Hmmmm...

Blogging might be the best way to document my claying projects.  It’s very easy to forget how you accomplished a piece, what colors were used, etc.  I do take a good bit of pics, so I’ll take more, step-by-step, then I’ll be able to look here when I want to repeat the process?

No plans other than this.  Just clay.  Ok, maybe a bit of life stuff, but mostly clay.

It’s late in the day, 2:30, and I haven’t touched clay yet!  Ran this a.m., emergency run to Hobby Lobby for white Kato (they hadn’t restocked since I was last there), hot bath, lunch, FB, and so it goes!  So, a pic just to see if I can still do it, then to work!

Yay!  I did it!  This might just work!  See the tiny slice I’m holding?  Lori Axelrod from my guild (Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild) here in Asheville gave me a few slices from some of her canes.  She said she thought Cheryl got this cane somewhere—I’ll ask her Saturday at our monthly meeting.  And I reversed engineered it.  My little “stems” are more golden than hers, which I kinda like, and I nailed the blues, teal, green of the background!!  I’m loving this cane!  Not sure what to do with it.

Transition

A week ago I submitted my first attempt at the Career Step final. Hopefully, my only attempt. After beginning Career Step's Medical Transcription online course June 8, 2009, I was more than just a little bit eager to bring this endeavor to an end!

The final consists of an objection portion of typical mutiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and matching questions. It was pretty easy. The practicum portion consisted of 8 geniune dictations of approximately 15 minutes that I had to transcribe. I had 48 hours to complete the final. We strive for perfection. I went over and over these files. I listened over and over trying very hard to make sure I wasn't missing even the articles (a, an, the)!

The finals at CS are hand-graded, therefore it takes 2 weeks to get your results. I should know how I did by March 24th!

Can't wait.

Meanwhile, I'm in transition. Waiting. Playing a lot of Farmville!

Photo of one of our lovely Red-bellied Woodpeckers.

Our Pets Have Their Own Neuroses!

Why the sudden flurry of posts? Especially since I haven't blogged in months? Couldn't get Facebook to load any photos, that's why! So just went ahead and uploaded all significant from camera since the spring.

Have a slew of new online buddies as a result of my enrollment in Career Step! Career Step is an excellent online medical transcription course. I'm enjoying it so very much. Started in June-- work/study a minimum of 6 hours a day and hope to complete the course by January!

Anyway, was chatting with Marie, one of my new CS friends, and she's a huge animal lover and wanted to see a photo of Gabby sucking Olivia's thumb! Here 'tis Marie! I don't let her suck mine anymore. She's over two, time she outgrew this! She'll still "root" for a thumb when she snuggles with me, but I just hook my thumbs into my fist, and she gives up, settles down, and goes to sleep. Olivia still lets her...think she enjoys mothering her that way!

Okay--MUST get to WORK now!!

Our Not-So-Furry Friends.....

This is also from the spring (2009). The dogs were going crazy barking at something in the large mulched area. Went to investigate and this is what they'd treed. A beautiful black snake. Looks like a pretty big one too.

What are these called?.....

Not sure what these thingymagiggies are called but got a few shots of Grant fooling around with them. They're not even his...a friend left them here!

Isn't he growing up? My!!

Saying Goodbye to The Vintage Home.....

What an effort! My bestest friend Michelle decided to close her store after a 2-year gallant effort in May (2009). I partnered with her the first five months or so and gracefully bowed out as it was just not my cup of tea! She carried on and tried so very hard to make a living at it. The economy sure wasn't cooperating! Michelle is so very, very talented and an extremely hard-worker, but it just was not meant to be at this time.

It's August now and Michelle continues to thrive! She has booths of her hand-made pillows, towels, and her "vintagey" items like she carried in the store at Joe's Antique Mall here in Wilkes, Boone's Hardware Store, and she has an online store. She moved all her tools of the trade to her home loft and now works from home.


God, I look so FAT! So matronly! When did that happen? Maybe I shouldn't wear red?!!

Rosie's Skunk Run-In!

Back in April, poor Rosie (12-year-old mixed breed mostly Chow) had a run-in with a skunk! We were leaving the windows open at night, and two nights in a row, I was awakened by an overpowering stinch of skunk--just completely filled the entire house! It was awful! Well, the second night just so happened I'd left Rosie outside, and she got sprayed! Not having any tomato juice, I read online that a mixture of peroxide and dish detergent would do the trick. Site said to leave it on for 30 minutes. I thought 30 is good, 60 would be better, right? Wrong! It bleached her fur! Took her to the groomer's for a trim and this is the result!

That's Grant's Chima with Rosie and Olivia. He's a Husky/Pit Bull mix. A very sweet, obedient, albeit mischievous puppy!

Maddyson Kerley. An adorable great-neice! This is my nephew Adam's baby girl. Maddyson and her first cousin, Jackson. Jackson is my nephew Alan's adorable little boy.

My sissy Suzy proudly holding her grandchildren!

Mindy's Recent Production

My neice, Mindy, is a serious performer! We love to go to her productions! This is from her most recent performance of Cats. That's Olivia on the far left and Mindy's sister, Aimee, in the middle. Yay Mindy! You were just fabulous darlink!!

Flash Flood in Wilkes!

This is from a while back--May?--when we had some flooding here in Wilkes and our area of Moravian Falls was hard hit! This is THE Moravian Falls which is just a stone's throw away from us--in fact, our property borders the falls. Normally, the falls are just barely more than a trickle! Look at this! It sounded like a train whizzing by!

Our Latest Project

Area of the basement garage that has been cleared out. Most recently, this space was completely cluttered and trashed with Olivia's furniture. We moved her to PA week before last (she commences her masters program at Seton Hill, Greensburg, PA next week!!) leaving this space was essentially free and clear. We decided to move Grant's TV/hangout/music space here. This area had the cream-colored carpet that we'd just laid there (not properly installed), and the kids had not taken very good care of it, and Olivia's Atticus (cat) had been using it for his litter box, so we trashed the carpet. Wanting the cement to be attractive, we decided to stain it. We'd had some experience with this since we stained the cement of the front porch a couple of years ago. I think it looks great!! It'll be much easier to keep clean! Ya know how kids are with trash/filth/mess!!

Creation.....

Above: my workspace. Just one great big 'ol mess but the juices really flow in this space. It's in the garage in the basement. Very basic, simple--nothing fancy down here. I can be messy. I can spread out. It's all mine. My space. Nobody bothers me here. It's sacred.

Below: some of the current work....

A pair of shoes picked up at thrift store. Michelle shared with me a website where some gifted craftswoman had done this and I just copied it. Seems I do nothing original!

Below--an ordinary glass made very special....


Same glass, another view.

And finally, a soap dispenser using some of Miss O's art. I photographed her piece, uploaded it electronically, printed it on tissue paper and wahlah......I love this piece just because it's her work.

What's on my mind....

Heehee. I laugh when I look at this pic. It was a couple of years ago at Thanksgiving. That's sweet John Corneck beside me (Mel's honey). There's a funny story with this photo. Some of the family had gathered here for Thanksgiving and I'd cooked. When I'm in the kitchen burdened with a huge meal to prepare, I like to drink! I don't think I really enjoy cooking. I'm basically lazy! So this particular gathering I had bought some hard apple cider--can't remember the brand name. Well, I thought it had lower alcohol content than beer and it tasted so wonderful--just went down easy, let's say. Heehee. I'm not a big drinker--usually only having like two drinks when I drink. After I get a bit of a buzz, I'm ready to eat and once I eat, lose the buzz and lose all interest in drinking anymore. But this night, they were going down so smoothly! The meal was challenging to prepare....two lead to three and I, like I said, thought they were light-weights....three lead to four! I had five by the time the meal was ready. Lord!

John had his daughter Chelsea with him and she still talks about this night and how funny I was. Well, let's just say Kim had no qualms saying exactly whatever popped in her head! No boundaries were observed! It was a fun night. Funny thing about drinking....when I realized I was sloushed--my face was numb---and I quit drinking, I got the worst headache! It was like I had my hangover before I ever went to bed. And just what I deserved for being so stupid!

What else?

Lost my wonderful job in January. The hospital laid off 40-some of us. I was pretty devastated. I loved that job! Loved having health insurance too. I was working in regular-type transcription; spent three months, 40-hours a week training for this work. Then, poof, it was gone! Such a shame. By the end of January, the radiology department called asking if I was interested in taking on a new challenge. They wanted/needed me p.r.n. (as needed) for weekends and when someone else in the department wanted time off. I said, sure! So after re-training for several weeks, I am now just working weekends and the occassional weekday. I love this work too. It's extremely challenging--very technical reports with LOTS of obscure medical terms (well, obscure to me!). It's all good. One day--and probably sooner rather than later, they'll hire me back. Maybe parttime first but fulltime eventually.

In the meantime...I'm making the most of more free time!

As soon as I was laidoff....got in a super creative phase. I've been very busy! Lots of collage-type, mixed-media work. Don't leave anything laying around very long or it'll be painted and collaged!!

I'll photo some of my lastest and upload them....maybe tomorrow?

Life is good. It just is. No use thinking otherwise.

Saw this today and thought it appropriate.....


breathe in faith
breathe out fear.


Yeah. I like that. I've made a study of this over the last year and a half. It's actually been that long now since Jug lost his contract with the big L. So--I see NONE of the awful fearful things have even happened; which further illustrates: why in the world would you want to ruin today with crazy worry and anxiety over what's going to happen tomorrow when it probably won't even happen!!!!!!????? Now tell me that!

Just live for today. Ya just have today. Today I'm good. I'm great. I am strong. Whatever comes, I will be strong enough to see it through. I know I will. It'll be fine. It'll all be alright.

Feeling fine,
Kim
04-17-2009

I've Been Away Ahile...

Since I became full-time employed the end of August my passion became my work! So I've been away. About three weeks ago I lost my new career. There were 44 other poor souls who also found themselves without their jobs that day. I miss it so very, very much. It wasn't work to me. I looked forward to going every day. I've never had a job like that. Never. Not even hygiene. The only work I've ever done that I enjoyed as much (more, actually) was mothering my children. And that wasn't work. I'm sad about it. But am hopeful that the hospital will work this out and I'll be able to return. I've been doing some fill-in radiology transcription and while I truly appreciate the opportunity to keep my new-found skills honed and the folks I'm working with are great---sorry, it's just not the same. My heart is just not in it like it was before.


On the happier stuff!


So in the last three weeks, I've been busy!! My creative juices are in high gear! I'd been piddling with the coasters that I'd last posted about but since being let go I've branched out! Here's some examples of what I've come up with:

The dragonfly is a journal and the triple butterflies are on canvas.



A wooden frame:


Wooden frame here too. Sorry about the glare on the bird.

Two photo frames.

A metal tray and a soap dispencer.

This is large--about 11x14.

A picture frame:

Hopefully more to come!

Coasters

My latest art project are these coasters. I use stone tiles bought from Lowe's and using gel medium attach the images printed on white tissue paper to the tile. Then I seal it (though the gel medium probably seals it sufficiently) using a spray sealer.

All of these images I acquired from two huge and heavy volumes by Taschen. The botanicals from The Book of Plants and the insects from Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. They're so large and heavy it is challenging to hold them on the scanning bed without them shifting while it scans! They are fabulous books! The detail is so fine and that makes for superior scanning.

Remember: click on an image to see it in another window much larger.





I got these fairies images from a free image site online...can't remember which one. The French print in the background is from a stamp I have. I just stamped on a piece of card stock and then I make copies of it over and over, printing on the tissue paper. Sounds confusing--but it's really not.

The butterfly puzzle series...

Another butterfly series. Love bugs and insects. They're so beautifully perfect!

Botanicals...

And more bugs...

I like the more natural looking stone tiles like these bugs are on best. The edges are rough and uneven.

Michelle has what wasn't sold at Hillsville (which I sold a whooping two whole sets) at the store. I sell them for $10 a set of four. They make great and affordable gifts...holler if you want any....

Hillsville Flea Market

Michelle, owner of The Vintage Home, a wonderful vintage home decor/gift shop on Main Street in Wilkesboro decided to have a booth at the Hillsville, VA Flea Market and Gun Show. It's an annual event and always Labor Day weekend. Jug and I had experienced it and loved it several years as shoppers--not vendors! Michelle roped us into joining her! It was so much fun! Just a great experience--lot of hard work but we made the best of it--of course! Michelle and I had the most fun people-watching. We couldn't get over all the men walking around packing! Some with rifles and some with pistols ready at their side. What was up with this? Jug just shook his head at us saying, "it's a gun show!" Ah, so? We just did not get it!



And seems most of Virginia did not get us either! Michelle did well with her waffle towels and okay with her fabulous pillows but overall we were disappointed in our sales. I took my latest art project--coasters made from ceramic or stone tiles and only sold two! Scheech! But I sincerely believe the slow sales had as much to do with the slow economy as with folks taste.



Our neighbors on both sides of us had both been coming to Hillsville for many years (the Crockets pictured below have had a booth for 27 years!) and they were both experiencing their lowest years ever. People are just not buying anything right now that they don't really need. It's really a bummer.



Our booth:








A small portion of the Hillsville Flea Market! It is mammoth!

This is (below) Louella and Wesley Crocket, our neighbors. Great folks! They've done this event for 27 years! Thank you, Louella and Wesley for making us feel so welcome!

Jug brought four of his instruments to sell: three guitars and one mandolin. Man, were the men ever interested in those daggone instruments! Michelle and I were continually a bit annoyed by their blocking the entrance to our little booth oogling Jug's guitars! They were four he decided he could live without but were high-end and while many drooled over them, none forked over the money! We had many to pick one up and pick for us. And while it did kinda annoyed Michelle and me, we enjoyed it too. They were such friendly folks!

So their were these three youngsters who were so very talented musicians that came by each day and picked with Jug....

Drooling over Jug's instruments...

Chelly looks pretty even when she's roughing it!!

The three young pickers...

Below--our booth...