Christmas elves' workshop--Thursday!

Life is a bit week-by-week right now, but Thursday LOOKS GOOD and I'd love for you to join me for a little crafting action. Please, bring your own projects to work on and know I'll have tables and the depth of my crafting world of supplies to help you out. Sit and chat if you could just use that. I'll have hot cider & lots of handmade mugs. 7:30- 11:00 pm as you like.

Following the schedule I posted earlier, I'm going to start an Amish puzzleball for Reuben (The image above was one of many I found online, this from amy.gunson's flickr photostream; a good tutorial I found is here). I have some beautiful fabrics I want to use bits of and I think it will be great for him learning to catch. I also want to finish up a wee felt animal for Audrey that I started in the hospital last week (I finished Audrey's rainbow of birds), and if you don't have a project, but want one, I suggest a bit of felt handsewing. It's great for beginners. I have grand patterns for Christmas gift making, both my own and purchased, like this book

image from amazon.com

or the entire handsewing for fun patterncard series

image from weewonderfuls.com

Bring your own felt (Joann's wool blend felt is 30% off in a very rare sale), or use some of mine for $2 (I have a good hoard,but wool felt is $$ and mostly mailorder). Regular craft felt will work fine, but it's not as dense, so harder to work with in some ways. But moths won't eat it (this has happened to me), and it's cheap & widely available.

If you're coming, please let me know so I can plan accordingly: three_goats@yahoo.com

begin again

I cannot say I've been entirely etsy inactive, because I still buy there, but my little shop has been empty and sad for lo, these many months...

But the Christmas shopping season is here, so I'm finally listing the rest of last spring's pottery efforts. Those lonely little mugs and bits have been packed away during the move, but have recently found a home on (the top, out-of-baby's-reach-shelves of) my new birch shelves, patiently waiting for me to find them new homes. Half of the kiln-load has wandered away as hostess or thanks for visting! or birthday gifts, but a nice little congregation of creatures is still with me, and I will be listing them a few at a time (as the extremely grabby baby--or when he sleeps--allows) over the next 2 weeks.

I'm not doing any custom work right now, but if you see something in the photos you are particularly interested in, convo me on etsy & I'll let you be first to know when I list it.

(more complete photos in the next post)

waiting

Something new: parade bowls. These are larger--about 6 1/2" rim-to-rim.
2 birdbaths: rimmed & eggshell
Sweet company mugs, for those who would prefer to go crazy with the spoon and not worry about their little buddies.
Sheep (this kiln got extra-hot and the sheep suffered most, so will list as seconds--the pink glaze is thin at top & the greens very thick at the bottom, so the sheep are standing in tall grass...).
Mice, flower hedgie & owl
Bunnies
Crocheted lace details--burned out in the firing. I experimented with different glazing techniques, and, in the end, liked best the ones I left raw on the outside, but I love them all and will do more.
And a miscellany of extras
I made many leaf-pressed mini bowls, but most of them went out already in baby gift sets. Two left:
Lots of good fairy bowls. Some will be sold in sets, some individually.

every moment

In an effort to squeeze the creative juice out of every moment, Marian and I painted in the car during Audrey's guitar lesson. I cut and outlined, and Marian filled in. They match our invitations: we're having a wee party on Saturday, limiting our invites to those with Reuben friends--other homes with babies (and a couple of especially devoted Reuben followers). Some preparations must be made.There was also some snacking.(the view from the top; once I get around to it, R can now be a front-facing rider!)

And when Audrey finished, she helped us finish up.And then we went home.
To party!

birthday in the woods

Yesterday morning birthday boy and I escaped to a friend's little corner of the woods, where she is the steward of a farm on the weekends. She is the lovely sort of person whose house looks like this:

(spot one of my bowls? And the fired version of these wee pumpkins?)

We had honey blueberry muffins, lemon tea, wood trucks, and a nice fire inside, followed a quick walk out.
I infinitely preferred the morning to the afternoon. We took a little trip to Hershey to see one of Marian's specialists (her story; I really will force her to catch y'all up on all of her good news soon), and were caught in the cafeteria by a phone call from Reuben's oncologist. Seems we all had ourselves some tangled communication lines, and instead of being done, baby boy has 5 more rounds of chemotherapy. Which means we're only half done poisoning him. We'll start again next week, juggling 2 kids in the hospital (a minor surgery for Marian) at the front end of the week with an MRI and family escape to the Jersey shore at the end of the week. Maybe even a family photo session if I get me proverbial ducks in a row. And to think that I thought next week ("when everything slows down") would be the week I finally listed what I haven't given away (houseguests always get something) of the pottery I finished in my lonely little etsy shop (evidence that it was once active here).

Sigh.
Gird up loins.
Get on with it.

We attended (Nathan spoke at) the funeral of a good friend on Monday, the most eloquent of reminders that biology can be a fearsome foe. As much as I hate chemotherapy, I hate cancer more.

one

He saw the light for the first time one year ago.
Can't believe we made it!

the wooden wagon

I fell in love with The Wooden Wagon, a lovely little online store primarily selling wooden toys and folk art, last year, and bought my favorite Christmas gifts from them.

I think this year it will just be Ostheimer wooden animals (fox, fawn, and baby bear*are my favorites right now, but Marian has requested a Clydesdale, and the brown horse above is kind of close?), but I was nonetheless happy to see this show up in my inbox today:

Free shipping on orders over $25 in November.
Coupon code: FRIENDS

Usually, shipping is a flat $4.95, so never prohibitive.
*Reuben's favored book is the Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? that Uncle D bought him when he visited last month.

What do you want?