At the Old Depot

Finally got myself in gear, and loaded up a bunch of pots to replenish my display at the Old Depot.  I hope you can see them in person...as well as all the other wonderful crafts there! It's a great little venue for everything imaginable...all hand crafted. I also renewed my annual membership. It's a co-op, and I may start working there one of these days...so far I let other's get the discounts on their percentage of sales fees...and I hope that I can sell a bit more in the next few months. It's been a rather slow summer.

My three shelve full of bowls, vases, jars, mugs, cups, sculpted cat and dragon even.

And here's a thought for the day! (I have forgotten that I liked sharing these, so maybe I'll remember to do it again some of the time.)

As the days grow shorter, we tend to acknowledge the changing season without understanding that we, too, are in transition.
Madisyn Taylor at Daily Om

My share of space

I've got 3 shelves of pottery for sale at the Old Depot in Black Mountain.  I do hope some of these will be going home soon with smiling folks to be used, or given to friends!  

Here's the Old Depot link, and if you are in the area this Saturday...they sponsor Art by the Tracks...with lots of canopies of arts and crafts along the streets.

The Depot is open Tues through Sat, 10-4, and has every kind of craft imaginable...little to big, kitchen, bedroom, living room and dining room. Paintings, cards, CD's wood working, wind chimes, jewelry, clothing, you have to browse these wonderful hand created things.

... weather, and pottery sales

 Sally and her pottery sculptures and decorative pieces at the Owen Middle School Holiday Show

 My display of the minimal amount of pottery for this show...I just didn't feel like carrying more tubs of pots...perhaps a mistake.

 I had fun seeing many people I'd gotten to know at other venues, and oh, what fun the families coming through in the morning were!

 But by 1:00 pm, I was dragging, and it had started snowing. This is still just water on this car however. But I did leave early and came home to take a nap.  When I woke up, snow had started sticking a bit.  But the news was talking about the impending storm so much, over and over, we all had gotten quite tired of hearing about it when it finally arrived!  I remember this was the life when hurricanes were approaching in Florida.

This was my car around 7pm.  I wrote this around 10 pm, and there was much more, but I didn't bother going outside again!

Here's the first of 7 am...more to follow, as you can imagine. Once the sun comes out it will be pretty.

 The few lights through the trees would include cars/trucks on I-40, which are not moving by at this time!

News just said 8000 people are without electricity in the Asheville area.  I'm so grateful to still have power.

Today's quote:

There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is yours is the present.

GRENVILLE KLEISER

Considering privacy

My oldest son got engaged and I mistakenly named my post "Big Announcement" and shared it on FaceBlob.  Then I got all these "hits" on my 4 blogs.  So I wanted to go hide under a rock.  Well, I was informed these are "bots." Good to know a name for them.  They are sneaky little devils, which are like those microscopic things crawling around on my face having sex and all.  I don't know if bots have sex though.  I'm trying to get used to a concept (again) of having no privacy.

So these children of my son will have a new step-mom.  The kids are all grown up, so it probably won't impact them too much.  I hope they like her at least.  I do.

I've got a couple more retail opportunities coming up.  The pottery business will be put to bed in the new year.  What will I spend my time doing then?

I have all this work cut out for me, an intention to write something about our ancestors for each of my sons. The concept is to just cut and paste from my ancestry blog into one document, print it out, and maybe save it digitally (because that's what's done these days.) The concept is to give from what I am/do.  I'd better put my energies into it.

Today's quote:
Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle. -Mahatma Gandhi (2 Oct 1869-1948) 

It snowed - I bundled up to go take pics!

You've probably seen everyone's snow pictures by now.

Dec 8, 7 am...a bit of snow on the ground, some still falling!

On Dec. 8 I was planning to drive a half mile to the Owen Middle School and set up a 6 foot table with pots (out of tubs which I could bring into the building on my little plastic wheeled cart, right over clear asphalt).  That didn't happen.

My friend Sally and I texted back and forth and went out in the snow in our respective homes, before we were supposed to drive over there...deciding that it was already more than 3 inches and still falling.  Neither of us are afraid of driving on snow...she's just moved to Black Mountain from Michigan.

Before noon, the walks were still somewhat clear (though it was a slush not just wet)

However there was nobody clearing the private drive in my apartment complex.  And I had seen someone shoveling another walkway, but apparently they were just residents.  My walk was still covered.  That private drive goes down a steep hill, and I remembered last year going down it somewhat sideways.  The other entrance is onto Blue Ridge Rd. which is a narrow 2-lane road on a steep hill going down to Hwy. 70, with very deep ditches on each side.  It hadn't been plowed at that time.  Around 5:00 pm I did see a plow come by.

My little red bow on the front porch had a top hat of snow

The walks began to have snow on them...and cars were completely covered

And it kept falling...

And it kept falling

But by 4 we decided to cancel our plan to go to the show.  If it was going to continue the next day, there weren't likely to be many people driving to a craft show.  We would find out the next day, but our decision at 4 pm on Fri. was that Mother Nature wasn't supportive of our going to this show.

The cars are completely covered after I'd cleared mine off in the morning.  And another 3 inches was expected to fall after dark.

The other significant thing was that the temperature had hovered near freezing all day, but would go much lower during the night, so any slush would be freezing overnight.

So Saturday did follow...and MORE SNOW FELL TILL AROUND NOON.

 The concrete walks didn't seem as bad due to it being close to freezing still. But the slush under the white was somewhat slippery.

Just nine inches on my porch railing.

The weather man just apologized all over the place, whichever of them you look at.

Here comes the little feral cat (which we've had fixed and the manager now feeds)

I gave the car a snow-cut, in case I decided to go anywhere...nothing was planned at this point.

This round of snow has now finished...as predicted at noon.  But that weatherman (whoever he/she is) also said it's due to freeze and maybe snow more Sat. night.  We just got a dusting that time.

All I can say is, church has been canceled for Sun. morning.  Whew.

I've become a Santa's helper. I hope my techno fashionista game-playing children and grandchildren won't mind that I can only give them used books this year.  Well, it's better than pottery, I'm thinking!

Today's Quote:
Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.  Mark Mullimax, Prof of Religion at Mars Hill U.

Geese it's the last week of June already!

On June 25 last Sunday before church, the woman sitting in front of me asked if I'd be taking part in the holiday market at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts this December!

I said, oh my goddess (figuratively speaking of course) it's only 6 months till Christmas! The biggest gift giving day in our western culture. (also a big headache for retailers, who depend upon that income to get them through the next lean months, not counting Valentines, St. Patrick's Day and who gives gifts then? and Easter!)

I can't use this blog effective to sell things...though I share it on social media, but haven't got an etsy shop up at the present moment.

I'm not selling weekly this year.  I'm not even making that many things in clay what with the cough-from-hell-and-various-medications.

I will be selling once in October, and twice in December at craft fairs!

I'm just going to keep on doing what I love to do, making sculptural pieces, and occasional functional works...hoping that someone out there will like them.

I believe an artist's first loyalty is to creativity.  It is only second to the person who will share the insights and want to keep it with them.

Today's Quote:

Many people live their lives struggling against the current while others use the flow like a mighty wind. Madisyn Taylor in Daily Om

Deep breathe!

My selling season is coming to an end this weekend.  Ahhh.

There will be more pottery for sale on this Fri and Sat. Dec 2 and 3rd! (see sales sites and times above)

Black Mountain NC is known for a Holly Jolly Festival on Fri. Dec. 2 in the evening.  Lots of stores stay open and offer refreshments.  Families and parades, singing, entertainment, and of course the students of BMCA (Black Mountain Center for the Arts) have their sale of pottery.

This is also the beginning of the 2 months of ceramics/pottery by students and teachers in the BMCA gallery.  It's the best!

Here's the poster for our big indoor sale all day Sat. Dec. 3.

Today's quote:

When we trust our creativity we encounter a supreme kind of enjoyment - an amazement at the natural unfolding of life beyond our ordinary way of looking at things.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche