A nice relaxing day..sort of.

I had arranged for some help today, but Mike is feeling down and out, so I decided I was going to not do much of anything either. The kilns were cooling, Ro was at The Creative Oasis and I fought with myself over not doing anything. It was tough to relax and ultimately I failed and felt slightly cranky all day. Ro came home and we decided to go to the Tavern tonight for her Birthday Dinner. The Tavern is an old, well established restaurant in the heart of downtown State College. I always love to go there, the food is always very good and today was no exception. It was a strange dining experience. The server was training someone and it seemed to slow her down. I felt like everything we needed took just a few minutes too long. Like when you realize that under normal circumstances the food would be there, the drink would be filled, the check would be there, etc.

We had a very chatty father/daughter beside us on one side. She was celebrating her 23rd birthday and Dad had driven many miles to take her out. Their conversation seemed louder and more persistent than our own, so we did a lot of listening, which made the slower service much more tolerable.Things were just not right. and the wait between dessert and the check and the check arriving and the check leaving convinced me that for the first time in a long time my tip scale had slid down to 15% from 20%+ Food was good, but the service was so slow. Very unusual for The Tavern.

When we returned home we both passed out in the living room. When I awoke I felt refreshed enough to go down to the studio and make a few more pieces for the Raku firing this weekend. I also made a big widemouthed covered jar just for fun and it was :) It was nice. I really enjoyed making the big bottle and the plate on the far left is going to get a handle in the middle so I can fire the medallions we put on the pots in the Raku kiln. The colors will be fun and they will work out well as magnets or pins.

Glazing Madness

Rarely have I been so glad to put a day behind me. It was Ro's Birthday, a happy day to celebrate, but life handed us other duties. It was productive. We glazed pots to load 2 kilns, before loading Morgan and Shyanne carried the kiln shelves upstairs to the patio so I could resurface them, then carried them back downstairs so Ro could recoat them with kilnwash. Morgan and Shyanne also put up the sale tent for us and set up the tables. We finished the glazing and loading about 11PM, but then had to trim and burnish most of the pie bakers. 6 more await me in the morning. It's now 12:30, Ro has gone to bed and I am following her just as soon as I can get these pictures uploaded. Tomorrow is another busy day. Tomorrow Ro has some Creative Oasis duties to attend to and I will spend the morning trimming those pie bakers and perhaps throwing a few more vases for the Raku firings on Saturday. When Mike comes to help I think we'll price the finished pieces and start to set up the tables for this weekend and maybe get started on the pieces we need for the next event.

For now..it was a good days work and I'll worry about it all tomorrow.

I AM excited..I think this could be a beautiful couple of firings.

A slower pace

Today was slower paced for me. With all the pots in the bisc kiln I didn't have a whole lot on my agenda. I took the time today to deliver the latest order of Webster's mugs, then got busy cleaning up from my work frenzy over the weekend. When that was done I made a bunch of pie plates, then took an ice cream break with Ro and then came back to make some vases for the Raku firing this weekend. Tomorrow will be trimming and burnishing the pie plates, trimming the vases and then glazing all the stuff in the bisc kilns. Phew...so much going on.