Reminder of what a great community we are!

This Saturday I was reminded of what a great , given folks potters are.

I spent all day Saturday watching and listening to Sandi Pierontozzi and Neil Patterson. The Carolina Claymatters Guild brought them both to Charlotte and I was lucky enough to get a seat. Neil kept commenting how huge the guild was in Charlotte - 80 folks attended this workshop and from what I heard there was a waiting list. I was so glad I signed up for it because I needed a little reminder at what great folks there are in the clay world as well as honing my slab skills for teaching my beginning clay folks. Both Neil and Sandy where just so offering of their skills and knowledge and spent the entire time just teaching and working non stop! Great folks to watch if you ever get a chance and so calming and happy. I really enjoyed myself, plus I got to see old students of mine, pottery folks I had not seen in awhile and be silly with my pottery pals Ron and Amy! By the way, the Thrown Together crew will be sending out information soon about our upcoming Spring Sale so stay tuned!

When I got home that night there was a little white box waiting for me from Vicki Hartman . I was so thrilled when I opened the box and found a new mug waiting for me! Vicki and I had traded way back last summer and a few months ago I mentioned to her via an email that the mug I had gotten from her met a horrible death one morning when my husband knocked it off the counter. I thought it was so sweet of her to remember this and send me a replacement! God, what a great community we are and its such a small world......

I've met so many great pottery Mom just from having this blog and I'm thankful for that!

( Silly me but I always appreciate the bottom of other potters mugs. Yes..go ahead laugh at that comment! I struggle with keeping crud off the bottom of my pots so I admire this!)

Hats off to all of us for keeping clay in the world and working together. Just this weekend events will pop into my head the next time I teach or give away a pot to someone in need of a little treat!

In the studio this month I'm working on just building some inventory for all the various sales I have coming up. I even got the hang of my etsy site this week. If you get a chance check out what is new on there. Slow and steady I always tell my girls when they have trouble with school work. I've learned to tell myself the same things these days since I don't get as much time in the studio as I use to.

Quaid is home with today because he has President's day off while the girls are in school. Quaid is back in private school and the girls are finishing out their public charter school experience this year. More big changes for our little family as we try to put our house on the market and move over the boarder to NC.

Do you think I could do one of those great advertisements in Ceramics Monthly for "Studio and Home for Sale". HA! I never did talk about the Studio visit article that Ceramics Monthly did on my in January but my little humble space did get me some fame so I guess I shouldn't knock it!

Peace everyone! Jen

Stylish Blogger..here I go!

Connie Norman sent me an email the other day about being one of her "Stylish Blogger" picks. I thought that was sweet of her since I haven't been as much of a blogger these days as I use to but....I still do get on here from time to time. Connie has such a great blog and these days when I go "peeking" around to see what everyone is blogging about, I am in awe of what great website/blogs everyone has.

So, the rules of the "Stylish Blog" are as follows.......
1. Thanks the person who gave you the award being by providing a link to their site.

2. Share 7 things about yourself that other blogger might not know.
3. Give the Award to 15 newly discovered or interesting blog.

4. Notify each of those blogger to present the Award.

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Here are 7 things about me that have not been on my blog.

1. I was a cocktail waitress all through college. When I got my first job at a college bar I really

had no idea what I was getting into. I lived in Richmond Virginia so the college bar scene was very busy and delivering beers, cheese sticks and shooters from 6 to 1am three nights a week can be good money to a tuff job. I started waiting tables at a sleepy Days Inn hotel in downtown Richmond delivering room service. Soon I heard the real money was at the college bars and I quickly got a job working at a bar in Shockoe Bottom called the Bird in Hand. It was so busy and I was so out of my league with keeping up with all the drink orders, that the first month I started, I would sleep walk at home and deliver glasses of water to my roommates during the night!

2. I once was held up at gun point! For anyone who has ever worked at the bar, you know you don't get home until the wee hours of the morning. When I graduated from Design School I was working two jobs. During the day I worked at a retail store and on the weekends, I kept my cock tailing job. Some weekend I'd get home from the bar at 3am and have to go to work at 9am the next morning. One night when I came home from working at 3am, while going up the stairs to my apartment I found a guy standing in front of me with his arms raised saying "Don't shoot!" and one of my neighbors holding a rifle pointed straight at the two of us. In my head all I was thinking was " Oh man...I've got to get to bed because I have to get to work tomorrow and now I've got to deal with this?!!" Soooooo...I calmly, with my arms raised said to my very agitated neighbor.."Hey...can you put the gun down?" He yelled back at me that this man was trying to break in to his apartment and he was going to " Blow his ---------------head off!" I once again thinking to myself " God....I've got to get to bed!!", calmly said "Just put the gun down so I can get on by and I'll go call 911 for you.....Ok?" After a few back and fourths, he finally waved me by with the gun and I went into my apartment, called 911 and went to bed and happily made it to my day job the next morning.

3. I love to sleep. Nothing is better to me than getting in my bed and going to sleep. My comforter has always been my most favorite article in the house. And I equally hate being woken up if I don't have to be up. I am not a morning person! ( But I married a morning person who doesn't like to sleep, so we balance out.)

4. Of course everyone who reads my blog knows that I am the mother to 3 children and I do love them dearly. I've even given up blogging to spend more time with them. What you all did not know about my children is that although I am thankful for each of them, I'm not sure I'd jump at the chance to go through pregnancy and the birth process again. The reason I say this is because I tend to have the world biggest babies. Quaid was 10lbs and the twins each weighed 7lbs. ( Yes, if you do the math, I carried nearly 14lbs of baby with my twins!) When Quaid was born I had nerve damage and had something called "foot drag" for about a month because he was so big. In other words..no more babies for me or I may end up in the Genus book of world records because I'm only 5'-4".

5. While studying abroad in the Baltics with the East Carolina Ceramics department, my instructor neglected to count heads while leaving a public rest stop in Finland and ended up telling the bus driving to leave while I was still in the bathroom. When I came out and noticed the the tour bus had left some Finish speaking man grabbed my arm, pulled me into his car and raced down the highway going 100 miles and hour to flag down the bus. Needless to say, he did not speak English and I did not speak Finish and I felt like I was in a James Bond movie during the entire 20 minute ordeal. We did finally stop the bus and I was not to happy when with my instructor when I finally got back on the bus.....

6. I love Donuts. I love donuts so much I don't allow myself to get in 50 feet of a donut shop! As all brides do, I starved myself before my wedding and once Joey and I left for the honeymoon, my first food purchase was a donut. After my birth ordeal with Quaid, I made Joey go out and buy me donuts. ( See I couldn't even put a photo of real donuts on here because I love them so much!)

7. I've had a lot of dental work done. The worst I think was having 6 wisdom teeth removed from my mouth at the age of 17. Yep...I had an extra set on the bottom of my mouth all 6 were impacted. At the time my parents did not know I was allergic to codeine either so needless to say, I went through the entire recovery process sick and finally with no pain medication. Believe it or not, I kept all the six wisdom teeth the dentist took out and still have them in a little porch just as proof of my ordeal. ( If there was number 8 I would state how fearful I am of dentists!)

Today is Valentine's day and I got to spend it at school watching Bonnie Seaman create her fabulous masterpieces out of clay. The conversation was great talking pots, potters and funny stories about our craft. I could not have asked for a better gift to myself than to feed of the energy of another potter and inspire me to keep working away on my own creations.