Pic of the day!! and a few other things....

For being a bit of dreary afternoon- which as soon as I got my snow-covered self into the house was sunny again- I was out in the right place at the right time.  I sort of love this pic.  A perfect combination of clouds, sun, white, dark, shadows and light.

Sun and shadows and snow

To review yesterday's post-

I accomplished most everything and then some! This is awesome.  Today I should be able to mostly do what I want, but I need to take in Dorothy's dress.... something I didn't realize I had promised to do.  which is ok, since I adore the Dorothy in question (Rachel) and have known her all of her life.

I am weirdly sore today from BEAST MODE weight lifting.  I hit my back muscles hard,  which  is unusual, since I always do my chest workout first in the week.  It was a weird week, so I decided to change things up.  It is a strange feeling having the back all stiff and sore and not the chest.  Usually I am so sore from benchpress I don't notice my back at all.. Interesting sensation.  I am looking forward to balancing it out this morning!

So I got a little cooking done and a little (a LOT OF) laundry, but did not get the card table. It is weird trying to live without a table to eat at and a couch to plunk down on......  But it is temporary and I can put up with a lot temporarily.  Actually I can put up with a lot, long term!  Lol, hence the ugly carpet and paneling.  I am going to work on the card table next!

Anyway, now that I am over my morning feel-sorry-for-Debi fest (mornings kill me, I am always doubting myself and wondering why)  look out at the sun rising and am hoping for a great, relaxing day, because it will be a few days before that happens again.

An added job for the day is to choose a paint color, so I need to do some looking and thinking and google some images of wood floors......  I'll keep you posted on this color the walls thing.  and I am really thinking that the front room is going to need to be painted too, in a few weeks.  I'm seeing a blue-grey perhaps!

So, it is pancake day, and time to get the MA up, who went through one of his can't sleep nights last night, which of course resulted in me being able to use all 4 pillows to make myself comfy (**grins guiltily**) and sleep for at least 3 hours very deeply and contentedly.  AHHHHHHH!!!  I have to imagine that he was playing bejeweled blitz last night, as there is no tv--- as you all know.

I think I should send this pic to Justin on channel 9- even though I won't be seeing the picture, which really is unfortunate.  But oh well, it's all temporary........ she keeps telling herself!

Life really is a good, enjoy the ride everyone!!  And find your joy whether the driver or just along for the trip.

Pottery of the morning

And so yesterday I was blessed with a little time and so I grabbed a piece of clay and made this!  I like to make pretty organic shapes as a rule, so this was an attempt at a more somewhat geometric piece.  It is fairly big, and not exactly what I had in mind.  I can't seem to get away from my natural curvy forms.

Oh well, I like it!  It is a great way to start the day!!!  Now I have to get going on an oil painting, too, not that I don't have a couple more major irons in the fire now!  Winter does bring me some interesting challenges.  BRING IT!!!

P of D and a few other little things

This is the REALLY cool pic that I came across first!!  LOVE!!

I have a hard time keeping track of things sometimes!  I was SOO excited to find this awesome pic on my camera last night, this crazy thing was way better than I thought it would be!  It seems to be the perfect hit of color, texture, composition and everything!  I DID NOTHING- not one thing to this picture.  I frequently will crop or adjust the shadows a little lighter or something and this was fresh off the SD card. Anyway, keeping track- this is my 5th Photo of the Day.  I was sitting here debating if I had done 4 or 5 of them, and had to go look at my stats for heavens sakes.  I guess it really doesn't matter, but that sort of thing can bug me.  I am also on day 10 of another (looong) challenge, and that is a massive success so far!  woo HOO!

This is the second one- I love the composition!  Can't decide which is better- one of these is getting sent to channel 9!

There are a few little annoyances this morning that are on my mind.  Nothing major, and it is after all just life- pain and suffering!!  hehe.  I tried to get onto the loseit website this morning and it literally is freaking out!!  It kept almost loading and then it would revert back to the loading screen and it flipped back and forth like 20 times in 15 seconds.  So strange. I tweeted to loseit support - I hope they can do something there!  Oh well.

I have overdone my walking, somehow, and I have some major shin pain and even in the tendons and things in the backs of my legs!  Now you tell me HOW I could have done that??  I have not slowed down my walking really.  It happened when I did that 10 mile walk on Dec. 31 after finally getting back from all that Christmas celebrating, and of course I had tons of energy so was walking the first half of that at a sub 15 minute pace...... hmmmm.  Anyway, I am limping around like an old arthritic person.  I hope it abates by later today!  I think I will do a slowish walk only to the stone house just to keep active.  I have plenty to do in the house today, so I can rest a bit.  At least it is not my knees!  sigh

Related to all that, I tried to weigh myself this morning and my scale has a low battery.  Again.  SERIOUSLY, I do not know how the batteries can go so fast.  I swear I do not hop on that thing everytime I walk past.  In fact it gets a lot LOT less use now that I am maintaining!  Maybe it is lonely and the life is getting sucked out of it in it's depression....  doubtful.  I was too lazy to replace them, as I think because of afore mentioned leg issues, I will be a little heavy anyway. Eh.  I'll work on that.

And one more stupid thing- coffee.  I am super sensitive to caffeine again lately.  ARGH!! Really all I want to do is bathe my brain in caffeine all morning and then I promise I will stop.  AND because I had all but quit drinking it for a few weeks, it just doesn't taste very good anymore.  I can't TELL you the injustice I feel!!!  It was one of my last (and almost my favorite) vice!  I, even this morning, really can't finish drinking this cup that I have.  It just doesn't taste as good as usual.  ANOTHER sigh.  I'm on the lookout for a new vice!  :)  Actually I need to work on my chocolate vice.  I had planned to break my sugar addiction by not eating it for a while, but THAT is one challenge I have failed at miserably. Mostly because I challenged just myself and didn't actually make it official!  By telling someone I was going to or having that person goad me into it.....  well anyway, I am apparently not willing to do that at this time.  But I am inching closer to being way more sugar free.  Then I really will need a new vice!

OK!  Enough of that!  POSITIVES for the day!
* I have a new canoe tucked into the garden shed!!
* Babygirl is going to be born in 3 short months!!!  Even more reason to look forward to the end of tax season!  Tax season (it is my blog, I will digress) is an interesting time of the year.  On the one hand after long days of noisy children at school it is a relief to come home to a quiet house.  Not that the MA is all that noisy, but you know what I mean.  But by the time April comes I am about ready to crawl the walls!  I AM that little bundle of contradictions you know- I want quiet, but I need someone to talk to! And I NEED to go out by that time!  I am in need of adult entertainment and beverages that are not located within the confines of my refrigerator!  And God forbid, maybe a movie or something!!  I have great hopes and expectations, don't I?  I am not holding my breath for the last thing- remember it is spring then and we all know that **someone** just wants to run amok outside with chainsaws and rakes and garden shovels. We shall see.  sigh
*Back to positive - It is NOT -25 and shouldn't be for a while!  This is good for January
* I ROCKED my new arms weight program yesterday!!  So cool, even my biceps are sore today, so this is a win for me!! Looking forward to getting back to my 4 days routine again!
*I have time today to make some good food, clean a little bit, and do a project that I want to do.  Maybe even read!!

I have a list and I am going to attack it right after pancake sunday is taken care of!  And that is always a joy!  :)

Playing in the mud- P ot D

There are FEW things in this world that I like better than throwing on the potter's wheel!  It instantly soothes me, relaxes me, and engages my entire being.  I can throw simple things like nobodies' business, and I can center a chunk of clay in a heartbeat.  This is, of course, because I center about a million pounds of it for my students!  When they are learning the wheel techniques, I let them work at it for a good long time, so they practice, then towards the end of the session, I will center so they have a chance to practice the rest of the process as well.  I am delighted when kids get that glow as they figure out that they indeed CAN do the hardest part of it themselves.

It is also VERY interesting to see the kids who turn out to be natural throwers!  They surprise the heck out of themselves when they find that with a little instruction they are able to sit down and conquer the basics in only a few sessions.  FREQUENTLY, it is the students who might struggle in other areas of their day, either in art or other classes.  However, you don't have to be a "natural" to succeed.  I was really not a natural, I took 5 semesters in college and I never became as skilled as many of the potters that emerged from Richard Joslin's Ceramics classes at UW-Eau Claire!  But I loved the process, the feeling, the results of the day- so I practiced and practiced and practiced, and in the end, that is how you become competent.

It is difficult to not be a show-off sometimes when throwing- the kids think the whole process is so amazing to see that I have to resist the urge to take 10 lb of clay and do something fancy with it.  I want them to make simple shapes first, so they can really get the hang of the basics. I forget how beautiful and magical it is to see that clay transform from a ball into a symmetrical form that can change shape at my whim. And this is not about me, so I demonstrate the simplest of shapes, things that they can achieve during their first attempts, sometimes with a little assistance in centering.  So after the kids are cleaning up and I have a chunk of clay on my wheel and prep time is looming in front of me, I will sit down for a little clay therapy.  This is what I did on Friday-

What you can't see well is that the lip is not perfect, it is a bit lopsided and off- balance, which by the way IS my choice.  I could have neatened it up with no problem, but I love that tension of precision and flaw and the goo that is on the side adds to that juxtaposition.  Sigh.  I kinda want to do it again!  Like maybe on Monday!!  :)

I could go all psychological and talk about how throwing is metaphor for life- it takes practice sometimes to work through the hard parts,  little flaws in it making results infinitely more interesting, that you can try to control it all you want and sometimes, something you really want collapses,  how sometimes things you don't THINK are going to work out at all emerge into something really great..... and you always have a chance to throw another piece of clay on the wheel and start forming something new.  You can always expect the unexpected and with a little work, you can indeed make something interesting and unique!  But that seems a little deep for 6 in the morning!

And this IS my Picture of the day!!

Find some JOY today, sometimes it just takes a little work to create it from the goo!

Pic of the day

I am not sure if this is what I want to be doing with my pic of the day!

This was really actually very pretty with the sun shining through the "clouds" from the paper mill steam plant..... lost a little in translation.

I have to think this through a little!  Or I have to take the time to dig out my p&s, or take the time to properly download into my aperture program or take the time to stop and get a better framed shot. This is only ok!

I guess some days "ok" is good enough!

Until next time- be a joy giver!