Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Last night, I spent the evening in
Chatham (a town about 45 minutes from my home),
setting up for a pottery show and sale that will run
for 10 days.

Tonight, I spent the evening putting my
tiny flock on strings - and making them
into mobiles (see the fuzzy pictures at the right).
I've got 4 mini-mobiles finished now, and will
take them with me to the event that I'm going
to on Saturday..






On Sunday morning, we will be shearing
the flock - and lambs should also
start arriving within the next few days.

Nothing like being super busy all the time.

On Sunday afternoon, my darling daughter is leaving
for Ottawa for her summer posting with
the Army Reserves. She will be spending the entire summer
as a ceremonial guard at Parliament Hill - In August she
will come home for 1 day - and then head out to
Newfoundland for University.

Of course - I still have a commission of wine goblets for a local
winery to keep me busy through June - and I have to start washing
fleeces in preparation for processing, oh yes, and we are in the process of revovating one of our garages into pottery/fleece studio for me................ and somewhere in there - I'd really like to clean
my house.

Oh - I'm getting tired just thinking about it all.

Anyway - just a heads up - I am going to start making pottery sheep again next week - so - if you are interested - now is the time to contact me and put your name on the waiting list. There will be a limited number available this year.

Getting Closer to Being Done

It's been so incredibly busy here - but I am getting closer to being done. That's a good feeling.
I have 2 pottery sales coming up this weekend. On Sunday we are shearing sheep and my Daughter Brittany is leaving for her new posting in Ottawa. After that - it will hopefully slow down a bit - and I can concentrate on getting a few things done around here. Here are some pictures of
my pottery. First of all - sheep.

These are the larger sheep - they are about 4" long. There were more - but we had a little accident - involving my clumsy husband - and a few of them are now shall we say - pushing up daisies in the shard pile. They are getting there - but I still want to experiment with some more
glazes to get better colours.


Now this second picture is of the miniature flock.
They are so cute. They are only about 1 1/2" long each. We unfortunately lost several of them in the clumsy accident as well. And I dropped a section of fence and broke it while taking it out of the kiln (so I can't totally blame him).
I especially like the little ram out front - and the
border collie. I plan to add string and turn these guys into little mobiles - I'll try to post a picture before they go to the sale on Saturday.


And last - but not involving sheep.
The pictures don't do these mugs justice.
These mugs are black clay - with a bas relief of dragonflies. Then I have lustered over the dragonflies with either Mother of Pearl - or
real gold. The mother of pearl (on the left) - actually picks up the background colour - and makes the dragonfly look pewter in colour.
The gold is also very stunning. I envision doing a few more of these - I've had a great reaction from everyone that has seen them. I actually plan on adding some sheep mugs to my collection - so keep an eye out - as soon as I get the first batch out and glazed - I'll be posting them for all to see - and ahem - blatantly for sale.

More later.

Time To Catch Up

Well, it's been positively hectic around here - some good, and some bad.

I thought I should take a few moments to update my blog a few days ago. Then the batteries in my camera died - so I had to wait until today to get new batteries and get started.

I've been super busy with pottery shows and sales. I've just finished one show locally and have 2 more shows in the next few weeks. I've turned down 4 shows this summer, as I will be too busy, but then I have 3 more shows in the fall. Add onto that - several commission pieces to do, and a local store has just put in an order for goblets for the summer wine season. I'm going to be very busy indeed this summer.

Oh - and everyone who is waiting for sheep - they are almost all ready. Pictures should be posted in the next few weeks.

But first - some fun. Look at all of these gorgeous Shetland rovings - all dyed by Jared - the 10 year old son of my friend in Kingston - Kim.

Jared has a way with the dyes that's for sure.
I'm taking some of these with me to a shearing party in a couple of weeks - they should go over well. Jared has no fear of mixing colours - and in many cases here - he has over-dyed grey and moorit rovings to achieve some of these fabulous colours. If you want to see more of his work - just click on "Cornerstone Fibres" under my favourite blogs.



On To Other News.

Isn't this young lady just beautiful! This is my baby girl!
She will be 19 years old this week - I can't believe it - 19 years old!
It seems like only yesterday she was born.

This picture was taken April 26th as she was going to the
military dress ball for her regiment.
Unfortunately - no flowers were
in bloom at the time - but she still
looks stunning anyway.

She had a wonderful evening out. Since she missed her
prom last year (she was away at a training camp for the weekend blowing things up), I thought that she should have a chance to go all out just like the prom. Her boyfriend Chris wore a tux - and they were a very stunning couple.

But now for the really exciting news..............................


In 2 weeks time - my little girl leaves for Ottawa - the
capitol of Canada. She has been posted to Parliament Hill from June 1st to August 30th as a Parliamentary Guard. Yes - she's going to wear a bearskin hat and wool coat all summer - and basically - entertain the tourists. (Just like in this picture below).

And she's going to get paid handsomely to
do this!

Now - don't get me wrong - Brittany is in the
Canadian Reserves. The only way you can get
this job is to be in the Canadian Military - either full time or reserves. She's quite excited, because (oh - life is difficult) - when she's not
entertaining the tourists, she will be going to
the Governor Generals Garden Party, and
has to take a course in (get this) - white water
rafting and kayaking. Then - if she's a really good little soldier - they are going to fly her to
Norway to participate in some sort of function over there (I told you life was rough).

I'll keep you posted as the summer progresses.

After she returns from Ottawa - she has 1 day, and only 1 day at home - and then it's off to
Newfoundland where she will be attending Memorial University for the next 5 years (one of these years will be spent in England) studying English Literature in preparation to hopefully one day become a high school english/history teacher - or something like that.

So - it will be a busy summer coming up for us. I'm sure - without a doubt that we will be going to Ottawa to visit my little girl - and other relatives, and then, it's off for a cross country journey to get her to school.

What else is going on? More later.