lillygiggleblissblog

Welcome to my garden.

I can't get over how beautiful these look today. This picture was taken on the table in my basement and they still look amazing.

This big butterfly bowl was a gift for my good friend Laura who has been 'cocooned' in her house due to an injury to her foot, and then her elbow.

 

Now is it just me or does Typepad lock up on others about 3/4 of the way through a post. Everytime I put a few pictures in, sure enough it just freezes and I lose everything. I have been saving like crazy the last few pictures because I have lost some really good stuff so far.

Sure enough I wrote that last paragraph, scrolled up and it locked up again. Lucky I saved it. Grrr.

Custom dishes

These are some yummy custom dishes I made last week. I am just waiting for the lucky lady to come and pick them up. Luckily I made doubles of everything so I have another complete set.

These two dishes are my favorites from the last couple of weeks. I sometimes put the really cute ones aside for myself. I have this green one on my desk on a little plate stand. I think I like it because of the cute flowers and the green is so fresh. I really like this blue one too. I love the blue and of course it has the flowers also.

Where did June and July go?

So it would seem I got all caught up in life and work and simply didn't make any posts for quite a while. I finally published that last one which sat as a draft for quite a long time. I set up a play room in my studio so I had been getting a tonne of work done while Lilly Bug played and intermittently swiped things off my table. There are scribbles on all the undersides of my workbenches also.

I also got very distracted painting my husbands music room a pretty shade of blue so that it will become Lilly's bedroom and then we are moving our bedroom and my studio also. There seems to have been a flurry of activity around this house after 3 years of living here, even the second bathroom finally functions now.

I have sent dozens of orders off in the last couple of months. Here are the latest. Please keep in mind that these stores only carry the word dishes (below) and none of above pieces. Those are ones I'm working on for any retail shows I might do in the coming months.

Studio 2600. Dallas. TX

Wildflower Boutique. Sacramento. CA

Jubilation. Newton. MA

Art for the Soul. Balboa Island. CA

Art for the Soul. Laguna Beach. CA

Fern's Garden. Long Beach. CA

All that Pizzazz. Cedarburg. WI

Womencrafts. Provincetown. MA

The Studio and Art Bar. York. PA

Hourglass. Melrose. MA

Art and Soul Gallery. Ogunquit. ME

I've been framed. Jackson. MI

The Village Firefly. Houston. TX

Christa's Angel on Earth. Lakewood. NY

HandCraft House. Brewster. MA

Serendipity. Hudson. MA

And lots more. I'm tired of cutting and pasting so I will have to keep on top of it so it doesn't take so long next time.

There is lots more I had written in this post but for some reason the page is frozen but works fine in this new tab. Oh well. Hopefully I will fix it and you will never see this. lol. 

May

Lilly had her first 2008 trip to the beach where she tripped and of course landed on a rock covered in barnacles. The little trooper didnt seem to notice the blood trickling down her leg and just kept on playing.

 

I painted a custom dish for an Australian Shepard.

 

I made a bunch of word dishes of course.

This little sweetheart got a haircut and I think it looks adorable.  

I got some new pics today.

I shared a booth with my friend Laura last year. We had a great display but the folks just didn't seem to turn up. It was one of the coldest days we had so I would have preferred to be home on my couch also. We took these shots with her camera and I just got them today. Everything looks so yummy.

Above is a shot of the pennant banner I made for this show. I had planned on making some for the Holidays but of course there is just never enough time.

When I was in Australia I sold at an outdoor market every weekend. Friday night, all Saturday and all Sunday was a long stint to be selling your wares after spending the other four days making it. I enjoyed it because I got great feedback and I got to keep all my profits. Now I wholesale 99% of what I make. I like being able to just make things and know that they are sold without having to put little stickers on everything and lug it to and from my car every week. Every now and then I like to do a market to sell whatever random pottery things I have created and of course I have all dresses I have sewn also. I am always happy to be back at home though. Now that I have a family I just couldn't see myself dragging everything to shows and spending a whole day away from Bug and hubby.

Yummy clay

Here is one block of clay all ready and waiting to become something wonderful. They look so neat and organized and yet soon they become...

Sometimes I can almost hear my husbands heart attack when he comes home from work and see this on our beautiful dining table. Most times I cover the entire table with dishes. I have a lovely studio upstairs but nothing beats using the giant table while my little Bug watches Blues Clues and cuddles my leg. Speaking of Bug.

Back in business

I have kinda been on vacation these last couple of weeks. All year I tell myself I am too busy work and the little one to really get serious about being a domestic goddess. So after the Christmas rush and the clay issue I took a few weeks to just go through closets, do laundry and sew etc. I had hoped that my house would be just the way I imagine it by now but it's actually about the same. All my fabrics are neatly folded and organized but still hiding in the hall closet. I don't know where the time went.

I am happy to be back at work. I have picked up three new stores just this week and I can't wait to send their orders to them. I spent most of yesterday on the wheel throwing mugs and kitty dishes. The weekend was spent rolling and feeting little dishes. I am excited to sit down and paint in day or so when everything is dry.

Pretty dishes

I fired the kiln twice over the weekend so I have lots of dishes to send out today. I have been bubble-wrapping all morning and my husband has already taken the boxes to Fed Ex. There will be new dishes arriving at:

Womencrafts. Provincetown. MA

Silver Fish Gallery. Eureka. MT

Nothing2Common. Medfield. MA

Art Vue Galerie. Historic Cocoa Village. FL

Spirit Dreams. Grand Rapids. MI

Seems like my little one doesn't want to take that nap after all. I had better get in there.

Studio pics

Well I finally get the camera back and head up there to take some photos and the light in the studio blew. These pics are a little blurry but it shows a bunch of cute little dishes just waiting to be painted as soon as they dry out.

      

      

These guys have been glazed and are having a rest before they take a trip to the kiln.

      

This is my husband in Colorado. It was his first trip away from us and he was gone for 5 days. I had a horrible cold for the first 3 and our little one had a gigantic pimple on her face that still hasn't healed completely. I wanted a photo of the huge zit for future embarrassment but of course, no camera.

You put your right foot in.....

When I was in college I used to love carving away the foot on wheel thrown pots to make three little feet. This involved measuring out six nice and even portions and using a sharp blade to cut away the excess. Now I make hundreds of pinched little feet all formed with my fingers and individually pressed onto each dish. I started putting the feet on the word dishes because I didn't have full studio and I certainly didn't have enough little stilts to keep everything off the shelves during a firing. I would sit at the coffee table and that was my studio and when I had enough stuff to fill a kiln I would drive 40 mins to the home of a lovely lady (you know who you are) from Portland Pottery and fire in her kiln. After a couple of days I would drive back and unload it all. Now I am very spoilt. I have a nice big electric kiln, a lovely wheel, lots of IKEA shelving and a nice room all of my very own.