is the original feast food of our part of the world. Right now it's almost noon, I'm still in my pj's, sipping a Mimosa, Bob's out cutting firewood in the sunshine, and dear daughter is organizing her fall wardrobe. Soon we'll go for a long walk in the sunshine, then enjoy preparing our modest feast together. Here is what I feel truly grateful for:

• a beautiful child who is flourishing and healthy
• a wonderful life-partner
• a warm community where I feel a sense of belonging
• the opportunity to live in a beautiful, clean, safe, and peaceful part of the world
• the opportunity to do work that I love every day
• my own health
• the exquisite natural world which surrounds me

There are many many more things that could go on this list. I would love it if you would share with me, with a comment, the things for which you are grateful today.

creating sanctuary

Well, no, this is not my bathtub. Although I do have a nice clawfoot with a view of the meadow & a chandelier hanging over it. I found this gorgeous photo while I was researching Moorish fountains for a custom job. It would be pretty easy to create a sense of sanctuary in this bathroom, no? Most of us have functional bathrooms that we share with partners, maybe with children and pets. I no longer have to clear out dozens of plastic bath toys before I take a bath, but, trust me, a 16 year old girl can leave her mark in the bathroom too. And every so often the cat drinks out of the toilet. I know you know what I mean. We need to find ways to create real sanctuary in the midst of our real lives. This is especially important when we are going through real life stuff, like financial stress, loss and change of all kinds, burn-out from caring for others, overwork, overwhelm, health challenges, personal conflicts, and all the other things that come along to make the lives we love a little less lovable for a time. Here are some ideas for creating small islands of peace in the midst of daily life. Some of them are really simple - I often think about doing these things, and then resist actually doing them - minor self sabotage - but when I persuade myself to give them a try, the rewards are bigger than I would have thought. So next time you ar having a little stressy patch in the life you love, try doing just one of the things below, or one each day. Also, I'd love to hear how you would add to this list, so leave a comment with your own special way of creating sanctuary. By the way, I've gleaned some of these ideas from a few of my favorite inspirational women on line, like Kimberly Wilson, Jennifer Louden, and SARK. All these ladies are worth a visit.

• Take a bath. even if your bathroom does not resemble the one above, you can light candles, use wonderful scented oils and soaps that you save for special occasions, use a bath cushion, bring a magazine and a glass of wine with you, and lock the door.
• Use aromatherapy. just carry a little vial of essential oil with you, and close your eyes and inhale when needed. You can choose a scent by its traditional associations, or better yet, let your unconscious mind choose - try out many scents at the store and bring home the one that gives you an immediate, positive feeling.
• Make special playlists and use them. Make a "soothing" list, an "uplifting" list, etc... but choose the music for yourself only. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else, and you don't have to play it at your next dinner party. (My "soothing" list runs the gamut from Miles Davis to Tibetan chanting, and my "uplifting" has both Spearhead and Vivaldi.)
• Bring order and beauty to one little corner of your world, some place essential to your daily life, like your underwear drawer, your computer desktop, your medicine cabinet, your purse, your dashboard, etc. I had a friend who made a work of art out of her medicine cabinet. It had all the essentials, clean and orderly, but also little statuettes, postcards of beautiful artwork, love notes, a silk flower - an ever-changing tableau. It was a treat to open. You can do this anywhere.
• Use candles and flowers. Get one bouquet a week - it can just be a simple grocery store bunch of whatever is in season. I keep a bouquet on my entryway table, and a single bloom on my bedside table, in the bathroom, and in my workspace. Every week I get one really wonderful candle, and it follows me around for the week, bringing light and fragrance to the spaces where I work, cook, read in bed, etc.
• Do something physical for 15 minutes. Walk outside. Do one or two restorative yoga poses. Dance freely to a couple of songs on your playlist. 15 minutes can make a huge difference.
  

visual delight

I love colour and surface detail. I like pattern, but I also love serene minimal surfaces and spaces. I need lots of visual encouragement to get through the day. I live for little moments of visual comfort and delight. My landscape provides them in abundance, and I also try to build them into my hand made house (bob and I bought a 1000 square foot cobwebby windowless storage shed on 4 gorgeous acres six years ago. We had a miniscule budget to create from it our lovingly hand made house.) Thought I would share with you some places in my domestic world where I like to rest my eyes... hope you will too...

She is notoriously difficult to work with, ask any decent painter or interior designer. She is high strung and demanding, can slide easily from dramatic to brash, requires skillful lighting and sophisticated companions to be at her best. She's a diva, and like the greatest divas she's well worth the trouble. Here are some ideas for bringing this gorgeous and temperamental colour into your life:

• If you're bold and want to put orange on your walls, pick the right orange! There are tooo many sad stories of people who wanted terra cotta and ended up with pumpkin, or wanted pale tangerine and ended up with insipid peach. Try one of these: Benjamin Moore Sweet Orange, Yellow Oxide, Ryan Red, Adobe Orange.
  
• The Italians know how to handle the colour orange. Follow their lead and use the earthy versions of orange: burnt sienna, raw sienna. Accent with stony blue grey, gold leaf, and glossy orange-leaf green.
• In a neutral or earthy room, try just a few orange accents:
  
• Use a dramatic piece of blown glass (orange is wonderful with light coming through).
  
• Upholster just one piece of furniture, like an armchair, perhaps in a pale greyed-orange velveteen.
  
• Drape a tangerine mohair or fleece throw on your neutral sofa.
  
• Get a couple of whimsical hand made throw pillows in orange.
  
• Fill a big turquoise ceramic bowl with tangerines, persimmons, or oranges. Throw in a few limes for beautiful contrast.
  
• Be very careful using orange if you have lots of wood (furniture, cabinetry, ceilings.) Many woods read as orange already, which you'll discover as soon as you put more orange next to them.
  
• Try using orange in your sunny, south facing rooms.
• Orange seems to love being with white, cool blue-greys, charcoal, cool neutrals, cool chocolate brown and cream plus a bit of pale celery green (very Japanese), or for the brave, turquoise or lime green.
• Orange does not love being with lots of "earth tones" circa 1975, black (except you know when,) or yellow (except on some occasions with pale pink to mediate.)
• Orange loves stainless steel.