REALLY making your own dishes!

I got the great idea that I was going to make my own pottery from the clay in the back yard. Not that clay is expensive to buy (<$10 a box) but I thought it would be cool to say "hey that plate you're holding came from clay in my back yard". Well, that's not going to happen any time soon, but I still have intentions to at least give it a try. I got the idea from a book for potters. It seems simple enough. However the clay is still only in Step 2 of the process, and has been there for several weeks. Step ONE: Dig past the top layers of grass, weeds, and soil until you reach clay...

put it in a big bucket....

and carry it up the steep hill....

Step TWO: cover the clay with water until the chunks are soft enough to break up.

This is only as far as I have gotten. Because I still have to buy a bunch of supplies to build a slab of plaster. I was too cheap last time I was at the pottery store to buy the plaster because I wanted to buy only fun stuff. The plaster will cost me approx $27. That's a lot of money for very little satisfaction! It's like paying a bill. You don't want it, it isn't anything exciting, but you need it. So I will spend my birthday money that is slowly disappearing next time I go. I better go soon though, or I won't have any money left. I also have to buy screen in 3 different mesh sizes and filter that lumpy clay through each size until it is through the smallest to get rid of chunks of like rock, dirt, grass, etc., then it has to set in a bucket to let the clay settle to the bottom, then I will have to get the water off the top, the rest of the water will be absorbed by the plaster board that I will eventually make. That's a whole other project. What if I can't figure out how to make a cool plate? All that work for a big mess on my deck and in Adam's garage. I guess that would be nothing new. I've taken over the whole house and property, it's all a mess.

There is a link on my blog of a lady who is on ETSY, she makes the prettiest pottery. She is my inspiration. I'll add a picture onto the end to show you what she makes that had inspired me to get into the pottery wheel. I don't want to copy her work because that is sorta cheating, but I would sure like to be as good at pottery as her. When I get good, I'll think about copying, just for myself and family and friends, I wouldn't sell it. THAT would be cheating. If I could afford her pottery, I would have my whole dinner ware in her pottery. I wish I had known about her when I was registering for my wedding. I've noticed people doing that on ETSY, a really neat idea.

Camo Car

Anybody recognize this?

Living so close to the Motor City, you see things like this every once in awhile. I saw it on the way home from the pottery store today. Yes, I was driving when I took the picture, thank goodness I survived. It's so cool to see the brand new cars that have not even been revealed to the public. Even if it's wrapped up in camo vinyls and canvas. I think they are taking it out for test drives but don't want anyone to know what it looks like. Adam said it was a Mercury ...something, I can't remember the model name.

My New Birthday Presesnt

My birthday is not until Saturday, but I got my present early. It's the coolest present in the whole world. I've wanted one of these since I was 12 and living in Texas. We saw someone throwing pots at the fair and that is all I have thought about since then. Last year I got a 26+ year old gift, this years present could possibly be just as old. My kiln had new components put on it 12 days before I was born and it works great! My wheel is going to take some practicing, but it's a lot of fun. My left hand and wrist are so sore. Don't ever get into a fight with a potter, you wouldn't know it, but they have to have really strong hands. I got exactly what I wanted for my birthday and even though it's really old, it is a really nice one. It's really heavy, it might have to stay in the middle of the driveway for a few days until we can get up the courage to take it into the basement.

Here's what I made tonight. I won't tell you how many I made and ruined.

UP

For Labor day we headed North. The upper peninsula of Michigan to be specific. It was another motor home vacation. Have you ever layed on a bed in the back of a giant motor home while it's chugging down the road, any road? It's down right terrifying. The motor is in the back, so it's loud, exaggerated during acceleration and everything creaks and rocks. Every touch on the gas or break felt like your last moments. It was quite scary. I certainly said a lot of prayers. Sarah and I were forced to play a new game with Adam that he invented. We had to sing songs on the ipod and the others had to guess what the name of the song was, they couldn't hear the music, only the person singing. None of us listen to the same kind of music, which made the game very interesting. I won, but only because Adam had a really unthought-out scoring system working to my advantage. We spent a lot of time near and in the water, but with wet suits on. The water is very cold in Lake Superior. We swam in 3 of the great lakes that weekend, Huron, Michigan and Superior. I think we may have even done all three in the same day. Adam and I opted out of walking the Mackinaw (5 mile) bridge walk. When everyone else got back, we took a ferry to the Mackinaw island. It was so cool. There are no cars allowed over there, not even mopeds. It's 7 miles all the way around the island. Some people live there year round. Not sure how they get out in the winter when the lake freezes over. The water there, was so clean and blue, it felt like we were on a tropical island somewhere in another country. Like Fiji or Hawaii. There was one night we were so tired and it was really late, and there was nothing around so we had to stay at the rest stop for the night. It was very nice and clean, but a little scary... there was music coming from the utility closet. I think there was someone sleeping in there. David even said he heard someone moving around in there. I thought we would be victims of a murder if we stayed there. Looks like we made it out all right though. Adam and I got very little sleep that night, we were the only ones who actually acknowledged how dangerous rest stops were. I guess our angels were doing their job, thank goodness! Walter loves the water. He had such a good time.

If you've never been to the painted rocks on Lake Superior, you're really missing out. This place is absolutely beautiful! The pictures barely do it justice. It's hard to believe you don't have to go farther than your own state to see something like this.

Happy Birthday Lindsay

Today is my friend Lindsay's birthday. The reason I so easily remember her birthday is because it's 8 days before mine. I actually usually always forget the day to be honest, I have a hard time remembering if it's the 8th and she's 5 days older than me, or if its the 5th and she's 8 days older. But I checked her blog today. She is definitely 8 days older than me. Lindsay and I met at boarding academy almost 12 years ago and have been friends ever since. I don't know how much she appreciates it, but I refuse to let go. The deans paired us up because we both had on our application that we decorated with pink and green. What if I had put something else, like purple and blue... mr..., oh it could have been bad. They had no idea what they were getting themselves in by letting us live together. Lindsay was in my wedding a year ago, and I was in hers this summer. I think it's a good thing we don't live in the same town, we would wear each other out and laugh too often.

I think I'm definitely stronger than even a two time Ironman woman!
oh yeah, we would humiliate our families too.

You would have had to have been there to understand why we thought this was so funny.

We Tried The Sumo

We got the new tube out on the water, sorry I do not have pictures, my camera was MIA. But trust me, it's hilarious and worth checking back for the video of round two. We were laughing so hard. Adam was probably the funniest because he accidentally rolled over on his back and got water logged. It was a good time.